Tanner shifted beside Crystal on the grass, his arms propped on his bent knees. After a moment’s silence, laden with the tension he could feel emanating from her, he said, “I don’t think you totally wasted your money. Honestly, I don’t. Tuck would never listen to me about getting a collar suited for a larger dog.”
“That seems cruel. Rip isn’t that big, and no matter how much the manufacturers talk around it, a dog still gets shocked.”
Tanner stared at the blue heeler, who was finally out of the pond. “Rip sees himself as being as big as Godzilla. He’s got an overabundance of feisty attitude. You fight fire with fire.”
Rip raced up to them just then and shook his body, drenching both of them with dog-scented pond water. Crystal shrieked. Tanner swore.
All Rip did was grin. Until he ran. Straight for the fence.
“Rip, no!” Crystal yelled.
The dog launched himself at the wire, hooked his paws through the links, and climbed over the barrier. Once on the other side, he whipped around to give Crystal a tongue-lolling look that said more loudly than words that he’d just bested her again. Then he dipped his head, bounced around in a jubilant dance, and took off running.
“Not this time!” she cried as she ran toward her car.
She was inside the vehicle with the engine started before she registered that Tanner was in the passenger seat. “What are you doing? This may take hours. What about your kids?”
“It’s Friday. They’re staying overnight with friends. Step on it! He went that way.” He flung out his arm to gesture, smacked it against the window, and yelped in surprise.
Crystal floored the accelerator in REVERSE, braked to shift into DRIVE, and then wrenched the wheel in the direction of Tanner’s pointing finger. Foot slammed down on the pedal, she sent the Equinox into several tail whips along the curvy road.
“Do you see him?” she shouted. Tanner had the window down and his head stuck out.
“Nope!” he shouted. “Damned dog. He couldn’t have outrun us. He’s got to be hiding in the grass.”
Crystal backed off the gas. Outside of town, hobby farms sprawled at each side of the byway, and there were countless fields where a dog could hide. She saw a pull-off that sported a giant oak. She parked under its outstretched limbs, brilliant green with spring leaves.
“He’s gone. Again. I’m so sick of this. I can’t count the hours I’ve spent driving these stupid roads.”
“I’m sorry.” Tanner looked over at her, his blue eyes gleaming in the fading light like aquamarine gemstones. “I should have told you about the collar thing.”
She folded her arms over the steering wheel. “Actually, Tuck should have told me. I can’t understand why he didn’t.”
Tanner sighed, and she felt the release of his warm breath on her arm where it rested on the steering wheel. That made her acutely aware of how close he was. The breadth of his shoulders inched over on each side of the seat, which he hadn’t adjusted for comfort. His long legs, folded sharply at the knees, pressed against the glove compartment. She studied his sharply carved features and felt a zing of arousal deep in her belly. She’d been attracted to other men in the past. But with Tanner it felt different, desire spreading from her core to tingle through her extremities and over her skin. She swore she could feel heat emanating from his rangy body, and she lowered her window because he suddenly seemed to be using more than his share of the oxygen.
“Tuck loves that dog,” he told her. “He makes excuses and puts up with his behavior. I’m not sure why he didn’t tell you Rip is death on electronic collars, but I’m guessing it’s kind of like when I overlook or don’t want to tell people about the things my kids do wrong. We’re proud of them. Who wants to focus on their faults?”
Tanner’s words gave Crystal a glimpse into his heart and told her more about him than he could possibly realize. How deeply he loved his children. How guarded he might be in order to protect them. She also understood her grandfather’s adoration of Rip a little better—how he turned a blind eye to the dog’s faults, laughed at his antics, and rarely admitted anything the blue heeler did was wrong.
“Thank you for that, Tanner.”
He looked bemused. “For what?”
“For your insight. Half the time I want to wring Rip’s neck and I wonder why Tuck puts up with him. You just put it all into perspective for me. Tuck loves that dog as if he’s a child.”
He chuckled. “You just got that?”
“I always got it, in a way, but I could never completely understand it. Rip doesn’t try to be lovable. In fact, I think he’s on a mission to make me despise him. But Tuck adores him. Tuck accepts him unconditionally, just like he accepts me.”
He flashed one of those irresistible grins at her. “Right now, we need to accept that he’s a pain in the ass, and that we have to find him. And with me along, at least you’ll have an engaging companion while you drive the roads tonight.”
