“Checking on you, Butchy. You know I worry.”
Butch looked down at Kate. “You can stop. I know where I am. But take what you like, whatever makes you happy. I have everything I need.” Butch sighed, looking up at the scraps of his life. “Tom did me a big favor, getting that up so quick.”
Kate frowned at the eyesore. “That’s an engineer for you. Functional. Fast. Fugly. We’ll do better. Good thing we have an expansion plan.”
“Clyde, I hope you have sense enough to hold on to that woman this time around.” Jeb stepped through the cutouts. “Might be harder than you think. Tom’s on a rampage with Kate disappearing.”
“Oh!” Kate dug into her bag. “I didn’t think to call him.”
“Looks a little late for that. He’s behind me.”
“Kate!” Tom’s voice shouted from the other side of the facade. The cheap door opened, and Tom poured through, snorting like a bull. His gaze raked the scene until he found Butch. “I told you to stay away from her.”
Tom ran at Butch. Kate jumped in his path, Jeb right behind her.
Kate planted her hands on his chest. “Stop, Tom.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
“Don’t, ’cause then Jeb would have to arrest you, and your future nieces and nephews wouldn’t have a daddy or an uncle.”
Tom stopped dead and looked down at Kate. “What?”
“We’re back together. He realized he was a dumbass, and I realized I love him anyway, so we’re together. You going to be okay with that?”
Tom hugged his cousin. “It’s going to take some time. I was all set to kick some ass.” He released her and extended his hand to Butch. “It’s a little bit of a let down to just shake your hand.”
Butch accepted the offered hand then dropped to his knees when Tom squeezed his bones like they were toothpicks. “Christ, Tom. I’m sorry.” Butch snatched his hand back when Tom relented. “Shit. That hurt.”
“Good. Now, what’s for dinner?”
Trudy flashed Jeb and Tom a friendly smile. “Looks like we’re going to have a houseful. I’ll get dinner started.”
Butch looked down at the friend who smothered him by mothering him. “You don’t have to do that. I can run into town and pick something up.”
Kate leaned into Butch “Well I had pizza until someone went caveman on me.”
Trudy wrinkled her nose. “You’ve lived in the big city too long, Butch McCormick. Dinner is something you make, not pick up.”
“You know we’re going to have to fill in the hillside.” Tom stood with his hands on his hips, looking away from the setting sun to where the earth dipped under the mock house front.
Kate mirrored her cousin’s stance and cocked her head. “We can excavate a pond in the front yard. Make it into a scenic feature with a fountain.”
Tom nodded. “Or we can excavate around the pond in back. Enlarge it.”
“That sounds like a lot of work.” Jeb looked at the grass and fields.
“Not a lot of work,” Kate said. “Just work. We’ll need the dirt. We could bring it in from off site, but the less we have to haul it, the less it costs.”
“What if we started from scratch?” Butch asked. “Bought a new piece of land and started from scratch.”
Trudy gasped. “Butch, you aren’t serious.”
“Well,” Tom said. “Retrofits are always challenging. Greenfield construction is generally less complicated and more efficient. What are you thinking?”
Butch looked at Kate and thought only about keeping her safe. He was coming to understand that home wasn’t a place, but the people in that place.
“You think Dad and Mama would move?” Butch asked Jeb.
Jeb shrugged. “He’ll worry about money. You may have to commit to some grandbabies.”
Butch nodded. “We can sell the farm. Parcel out the big house.”
“If that’s the way you’re thinking, we can develop the property into nice housing. Cicada is going to bring jobs, which will bring people who need places to live.” Tom did some quick math and named a number that dropped Jeb’s and Trudy’s mouths open.
Jeb shook his head. “Shit, Clyde. That is some serious manure.”
“Just thinking out loud. I’d need the back of a napkin to figure it all out.”
“Well, that is just awful.” Trudy waved a finger between Jeb and Butch. “You two should be ashamed of yourselves, even thinking of selling off your family land for postage stamp houses. And you.” She directed her ire at Kate. “You are what is wrong with foreigners coming in. You have no respect for our values. Our principals. You would destroy this beautiful land to make a few bucks. You are no better than that money-grabbing Fawn. I won’t stand for it. Do you hear? I won’t stand for it.” Trudy threw her head back and stomped off down the path to her family’s farm.
