Page 78 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“Hey,” she called and waved at Grady walking up.
“Hey yourself,” Grady said and met her at the trunk. She leaned up and kissed him. Grady returned it, but it felt wrong.
“Hi, Cole.” She leaned around Grady and waved.
“Hi,” Cole said.
“Didn’t know you were comin’ this week.” Grady helped her with the bags.
“I said.” She gave him a once-over. She was smiling but frowning too, like she knew something was off, but she wasn’t sure what. She looked at the barn. “What’s all this?”
“Expanding.”
“Why?” But she was walking off as she said it, leaving Grady to her luggage, going over to Cole and inspecting the build.
Grady looked after her and thought about the bedroom—about Cole’s clothes strewn all over the room—and while he knew Charmaine must’ve known about guys helping each other out in an abstract way, that might be difficult to explain. He got her things, went inside, heard her asking Cole a bunch of questionsin her lawyer way and Cole answering in one-word answers like he did when he first got here.
Her arrival made everything feel… wrong. Grady couldn’t have pointed at one thing from that afternoon and evening, it was like everything was out of sync, just a fraction. Cole must’ve felt it too because he stayed out on the front porch most of the night instead of tweaking his plans and talking Grady’s ear off about how each little bit could be improved. Grady caught Charmaine shooting him looks, then looking pointedly at where Cole was sitting outside.
Grady shook his head at her. She shrugged and opened the bottle of champagne she brought.
“You win that case then?” Grady couldn’t believe he didn’t know. He wondered if she’d told him on the phone and he just couldn’t remember.
“No,” she said and poured. “But if I only drank champagne for winning those, I’d never drink champagne.”
She poured him a glass too and got one out for Cole. Grady shrugged and even that was off. He knew his face was creased in concern and his voice was stilted when he said, “Go on and ask him, then.”
“Okay?” She went out and then came back. “He said ‘no, thank you.’” She rolled her eyes.
“His mama raised him right,” Grady replied defensively.
Charmaine raised her eyebrows. “I never said anything that she didn’t.”
“All right, well, I’m just sayin’.”
“What’re you just sayin’?”
“Nothin’. Tell me about the case.”
She sat, sipped her drink and looked out the back door like she wasn’t going to start talking about the case. Grady really didn’t want to talk about anything else.
“You lost?”
She looked at him, shifting from distracted to defeated, and Grady sighed with relief internally. She told him about it. The defense attorney ripped them apart, like she expected.
“I prepped them. Prepped them as thoroughly as I could. They were telling the truth.” She shook her head and finished her drink. Grady got up to pour her another one.
“Thank you.” She sipped and looked at the liquid bubbling up and bursting at the surface. “Beyond reasonable doubt. I’ve always agreed with that, you know? It’s what I love about the law. Ten guilty go free, but if one innocent man also goes free? Then, yes. But now…” She shook her head again in disgust and twisted her lips.
“Now I’m not so sure.” She drained the drink, sat forward and looked at Grady. “How does a boy display the assuredness of a man that would go beyond reasonable doubt when he isn’t even sure who he is yet?”
Grady nodded. “He doesn’t.”
“Exactly. And it’s all the worse for these boys who’ve had their foundations shattered by these pricks.” She got up, went to the fridge and poured another drink. “What’s the story with this one, anyway?” She pointed with her glass at the front porch.
“Whaddya mean?”
She drank. “What’s his story?”
