Page 59 of Confessions

“I guess practice just did him in.”

Nadine touched Bobby’s forehead. Her fingers came away cool.

“Yeah, we really worked the boys,” Sam said as he carried Bobby into the living room and laid him gently on the couch. Bobby sighed but didn’t open his eyes. The smell of smoke mixed with stale beer, a scent Nadine recognized from her years of marriage to Sam, clung to her ex-husband, and she was instantly angry.

“He’s not even sweating,” she said.

“He was—”

“Somewhere where he shouldn’t be.” Sick inside, Nadine plucked a kernel of popcorn from Bobby’s jacket. “Snacks after the game?” she asked, already knowing and dreading the answer. Anger surged through her blood.

“Well, you know how it is. Phil and Rick wanted to have a beer after the practice, so we stopped at the Buckeye for a quick one.”

Nadine’s back teeth ground together and silent rage swept through her. “While you were having your ‘quick one,’ what were the boys doing?”

Sam’s face flushed scarlet and a defiant glint shone in his eyes. “I left them in the car. But I could see them through the window and I took them each a cup of popcorn—”

“Sam, how could you!”

“It was only for twenty minutes, Nadine!”

“But they could’ve been...oh, God, who knows what kind of scum lurks in the parking lot of the Buckeye at night. They’re just children!”

“And they’re fine, aren’t they!”

“They could’ve been kidnapped or hurt or—”

“But they weren’t, were they? They’re both right as rain.”

“I don’t care.”

“Listen, Nadine, I needed to talk to the guys,” Sam nearly shouted. Then, as if hearing himself, he lowered his voice and plowed his fingers through his thinning blond hair. “With all the changes coming down at the mill, who knows what’ll happen to our jobs.”

“You could’ve brought them home first,” she hissed, her temper still soaring.

Sam was unrepentant. “The Buckeye is only a few blocks from the school. It didn’t make sense to come clear up here—”

“Clear up here? What is it—four, maybe five miles? Damn it, Sam, you could’ve called me. I would have picked them up.”

Sam grimaced painfully. “I was busy. Me and the guys, we had things to discuss. Things you probably already know about.”

“Things?” she repeated, not following this new twist in the conversation.

“Monroe. The Fourth. I heard he was already here, giving the boys a ride in the boat, making himself at home. With my kids!” Disgust curled his lip. “Jeez, Nadine, don’t you ever learn?”

“I don’t see what Hayden has to do with this!”

“Don’t you? You can’t be as blind to him now as you were in high school!”

She started to protest, but Sam was just warming to his subject. “What with ‘Junior’ owning the mill now, big changes are in the works. It’s no secret that he plans to shut us down along with all his mills. Maybe one at a time, maybe all at once, but he’ll close mills and consolidate or sell the entire chain of ’em, but believe me, whatever he decides, it won’t be good for any of us. Including you. If I’m not working, I won’t be able to come up with the support payments, so you’d better hope that ‘your friend’ keeps the mill open or he sells it to the employees.”

“He’s not my ‘friend.’”

Sam lifted a skeptical thin blond brow and his nostrils flared a little. “Yeah, well, it might be interesting to know exactly what he is to you.”

“My employer...or he was.”

“Convenient. He pays you to clean his damned mansion.”