Jeb whistled between his teeth. “That was some exit. What do ya think she’s going to do?”
“She’ll call Mama,” Butch said. “I better call her first and make it clear we were just talking.”
While Butch dialed, Tom turned to Jeb. “Foreigners?”
Jeb laughed. “A true southerner thinks anyone not from the Deep South is a foreigner.” He sobered. “For what it’s worth, I want the house here. My job’s here, and my history is here. I want my family here.”
A week without Katie in his bed had taught Butch an appreciation for what had been his routine for mornings. When his cock awoke long before the rooster crowed, he took full advantage of the naked woman curled around him. He hadn’t known the right word for the physical, mental, and psychological bliss that came with starting most days buried deep in a woman he loved as much as he lusted after. Ecstasy, a state of being beyond reason and self-control, not only now described his mornings, it was the title of a new song.
Butch stumbled down the stairs, poured the coffee, and found Kate by instinct. He lifted her until she settled into his lap. Yeah, life was good, again.
“You look used,” Jeb said.
“Come on, man. We talked about this,” Tom said, his voice edged with nausea.
Kate laughed. “You have sex all the time. I don’t know why you get so freaked out when I do.”
Tom covered his ears. “Lalalalala.”
Butch grinned at Tom, waiting for him to pull his fingers from his ears. “Are you moving back here, Tom, or staying at Hatter’s?”
“Both. You can’t live in a place and do what we’re planning to do. We can use Hatter’s place until this one is inhabitable.”
Kate wove her fingers between Butch’s. “We’ll break ground when you’re on tour. You can sleep here until then.”
“We’ll sleep here. Non-negotiable.”
Kate turned and kissed Butch. “Stay safe today.”
“There has to be a rule about kissing in the kitchen,” Tom said. “It’s unsanitary.”
Kate set her dishes in the sink. “Come on. It’s time to go to work. When did you become a prude, anyway?”
“When did sex become a table topic?”
Kate snorted. “Since you were old enough to have it. With or without a woman.”
Butch listened as they cat-and-dogged it out the door. Two engines started, gravel crackled, and the songs of morning birds took over.
“Those two are something,” Jeb said. “Pushy, ornery, and don’t take no for an answer. You gonna propose again?”
Butch frowned. “Don’t want to jinx things.”
“You know best, Clyde. It sure seemed wrong when they weren’t here.”
“I thought the same thing.” Dust kicked up behind a truck that drove around the farm. Normally, Butch wouldn’t see his father’s truck from the kitchen, the barn would be in the way. Without it, he had time to pour his father a cup. “Dad’s coming.”
John opened the screen door and joined his boys in the morning ritual. “You boys in the middle of something?”
Jeb finished his coffee. “Just finishing breakfast. What are you up to this
morning?”
“The wheat is about ready for cutting. I guess I’m glad I didn’t get to it before the barn burned down. Bad enough we lost what we did. Thought you’d like to know Trudy came by yesterday and gave your mama an earful. You were smart to call first.”
Jeb went to the sink and rinsed his cup. “What happened?”
“Your mama assured Trudy it was just talk, and you boys were here for the long haul.”
“Good. I’m headed to work.” Jeb paused in the doorway. “Butch, I’ve never said anything about any of the women you’ve brought home, good or bad. I always figured it was your business who you kept house with, but this time I’m going to have my say. Kate is a keeper. All of us can see it. If you push her away this time, well, only a fool would expect her to come back again. Don’t be a fool. And lock the door behind me.”
Jeb left. So did their father. Butch was alone in a quiet house. He ate the breakfast his family always left in the microwave for him. Then he went to his piano and ran his fingers over all eighty-eight keys. The tune he’d been letting simmer, the one he called “Ecstasy,” poured out of the upright. He hummed a melody, remembering her heels dug into his backside. His voice intertwined with the bass on the piano, as intimate as the act of making loving. Over and under. In and out. His tune soared to a crescendo.