* * *
Tuck stepped carefully as he walked from his apartment to Essie’s for dinner. The two glasses of iced tea he carried were well laced with something more potent. With one arm in a cast and still limping from the soreness in his hip, he had a devil of a time not sloshing liquid over the edge of either glass. If Patricia showed up and got a whiff of the contents, he would damn well baptize her with whiskey.
He bumped Essie’s door with the toe of his boot. When she answered the summons, his breath caught in his throat. Over a silky-looking undershirt, she wore a sheer nylon top with a solid gold, black, and red pattern that tantalized him with glimpses of her figure. The V-neck plunged to the cleavage of her breasts. Gathered at the waist, it flared out over her hips. Flowing sleeves revealed the outline of her arms. She looked beautiful and sexy.
“I didn’t dress up” was all he could think to say.
Her mouth curved in a smile. “Blue chambray shirts with a Western cut always look nice with jeans.” She glanced at the glasses he carried. “And you brought drinks!”
He stepped inside, and she closed the door. “Spiked iced tea. My granddaughter brought me some bourbon and Copenhagen this afternoon.”
“You chew?”
“Yep. If that’s a problem, I won’t do it around you, but I ain’t quittin’ ever again.”
She laughed. “Just rinse your mouth before you kiss me.” She accepted the glass he offered and took a taste. “Mmm. I’ve never tried tea as a mixer. It’s refreshing.”
Delicious smells wafted to his nostrils, but the scent intoxicating him most was that of her flowery perfume. She led him to her living area, sat on the sofa, and patted a cushion beside her. He glimpsed a twinkle of mischief in her dark eyes as he sat down. “Do I make you nervous, Tuck?”
“I almost swallowed my tongue when you opened the door.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. I’m hoping for a deep kiss before the evening ends.”
Tuck had never been one to hide his thoughts. “Last night you wanted no part of my company, and now, in less than twenty-four hours, you’re hopin’ I’ll kiss you. It’s like you shifted out of PARK into OVERDRIVE.”
“Last night I didn’t know you and didn’t think I’d like you. Now I know a little about you, and I like what I see.” She took another taste of her drink. “I don’t play games, Tuck. Never have, never will. And I’ve always enjoyed sex. I’m seventy-eight, and my time left for physical pleasure may be short. Why go slow when OVERDRIVE will get us there faster?”
He chuckled. The mixed drink warmed him and relaxed his muscles. Or maybe it was the woman beside him that made him feel so good. “You speak your mind. I admire that. Tell me more about yourself, Essie Maxwell Childers.”
“It’s not an easy story to tell. I’m not sure where to start.”
“At the beginnin’.”
She settled back against the cushions. Her dark hair glistened in the light cast by a floor lamp sitting between the sofa and recliner. “I grew up poor. Most people don’t know what real poverty is.”
“I do. My folks was poorer than church mice.”
“Mine, too. My father was a drunk who bothered to work only when he ran out of booze. Mama kept chickens and sold eggs. We could eat a hen only after it stopped laying, so mostly we ate eggs, when we had them. I took my first lover at fourteen and used a vinegar-soaked sponge for birth control.”
“Uh-oh.”
She nodded. “I was foolish, but it worked. He was a town boy whose folks ran a bait shop. He slipped me money every time we had sex, and I took it without hesitation, not learning until years later that some people would have said I was prostituting myself. At the time I didn’t even know what a prostitute was. I did know there was never enough food on the table for my eight younger siblings, six boys and two girls. If a guy I liked gave me money, I took it and said thank you.” She glanced up and met his gaze. “Do you still admire me, Tuck?”
“More an’ more by the second. Not many girls would worry about feedin’ the younger kids in their family.”
“Folks said I’d never amount to much. I set out to prove them wrong. I got a special driver’s license that same year, which enabled me to chauffeur my younger siblings to school in a rattletrap car wired together with coat hangers. Our attendance went up along with our grades. I bought gas with my boyfriend money. That’s how I thought of it, boyfriend money, as if it were an allowance.”
“Are you ashamed of takin’ money for sex?”
“No, but I’m well aware some people would look down on me if they knew.”
“That’s their problem. The first time you did what came natural, an’ the boy gave you money afterward. It must have seemed like a windfall to a girl who went hungry a lot.”
