Page 55 of The Way Back Home

“Beau, you’re with Dalton and August today,” I say. “Josiah, you’re with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“For me?” Josiah says, looking slightly uncomfortable.

I grab the brim of his cap and turn it the right way around. “No, dumbass, not for you.”

“Why the hell am I going then?”

“Because I need some muscle, and Beau’s fresh out of that,” I tease. Dalton chuckles quietly.

“Hey, that hurts.”

“Aww, would you look at that? The little pervert has a heart after all,” I say and point to the shovel, “Start diggin’. You’ve got some flowers to plant. I drew you a diagram in the notebook there, and you better not mess up my design. If I come back and that Bee Balm is where the Indian Pink should be, I’m gonna make you do it all again.”

Josiah starts laughing.

“And you—go get your little behind in the car. I’m playing Sam Hunt the whole way.”

The smile fades from Josiah’s face, replaced by a grimace. “You gonna make me listen to white people singing about their trucks the entire time?”

“Oh, honey, Sam Hunt don’t sing about trucks,” I say with a grin. I’m enjoying the forlorn expression on his face a little more than is healthy. “Well, he kind of does, but he sure ain’t singing about driving them. Now get in.”

***

IT’S DARK WHEN I PULLup in front of Josiah’s house. We’ve just come from visiting the doc, and I glance at the dog occupying my back seat in my rearview mirror. Jude had been an angel to look over our new friend Xena. I worked with the sweet-tempered Cavalier King Charles Spaniel myself four years ago and trained her for a child psychologist in Montgomery who used Xena as an emotional support dog for her patients. Kati passed away before I left for Magnolia Springs, and it took me a bunch of called-in favors and IOUs to locate this little warrior princess, but here she is. I have plans to train her for a different kind of emotional support, and August doesn’t know it yet, but Tanglewood will have a few extra guests checking in tonight. I can’t very well leave them at the shelter unattended. I’m not sure how he’s going to take this news, but I’m just praying to the good Lord above that he likes me enough to not throw me out on my ass. He hasn’t yet, so surely that counts for something.

I look down at Betty nestled in Josiah’s lap. He strokes the wrinkled skin on her snout and stares straight ahead out the windshield. I can tell he doesn’t want to go in, but his daddy’s sitting on the front porch stoop, and he can’t very well pretend he isn’t here.

“You know, you’re kind of a natural at that.”

He laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “Yeah.”

“I bet if you work hard you could still go to a good college. Plenty of places take late submissions. You’re smart, Josiah, and you’re better than this.” I tilt my chin toward the run-down house. I’ve been in Magnolia Springs for a little more than a month now and no one had to point out Cole Webb’s house on a map of places you go if you’re looking for trouble. I know just by looking at that man’s soulless eyes that he isn’t a good person.

“I ain’t goin’ to no college, Miss Olivia.” He shakes his head. “That isn’t in the cards for me.”

“Why not? You could repeat your final year, study to be a vet, or enlist and do what August did. You’d make a great dog handler.”

“Because kids like me don’t go to college.” He shakes his head. “Hell, no one in my family ever set foot on a campus unless it was to steal from one.”

“What about Sheriff Webb? She didn’t go to college?”

“Police Academy don’t count,” he deadpans.

“Of course it counts. She’s working isn’t she?”

“Yeah, eating donuts and running this Podunk town in country-as-fuck hillbilly Alabama.”

“Watch your mouth,” I say, taking Betty from him and giving her nose little piggy kisses. “Besides, I happen to like this town.”

“Why? Everyone here but the Cottons hates you.”

“You don’t hate me,” I say with a smile. “Beau and Jude don’t hate me, and Betty definitely doesn’t hate me.”

“Nah, we don’t hate you. We did, though. We thought of a million ways to screw you over after Aunt Shona made us come work for you.”

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