Hot Southern Mess

by Gen Griffin

  “Jesus Christ,” Addison muttered. He fixed his turquoise eyes on David. “I've got to go but we aren't done here. You hurt her, I'll kill you, chop you up into a million little pieces and feed you to the gators.”

  For some reason, that comment made David smile as Addy got in his truck and headed back towards town with his light bar flashing.

  Chapter 35

  “Why did you tell them we were a couple?” Gracie turned on David the minute Cal left. Cal had firm instructions to tell anyone who asked that they had worked on his Chevy all morning. Cal didn't argue or question, but he had left claiming he needed to go try to make amends with Jo Beth. Gracie wondered if he'd spill his guts to her the minute she started in on him.

  Gracie would have given anything to climb into the cab of the Chevy beside Cal and leave with him. She would have given almost anything to strangle Jo Beth. If she'd had to kill somebody, why couldn't it have been preppy, perfect Jo Beth who'd dropped dead and done the whole world a favor? Gracie hated Jo Beth with a passion that had absolutely everything to do with how much she still loved Cal Walker.

  David raised one eyebrow at her as he opened a canned beer from the fridge. “Why do you think I told them that?”

  “I don't know,” Gracie threw up her hands. “Did you see the look on Cal's face?”

  “You can make it up to him later,” David replied. “You still haven't answered my question.

  “What question?” Gracie snapped, she felt tired and irritable. The stress of the last 24 hours was finally making her unravel.

  “Why do you think I told them that?”

  “I don't know.” She flung herself down on the couch and glared at his heavily tattooed back. Addison had been using David as a practice canvas for his tattoo gun for so long that David was running out of skin. His chest was taken up with the alligator and the flag. His back showed a Harley Davidson being ridden out of the gates of hell, which looked suspiciously like the gates to Possum Creek's oldest cemetery. Both his arms had almost full tattoo sleeves taking up nearly every available inch of skin with images Gracie could only describe as Southern kitsch. Rebel flags. Pistols. Bullets. A 19-point buck. The Toyota Emblem on his right arm countered a noose hanging from an old oak tree on his left. “But they believed you.”

  “They were supposed to. It keeps everyone safe.” David made himself another ice pack and was holding it back on the bridge of his busted nose.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It's believable. It may not be true, but it explains what you're doing down here, how you got here and why we're being so secretive about it,” David started to pace again. Gracie wondered how long it was going to take him to pace a hole in the already sagging trailer floor.

  “You mean so that if people start to ask questions?” She trailed off and David nodded

  “You already told me you have no idea how many people knew you were on a date with that guy. We don't know if the cops will find out you were with him or not, but we need to be prepared in case they do.”

  He took a deep breath and began explaining. “Killing someone isn't the hard part. Getting away with it is. We need to make sure that if and when, and we should probably just assume it's gonna be 'when,' the cops come to ask you questions, you've got real nice, airtight answers that can be confirmed with a few simple phone calls to some nice, upstanding citizens.”

  Gracie nodded and waited for the rest.

  “I've been trying to think up a convincing alibi all day. The one that caused Cal's little hissy fit is probably the most believable.”

  “You mean that you and I are together?”

  “It makes sense. I'm close friends with your brother. No respectable older brother likes for his buddies to be screwing around with his kid sister. Your Dad hates me, giving us yet another reason we would have kept our relationship a secret. Add in that my best friend, Cal, is deeply in love with you, and it makes sense we would have hidden things as long as possible.

  At the same time, it gives you a viable reason for being down here. Girls sneak off to be with their boyfriends all the time, especially ones their families don't approve of. I mean, isn't that the whole plot behind Romeo and Juliet?” David held out his hands in a deceptively innocent shrug.

  She laughed faintly. Her anger was fading as the pieces of his plan clicked into place in her mind. She didn't like what he had done but, she had to admit that his story did make a certain kind of sense. “I think you missed a few details, but basically, yeah.”