She smiled. “It was only five bucks. I spent it on two loaves of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Some baloney, too. That kept our bellies full for one day and part of the next.” A distant expression came over her face. “It’s amazing how much food nine kids can eat. I don’t know what my parents were thinking to have so many babies. Daddy was well educated but never did anything with it. Mama used to say he was lazier than an overweight basset hound. As close as I can figure, he bothered himself to do only three things: drink, have sex, and beat on his family. By age sixteen I felt nothing but disgust for him and my mother. She accepted the physical abuse as if it were her due. Maybe she was raised that way and never knew any different, but I was too young back then to wonder about that. She let him take the egg money for booze, and that was all we had for groceries, so hunger was a frequent visitor. She never once defended us when he used us as punching bags.”
Tuck toyed with a curl at her temple. “I’m real sorry to hear that. At least my father was kind. In that way, I was lucky, I reckon.”
“Very lucky. One afternoon I bought my little sister a pair of shoes, and Daddy realized I was somehow making money. He tried to take away from me what I had left. I clocked him alongside the head with a cast-iron skillet. Knocked him out cold. Mama thought I’d killed him. After that I made him nervous, so he left me alone and stopped pounding on the younger kids.”
“Good for you. He had that comin’, and a hell of a lot more.”
She shrugged. “The boyfriend money kept coming, Tuck. I won’t pretty it up for you. And at some point, I realized it was wrong.” She met his gaze. “I kept on doing it, anyway. Maybe I was pretty. Maybe I wasn’t. I only know the high school boys didn’t lose interest. Could be they heard that I could be had for a price, and they didn’t blink when I raised it from five to twenty. Later I asked for thirty. What began innocently became a business.
“I saved every dime I could. Shortly after turning eighteen, I had enough money to buy a decent car. Decent by my standards, anyway. With dependable transportation, I landed a job at the bait shop owned by my first boyfriend’s parents. Except for what I spent on my siblings, I saved all my wages along with the money I got from admiring fishermen. By then I knew people called me a whore. I didn’t care. No matter what I had to do, I wanted to move up in the world. And I did.”
“Do you think I’ll judge you for that, Essie? Sounds to me like you used your assets to survive.”
“At that point, it became more than mere survival. I used my assets to get rich. Eventually, I bought the bait shop. With the proceeds from my first year in business, I built a small marina. The following year, I enlarged it and leased out boat slips. The year after that I bought a seaworthy vessel, hired a fisherman to captain it, and started a charter service, using the money I made from that to cover the boat payments. The next year, I got another vessel. Well-heeled men paid top dollar to go out to catch a big one. When the charter boats returned, I was nice to the gentlemen, and they were nice to me. So nice that I bought my first house at twenty-four and made a home for my brothers and sisters. My parents acted almost glad to see them leave. The six boys were old enough by then to get after-school jobs, and they helped with expenses. That enabled me to continue saving money for future business ventures. When the boys graduated from high school, I paid for their college tuition, and I did the same for my sisters when it was their turn. In the meanwhile I invested in gold-mining operations and became a wealthy woman in my own right. I no longer needed to be nice to any man.”
“Wow. Hats off to you, Essie. You proved everyone wrong and made something of yourself.”
She took a swallow of tea. “Yes, but telling you the truth about how I did it wasn’t easy. I guess I am ashamed in a way. But if I could go back and change it, I wouldn’t.”
“You weren’t the only one who benefited.”
“True. Two of my brothers and one of my sisters didn’t amount to much, but the others made the most of the opportunities I gave them and are successful individuals now.”
“Where would they be if you hadn’t done what you did?”
“In Ketchikan. Not that there’s anything wrong with the place. But they probably wouldn’t have a pot to piss in, and neither would I.” She dimpled a cheek at him. “I’d rather be rich. They say money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes life easier.” She gulped more tea, which told Tuck it truly had been hard for her to tell him about her past. “I was thirty-five before I finally met Jake Childers. He knew I had taken money for sex in my younger years. I told him flat-out before we were intimate. He didn’t hold it against me. Jake had never married, either. He’d made wise financial investments and had an impressive portfolio. We had two children together, Garth and Rebecca. We gave them everything they wanted, which proved to be a mistake. They grew to be self-centered, spoiled, and ungrateful.”
