Caroline felt her face redden. She turned to face him. “Well, you’re awful spiffed up yourself.”
“Got me a date.” He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, and you’re never gonna guess who with.”
“Tell me!” Caroline urged. “Who is it?”
“Jolene.”
“Jolene from the clinic?” Caroline asked. “The same Jolene we went to high school with?”
“One and the same.”
“What about Jolene?” Court came out of his room, freshly showered and ready to go. “Didn’t she just get divorced?”
“Last year,” Reese said. “She’s coming with us to the bar.”
“She is?”
“Yep, and I hope she’s coming home with me afterwards.” Reese winked at his friends. “We’ve got time to pick her up, right?”
“I guess,” Court replied, shrugging. He was trying to sound nonchalant, but Caroline could tell that he was upset. Reese hadn’t dated anyone since returning to Cold River, and this news came as quite a shock.
“Well, we better get going,” Caroline spoke up. “We have to get Ava Dawn, too.”
“I’ll drive!” Reese proclaimed, ushering them out the door. “Don’t want to keep the ladies waiting, do we?”
“Hey, I’m a lady, too,” Caroline protested.
Court and Reese shared a look. “Of course you are,” Court replied, shoving into her with his shoulder. “A total and complete lady.”
CHAPTER 35
MAMA’S WAS PACKED BY THE TIME THE FIVE of them arrived, but Ava Dawn led them straight over to the table closest to the little stage, which was, miraculously, not being used. “What are we drinkin’ tonight?” she wanted to know.
“Whiskey,” Court and Caroline said at the same time.
“White wine?” Jolene sounded hopeful. She was dressed to the nines and looked mostly uncomfortable to be at Mama’s. It was quite a switch from the relaxed personality she presented at the clinic.
“I’ll check on that,” Ava Dawn replied.
“I’m coming with you!” Reese hollered over the noise.
“I’ll pay!” Caroline called after her, but Ava Dawn wasn’t listening. She was engulfed in a bear hug with a 400-pound man in a ten-gallon cowboy hat.
“Do you come here a lot?” Jolene asked her.
“No, not lately.”
“How come?”
Caroline shrugged. “Lots of reasons, mainly because Ava Dawn is married to a lunatic, and he never let her go anywhere.”
“Roy is a loose cannon, that’s for sure,” Jolene said, scooting her chair closer to Caroline. “He comes into the clinic sometimes.”
“Really?” Caroline asked. “That surprises me since my father is there so much.”
“Oh, he’s real careful not to come in on days when your daddy is there,” Jolene said. “I reckon I shouldn’t be tellin’ ya this, but his daddy is losin’ the auto body shop, and Roy was the first to be let go.”
“His own son?”
“Roger Bean don’t care for nobody but himself,” Jolene replied. “Where do you think Roy learned it?”
Caroline felt a wave of nervousness come over her. She hoped Roy wasn’t there tonight. Losing Ava Dawn and his job in the same summer would probably be enough to make him do something stupid—even more stupid than usual. “So he’s been coming to the clinic?” Caroline asked.
Jolene nodded. “One of the doctors put him on some antidepressants.” She covered her mouth as soon as she said it. “I really shouldn’t be telling you that.”
“Drinks!” Ava Dawn appeared in front of them. “I ordered you both whiskey neat, and I got a couple of pitchers of Bud for good measure.”
“No white wine,” Reese said apologetically to Jolene. “But Mama fixed you up somethin’ special. Said you’d like it.”
Jolene looked at Caroline.
“It’ll be good,” Caroline assured her. “My mom was never much of a drinker, and Mama always made her somethin’ special when she came down here with my dad.”
“Okay,” Jolene replied. “Thanks.”
“The Rattlesnakes should be out in a few,” Ava Dawn said. She poured herself a beer. “The lead singer just got out of prison last week. Should be a good show.”