  “I drove up to State University, picked you up on Friday night and brought you back down here so we could have a nice little weekend by ourselves. Which my buddies happened to crash in on and ruin...therefore providing you with a nice little alibi.”

  “You're spooky sometimes,” she told him.

  “Fourth generation career criminal,” he said with a smirk. “There are some benefits to coming from total sleaze.”

  “You're not that bad,” Gracie said.

  “No, but Dad was. He taught me everything he knew by the time I was twelve.”

  Gracie frowned but didn't argue. Instead she mulled over the story again. “Basically, we're going to say you came up and got me Friday night as a surprise?”

  “It's probably better to say you called me, but either way, Cal can verify it,” David said flatly. “So can Addison, for that matter. He saw me around 9:30 or so. Cal saw us at around three. Plenty of time to get to State and back.”

  “It makes sense.”

  “The trick is in the details. We've got to keep our story simple and as close to the truth as possible.”

  “Okay.” She chewed her lip thoughtfully. “How are we going to explain why I left my dorm for a date with Brett and never came back. Not even to pick up clothes for the weekend?”

  David rubbed his stubbly chin thoughtfully. His five o'clock shadow seemed to be getting bristlier every time she looked at him. “That's a tough one. Where did you meet up with him?”

  “He picked me up outside the dorm.”

  “Did he come inside?”

  “No. I waited outside and he drove up and honked for me. He was thirty minutes late, so I sat out there for awhile.” She cringed at the memory of herself, all dressed up and wondering if she was being stood up. “I thought he was going to stand me up. I wish he had.”

  David considered for a moment. “Does your dorm have security cameras?”

  “I have no idea. Probably. Why?”

  “If they didn't, we could just say he never showed up and hope no one actually saw you get into the car.”

  “Damn. That would have worked.”

  “We'll think of something.” He plopped down beside her on the couch.

  “I'm so embarrassed.”

  “Oh come on.” David acted as if he were mildly put out. “Am I really that lousy of a boyfriend?”

  “Not you.” Gracie couldn't help smiling at him. She leaned in to his shoulder. “I was referring to the mess I've gotten myself into. Everything has been pretty much exactly the opposite from how I thought it would be. When Brett asked me out, I thought life was finally turning around. Instead, Brett turns out to be a total creep who wouldn't keep his hands off me. Now everything is a thousand times worse than it was before I met him.” Gracie buried her face in her hands miserably and curled into David's side. Maybe if she closed her eyes tight enough and prayed hard enough the entire mess would sort itself out.

  “That's good,” David said thoughtfully as he draped one arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

  “What?” Her head shot up and she stared at him. “You think my life going to hell is a good thing?”

  “Not necessarily but it'll work for what we need it to do.”

  Gracie was lost and it must have shown on her face because David began explaining his twisted logic. “You hate your roommate and she hates you, right?”

  “Beyond hate. Hate is an understatement.”

  “What happened last night was embarr
assing, right?”

  She nodded, not sure where he was going with this.

  “You already told me that one of the main reasons you went out with frat boy was to piss your roommate off and make her jealous. It makes sense that you wouldn't want to face her after the date went all to hell.” He chewed thoughtfully on the inside of his cheek. “It also gives a pretty good excuse for why you don't go running to the cops when frat boy goes missing.”

  “You mean I should say the reason I didn't go back to the dorm after my date with Brett was because I was too embarrassed?” Gracie was starting to catch on to David's plan.

  “Would you have wanted to go back to the dorm if he hadn't died?” he asked. “I mean, if you had gotten out of the car at that taco place and walked back to the school campus, would you have wanted to admit that to your roommate?”

  “No. Probably not,” Gracie admitted. “I guess I can tell anyone who asks that I was too ashamed of what had happened between me and Brett to deal with Kelsey.”

  “You just wanted to come home, right?”