“Even with good parentin’, kids can turn out that way,” Tuck mused.
“Voice of experience talking?”
“Oh, yeah. But that’s a story for later. I want to hear the rest of yours.”
She sighed. “It’s a difficult one to tell. That’s why I plowed through the first part so fast. To let you know who I really am.” She took a deep breath. “Jake was ten years older than me. He keeled over dead with a heart attack twenty years ago, leaving me a widow at fifty-eight. Seven years later, Garth and Rebecca tried to put me in a care facility and get me deemed legally incompetent. Until then, I intended to leave them all the businesses when I retired. Now I may leave every dime of their inheritance to charity or my siblings.”
Tuck laughed and laid his arm over her shoulders.
“Though they failed in their first attempt, I knew it was only a matter of time before they would figure out a way to institutionalize me and get their hands on my money. So I hired professionals to make sure that never happened. Once I felt protected, I lived on the Oregon coast. I soon realized I was too close to Portland, which made it easy for them to visit. It may sound awful, but when they’re around I feel as if I’m swimming with sharks. I decided to find someplace more remote, and I began searching for a retirement community where I thought I’d be content. When I finally found this place, I was delighted. Mystic Creek is so isolated that Garth and Rebecca seldom come to visit, and I like it that way. They don’t really love me. It’s all about the money. Their displays of fake affection make me sick to my stomach.”
She released a taut breath. “That’s pretty much it as far as my personal history goes. Health-wise, I’ve been lucky. My knees bother me a little, and I’m not as active as I used to be. But mentally I’m still as sharp as a filleting knife.” She gestured toward her office. “I spend most of each morning at my desk, running my businesses. I truly am loaded. If that bothers you, say so now.”
He bent to kiss her dark hair. “It doesn’t. Maybe I’ll marry you for your money.”
She laughed and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Whew! I’m out of breath from talking so fast. But now you know everything, even the ugly parts.”
“I think you’re amazin’. Do you ever go back to Ketchikan and thumb your nose at the people who said you’d never amount to nothin’?”
“They’re mostly all dead now. I went back to bury each of my parents. Afterward I left as fast as my feet could carry me.”
“How much time before our dinner’s done?”
She glanced at her watch. “Fifteen minutes.”
“That’ll give me time to tell my story. It won’t be as interestin’, though.” He finished off his tea. “No yawnin’ allowed.”
She got up and carried their glasses to the kitchen. When she resumed her seat, Tuck settled back to tell her that he’d been born in Texas and raised on a cattle ranch. “When I was thirteen there came a drought and my folks lost pert’ near everything. A few months later I quit school and started searchin’ for work to help my dad keep the land. I had to go a far piece. The ranches near ours couldn’t afford help. For a spell, I worked in Oklahoma for a farmer who gave me room and board. I sent all my wages home. But my parents lost the place anyhow and moved to Houston, where Dad got a factory job.
“I can’t rightly recall how I ended up in Idaho, but I’d been savin’ my money as I drifted, and I found a piece of land I could afford. After buying it, I spent every dime I had left on cows and a horse. Had to live in a shack with no plumbin’ for about two years before I could start buildin’ a house. Along about then I met Marge. I knew I’d found the woman of my dreams when she didn’t turn up her nose at my livin’ conditions. Instead she rolled up her sleeves and worked beside me.
“After we got hitched, we expected to have babies, but she didn’t get pregnant. Right about the time we gave up on havin’ kids, we found out our daughter, Lisa, was on the way. That little girl was the center of our world, and there wasn’t nothin’ she wanted that she didn’t get if we could afford it. She grew up spoilt. I see that now, but you can’t go back and fix your mistakes.”
“No, you can’t.” Her expression turned wistful. “If only.”
“Yep, if only. Lisa hated the ranch. She hated that we was poor. We wasn’t really. Poor, I mean. We just wasn’t rich enough to afford all the stuff she wanted. Fancy clothes. A new car, not a used one. One time she harped at me for months to buy her a sixty-thousand-dollar racehorse. Hello? She never rode the horses we already had.”
Essie laughed.
“Long story short, when she left for college she was gone for good. She came home to visit only once, to show off her new boyfriend, Randall Jenkins. He’d just graduated from college and was a computer programmer. He asked me to take him huntin’. Then he almost pissed himself when I handed him a rifle. I wasn’t impressed. But it was Lisa’s choice to make, and she made it.
