Page 99 of Cowboy Heat

“They might be all there is,” I try. “Three people is a lot to come after one person.”

Beau looks like he’s already considered this and doesn’t know where he stands on his own thoughts about it.

What can I say to help?

I know as much as him.

Maybe less.

A breeze blows against us. I turn to it with a sigh. There are dark rain clouds hanging over the field that gave Low Low its original nickname.

Soon the ground will be buried beneath the water.

“If you don’t feel safe with me, at the house I mean, we can stay here. Just the two of us.”

Beau’s at my side. His shirt is balled up in his hand.

He’s looking out at the same field when he’s talking.

Again, there’s this feeling of we that’s tugging at me.

And guilt.

And anger.

“I want whatever this thing is to end,” I say. “If that means going to Big House and sitting on our thumbs until Detective Wayland convicts us or helps us, that’s where we need to be.”

Beau nods.

What I don’t say is that no matter where I am, I think I’ll feel safe if Beau’s there too.

The momentbetween Beau and me stays gone as we make our way to Big House and then settle there for a few hours. Mimi tells me to bandage his cut, saying he’s good as cut but not as good as needing stitches, and then orders me to get him some water and food. She was also upset that we wouldn’t come in.

Lying to Mimi, or really omitting the truth, isn’t something I like, but it’s something I do.

I also don’t like sitting on my thumbs, but Beau seems to need the time.

Maybe I do too, based on the fact that we both melted on the couch and chair in the living room like every bone in our bodies needed to do so.

Beau hasn’t been napping, but his eyes keep finding spots to stare at for a while. I grab a magazine I spotted sticking out from under the couch about football and have been flipping through it without a thought in my head.

The silence would be nice, companiable even, in any other situation I think.

I could almost see through this magazine and picture Beau stretched out beside me here. The TV on a movie neither of us has seen so we’re talking through the parts that surprise us. Or tick us off.

Don’t go into that house, I’d say.

If this was me, I’d already have figured it out, he’d lament.

Micah would roll his eyes on the way back to his room from getting a cookie from the batch that Mimi and Wyatt had brought over earlier. There’d be a text from June sitting on my phone talking about her loves struggles, and Beau would have to stop the movie to laugh at something one of his brothers texted him. Lee probably got into trouble, not the kind that’s dangerous just the kind that brothers tease each other about.

I’d laugh as Beau explained what was going on.

Then he’d hold me close, and we’d start the movie again.

We’d kiss during the part where the leads figure out they’re in love, then we’d go share a bed and a night together after the credits rolled.

In between the sheets, we’d talk about our future plans. Marriage? Traveling? Eventually kids?