Page 47 of Shine On Oklahoma

And she was far, far crueler than he everwould’ve believed. Because she knew he loved her. And she’d playedhim anyway.

So he made his mind slow down a little, andhe got out of the car, went inside, and tried to go through themotions of any other morning, hoping the emotional tsunami wouldwash back out to sea.

He backhanded wetness from his cheeks, madehimself a single cup of coffee, spilled the cream he tried to addall over the table. His hands were shaking, he realized as he satthere, staring at the vibrations of the spoon he was holding.

He hadn’t shaken this hard since he’d quitdrinking.

Drinking—why did he have to think ofdrinking? The sensation and taste of whiskey splashed over histongue, too real to be imaginary.

He got up, cleaned up the cream, put thecarton back in the fridge. There was a muffin in there from Sunny’sPlace. That might soak up the lava bubbling in his stomach. So hetook that to the table with him and ate it slowly, and drank thecoffee, and waited for the killing-winds inside him to abate.

But they didn’t. And he wondered if they everwould.

He rinsed his mug after the 2ndrefill, cleaned up the muffin crumbs, and headed to the bathroomfor a long hot shower.

An hour later, still feeling no relief, hedrove down Main until he hit the Falls Road, and took that up intothe woods and hills north of town. He headed back to the barelyused dirt road that looped around at one end, and he drove over itonce to check for hazards; boulders or limbs or potholes. It lookedgood. So he drove back to the beginning, lined up his wheels, andsat there. There was so much power under and around him that hefelt its rumble, and revved the motor just a little, so the rumblebecame a roar. And then he released the clutch, stomped the gas andsent twin geysers of red dirt flying behind him before the tirescaught and the Charger lunged forward. He gave it all he could, letoff just before the curve, turned the wheel, gave it more again,and the car drifted around the loop almost sideways, then caughttraction and sped back to the start again.

He wasn’t timing himself, but he was sure hecould do it faster.

#

#

Jack had fallen asleep, despite trying realhard not to, because he was afraid if he fell asleep after aconcussion, he’d die. He knew that was an old wives’ tale, but hewas afraid all the same.

He wasn’t used to being afraid. So far, hedidn’t like it much.

When he woke up, there was dim gray lightcoming through the skinny casement windows. The sun had not yetrisen. He pushed himself up onto all fours, only one arm wasn’tholding weight and screamed when he tried. So he got up on allthrees. Moving hurt like a bitch. One knee was generating pulses ofpain like a heartbeat and he quickly took his weight off it, andjust sat on the floor, scooting back to a wall to lean against it.His head hurt, and his arm was like a bad toothache. The rest ofhis body seemed intact. He didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere.

He patted himself down, found his phone andthe pocket knife, all that cash, and one lonely cigar. His headkept dropping to one side. His vision kept going dark. He yankedthe phone out of his pocket, and looked down at its shatteredscreen. Hell.

But still…maybe. He opened the app, tappedthe command. Then he got up on his toes and used the pocket knifeto start working on the casement window. Those things were neverinstalled worth a damn.

#

Kendra was pounding on Dax’s door by 7:17a.m. But she knew he wasn’t there. She could feel it—a big pulsingemptiness that, now that she thought about it, always seemed to bearound when he wasn’t. The empty driveway further attested to hisabsence. That orange Charger didn’t go anywhere without him, thatwas for sure.

Dammit, she needed to see him, make sure hehadn’t caught on to her sleight of hand. If he had, she’d have toexplain, but she would really prefer not to have to. Vester Caineand his henchmen would see the headline—she’d already forwardedthem a direct link to theAurora Free Timesonline edition.All she had to do was confirm that her father was free, out ofharm’s way, and then she’d tell Dax the truth.

She remembered, vaguely, that tender kissthis morning. His soft voice telling her he had to leave and thathe’d see her later. She hadn’t intended to let him go. She’dthought she would stick to him like glue this morning to make surehe didn’t get wind of the headline in the Aurora Springs newspaperuntil she’d had the chance to come clean and explain. God, why hadshe let him go?

She headed out to her sister’s place, becauseif Dax wasn’t home or with her, then he must be out there with thehorses.

When she got to Kiley’s, she twisted herrearview mirror and looked at her reflection. A stranger lookedback. Frightened eyes, all roiling with emotions, that kept fillingwith tears. Her lips kept quivering. Her heart was beating toofast.

She schooled her face not to look as guiltyas she felt, and saw that the big barn door was open. Good. Maybeshe wouldn’t have to see her sister. Kiley could see right throughher. She was the only one who could.

So she moseyed in through the open door, andthen walked through the barn, which really wasn’t a barn anymore.They’d converted it into a sprawling stable. It smelled of oats andmolasses and horse. But it would always be the barn to her. The bigbarn. Kiley’s artsy crafty trinket shop was the little barn. Bothbuildings used to be full of old junk and spiderwebs and mystery,and two little girls used to sneak out and climb through them insearch of treasure, even though their father had told them notto.

So different now. No more secrets to uncover.They were open and clean and bright like Kiley’s new life. Kendra,though, was still crawling through cobwebs and shadows. She wentall the way through to the rear door that opened into the pastureand closed it behind her.

Rob was out there watching a horse run incircles around him. He held a rope that was attached to herharness, and turned with her as she trotted.

“Hey Rob,” she called.

He glanced her way. “Morning, Kendra.” Heunclipped the lead and let the mare run off to do whatever horsesdid all day, then came to her. “Thank you for the shower. It wasfantastic.”

She nodded. “You’re welcome. Sophie and Emilyhelped. So did your stepmother. Vidalia’s something else, isn’tshe?”

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