  “Well, yeah.” It was the truth. “I've been wanting to come home since approximately five minutes after Addison finished lugging the last of my stuff up those three flights of stairs.”

  “That's beside the point,” David rolled his eyes. “Your story is going to be that you didn't come back to the dorm because you were too embarrassed over Brett trying to force you to have sex with him.”

  “How do I explain ending up in Possum Creek?” she asked. “Or should I admit I came home at all?”

  “You're going to have to admit you came home because you're probably going to have to account for your whereabouts for the rest of the weekend. Just say that you called me to come get you because you'd had a bad week and wanted to come home.”

  “You think people will believe it?”

  “They aren't going to have much of a choice. I can say that I drove to State University and picked you up then turned around and drove right back down here. Cal can confirm we were back here by 3 a.m..”

  “Okay, let me get this straight,” Gracie struggled to keep straight the scenario he had just spelled out for her. “You're my boyfriend but we're hiding the relationship and I was cheating on you with Brett?”

  He rolled his eyes at her. “Lots of good girls want to sleep with bad boys. It’s a cheap thrill.”

  “You're my cheap thrill,” Gracie smirked at him. “I'll have to keep that in mind.”

  “You better keep me in mind. We're in a committed relationship now.”

  “My Dad is going to die.”

  “Amen. I don't like that bastard anyways.” David crossed himself.

  Gracie smacked his chest. “Don't be evil.”

  “Sorry. Can't help it.” He smirked at her and she snuggled against him without really meaning to. Pretending to be David's girlfriend wasn't that big of a stretch, if she could just push the look on Cal's face when he'd caught them together out of her mind.

  “Anyways, my alibi?” Gracie prodded at his side in order to distract herself.

  “Tell them that you have a boyfriend back home, but when Brett asked you out, you decided that what I didn't know wouldn't hurt me.” David shrugged his shoulders. “The guy's uncle is the governor. Most girls who found themselves bored and two hundred miles away from their boyfriend would probably have done it.”

  “I wouldn't have done it if I were still with Cal,” Gracie mused out loud.

  “You wouldn't have gone to State if you and Cal hadn't split up,” David pointed out. “The point is that your date didn't go very well and you wound up miserable and embarrassed.”

  “Why would I call the guy I'm cheating on to come pick me up from a date gone wrong?”

  “You know I'll forgive you. I'm a very forgiving type of guy,” David smirked. “Keep it as close to the truth as possible.”

  “Tell that to someone who doesn't know you.”

  “I will be,” he looked quite pleased with himself. “It doesn't matter what the truth is, Gracie. It just matters how well you can sell the lie you need people to believe.”

  “Why do I get the feeling you aren't just talking about my alibi?”

  “I don't know what you're talking about,” David told her with a wink. “The key to making this work is making your alibi as close to the truth as possible.”

  “You don't really want to be a couple, do you?” Gracie wasn't sure she could take the lies that far. Maybe if she never had to look at Cal again.

  “No, I'm don't. But we're about to go put on a damn good show.” He stood up abruptly, leaving Gracie feeling strangely abandoned.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We're about to go add to our list of alibis,” he said, offering her one of his hands.

  “Huh?” She placed her palm in his and he pulled her to her feet.

  “I was thinking we could head over to Canterville. You need to pick up some clothes and there isn't anything to eat in this house. I figured maybe we could go to Italiano's.” He was grinning at her, and he almost looked handsome standing in the middle of the living room with that cocky smile on his face.

  Gracie unexpectedly found herself wondering what it would be like to be in a not-fake relationship with David. She shook her head to jar the thought from her mind. Clearly she was under too much stress if dating David Breedlove was starting to sound like a good idea.

  “You want to go out on a date?”

  “Might as well. I'm hungry, you can't cook, and it would give some more credibility to our story that you came down here for a nice romantic weekend with me.”