“I sure did like it better when you kept the door unlocked,” Trudy shouted through the picture window.
A proverbial bucket of water doused his musical cock stand. Butch rose from the piano bench, walked stiff legged to the old, oak door, and twisted the new deadbolt. Trudy wore hot-pink capris, a blouse of yellow and pink flowers, and white sneakers. Her blond hair was pulled into a thick tail bound with a bright-pink band.
“You look like spring. Pretty as a picture.”
“Aren’t you sweet?” Trudy pulled Butch down to lay a kiss on his shadowed cheek. “Want to see my new toy? It’s a golf cart. Well, it was. It’s retired now. Want to go for a drive around the farm?”
Butch shuffled back to the piano bench. “I heard you visited my mother.”
Trudy nodded curtly. “I do what I have to do, Butch. Mama, you, my girlfriends. You mean the world to me. I can’t stand by and not try to stop a disaster from happening. That’s just good sense, isn’t it?”
“I’ve known you forever, Trudy. You’ve always made sense to me.”
“Some people are just in sync with each other, and others aren’t. You and me, well, we’ve always been like two peas in a pod.” Trudy gave a light chuckle.
Could Trudy think there was more to their friendship? She dated, he dated, and while she hadn’t married, he was sure she had opportunities. Yet he suddenly felt like he needed to make clear that even if she was interested, he wasn’t. “You’ve always been a good friend to me. Why hasn’t some man swept you off your feet and made you his own?”
Trudy cocked her head and gave him a sexy smile. “Who says I haven’t been swept off my feet? How about taking me out to lunch?”
“I just ate breakfast an hour ago. I’m going to go see Kate. She and I have a few things to clear up.” Butch stood a little straighter. He knew what he wanted. He hadn’t been stupid when he asked Kate Riley to marry him. It was one of the smartest things he’d ever done. Now she was his. He was going to do everything he could to love her, to protect her, to make her happy. She wasn’t going to be afraid anymore.
“Well, before you go running out of here, Romeo, you might want to go take a shower. You stink. And flowers. Women love flowers.”
Showered, shaved, ring in his pocket, Butch ran into town and found Kate a pretty bouquet of flowers. He had debated about roses. He wanted to give Kate the romance of roses, but this bright bouquet of cheery flowers just fit somehow. Butch knew Kate seldom took time for lunch, so he stopped at the restaurant and picked up everything he needed for a picnic. He didn’t have a blanket, but Kate had plenty of tarps and plastic they could use. Butch drove toward Kate, completely confident in himself once again. Completely happy with her.
He ran up the stairs to the trailer with a song on his lips. Tom’s whole face fell when Butch walked in the door.
“What?” Butch asked. “She can’t be mad at me. She was whistling when she left the house.”
Tom shook his head. “You texted Katie to come home.”
Butch shook his head, the smile still plastered on his face. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. I saw it.”
Butch felt his pockets. “I don’t have my phone.”
The color drained from Tom’s face. “Oh my God.”
“I’ll drive.” Butch hit the door at a full run. “Call Jeb.”
Tom held on to the phone with one hand and the Jesus bar with the other. “Jeb, you’ve got to get to the old house quick. Somebody texted Kate posing as Butch to get her to go home.”
Jeb swore vehemently. “Where are you?”
“We’re on our way. Won’t be more than fifteen minutes.”
Every mile turned into five. Fertile fields flew by the window as they raced down the road but never seemed to end. Butch put the pedal to the floor and pushed the truck to its limits.
“Her truck is in the drive. I can see it from here.” Tom said.
Butch banked the truck hard and threw it into park before the wheels stopped moving.
Tom leaped out of the truck and raced into the house. “Kate! Katie!” His shout reverberated off of the hard floors and empty walls, but nothing moved. Tom raced up the stairs without any thought as to what could be waiting for him.
Butch followed only steps behind. When Tom ran up the stairs, Butch raced into the kitchen. “Tom!” Butch’s heart pounded as he stared at the mess on the kitchen table where two coffee mugs sat. One was upright and centered. The other was knocked over with its contents soaking the thin tablecloth. The chair was tipped over. The miscellany on the counter was strewn across the floor. The heart that pounded so violently stopped at the sight of the pink hair band lying under the table.
