Page 49 of Whiskey Lullaby
“No questions, just trustme.”
“Okay.”
I hung up, and went straight inside to the table to grab mymoney.
“You leaving?” Trevor asked before tipping his beerback.
“Yeah.”
Benji’s lips curled around his big teeth. “Who’s thegirl?”
I shoved the quarters in mypocket.
“Hannah Blake,” Trevor said, clapping his hand over myshoulder.
“Get outta here, shithead! Max Summer’s old flame. The brunette?” Benji nodded. “She’s got a nice rack. What you gonna do? Take her to the Catfish Cabin before you pokeher?”
“What the…” I dropped my chin to my chest. “The damn Catfish Cabin? Really, Benji? You’ll get food poisoning from thatshithole.”
“Nah, man, girls love the ole’ Catfish Cabin. What you gotta do is get ‘em some of those oysters, it’s like giving some of that horny goat weed shit. Makes ‘em hard up as all getout.”
“Jesus… you’re a redneck.” I shook my head on my way to thedoor.
“Like youain’t?”
I waved him off. “I’ll see you guys later.” The door banged closed behind me. I had to figure out something to take Hannah’s mind off things, only problem was, there wasn’t much to do in Rockford. No movie theatres. Tipsy’s was the only bar… I glanced around, my eyes landing smack dab on Benji’s plastic patio table. “Perfect,” I muttered. I grabbed the umbrella and chucked it across the yard before snatching the table and tossing it into the bed of mytruck.
The best thing to do when your life is shit: distract yourself any way you can. If there’s one thing I was good at, it was distractions. That was for damn sure. I spent two summers in summer school due toit.
Hannah was sittingon the front porch swing wearing a pair of jean shorts and a Pearl Jam t-shirt when I pulled into the drive. Before I’d even gotten out of the car, she was already halfway to my truck. Fireflies lit up all around her like some Disney film, and all I could think about was how beautiful she was. Hannah didn’t have to try to be pretty, she breathed beauty, and that was half of herappeal.
I hopped out and went to open the passenger side door. The interior light shined on her face when she stopped beside me. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen, her cheeks still splotchy. “Thank you,” she whispered, pushing up on her tiptoes to kiss mycheek.
“Mypleasure.”
“I tried to call Meg, but she’d picked up a shiftand…”
I pressed my finger over her warm lips. “Don’t you ever try to give me an excuse of why you called me. Besides, I’d like to think I’m the first person you called.” She climbed in with the faintest of smiles on herface.
I went around to the driver’s side, turning the radio down a little when I backed out of the drive. “So, you ever been sledding?” Iasked.
“Sledding?”
“Yeah?” The truck bumped over the pothole at the end of the drive before I turned onto the dark countyhighway.
“I mean, I went sledding when it snowed when I was a kid—theonetime itsnowed.”
“Alright, well, we’re about to gosledding.”
“Sledding? In Alabama? In the middle ofsummer?”
“Yep.” I smiled when I glanced over and saw amusement flicker in hereyes.
Ten minutes later, we drove past the huge Alabama ‘A’ on Mr. Turner’s front lawn and turned down the dirt road that ran in front of my house, passing right by without a word and onto the old coveredbridge.
Hannah grabbed onto the Oh Shit Bar as the tires clunked over the oldplanks.
“You don’t likebridges?”