“They got married real fast. To this day I think Lisa thought he was her ticket to the good life. They got a nice enough house on a small acreage in Washington. Gave me and Marge two beautiful granddaughters, Crystal, the older one, and Mary Ann three years later. Crystal was about nine when Marge up and died on me. Near killed me to lose her. Heart attack, just like your Jake. Lookin’ back I realized she’d had symptoms, but I didn’t pick up on ’em. I wished I had.”
“We all do that, Tuck. Want to kick ourselves, blame ourselves.”
“I reckon so. I mourned hard, but life went on. Two years later I took Crystal away from her parents, and from then on she lived with me. Havin’ to look after her helped me get over losin’ Marge. In a way, it saved my life.”
“Were Crystal’s parents abusive to her?”
“Yep.” Tuck felt as if his engine had just stalled. “I wanna tell you everything about me, Essie, but I don’t feel right tellin’ you everything about Crystal. Those things are for her to tell, and she may never do that.”
“I’m satisfied with hearing your story. I don’t need to know hers.”
“They’re kinda tied together, but thank you for understandin’. She has a painful past, and if I told you about it, she’d feel like I betrayed her.”
“Does she ever see her parents now—or her younger sister?”
“No. After I took her to Idaho with me, her folks never even called to check on her. When I filed for custody, they were notified, but they didn’t contest it. When Crystal turned eighteen, she changed her last name to Malloy. Maybe she’ll get in touch with her parents someday, but I doubt it. And I definitely won’t. My daughter didn’t just burn her bridges with me; she blew them to smithereens.”
“It’s heartbreaking to cut ties with our children.” Essie had tears in her eyes when she looked up at him. “But it hurts even worse when they do it for us.”
Silence fell between them.
Finally, Essie asked, “So, tell me, Tuck. Have you been with any other women since Marge died?”
He shook his head. “By the time I’d healed enough to even think about it, I had Crystal. Raisin’ her by myself took most of my time, and I didn’t feel right about addin’ a woman into the mix. After Crystal grew up and came here to start her own business, I just never met a gal who caught my eye. Ranchin’ is a lonely life. You don’t meet a lot of new folks. How about you? Been with anybody since Jake?”
“No. I didn’t think I’d ever meet another man who’d interest me.”
Tuck couldn’t help but smile. “Until you met me?”
She nodded. “It’s funny how life goes sometimes. You think it’s over, only it isn’t.” She glanced at her watch again. “Oh! Dinner should ready.”
While she took the food out of the oven, Tuck set up two TV trays and put place settings on each of them. She poured them each a glass of white wine, and then they filled their plates.
After they sat down to eat, Tuck took a sip of the wine and moaned. “Oh, lawsy, that tastes good.” He moaned again when he tasted the chicken. “Before I leave, write down where you get this food. I’m gonna order some.”
After eating and tidying up the kitchen, Tuck kissed her good night at the door, a deep, slow exploration of her mouth that tantalized him and made her slender body tremble. He wanted to take her to the bedroom and do far more, but he held his need of her in check. They’d met only last night. He didn’t want to rush her.
* * *
Rip didn’t come home until three in the morning, and he was staggering again. Crystal laid it down to exhaustion. It had been his second run of the day. After letting him in the house, she lay awake in bed unable to sleep, her thoughts on Tanner. When they were together, did he feel the same level of attraction she did? Wondering whether a man was as interested in her as she was in him was a new experience for her. In the past, she had been more inclined to just go with the flow.
The kitten jumped on Crystal’s bed. Determined not to let herself love him, she turned over. Not taking the hint, he curled up on her pillow and snuggled against the back of her head. The sound of his purring finally lulled her to sleep.
* * *
Crystal’s alarm jerked her awake at five. She got up, feeling exhausted and decidedly unenthusiastic about the workday ahead. The strong coffee she poured into a travel mug and drank as she drove to the salon didn’t help much. Nadine was the only tech there when Crystal entered the building.
“I hope you got more rest than I did,” Crystal said as she grabbed a salon jacket.
“Nope. I went on a date and didn’t get much sleep. He took me to Peck’s Red Rooster. Fabulous dinner! Then we took in a movie at Mystic Players. Afterward we went barhopping. Landed last at the Witch’s Brew over on Dew Drop Lane. You been there?”