  “I guess I've heard worse ideas. I'm game so long as we can go to Wally World first.” She picked at one of the fraying holes in the jeans he'd given her to wear. “I would love some pants that actually fit. You're too skinny.”

  “Whatever makes you happy,” he said. “Just let me go get a shower and a shave, and we'll head out.”

  Chapter 36

  Cal watched the sun set over the bare trusses of his unfinished house and waited for Jo Beth to find her way to the property and house he'd never told her about. He watched as her headlights turned down the long, twisting driveway and began to trek up the small, soft hill he'd chosen for the home site.

  She pulled up beside the freshly scrubbed Chevy and turned off her motor. When she got out of the car, he saw she was freshly showered.

  He expected her to start ranting and raving as soon as she got out of the car, but she walked quietly to where he was standing. For a moment, they just stared at one another in silence. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a damp ponytail. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face puffy. It was obvious she'd been crying all afternoon, and knowing he was the cause of her misery made him feel like shit. Her black t-shirt was formfitting but conservative over dark wash blue jeans. Jo was pretty, but she wasn't Gracie. He never should have wanted her to be.

  Cal almost considered getting the diamond back from Addison and giving it to her. It would make her happy. It would make his folks happy, and he could wear sweater vests and drive around in Honda minivans until the day he died.

  His jaw tightened, and he took a deep breath. He gestured towards a low brick wall he'd been working on, trying to decide what shade and pattern of bricks he liked the best. “We need to talk.”

  “I already know,” she said, her voice thick with tears. “You're in love with Gracie.”

  “I...Gracie has nothing to do with this,” Cal said with a frown.

  “Just be honest with me, Cal. Honesty is all I'm asking from you,” she said, wrapping the ends of her long, smooth ponytail around her fingers.

  “Honesty is why we're here,” he said.

  “Where is here, exactly?” Jo asked. “Is this something y'all are helping with from work?”

  “No,” Cal shook his head. “It's mine.”

  “Yours?” She stared at him with obvious surprise.

  He nodded. “I've been planning it and designing it f
or the last two years. I drew the blueprints myself; now I'm building it by hand.”

  She was startled. “You've been building a house all this time and never told me?”

  “I've never told anyone. I mean, Pappy gave me the land, but no one other than David even knows I've had it cleared.”

  “Are you serious?”

  He nodded.

  “Why?”

  “Why build the house or why keep it a secret?”

  “Why keep it a secret?” she clarified, looking puzzled.

  He took a deep breath. “Because I wanted to do it my way.”

  “Of course you do. It's your house.” She was clearly confused.

  “I wanted to make the decisions. All of the decisions.” He took a deep breath, struggling to explain. “I wanted to do it without other folks' opinions, beliefs, handed down superstitious old wives tales about where the rooms should go, what should be where or whether the house should face east or west. I wanted to have every single detail be the way I wanted it.”

  “Okay,” Jo nodded. “That's reasonable, I guess. If you're going to go to all the trouble of building it yourself, you might as well have it your way.”

  “Jo, I realized today that this is the only thing in my entire life that I've had my way,” he said, feeling slightly better as he let his private thoughts out into the open air between them.

  “What do you mean?” Jo asked.

  “You kind of nailed it last night. Everything about me is the result of being Joshua Walker's grandson. My entire life up until this point has been nothing more than following the instructions that other people give me. I can design and draft blueprints for a house. I love doing it. But I work stocking shelves and running a cash register in my Pappy's hardware store because that's what I'm supposed to do.” Cal took a deep breath and twisted his hands around a thick caramel colored brick he'd been playing with.

  “Don't get me wrong. It pays well. Twice as well as it should, according to Google. I'm grateful to know that I'll always have a job, but I don't think I want to spend the rest of my life selling couplings and stick-on tile.” Cal shrugged and stared up into the dusky, evening sky at the pale moon. “You know, no one ever even asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, or if I wanted to go to college. It was just a given that I'd stay here and work in the store, just like Dad did.”