Page 3

Oh, it’s Sally all right. My best friend’s got both hands on the wheel, her long, dark hair flying around her face.

I smile, my chest cracking open. I’ve never been so happy to see someone in my entire life.

She pulls to a stop in front of me, the heat of the engine hitting the front of my legs. She turns down the music and smiles, the dimple in her left cheek popping.

I’m momentarily struck speechless.

She’shere.

When did she get so fucking pretty?

Sally was always a cute girl. But while she’s been away at college, she’s grown into a beautiful woman with big brown eyes and a full, soft-looking mouth. Her cheeks are pink, probably from the heat, and her hair’s gotten longer since she left. Wavy tendrils frame her round face in a halo of brown that burns to gold in the sun.

Or maybe I just didn’t appreciate how pretty she was until she left. I haven’t seen her since mid-August, when her parents moved her into her freshman dorm in Waco.

“Hey.” She holds up a six-pack of Coca-Cola. “I got the Coke. You got the Jack?”

The Cokes are the old-fashioned kind, the ones that come in glass bottles. I see a bottle opener tucked into the red-and-white cardboard holder. We agreed when we were eleven that glass-bottle Cokes tasted better than the ones that came in plastic or aluminum.

A sudden, searing pressure builds behind my eyes and inside my chest.

I clear my throat. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have exams?”

Being the smarty-pants she is, Sally got a full ride to Baylor University, a prestigious college that’s a long drive from Hartsville. She’s got big dreams of becoming a veterinarian like her daddy, and getting good grades is really important to her.

When she called me after hearing the news about my parents, Sally said she was buried in preparing for somemidterms she had coming up. It didn’t sound like she’d be able to make it to the funeral.

She tilts her head. “I’m here to get you drunk. Obviously.”

“Off my own liquor?” Now I’m grinning, too, despite the emotion clogging my windpipe.

Sally dropped everything to be here.

She dropped everything for me.

Her eyes dance as they search my face. “I know you have some hidden around here somewhere.”

“I do.” I reach for the handle and open the door. “Your exams—please don’t tell me you?—”

“Got them moved to next week on account of the major family emergency my best friend is having. Yup.”

I climb into the truck and pull the door shut behind me. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Nah.” She playfully lifts a shoulder before pulling on the gearshift to put the truck in drive. “But I did, so now you have to tell me where your stash is.”

“Usual spot.” I point in the direction of the hay barn.

We’re quiet as the truck bumps over the uneven road. The rifle John B keeps tucked underneath the front bench clanks against the heel of my boot. I reach down and carefully set it farther back so that it stays put.

For a minute, I feel normal again. I can pretend life is the same as it was a year ago. Sally’s here. It’s Friday night. We’re gonna get buzzed and listen to music and talk shit about our high-school teachers. Life is simple. A little boring, sure, but good overall.

I can’t stop looking at her. I’ve missed this girl like crazy. Just being with her, not even talking—neither of us feels the need to fill the silence—makes me feel safe. Like I can finally relax.

Finally let my guard down.

She drives to the back of the barn. I jump out of the truck and dig a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s and apack of Marlboros out from underneath the seat of Dad’s old tractor.

My chest twists. He was alive when I hid my stash here last weekend.