by D. R. Graham
“Yeah, that’s kind of gross,” he said and laughed.
He searched his bag for his pill bottle and took his medication. I stood and unpacked the box that had Shae-Lynn’s belt in it. When she came out of the bathroom, I gave it to her.
She smiled, surprised. “What’s this?”
“Happy birthday.”
“My birthday isn’t for almost two weeks.”
“Yeah, I know, but just in case your dad kills me before then.”
She opened the lid and her mouth dropped open. She didn’t move. Cole stepped in to look over her shoulder. He whistled. “Damn. That’s fancy. Looks like someone might have a little crush on you.”
The expression in her eyes made my heart flip over in my chest. “Billy, this is too expensive. I can’t accept it.”
“Well, we can’t return it. It’s got your name on it.”
She placed the box on the table and slowly unrolled the belt as if it would shatter if she moved too quickly. She examined the pink and lilac crystal bead design that included green clovers, bluebells, the number thirteen, a palomino horse running the barrels, and a bucking bull with a rider who had his right arm up in the air. The letters that spelled Shae were encrusted in sparkling rhinestones and the Lynn was stitched in smaller scrolling letters across a tiny heart. She ran her fingertips over the sparkling beads. “It’s beautiful.”
“Try it on.”
“I don’t want to wreck it.”
“It’s for wearing. Put it on or you’ll hurt my feelings.”
She removed the buckle from her leather belt and fastened it to the crystal belt. She adjusted it to sit on her hips and then wrapped her arms around my neck. “Thank you. I love it.” She clutched my hair between her fingers and pulled my head forward for a kiss. I hugged her body tight against mine and kissed her good in case it was the last one I ever got from her.
“Yeah, okay, that’s enough of that,” Cole said. “I’m still standing right here.”
“Sorry,” Shae-Lynn said and stepped back.
“You’ve had sex with a girl when I was in the same room,” I said and pulled her back in to me.
“You could have left.”
“So can you. Get out.”
“Her dad’s hunting her down and there is a rumour that Lyle might be out there looking for me too. We need to leave.”
“Jesus, Cole.”
He picked up his bag and opened the door. “I’m driving away in five minutes whether you two are in the truck or not.”
“We’ll be there,” Shae-Lynn said.
The door closed behind him and I looked at her. “I really don’t want this to be it.”
“I don’t either, but you need to sort things out with Tawnie. Thank you for my belt.”
I hugged her into my chest and rested my chin on the top of her head. We stood like that until Cole texted to tell us Trent was in the lobby and we should go out the side exit. We took the emergency staircase down and ran out of the side door into the parking lot. I reached down and held her hand as we rushed towards the truck. Cole was already sitting in the driver’s seat with the engine running. She slid in next to him. I hopped in and closed the door.
“Oh my God, that’s his truck in front of us,” she said and flopped down onto my lap. Cole looked at me and laughed because if her dad saw her with her head in my crotch it would have made everything worse. I laughed too, but then my smile faded when I spotted Lyle talking to a group of guys in the parking lot.
“This is not funny,” she hissed.
“Calm down,” Cole said. “He went to the drive-thru across the street. He’ll be a good ten minutes there. I drive fast.” Cole turned out of the parking lot onto the main street. “If you’re so concerned about your dad knowing that you spent the night with a guy, why did you ask me for Billy’s room number last night?”
She sat up and glanced at me. I waited for her to answer, but she didn’t say anything. Cole turned his head to look at us for a second before he focused back on the road. She pulled out her phone and called Lee-Anne. She’d obviously woken her sister up. They argued for a while and got their stories straight, then she hung up and sighed. I squeezed her hand, which made her relax.
Forty five minutes later, we cruised down the gravel road that led to their ranch. A truck came into view behind us. She peeked out the back window. “Shit. That’s him.”
“Jesus, the old man hauls ass,” Cole said and pushed the accelerator.
We literally skidded into their driveway surrounded by a cloud of dust. Before the truck even stopped, Shae-Lynn crawled over my lap and opened the door. When Cole parked, she jumped out and was standing near the hood when her dad pulled up beside us. She smiled and waved at him.
He got out of his truck and walked around the front of ours. “Hey, what are you boys doing here?” He studied Shae to watch her reaction and that’s when I realized he was going to notice that she was wearing the same mini skirt and dress boots from the night before. She avoided making eye contact with him. I made a mental note to teach her how to be a better liar.
“We were in High River,” Cole said without missing a beat. “Billy wanted to come by and visit Stella since we were so close.” He hopped out of the truck and hugged Shae-Lynn as if they were just meeting up. “You and Lee-Anne missed a good party last night. It got crazy after you left.”
“Really?” she said quietly and hugged him back. “What happened?”
“A bunch of shit that your dad probably doesn’t want to hear about.”
“What happened to your face?” Trent asked.
“Oh, I just had a little disagreement with someone over who won a bet. It was nothing.” He turned back to Shae-Lynn. “How’s Billy’s horse doing?”
“Good.” She looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole. “She’s in the barn if you want to see her.”
“Actually, I turned her out while you were at the lake,” Lee-Anne called from the porch.