Caroline took a drink of her whiskey. It was good. Not as good as the whiskey of her father’s that she and Noah had the night her mother wandered off, but good nonetheless. As she put the glass to her lips for a second time, someone at the front of the bar caught her eye. She squinted into the smoky air. The person who’d just walked through the door looked an awful lot like Noah. No way, she thought. It just looks like him because I was thinking about him.
“Caroline!” Ava Dawn jabbed her in the ribs. “CAROLINE!”
“What?”
“Is that Noah Cranwell?”
There was no denying it. Noah Cranwell was walking towards them, his gaze set intently on Caroline. To her relief, the lights dimmed and four men took the stage. Everyone stood up, and Caroline was able to lose him in the throng of people.
What was Noah doing there? She surveyed the scene from between the shoulders of two men standing behind her. She saw Noah approach Court, and she saw Court extend his hand to him. They were leaning close, talking about something, but of course it was too loud for her to hear anything they were saying. After a few minutes of chatting, Court began to lead Noah over to their table.
No. No. No. This wasn’t happening.
When the band took a break, Noah and Court were in front of her. Court gave her one of his looks like he couldn’t help but bring Noah over. “Hey, Caroline. Look who I found.”
Caroline finished what was left of the whiskey in her glass. She could play nice. She could. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Noah said. He looked just as uncomfortable as Caroline felt. “Smokey said the music was good. I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“We were just about to get up and dance, boys,” Ava Dawn cut in before Caroline could respond. She pointed to the beer on the table. “Help yourself.”
Caroline didn’t want to dance. She wanted to go back to Court’s house and crawl under the covers for the next year. She opened her mouth to protest, but Ava Dawn gave her a look that told her to shut up. “Okay,” Caroline said. “Let’s go dance.”
“You line dance?” Ava Dawn asked Noah.
“What?” Noah leaned closer as the music started back up.
“Do. You. Line. Dance?”
Noah still looked confused. “No?”
“Oh, son, you gotta get out here!” Ava Dawn squealed.
Noah allowed himself to be pulled up by Ava Dawn. She led him out onto the dance floor and said, “Are you ready?”
“What do I do?”
“First you hook your thumbs through your belt loops, like so,” Ava Dawn began. She gave Caroline a wink. “Then you put your right foot out.”
“And your right foot back,” Caroline finished, wanting to get the lesson over with. “Then out. To the side. Then back.” She demonstrated. “Just follow our lead.”
Ava Dawn and Caroline fell into step with the rest of the group. To Caroline’s surprise, Noah caught on quickly and was even keeping up with them like a pro by the end of the song. “Am I doing it right?” Noah yelled, jumping beside her to kick up his heels.
Caroline nodded. She was laughing too hard to answer him. Watching Noah dance was the funniest thing she’d seen all day, hell, in months. She almost forgot she was angry with him. She wished that things could go back to the way they were before . . . everything. She wished they could go back to her bedroom when she’d been mortified about the way she snored.
The music stopped and the lead singer of the Rattlesnakes announced they were taking a break. Caroline caught Noah’s eye as they exited the dance floor. He gave her a slow smile, and Caroline felt herself smiling back.
When they returned to the table, they saw Reese and Jolene cozied up at on
e end and Court sulking at the other. He was stabbing the ice in his drink with his straw, occasionally stopping to glare over at the lovebirds.
“Are you okay?” Caroline asked him.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
Court took a deep breath. “I’m tired, and I have an early day tomorrow.”
“We can go whenever you want,” Caroline offered. She hated seeing Court upset, and she hated it even more that Reese was the source. She didn’t begrudge Reese his love life—she’d once been part of it—especially when Reese possibly had no idea why Court might be so moody.
“Reese drove,” Court said miserably.
“I’m sure he’ll leave if you want to.”
“You sure about that?”
Caroline glanced over at Reese and Jolene. She wasn’t sure. “I’ll go ask.”
Court caught Caroline by the arm. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Stop asking me that. I’m not a child, Caroline. Shit.”
Caroline was taken aback. He’d never talked like that before. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to help.”