“No.” Crystal rarely went to drinking establishments. “I’ll have drinks at home sometimes, but I try not to drive if I’ve had more than one. That kind of ruins barhopping for me.”
“We have some nice bars in town, but the Witch’s Brew isn’t one of them. I’m not sure I’ll go there again. JJ, the old guy who owns the place, isn’t big on cleaning. People throw peanut shells on the floor. I swear he sweeps them up only once a week, if that often. And the crowd is kind of seedy.”
“I’ll be sure never to go there, then.”
“There was one notable thing. Some stupid man had his dog sitting at the bar. On a stool, as if he were human. And he bought the poor thing a beer. Then someone else did.”
“That’s terrible!” Crystal cried. “Did you call the sheriff’s department? That’s animal abuse!”
Nadine shrugged. “I almost did. But a night in jail can’t cure stupid. He’d just get out of the clink and take his dog back there again. The other men thought it was funny to get the poor thing drunk.”
Crystal shuddered. “If I had been there, I would have called the law.”
“I won’t be going back,” Nadine said. “Not my kind of place. But if it happens that I ever do, and that jerk is in there again, I’ll call the sheriff for you.”
Crystal’s seven o’clock walked in just then. As Crystal got the woman settled in the chair, Nadine began organizing her station and setting up for her first appointment. “I really liked the guy I went out with. He’s tall, dark, and gorgeous. Name’s John. He owns Beer, Wine, and Smokes. I didn’t think he’d be my type, maybe because he sells cigarettes. But he’s really awesome. Not so sure he felt the same way about me, though.”
Crystal fastened a cape around her client’s neck. “I’ve met a guy who makes the air feel electrified around me. Have you ever felt that way?”
“Oh, yeah, but only once, more’s the pity. Apparently, I wasn’t wired to give him the same charge.”
Crystal’s client interjected, “Don’t settle for only zing. After a couple years, the excitement wears off.”
Crystal nodded in agreement, but the advice would go unheeded. She always ended relationships long before boredom set in.
* * *
Now that Tuck knew Essie truly did work all morning, he decided to leave her alone until afternoon. Only now that he’d gotten a taste of socializing, he missed talking to someone over breakfast. He saw an old fellow sitting alone at a table and asked if he’d mind company. His name was Burt, and he welcomed the opportunity to chat. Tuck learned he’d been a farmer and had now taken up fishing. After breakfast Tuck grabbed a lawn chair and followed him out to his fishing spot along the creek.
Burt was a talker. “Farming is a lonely job,” he said over his shoulder as he cast his line. “I seldom had anybody to talk to unless I talked to myself.”
Tuck understood Burt in a way other men might not. “I was a cattle rancher. Not many people to talk to in that profession, either. But cows make good listeners.”
Burt guffawed. “Yep. I had a few. Also had goats, sheep, and chickens.”
“No horse?”
“No need. Only had a small chunk of land. Got around on a quad.”
“Married?”
“For fifty-five years. Her name was Sarah. Loved her to pieces, but she up and died on me. Diabetes got her. Developed a sore on her foot that wouldn’t heal. It turned to an ulcer and became infected. They wanted to take the foot off. She refused. Then they wanted to take the leg off at the knee. She refused. At some point, the infection got into her bloodstream. She died within twenty-four hours.”
Tuck was glad Marge had just keeled over. At least she hadn’t died inch by inch. “I’m sorry, Burt. That was a hard way for her to go.”
“I’d like to die in my sleep, given my druthers. But most of us don’t get off that easy.”
“No, I guess not.” Tuck recalled how Marge had been riding a horse beside him, talking and laughing until suddenly her face had twisted and she’d grabbed her left shoulder. The next instant, she pitched sideways off her mount and was dead before she hit the ground. “A heart attack ain’t so bad.” He remembered the grimace of pain on Marge’s face. “Might hurt like no tomorrow for a second, but at least it’s quick for most people. That’s how my wife went. Fine one second and gone the next.”
“God bless her.” Burt reeled in and cast his line again. “Had to be awful for you. No time to prepare yourself.”
Tuck would never forget how he’d felt when he gathered Marge into his arms and realized she was gone. “It was like someone turned off the light switch. Didn’t seem fair to me at the time, but I’m glad she didn’t linger like your Sarah.”
