Page 14

CHAPTER

SIX

CLARA JUNE

“Freeze,” I command, causing Archie to stutter-step, then still, one foot on the back patio, one boot planted in the kitchen.

“They ain’t dirty,” he says of his boots, because I ask him not to wear them inside but to take them off on the back step and set them against the wall. But this morning, they’re caked with both mud and grass.

“Boots off, Arch,” I move past him a few steps until the sun is warming my face, and I wait until they’re stacked out back. Back inside the house, I tell Archie to get dressed for Tyson’s house, and I call Rawley out for breakfast.

Today is one of those strange, unique, diamond in the rough type of days—I don’t have to work. I have the day off from the diner so that I can pick my car up from the shop and get Tanner home from the hospital.

Today is a big day, and a good day, and I will not let the impending hospital bill from Tanner’s stay ruin my mood.

They’ve gotta have payment plans. I’ll figure it out. I always do.

In my room, I slip on a pair of jeans, and throw on a black t-shirt and some boots. With my hair wet and drying around my shoulders, I swipe on some mascara, a bit of foundation, and call it good. It’s the most “ready” I’ve been in ages.

Back in the kitchen, Rawley is, surprisingly, already dressed and sitting at the table, boycotting his scrambled eggs.

“Eat your eggs, Rawl, we’re heading out in ten minutes. As soon as the Holts grab Archie.”

He sighs, scooping up a bite of eggs like they’re the worst thing he’s ever eaten. “Do I have to drive you all the way to Oakcreek?” he harrumphs.

“What am I gonna do? Drive both cars back? Yes, Rawl. You have to drive me.” I toss the egg pan into the sink and cover it with water and soap. “It will give us a chance to talk about the tutor you ditched, after I asked you specifically not to ditch anymore.”

He freezes, and while he must already know that I know, the chaos of Tanner’s injury has made a nice little pocket of time where I’ve been too busy to address it. But today, Tanner is coming home, and it’s time for Rawley to make it right.

“We can spend the drive adding up how much you’re going to owe me every month.” I didn’t want to do it this way. I wanted to give my boy the car and the trust, but being lied to and defied purposely isn’t something I can tolerate. He wouldn’t respect me if I did, whether he knows that now or not.

“I don’t have a job,” he argues.

“I told you, you can wash dishes at Goode’s. You will wash dishes at Goode’s, because if my off-the-top of my head math is right, you’ve got almost $500 to pay me back, and that’s just this month with the tutor, car insurance and gas.”

“Five hundred ?” He pushes away from the table and gets to his feet, following me at my heels as I move through the house, looking for my purse, then my keys, and next Archie’s tennis shoes. He sits down on the couch next to me as I call Archie out and tie his sneakers on his feet.

“If I make minimum wage at Goode’s, it’ll take me like, the entire school year to pay you back!” he argues.

I double-knot Archie’s shoe and set him free, asking him to make sure he brushes his teeth before the Holts arrive. He runs off, and I turn to face my oldest son.

“Rawley, I can’t let you lie and waste my money. This is the consequence of what you did, and I told you beforehand this would be the consequence. You chose to do what you did anyway. So… I’m sorry, but you’re washing dishes for a while.”

His blue eyes simmer as he stares at me. There isn’t malice or hurt in his expression, and when he looks at his lap then up at me again, I suddenly realize, none of this is about paying the money back, or missing the tutor.

“Mom, I wanna go to trade school. To become a mechanic, and work on cars. I know you want me to go to college, but I really don’t want that. I don’t think that’s right for me.”

“Rawley,” I start, but then there’s a hearty knock at the door, and I glance at my watch.

“Arch! Tyson’s here! C’mon, get your bag!” I look at Rawley. “We will talk about this on the drive.”

He nods, and I bump my knee into his. “Get the door for me, I’m gonna grab your brother’s inhaler.”

I get to my feet and start rifling around the junk drawer when a deep voice moves through my house, making my head whip up and my eyes go wide.

I peer around the kitchen wall to see Dean McAllister standing in my living room, the rim of his cowboy hat leaving a shadow on the Highlights magazines strewn across the coffee table.

Hiding behind the wall, I look down at my clothes, then pull open the microwave door and use it as a makeshift mirror.

My hair is frizzy, as it’s drying naturally.

I’m wearing jeans and boots and—you know what, I have to stop.

Dean McAllister isn’t here to see me. He’s here because he’s Tanner’s coach, and for all intents and purposes, Tanner was supposed to be home by now.

He originally had an early release, but an emergency came in yesterday and his discharge was bumped until four this afternoon.

