Page 2 of Devil in Disguise
From the back of the trailer, a bull bellowed, and another joined in. Not too surprising. A bull could smell a cow in heat from six miles away, and these guys were more like sixtyyardsfrom their recreational opportunity. Owen said, careful to keep it neutral, since Dane didn’t always love to be reminded who actually owned Marble Hill, “Better go on. They’re going to kick out the back of the trailer if you don’t take them on in.”
It wouldn’t be through the same gate. That led to too much excitement, and to fights, because that was bulls.You took them into the pasture well away from the cows, and let them find each other in Love’s True Flowering. Which could make him wonder why Dane had stopped here, except that he wasn’t wondering. He knew. He decided to add, “And, yeah, I’m not going to be getting any action tonight. You’re right about that. Not for any kind of psychological reason. Formyreasons. And stop talking about me with Amy.”
“Can’t. She thinks you’re fascinating,” Dane said, but at least he was climbing up into the cab again.
“Except I’m not.” Owen was a rancher. He was an NFL center. In that order, probably, if he bothered to think about it, which he didn’t. There was no point. You knew what the job was for that day. You went out and did it. And the next day, you did the same thing.
The bulls bellowed again, the cows answered, and Dane looked at him, shook his head, and put the truck in gear. Grizzly tossed his big head, and Owen asked him, “What, you got an opinion too?” He swung himself up into the gelding’s saddle and clicked his tongue, the broad-backed Percheron crossbred broke into a shambling trot, and they headed back to the ranch house with just about enough time for a shower, a shave, and a fast drive to the Cheyenne airport.
Just in time to get his heart broke. What could he say? No choice.
He always had a choice. He alwaysmadea choice. He lived his life in the sunshine, but he was in the dark with this.
Total eclipse of the heart.
2
On the Edge
Dyma Cardello was,as of this moment, a high-school graduate.
It wasn’t much, just the first step on a long, long road to what she wanted. Which was a master’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, and then a job. Doing … doing something engineering-like with spacecraft. Something exciting. Something far away from Wild Horse, Idaho.
Meanwhile, she was a high-school graduate, and in late September, she was starting her bachelor’s program at the University of Washington, over in Seattle. That degree was only going to take her three years even with a job, because she’d busted her butt already, finishing her high-school career with nine 5’s and three 4’s in her AP classes, which had gotten her a scholarship and, just as importantly, added almost a year and a half of college credit, seriously reducing her eventual debt and speeding her along her path.
The 4’s were in things she didn’t care about, but that she needed to get out of the way. English. History. Psychology. Those classes were nothing but words, words, words. Fuzzy and imprecise and ill-defined, so that all you had to do was be logical and remember a few facts and know how to construct an argument, and bam, there was your A. There wasn’t even a wrong answer in English class! It was all just opinion, and she wanted to beright.She wanted toknowshe was right.
Around her, the sea of red gowns swirled and parted as families and graduates found each other on the lawn outside the gym. Beside her, Andrea Broadbank said, “A bunch of us are meeting up by the lake later, after family dinners and things, if you want to come.”
“She’s not going to want to come,” Matt Atkins said, his straight black hair hanging to his shoulders below his mortarboard in a way Dyma had once found sexy. “She’s moved on already.”
“Hey,” Dyma said. “I have not. I still want to geek out, and there’s nobody to do that with in Portland.” She felt a little guilty saying it, but it was true. Annabelle, her mom’s boyfriend’s sister, who had the bedroom next to hers in Harlan Kristiansen’s massive and truly weird Portland house, was great, now that she’d come out of her shell some, but she wasn’t a geek. She was a jock all the way, like her brother. Dyma had tried to introduce her to the world of gaming over the past month, but Annabelle’s leg would start jiggling after about twenty minutes, and after thirty, she’d burst out with something like, “Let’s go swimming.” Which wasn’t exactly ahardship,not when the pool was right there in the house, but it wasn’t geeking out, either. And as they’d both finished the school year via remote learning, Dyma didn’t know anybody else in Portland at all. It was all family time, all the time.
She was so ready for that to change. A summer job would help. College would help more.
Matt said, “I doubt your boyfriend wants to geek out.”
Fawn Henderson, whose hair was black, too, because she’d dyed it that way after her latest self-inflicted haircut, said, “Her boyfriend won’tlether geek out, you mean. Talk about going over to the dark side. You going to try out for cheerleading next year in college, too? You could grow your hair and bounce around shaking your pom-poms and decorating the football team’s bus, when you aren’t throwing themed birthday parties with your sorority sisters. With cupcakes! Ooh! Fun!”
“Nope,” Dyma said. “He’s one guy, not a lifestyle, and he doesn’t tell me what to do. I’m not living in a sorority. Nobody’dwantme for a sorority. Are you kidding?”
“You know,” Fawn said, “I suspect you’re wrong.” She had even more piercings in her ears than Dyma did, and right now, they looked like they were bristling, even though her voice was a drawl. “You think that NFL magic isn’t going to rub off on you, the second they find out who he is? Who had the cheerleaders inviting her to sit with them at prom? It was like you got sucked into the Popular-Girl bubble. How’s your selfie game coming along, anyway? Do any videos in your shortie PJs yet? That’s probably part of Rush Week. Congratulations. You’re in the cult.”
“Except that Ididn’tsit with them,” Dyma said. “Why are you being such an asshole?”
“Because she’s jealous,” Matt said.
“Becauseyou’rejealous, you mean,” Fawn shot back. “Who’d you invite to prom again?”
Matt’s thin cheeks flushed dark. He’d asked Dyma, but she’d already had a date. She’d had no idea he even wanted to go, except that she probably had, because before Owen, they’d been edging closer to dating. That had been reasonably exciting, even though Dyma had known she was going to have to make the first move again, and who wanted to do that every single time?
It didn’t matter, though, because she’d already had a date.
A group of girls with long, shiny hair ran by—yes, they were cheerleaders—holding onto their mortarboards, and one of them called out, “Congratulations, Dyma! We made it! Whoo-hoo!”
Fawn said, “I rest my case.”
Dyma barely heard, because the crowd was parting like the Red Sea, and there they were. Her mom, Jennifer, who was being treated extra-nicely tonight because of the company she was keeping, which wasfine, and fair, and all that, because her mom had been through enough, thanks to Dyma arriving when Jennifer was barely sixteen. Not to mention Dyma’s father going to prison for it. An auspicious start in the world.
