Chapter 47

“I'm sorry for pulling my shotgun on you earlier,” Tommy said as Addison turned his truck onto the interstate on-ramp and headed back towards Possum Creek. “If I had discovered my mom was cheating on my dad with a guy who was younger than me, I would have beaten his ass too.”

“I shouldn't have broken your nose,” Addison said after a minute. He pushed the truck up to eighty miles an hour and set the cruise control. The clock on the dashboard said it was five thirty in the morning. Katie was passed out asleep in the backseat. Jane May was safely tucked into her bed in the psychiatric ward of Silver City Metro General Hospital. Addison was completely exhausted.

“You had a right.” Tommy picked up his soda out of the cup-holder and took a small sip. He'd bought a bag of chips, two energy drinks and a coke at the last truck stop. Addison had bought gas, four energy drinks and two more packs of cigarettes. The cab of his truck currently smelled like an ashtray, even though he'd sworn he wouldn't smoke in the new truck.

“No, I didn't.” Addison adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “I freaked out when I saw the barrel of that gun pointed at me and Katie. I reacted without thinking.”

“Your reaction to being on the wrong end of a gun is to grab the gun?” Tommy sounded dubious.

“I got shot a couple of months ago,” Addison explained. “I can't outrun a bullet, but your grip on the gun was flimsy and your shooting stance sucked. I knew I could take it from you.”

“You got shot?” Tommy flinched as if the words alone hurt.

“Yeah. Asshole put a bullet through my shoulder. It still hurts like a motherfucker. Especially when I've been awake for almost twenty four hours and I make the mistake of beating someone up with the same shoulder that had to be stitched back together two months ago.”

“You get shot on duty?” Tommy asked curiously. “Did a poacher get you?”

“Not hardly,” Addison admitted. “I was going off duty and I passed what I thought was a stranded motorist on the side of the road. I pulled over to help the guy and he turned out to be my buddy David's girlfriend's ex-husband. He'd been stalking her for months. The nutcase thought Trish and I were more than friends.”

“He shot you.”

“He shot me, stole my truck and left me for dead on the side of the road.”

“Ouch. That bites the big one.”

“It does.”

“He in jail now?” Tommy asked.

“No.”

“He got away?” Tommy's eyes were wide.

“No.”

“What happened to him?”

Addison glanced sideways at Tommy and gave him a smile that he knew was more than slightly cold. “My baby sister's fiance blew his brains out with a .357 revolver.”

Tommy paled. “The same sister and fiance whose wedding Jane May has been messing with?”

“Same sister. Same fiance. Honestly, you might know them. You and Cal are about the same age.”

“Cal?” Tommy asked.

“Cal Walker. His Dad's the Mayor of Possum Creek.”

“I know who Cal Walker is.” Tommy stared out the window. “He played football for Callahan County at the same time as I was playing for Canterville Senior High. Kind of a big S.O.B., if I'm remembering him right. You said your sister's name is Gracie?”

Addison nodded.

“Is she the tall blonde chick who Cal Walker has been with since, like, Pre-K?”

Addison nodded again.

“Jeez.” Tommy laid his head back against the head rest on the seat. “I feel like an idiot.”

Addison didn't say anything. He wasn't about to argue with the man.

“Jane May and I met through a dating app. We had our first date in downtown Beauton. We went to Callastairs Restaurant and then out dancing. She was a few years older than me, but I didn't care. I like older women and she's a hottie.”

“Dude, you're talking about my mom.”

“I can't be the first guy to tell you that your mom is hot,” Tommy pointed out.

“Normally her icy cold heart and acid tongue keep everyone from noticing what the packaging looks like,” Addy said.

“She wasn't cold when she was with me,” he said. “We had a blast when we first started dating. We went to Adventure Land theme park and the water park out on Lake Smitty. We went tubing. We kayaked. We saw movies every weekend. It was great.”

“When did it stop being great?” Addison wasn't really curious but at least talking with Tommy was keeping him from falling asleep behind the wheel.

“When you showed up in my yard tonight and told me everything I thought I knew about the love of my life was a lie.” Tommy stared down at his hands in his lap. “How am I supposed to explain this to my parents?”

“Don't tell them and pretend it never happened?” Addy suggested.

“They've met her. They know she's carrying their grandchild. My mother threw her a baby shower last week. They've gone shopping together to buy things for the baby. We decorated a nursery together.”

“No one suspected anything?” Addison could see the sky beginning to lighten along the horizon. The sun would be coming up soon.

“If anyone suspected that Jane May wasn't what she claimed to be, they never said a word to me. Maybe they were all so glad to have proof positive that I wasn't gay that they all decided to look the other way. I don't know. How do you tell your friends and family that the woman you thought you would spend the rest of your life with is actually eleven years older than she told you she was, married, has two adult kids and is possibly suffering from some kind of mental condition?”

Addison pulled another cigarette out of his most recently opened pack. He lit it as he cracked the window. “You sound like you really love her.”

“I do,” Tommy said without hesitation.

“Dad doesn't.”

“He doesn't?”

“They've hated one another for as long as I can remember.” Addison puffed on his cigarette thoughtfully.

“Do you think she loves me?” Tommy asked.

“I don't know. As far as I've ever been able to tell, Jane May doesn't love anyone except herself.” Addison opened up his second energy drink and watched the hope fade out of Tommy's expression.

“You really mean that, don't you?” He asked.

Addison nodded.

“When you and Katie were talking earlier, you said your sister didn't know who was sabotaging her wedding. Are you going to tell her?”

“Not today,” Addy admitted. “I want her to be happy today. She doesn't need to be reminded of how much our mother hates her on what is supposed to be the best day of her life. I'm going to wait until she comes back from her honeymoon before I tell her the truth. Maybe by then we'll know if Jane May is really sick or if she's just the same bitch she's always been and taking it to the next level.”

They rode in almost complete silence for the next three miles, both lost in their own thoughts.

It was Tommy who finally broke the silence. “Can I get a cigarette from you?” he asked. “It's been a bad night.”

Addison passed him the pack.