Page 104 of The Promise Of Rain

And I hadn’t felt anything close to hope in well over a decade.

I’d met with the cadets’ leaders in Peppergrove, surprised over the vibrancy of the program, and perhaps seeing a place for me in it.I cast out feelers to various contacts in the area.I still wasn’t sure what I planned to do to make a living, but I had ideas.

Dreams.

And as such, I booked an appointment at the bank to take those first steps forward.

Living in tiny Moose Lake, I’d crossed paths with Baxter Martin so many times he was no longer a trigger.

I mean, the guy was cocky and almost un-fucking-bearably happy, but he was okay.Most importantly, both he and Maggie were soft and respectful towards Jenny.

Miller was a different story.

In him I saw who I might have been if my life with Jenny hadn’t fallen apart, if I hadn’t joined the Air Force, if I hadn’t seen and done and lost the things I had in the past decade.

I felt drawn to him more than the others, and his wife Maxine was both a hoot and a staunch supporter of Jenny’s.

The kind that would scare even the likes of me.

Tonight, the whole gang had convened at The Loose Moose.

And all hell was about to break loose.

It was a long-standing tradition at The Loose Moose that anybody who tossed a bra up onto the antlers, and got it on the first shot, got a free pitcher of beer for their table.

Miller boasted, “I’ve done it three times.”

Maxine griped, “And I lost two of my nicest bras.”

“That’s because you got pissed when I threw up the one I found in the trash.”He grinned.“Said you were embarrassed.”

Maxine turned away to commiserate with Jenny, and Miller pushed his chair back.

I tipped my beer up to hide my laughter as he fished a racy, red bra out of his pocket and stomped over to the tape on the floor that delineated the throwing line.

Eric and John stood up to watch, cheering as Miller’s toss resulted in Maxine’s bra dangling by the straps as if he’d climbed up and hung it up with clothes pegs.

It was juvenile, but their uncomplicated enjoyment was not.

“Miller!For shit’s sake, that one’s my favourite!”Maxine shook her head, clearly exasperated.

“It’s my favourite, too.”He grinned, wagging his eyebrows as he sprawled back down on his seat.

Maxine threw an arm out toward the moose.“Well, now you’ve gone and shown it to everybody else!”

She had a point.

Most of the bras that ended up on the moose kind of piled on in a jumble.Maxine’s was ondisplay.

Jenny stiffened beside me, casting a glance in my direction.

Knowing how self-conscious she felt about her lack of lingerie, I made sure not to pay any attention to the lacy bit of froth hanging off the moose.

I didn’t care what Jenny wore.I just hated the reason I suspected she stuck to plain white.

She wasn’t her mother.She’d never be her mother no matter what she wore.

And she wasn’t what some people in Moose Lake persisted in believing.