Page 14 of Moonshine Lullabies

He nodded, looked me in the eye, and said, “I know that. He’s just like his mamma after all.”

I couldn’t keep the smile down if I tried at that and his answering smile stirred things in my chest.

He changed the subject by picking up the book out of my lap.

“What ‘cha readin’?” he asked me.

“Some book I got at the library,” I said. “I ain’t that far into it.”

He checked the cover. “The Sinner and His Saint, by Timber Philips. Huh.”

“You read?” I asked, and I knew I was coming off like a bitch but I didn’t know a lot of fellas who read around here.

“Sometimes,” he drawled, but he was focused on the back of the book I’d borrowed.

“What do you read when you do?” I asked.

“Oh, I like spy and thriller shit. Mysteries – action and adventure. I like the ones about that big Marine bastard that never stays in one place for too long. Walks everywhere or rides the bus. Needs a change of clothes, he hits the Goodwill. Smart and sees things most folks don’t. Nobody thinks he’s smart because he looks like a big brute.”

“You know all that about him but you can’t remember his name?” I asked, and he looked up from my book and over at me, grinning.

“What can I say? My mind works weird like that.” He handed my book back to me and I set it back down in my lap.

“Thanks for the tea,” I murmured when he stood up and stretched.

“Sure thing. Try and sleep, yeah?”

I nodded, and he slipped out my door and disappeared.

I looked down into the rich purplish liquid in my cup and felt my eyes grow hot, my vision blurring. I looked up at the ceiling and dashed at my eyes and wondered to myself,what in the world?

I couldn’t tell myself what was stuck in my craw, but something certainly was. I felt shaken by our little interaction just now, and I couldn’t begin to understand why.

* * *

“Oh, shit!”I pushed up and shuddered as panic ripped through me. That visceral reaction ofoh, God, I’m late!

A light hand fell at my back while the other set a steaming mug of coffee on my nightstand.

“Calm your ass down, you ain’t late for nothin’. Tater got himself off to the school bus just fine this morning.”

I scowled and pushed myself up, turning over and sitting up. J.P. wasn’t makin’ it easy with how he trapped the blankets tight around my legs by sittin’ his monstrous ass on ‘em and I found myself vaguely disappointed it was him and not Collier.

“Why are you being so nice?” I demanded, suspicious.

He hung his head and brought it back up.

“May or may not have had some sense talked into me some,” he said and he brought a box up from beside his hip and handed it to me. I blinked and looked at the new phone.

“Some of the fellas got your truck out the ditch before the police could find it and we got it on a dolly and dragged it back home. Sorry to say, there probably ain’t no fixin’ it so we’re gonna have to find something different. I’m sorry about that a lot, actually, Sissy. I know how much you liked that truck.”

“Only ‘cause I bought it and fixed it all by myself.”

He gave me a grin and said, “Fixed it all by yourself, huh?”

I punched him lightly in the arm and said, “Okay, you may have helped.”

His grin got wider. He sighed and said, “We lost ‘em, but it ain’t no thing – you know us. We’ll find ‘em again and make it hurt.”

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