I got out of the truck and put my hat on. Trent stared me down. “Did you have a good time last night, Billy?”
“Um, yeah, it was all right. I went to bed not long after Lee-Anne and Shae-Lynn left. Cole’s more of a partier than I am.”
He nodded and continued staring at me. “Paul Delorme told me that you backed out of the sale. He said he offered you twenty-five and you still turned him down. I thought you needed the money.”
“I, uh.”
Shae-Lynn frowned. “You told Lee-Anne that Paul backed out of the sale.”
I cleared my throat. “No, I meant to say I backed out.”
“Why did you do that?”
Cole piped in, “Yeah, bro, why would you turn down twenty-five thousand dollars for a horse you don’t even want?”
“Shae-Lynn needed a horse to rehab on until she’s recovered enough to get back on Harley.”
“We’ve got plenty of horses here,” Trent said.
“Yeah, well, Stella’s kind of special though.”
Shae-Lynn blinked, about to cry. “Billy, you guys need the money. Don’t keep her on my account.”
Her dad stared me down for a long time, and when I didn’t respond, he looked at Shae-Lynn. “That’s quite the belt you’ve got there.”
“Oh, yeah.” She readjusted it on her hips and glanced up at his face. “Haven’t you seen me wear it before?”
“No. I think I would have remembered it.” He smiled, maybe because the sweat was dripping down the side of my face. “You boys should come on in for some breakfast. Shae made something, didn’t you, sweetheart?”
She blinked slowly and pressed her lips together. It seemed like she was about to crumble under the weight of the lies that were piling up when Lee-Anne said, “She’s got pancakes and bacon on the griddle. I hope you guys are hungry.”
Shae-Lynn smiled. “Yeah, I made lots. There’s enough for everyone.” She turned and gave me a wide-eyed look that made me want to laugh. I had to bite my lip to keep a straight face.
“Sounds good,” Cole said. “Maybe we should eat first and visit Stella later.”
I nodded and followed him towards the house.
Trent was behind me and when I held the door open for him, he said, “Watch yourself, cowboy.”
I lifted my eyes to meet his. Swallowing wasn’t possible — I tried, but my throat was too tight. “Yes, Sir,” I finally said.
We stood in silence for a long time before he said, “Shae’s damn near perfect, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my daughter.”
“Yes, Sir. I know.”
“She doesn’t make very many mistakes. When she does, she learns from them and she leaves them in the past. The fact that she has loved you since she was old enough to talk, and kept loving you all this time through all your bullshit, makes me think that maybe loving you isn’t a mistake. But you need to know she’s not like your mama. If you turn out to be a mistake, she will learn from it and leave you in the dust. I will make sure she always has the financial means to kick your no good ass out of the truck and leave you on the curb. Don’t you ever forget that.”
“Yes, Sir.” I smiled, but I wasn’t sure if I should.
“I’m not joking. If you’re not serious about her, you might as well just move on to the next girl now.”
My heart did a series of double kicks, then went into a spin. “I’m serious about her.”
“All right then. Prove it.”
“I plan to.”
“Good. Do it right.” He stepped into the house.
Elated, I followed him.
Chapter 23
As we drove away from the Roberts’ ranch Cole said, “You and Shae were out in the pasture visiting Stella for a long time. Did you have a good time?” He raised his eyebrows expecting to hear some juicy details.
“Yeah, it was probably the best time of my life.”
“Nice. What’d you do?”
“Walked, held hands, and kissed.”
He laughed, but then he looked at my face and realized I wasn’t joking. “Holy shit you’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my face with the palm of my right hand and tried to massage the tension out of my chest with my left. “I don’t think I can live without her.”
He punched me really hard in the shoulder. “Are you listening to yourself? You’re getting soft over a girl.”
“She does something to me.”
“She obviously doesn’t do something something to you.”
“No, it’s not like that. It’s way better than that. Have you ever been in love?”
“No, and I’m going to avoid it if it makes me act like you’re acting right now. I can’t believe you’re not going to help me pay off my debt because you decided to fall in love with some goody-two-shoes girl you never even used to notice.”
“I noticed her.”
“You didn’t even know what colour her hair used to be.”
“Yeah, well I know her now.”
“I hope so, since despite the fact that I’m going to get murdered, you gave her a twenty-five thousand dollar horse, a belt that probably set you back another thousand, and you dropped at least five hundred dollars on those boots because she said your other ones looked old. And that’s just the stuff I know about.”
“My boots were old.”
“Have fun planning my funeral and moving Mom into a dinky welfare apartment.”
“I don’t see why I have to be on the hook for your debt anyway.”
“You’re not on the hook for it. I’ll pay you back. All I’m asking is that you temporarily stop throwing away all your money on romantic gestures so I can at least borrow something to stave off my impending death.”
“Blake’s dad isn’t going kill you. He’s all talk.”
Cole glanced at me seriously, then focused back on the road.
“Jesus Christ. They’re going to kill you?”
“Let’s just say it’s not in my best interest to test them.”
“God damn it, Cole.”
