Page 36 of Forever Endeavor

“Sure she can. Melissa’s elevated the destruction of my life to an art form. And before you ask, yes, I’ve already seen my lawyer. He didn’t come out and say I don’t have a leg to stand on, but I’m definitely leaning.” He washed down his dinner with a gulp of beer, then pushed back from the table. “If it’s a long shot, I don’t want to spend the time or the dime to fight this. She can have the fucking house for all I care.” His plate crashed in the sink, then he stormed away from the kitchen, pounded down the hall and raged out the front door. Slam. Gone.

Billie rose to her feet. “I should go after him.”

Cal clamped his hand over hers. “He’s like a stray mongrel. He’ll find his way back when he’s good and ready to come home.”

“But I understand what it’s like to have the rug pulled out from under you. To be betrayed by the person you trusted more than anyone. Or in Sonny’s case, both of them.”

“Let him be, Sunshine. Trust me, he’ll be fine.”

Billie helped Cal clean up the kitchen. After dishes were done, she lay on the couch and he sat in his favorite old brown leather recliner, watching TV until he yawned and retired to his room for the night. Nine-thirty. Sonny still hadn’t returned, and it was making her antsier with every passing minute. At ten, she slipped on her shoes and jacket and decided to take a walk.

She poked her head inside The Pell. Sonny wasn’t drowning his sorrows at the bar nor hanging around the pool table. Next stop, the garage. She walked across the lot to the tow truck and placed a palm flat on the steel hood. Cool to the touch. Onward she marched, standing next to the closed sign hanging in the window. She cupped her hand around her eyes and peered through the thick glass into the darkness. Other than the faded yellow sign flickering behind the counter, it was as motionless as a museum gallery. She tried the side door. Locked. For a lark, she popped by the bus depot coffee shop on the off-chance Sonny was self-medicating in a booth with pie and easy FM radio. Nope, not there either. She’d exhausted her search of the only haunts she knew within a ten-block radius before giving up. No sign of him anywhere.

Sonny

Sometime during the night, he awoke to faint snoring, breath on the back of his neck, and a sweet scent reminiscent of watermelon, fresh-cut grass, and a lazy afternoon swinging in a hammock in the shade. A soft, warm body spooned him from behind, the heavenly feel of supple, feminine flesh against his back, knees folded neatly into his, a silky arm draped across his torso. Billie had crawled into his bed. Sonny smiled to himself, closed his hand around hers and drifted back to sleep.

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