Butch scooped it up and held it on one finger. “It’s Trudy’s. She had it in her hair when she left here this morning. Oh my God, what has she done?”
“We need to find Kate. Now.”
“Can you shoot a gun?” Butch ran to his grandparents’ bedroom. The gun safe yawned wide open. “Shit.”
Tom swallowed hard. “What’s missing?”
“A handgun.”
Kate landed hard against the earth. She rolled to her back to try to get her bearings, but the endless blue of the sky and painted clouds provided her no landmark. She heard barking. Chubsy was barking. Somewhere close. That wasn’t his friendly bark. As if in a dream, she remembered him running next to her. But she hadn’t been walking. She had been flying. Where was he? She rolled to her hands and knees and let her head hang for a moment. Her stomach rolled as the world spun. She braced her hands and let the contents of her stomach empty. Her abdomen cramped painfully, repeatedly until there was nothing left but the sharp, painful bite of bile. She looked up at the tall grass surrounding her. She needed to get out of here. The barking hurt her ears but gave her a bearing. Without understanding why, she knew it was imperative that she get out of there. She crawled toward the dog, toward her dog. The air shattered. Silence ruled.
Tom ran both hands through his hair. “She’s not answering her phone. I’ve called at least a dozen times.”
Jeb pulled keys from Butch’s back pocket and tossed them to Tom. “Take Butch’s truck, and get over to the big house on the off chance she’s there. Call us the minute you get there. If she’s not there, warn my parents, and get them out.”
“Then go to Trudy’s house,” Butch said. “Search everywhere.”
“Where are you two going?” Tom asked as they moved to the vehicles.
“The fields. She dumped Angie there and burned down the barn. My gut says whatever she did, she did it close by. If you find her, call us. She has a gun, and we know she’ll kill. Call Waters and tell him to
seal the property.” Jeb swung the door of his own truck shut and started the engine as Butch jumped in on the other side. “I have men on the way. We’ll find her.”
Jeb drove as fast as he safely could around the fields.
“Damn it, Jeb. How did we miss it? Tom saw it. He saw it, and we blew him off.”
“Trudy’s family,” Jeb said. “You never want it to be family. Keep your eyes out. The hay is long. Too bad Daddy didn’t get it cut sooner.”
Butch swallowed his heart. “Shit, Jeb. Shit. He’s cutting it now. Drive faster. Cut through the field.”
“I can’t see anything. I could run over her if she’s in it. We have to go around.” Jeb pushed the truck faster as the road straightened out in front of him.
“Slow down,” Butch said. “I’ll be able to see more from the back.”
Jeb stomped on the brake, letting Butch climb out of the door and into the bed of the truck. “Tom’s calling.” Jeb put the phone to his ear. “Did you find her?” Jeb paused, the spoke again. “We’re circling the field. Call me back when you get there.”
Jeb disconnected the line. “Tom says Trudy and Kate aren’t at the big house, and Mama hasn’t seen either of them. She’s headed to Reverend Marcus’s, and Tom’s heading to Trudy’s.” He pointed out the window. “There’s Daddy. Take my phone. Keep trying Kate. If she has her phone on her, maybe we can hear it.”
Butch dialed Kate’s phone while Jeb drove, closing the distance to their father’s tractor. Abruptly, the sound of the tractor ground to a halt. They watched from a distance as their father climbed out of the seat, looking hard at the ground. “Faster, Jeb.”
Butch tossed the cell phone at Jeb through the sliding window and leapt from the truck to run toward his father. In the silence, the wind carried an electronic melody. It was one of his songs. Butch veered east and followed the tones to where the battered phone lay in the freshly cut hay, just a few hundred yards behind the tractor.
Butch answered the phone. “She’s not here.” Butch watched as his father staggered away from the tractor and bent over to be wretchedly sick. “Jeb. Something’s wrong with Dad.” Butch tried to run, but his legs were too heavy. He gritted his teeth and pushed forward, feeling as though he were slogging through mud. He was going to be too late. Butch knew it. He was going to be too late.
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