“Well, stop.” Court picked up his glass and took the last swig. There was a giggle from the other side of the table, and they all looked down to see Reese whispering seductively into Jolene’s ear. With that, Court slammed the glass down onto the table, the force shattering it in his hands. “Shit!”
There was blood everywhere. Noah sprang into action, rushing to the bar and grabbing a towel from the bartender and wrapping it around Court’s oozing hand. “Are you okay, man?” he asked.
“Goddamnit,” Court muttered under his breath. “I didn’t think I slammed the glass down that hard.”
“It was pretty hard.”
By now, Reese and Jolene were paying attention. Shards of glass had been flung all the way down to the other end of the table, and they were both gazing worriedly in Court’s direction. “What happened?” Jolene wanted to know.
“What does it look like?” Court snapped.
“Hey, don’t talk to her that way,” Reese cut in. “We didn’t see what happened.”
“Well, if you’d been payin’ a lick of attention to anybody but each other, you would have seen what happened,” Court replied bitterly.
“I think we need to get you home,” Caroline said, signaling Reese not to respond. “Reese, why don’t you and Jolene stay here with Ava Dawn? I’m sure Noah will give us a ride home.”
“Of course I will,” Noah replied. He was already pulling his keys out of his pocket.
“Where is Ava Dawn?” Reese wanted to know.
Caroline watched as Noah and Court waded through the ocean of people and to the front door. Then she turned her attention back to Reese. “Last time I saw her, she was heading outside to smoke with one of the Rattlesnakes.”
“Great, now I’ve got to be responsible for her?” Reese replied.
“She can handle herself,” Caroline replied, annoyed. “Listen, don’t even think about stumbling into Court’s house drunk with Jolene. You take her back to your place, you hear me?”
“Caroline!” Jolene exclaimed, her cheeks reddening, even in the dim light.
“You got me, Reese?” Caroline asked, ignoring Jolene.
“I hear ya, I hear ya.” Reese held up his hands.
“Good,” Caroline replied over her shoulder. She hurried out the door to catch up with Noah and Court. She knew it wasn’t fair to be annoyed with Reese and Jolene, but she was anyway.
Noah was waiting in front of the bar with Court lying down in the backseat. “Do you want me to take him home first?” he asked.
“Um, we’re going to the same place,” Caroline replied. “You can take us both to his house.”
“Okay.”
“Just go on straight out of town. He lives in that first subdivision.” Caroline could feel Noah giving her a questioning look, but she ignored it. “Court, are you okay back there? Do you need stitches?”
“No,” Court groaned. “No stitches. Sheriff Montgomery will kill me if he finds out I was at Mama’s.”
“Why?” Caroline asked. “It’s not like you were in a bar fight.”
“I know, but he’ll never believe it was an accident. Just take me home.”
By the time they got back to Court’s house, all the lights were off. “Let’s be quiet when we go in,” Caroline said. “We don’t want to wake your dad. He’ll be worse than the sheriff when he sees what happened.”
Court nodded. “I’ll grab the first aid kit from my squad car.”
Noah caught Caroline’s arm as she was getting out of the car. “Can we talk for a minute?”
Caroline didn’t want to talk. She already knew what he was going to say. But he’d been so friendly at the bar and had kept things from being awkward, and he’d been nice enough to bring them home. It was the least she could do. “Sure.”
“I’ll go on in,” Court said. “If you need me, I’ll be right inside.”
“I’ll be fine,” Caroline assured him.
“He sure looks out for you,” Noah said once Court was safely out of the car.
“We look out for each other.”
“I know you do,” Noah replied.
“He’s family,” Caroline said matter-of-factly. “Family doesn’t always mean blood, you know.”
“Speaking of family,” Noah began, fumbling with the keys in the ignition. “I just want to tell you how sorry I am . . . for everything. You were right to react the way you did.”
“I could have handled it better,” Caroline admitted. There was so much more she wanted to say, but for some reason she couldn’t get the words to come out of her mouth. “I better get inside.”