Dean is only here because he believes Tanner will be.

Quietly, I close the microwave door and braid my hair, then step out from the kitchen. His eyes find me, and there’s a little flutter behind my ribs as he takes his hat off and greets me.

“Miss Colt,” he says. “Hi, I’m sorry for just dropping by like this. I came to see Tanner.”

I glance at my watch as there’s another knock at the door. Rawley yanks it open, revealing Tyson Holt .

“Hiya, where’s Archie?” A moment later, his mom, Kate Holt appears.

“You guys, I owe you so big. I appreciate this so much, Kate,” I tell her, pulling her into a hug over the threshold of my front door.

I feel Dean watching the exchange, but I strangely do not feel uncomfortable with him being here.

“As soon as Tanner is all squared away, I swear, you leave Tyson here for a week. I owe you so big.”

Kate smiles, ruffling her hands through Archie’s hair as he hugs my leg and runs outside. “Don’t even worry about it. You know they have so much fun together.”

I smile. “Well I should be back with Tanner and the car, and settled in by 5.” I dig into the jeans that I wore two weeks ago that have been draped over the chair in my bedroom since.

Last time I wore these, I bought Archie an ice cream at the drugstore.

I know there’s cash in these pants. I hand her a wrinkled twenty. “Happy meals on me.”

She waves me off. “Oh no, we’re going blueberry picking today. Don’t worry about it.” She steps down off the porch in her overalls and white t-shirt, her blonde hair twisted into a classy heap. “Good luck today, Clara June. We’ll see you this afternoon.”

“Thanks, Kate,” I say, then close the door. Rawley is unfazed by the presence of Dean, and puts his hands on his hips, ready to argue.

“C’mon, Rawley,” I sigh. “The sooner I get my car back, the sooner you’re free of me. Okay?”

Dean looks between us. “Where’s your car?”

“Oakcreek. Wrench Kings. Needed a new timing belt, among other things.” I look again at my watch. “It only takes thirty minutes to get there. If we leave now, we’ll get there right when they open. ”

Dean looks between me and Rawley, offering, “I could drive you. If he’s wanting to stay here, I can drive you.”

It’s Saturday, so there isn’t school or football, and they won their game last night. I read about it in the Leader this morning in the tub.

“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that. Rawley’s got a car, he can drive me,” I explain.

“If I have to pay for gas, I can’t afford to drive you to Oakcreek,” Rawley says, folding his arms over his chest with a smug little smirk on his face. He thinks he’s found a loophole.

“If you can’t afford to drive me to Oakcreek, how in the world are you gonna drive out to Turner ranch, there and back, every day of the week? Man, I guess you won’t ever be driving anymore.”

He sighs, and snatches his keys from the hook, but Dean laughs, and his gentle laughter provides some sort of buoy amidst the awkward bickering my son and I are in the middle of.

“I really wouldn’t mind driving you, Clara June. And anyway, I got a buddy at Wrench Kings, wouldn’t mind saying hello.”

Thirty minutes in his truck. Half an hour with Dean McAllister. I swallow, and find a knot of arousal suddenly blooming between my legs. “Okay, well, if you don’t mind. Thank you.”

Rawley lets out a long sigh. I shoot him a glare. “I want the dishes done, the trash out and the living room couch made up with sheets and pillows when I get back.”

He nods his head, happy to trade thirty minutes in the car with me for a day of housework.

Well, it’s not me. I know despite his moods—and this one in particular—that he loves me.

He doesn’t, however, love the discussion of paying back the tutor he ditched, and he really doesn’t want to hear my college talk again.

We say goodbye, and Dean opens the front door for me, then opens his truck door for me, too.

It makes my pulse skip, being with a man who treats me like a lady.

At the diner, I’m a waitress. Get me this.

Honey, can I have this? Sweetheart, would you mind grabbing me this?

At home, it’s Mom, I need this. Mom, when are we getting this thingamajig? Oh by the way, Mom .

But to be Ms. Colt . To have my door held open. To have someone ask me, for no reason other than that they want to genuinely know— “how are you, Clara June?” Dean asks, as we clip our seatbelts in unison.

It’s wild.

Dean makes me feel like a woman. A single woman who also has children. And it’s rare that I feel that way. I forgot that… I like being a woman, and I like attention from the right man.

I let out a sigh. “Oh, I’m alright. Rawley was driving me and Archie all week, and I was catching rides home.” I think about not having to ask someone if they’re headed home, and a little thrill wiggles inside me. “I’m happy to be getting it back.”