Page 58 of Cold Foot Cash

Raynah came to the edge of her porch and waved him off as he peeled out of the clearing.

He was down the mountain and on the main road in a matter of minutes. The gas tank was full, and he wouldn’t be stopping until he hit Bozeman, where he hoped to God he could figure out where Harley was.

Chapter Fifteen

Harley knew those people in the corner.

She’d met them before, and they recognized her. She knew they did. She could tell. Look at them on their double date. How cute. They kept looking over at her, but she wasn’t leaving this bar.

Swaying slightly, Harley turned around and waved at the bartender. “One more should do the trick, I think.”

“Who is driving you home?” the bartender asked.

“A ride share,” she said, showing her the app on her phone screen. “I’m a mediocre driver when I’m sober. Can’t imagine how I would be tipsy.”

The bartender, Tammy, her nametag read, snorted. “I hear you. I hit that curb out front like three times a week.”

“Sober?”

Tammy nodded and finished drying the glass in her hands. “Sober,” she said.

“Ha.”

“You want the same thing?”

Harley blew a breath out and thought about it. “What are those people having right behind me. Those look good.”

“Blue Hawaii.”

“Perfect. I’ll take one of those.” Harley formed her words carefully. “I know them.” Her brain was so fuzzy right now.

“Those people over there? Why don’t you go sit with them?”

“Trying to kick me out of this platinum seat, are you?” she teased. “This stool is first class.”

Tammy huffed a laugh. “Actually, you’ve been the most entertaining part of tonight. I had a long morning.”

“Tell me about it. If I could cut this morning from my brain-memories, I would totally do it. I would pay to do it, in fact. I would pay all thirty-two cents I’m about to have left to my name.”

Tammy was busy making the blue concoction that was going to get her a little drunker. “How do you know those people?” she asked conversationally.

“They’re friends of friends. Actually, they’re kind of friends of enemies. I met them through my husband. I would call him my ex-husband, but today I am having to accept that I will be married to him forever and ever. Not on purpose. I’ve been trying to escape for a while now.” She cast a glance back over her shoulder, and then went back to watching Tammy make her drink. “They’re friends of his girlfriend. She went to college with them or something. I don’t really remember what she told me. I only met her once before I figured out my husband was banging her.”

“Wait.” Tammy pushed the drink in front of Harley. She leaned over on the bar top and leveled Harley with a look. “Was he banging her when you met her and her friends?”

“Yeah. I met them all here. On our five-year wedding anniversary. He proposed to me here, so every year, we would come back and order the same meal, the same drinks, and party with our friends. And on our fifth anniversary, his girlfriend was here with her friends, and they clearly all knew Lance, and looking back, that should’ve been a red flag, but he was friendly with everyone, and his girlfriend was acting really nice to me, so I had no reason to suspect they were cheating on me. Pretty dumb huh? I bet they thought they were pretty slick, hanging out with me, and me none the wiser. I found out they were together a few weeks later.” She hiccupped and then sucked that blue Hawaii right down. It was delicious

Tammy’s narrowed eyes watched the level of her drink go down. “How did you find out?”

“Someone named Mama kept texting him.”

“Mama?” Tammy asked.

“Yeah, he got away with it for a while. I thought he was talking to his mom until his actual mom called him one day and was definitely showing up on his phone as Mom. He was in the shower, and I remember staring at his phone just…” Harley shook her head. “I knew something was off.”

“Did you open their texts?” Tammy asked, visibly enthralled with her shitshow life.

“I tried. He had the phone locked. He required me to give him my passcode from day one, but he didn’t let me have his passcode. I tried every number I could think of, but couldn’t get into it. So, I had to be patient. I had to wait until Mama texted, and then I asked what he and his mother were talking about. He was firing away, texting a mile a minute, wearing this smile on his face that he hadn’t given to me in a long time. He would make something up. Some bullshit conversation between him and his mom that made no sense. He would interrupt our conversations to rush and respond to her. I finally asked for his phone. He was like, what? And I said, ‘let me see your phone.’ I wanted to see how he talked to her.”

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