We drove the rest of the way to Saskatoon in silence. We arrived home just after six o’clock. A hunting knife was stabbed in the door frame with a note. Time’s up. Don’t make me come back here.
Cole read it and his Adam’s apple bobbed. I rushed into the house. It was quiet. Mom’s purse and keys were on the table next to a new pile of bills. “Mom!” Her bedroom door was open. She wasn’t in it. “Mom. We’re home. Are you okay?” I called through the bathroom door.
“Billy,” she said. She sounded like she was crying.
“What’s wrong?”
Her voice trembled as she said, “My legs went weak while I was in the bath. Can you go get Mrs. Spooner from next door and ask her to come over to help me?”
“I’ll help.”
“No. Can you just get Mrs. Spooner, please?” Her voice cracked.
I ran to the neighbour’s house and knocked on the door. She followed me back over to the house and called to my mom through the bathroom door.
“Janice, I need a little help getting out of the bath,” Mom called back.
Mrs. Spooner tried the door, but it was locked, so I got one of Mom’s hairpins and jimmied it. Mrs. Spooner went in and closed the door behind her.
“What’s going on?” Cole asked as he joined me in the hall.
“Mom was stuck in the bath and wanted me to call Mrs. Spooner over to help her.”
“How long has she been in there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hopefully not since yesterday.”
I glanced at him and frowned as the thought sunk in that she might have been in there since we left. “We need to hire a nurse.”
“I know. I’ve been telling you that for months.” He glanced down at a text on his phone. “Shit,” he mumbled.
“What?”
“Lyle’s just making sure I got his note.”
I shook my head and leaned against the wall. I was so tired of everything.
“Maybe it’s about time you came out of retirement,” he said. “If we both ride, we’ll have a better chance of taking home the hundred thousand dollars.”
While I was thinking about it, Mrs. Spooner opened the bathroom door and popped her head out into the hall. “I’ve got her all wrapped up in her robe. Can one of you get her chair and one of you help me lift her out of the bathtub?” Cole went to get the chair from the living room. I followed Mrs. Spooner into the bathroom. Mom was shivering and hugging her knees into her chest.
“How long have you been in here?”
She looked up at me. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and she had dark circles below them. “Not too long,” she said, weakly.
I bent over to slide one hand under her legs and the other one around her back. I lifted her out of the bathtub and carried her out into the hall. Cole was waiting with the chair. Mrs. Spooner touched my back and whispered, “Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thank you.”
She left quietly and Mom rolled herself towards her room.
“Mom. We’re getting you a nurse.”
“I don’t need one, Billy.”
“Really? How long were you in there?” I shouted down the hall.
“I told you; not long.” She turned the chair to face us. “It’s humiliating enough that I needed to ask my children and the neighbour to get me out of the bath. Please don’t make it worse by hiring a stranger to make me feel like I’m a complete invalid.”
“It’s obviously not safe for you to be here by yourself.”
“Can we not over-react, please? I just had a bad day. It doesn’t happen very often.”
“It happens all the time,” I shouted because my frustration about everything was coming to the surface.
She started crying again. “We can’t afford a nurse.” She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe.
Cole walked down the hall and bent over to hug her. “Don’t cry, Ma. Billy is working two jobs and I’ll find one eventually. We can
afford it.”
“Billy can’t work two jobs once he’s back at school.”
Cole looked at me, but kept hugging her.
My phone buzzed, so I checked to see if it was Tawnie. It was a text from Shae-Lynn. Video call me when you have a minute. I need to talk to you about something and I think it’s better if we are sort of face to face.
Cole rolled Mom into her room. I went into my room and picked up my iPad to call her. She was sitting in her room and she looked like she’d been crying as much as my mom. After wiping her cheeks and inhaling to compose herself, she said, “Your stress wrinkle is showing.”
“We came home and found Mom stranded in the bath. She won’t tell us for how long, but she may have been there since yesterday.”
“Oh my God. That’s awful.” She leaned her elbows on her desk and covered her face with her hands. Eventually she looked up. Her lip was trembling. “Billy, I need to tell you something. It’s really hard and I wish I didn’t have to, but—” She started crying and wiped the tears from her eyes.
My heart seized up. “Just say it.”
“My dad heard that Tawnie’s pregnant with your baby.”
“How did he find out? I never told anyone except Cole.” I glanced through my open door at Cole’s bedroom door across the hall.
She could obviously tell I was considering murdering him to get rid of the majority of my problems with one simple act. “It’s not Cole’s fault. Everyone would have found out eventually anyway.”
“Your dad can’t tell you what to do. You’re an adult. You can make your own decisions.”
“This is me making my own decisions. I just happen to agree with my dad that it’s better if we don’t date.”
It felt like a two-by-four smashed across my shoulders. I had to brace my hands on the desk. I couldn’t talk because I couldn’t breathe.
“I’m sorry, but after you left, I came to my senses.”
“Please don’t. At least give me a chance.”
“No. Your life is a mess and you have a baby on the way with a girl who lives in Edmonton. I don’t fit into that equation, and honestly I don’t want to.”
I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. “Don’t quit now, Shae-Lynn.”