“What are you doing staying here?” Noah wanted to know.
“My dad and I had a fight. He knew about the affair all along.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is, you know?” Caroline shrugged. “My life is a mess right now, and I’m just trying to put all the pieces back together so that they make sense.”
“Can’t we just, I don’t know . . .” Noah ran his hands through his hair. “Start over?”
Caroline sighed. “I wish we could.”
“But?”
“But even if I could get past the fact that your grandfather and my mother had an affair, you lied to me about it. You didn’t tell me about it when you found out, and you should have,” Caroline said, the words coming out in a rush of air. “I asked you about it more than once. I even showed you that picture. You acted like I was making too much out of it.”
“I knew how bad it was going to hurt you,” Noah replied. “I was just trying to protect you.”
“You were just trying to protect yourself,” Caroline said. “You were afraid if I found out that I wouldn’t want to see you anymore.”
“Of course I was afraid of that!” Noah exclaimed. “I don’t want to lose you, Caroline.”
Caroline shook her head. “It’s too late,” she said, trying not to cry so hard she almost choked.
“That’s not fair,” Noah said.
“No, it’s not,” Caroline replied. “I can’t look at you without seeing your grandfather. I can’t look at myself without seeing my mother.”
“I’m not my grandfather!”
Caroline pushed open the car door. “I can’t trust you, Noah.”
Before Caroline could even get the door shut, Noah peeled out of the driveway, leaving her in a cloud of dust. He didn’t even break at the end of the driveway, and she could hear the screeching of tires as another car squealed to a stop to avoid hitting Noah. He was angry, and Caroline didn’t blame him.
She was angry, too.
CHAPTER 36
COURT WAS STANDING OVER THE SINK WHEN Caroline got inside the house. The first aid kit from his car was on the counter beside him. He was cursing under his breath as the cool water ran over his hand and he began to pick out the sh
ards of glass.
“Is it going to be okay?” Caroline asked, peering into the sink. “It looks pretty gross.”
“I’m fine,” Court replied. “I’ll just put some butterfly strips on it.”
“Here,” Caroline said, reaching for the kit. “Let me do that.”
“I sure hope I don’t have to use my gun for a few days,” Court quipped. “It’ll sting like hell.”
“Why were you so angry at the bar?” Caroline asked, even though she knew the answer.
“You know why.”
“I just want to hear you say it.”
“Why?” Court asked, wincing as she applied antibiotic ointment. “What good does it do to say it?”
“I guess none,” Caroline replied. “Especially if you’re not saying it to the right person.”
Court flinched, causing Caroline to smear ointment all over his hand. “I could never tell him,” he said. “He’d probably never speak to me again.”
“You don’t give him enough credit.”
“Even if he did still want to be friends,” Court continued, “he’ll never love me. Not the way that I want him to.”
“I know.” Caroline’s heart ached for Court. “I just wish you didn’t have to lie about it.”
“My whole life has been a lie,” Court muttered. “I don’t know why I should stop lying about it now.”
“I’m tired of people lying,” Caroline said. She pulled a couple of butterfly strips from the package. “It seems like everybody in this whole damn town is a liar.”
“It’s self-preservation, mostly,” Court replied. “I’d probably lose my job. Half the people in this town would stop speaking to me.”
“The stupid half.”
Court laughed. “You always know how to make me feel better, you know?”
Caroline finished with the butterfly strips and looked up at him. “I love you, and you know that. I just want you to be happy.”
“I know,” Court said. He rested his chin on the top of her head. “I know.”
CRANWELL STATION WAS silent the next morning when Caroline pulled up to the bait shop. Noah’s car was absent from the front, and Caroline didn’t see it parked around back, either. Maybe he spent the night with his grandfather, Caroline thought, although she knew that probably wasn’t true. She didn’t think either one of them had spoken to each other since that day Jep came roaring into the station madder than a horny toad.
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