Burt glanced over his shoulder. “Did you just spit?”
Tuck wiped the corner of his mouth. “You object to a man chewin’?”
“Hell, no. I’d love to have a pinch. But it’s against the rules. Flintlock will kick your ass to the curb if she catches you.”
Tuck reached into his pocket and handed his new friend the can. “Help yourself. I won’t rat you out. Hell, just keep it if you want. My granddaughter will buy me more.”
Burt reeled in, laid his pole on the grass, and sat beside Tuck on the ground. He stared at the silver lid of the snuff can as if it were a wonder of the world. “Holy shit. I haven’t had a chew in two years. It might make me sick.”
Tuck laughed. “Trust me. I went without it for a year once, and when I started up again, it tasted like an old friend.”
Burt opened the round and bent his head to pull in the scent. “Oh, man,” he said. “I love that smell.”
“Are you gonna stick a wad in your cheek or just admire it all day?” Tuck asked.
“If I do, I’ll be right back where I started, wanting more. Hard habit to give up. It about killed me when I came here and had to go without.”
Tuck knew how that felt. “My granddaughter can keep you supplied. Just be careful and don’t spit in front of the staff.”
Burt started to get a pinch. Then his shoulders slumped. “This is the only place I have to live. Kids all left. Farming wasn’t for them. They’re married. Have jobs and children. No extra bedrooms. If I get kicked out, they’ll have to move me to another facility, and they’ll be pissed at me. They have their own lives to live. That’s what they say, that they have their own lives.”
Tuck stared off at the opposite side of the creek. The forest looked so beautiful and peaceful. But in reality, he and Burt were in jail. “Do they come to see you often?”
“Hell, no. At first they tried. But they live in big cities. It’s a long drive. The first year my son came to get me for Christmas. But last year he didn’t. I’m like an old pair of shoes sitting at the back of a closet, Tuck. I’m cared for here. I get my three squares a day. When I start messing my pants, my kids won’t have to deal with me. I can’t say I blame them for wanting it that way.”
Tuck nodded. “Didn’t used to be this way. The oldsters stayed on the land. The youngsters took over the work while Mom and Dad sat on the porch. Shucked the corn. Snapped the peas. Helped with household chores as best they could. They got to die at home.”
Burt sighed. “Those days are gone, I’m afraid.”
Tuck studied the water, flecked with froth as it moved downstream. He watched one white spot, following it with his gaze until it collided with a large rock and broke apart, becoming nothing. He guessed that was how life went. The current pushed forward, and the old people separated off and drifted, doing nothing much until they struck something that obliterated them.
“Don’t give up the things that make you happy, Burt. My granddaughter hired me a lawyer. He represents old people and fights for their rights. Have a chew. You know you want one. And I’ll get you the lawyer’s name and phone number. We may be old, but that don’t mean we have to do without our simple pleasures.”
“I can’t afford a lawyer.”
The way Tuck saw it, Burt couldn’t afford not to have one. “Just havin’ him on retainer might be all that it’ll take. Once Flintlock knows you’ve got an attorney, she may ignore it if you break her silly rules.”
“How much is a retainer fee?”
“Not sure. But they leave you over a hundred a month from your social security check for incidentals. If you ain’t chewin’ or drinkin’, what the hell have you spent it on?”
“Haven’t. Well, I’ve spent some of it on incidentals. But mostly I just write a check to cash and stuff the money in a sock. I’m afraid to let my checking account get over a certain amount. Patricia might spend me down again. She has a lot of ways to do that. All of a sudden she says you need this or that, and she charges a fortune. Pretty soon, you’re broke again. A sock is safer than a bank. She can’t see how much you got.”
“How much do you got?”
“I stopped counting. A couple grand, maybe.”
“That should be enough for a retainer.”
Burt nodded and put a pinch of tobacco in his cheek. Tuck told him to keep the can. “Let me know when you’re runnin’ low, and my granddaughter’ll get you more. You’ll have to pay her back, of course.”
“Of course.”
“How long’s it been since you had a drink?” Tuck asked.
“Ever since I came here.”
“You want one?”
Burt turned at the waist to fix Tuck with a questioning look. “Does a monkey want a banana?”
“You got any health problems makin’ it unsafe for you?”
“I have a heart condition, but before I moved here, my doctor said a glass of red wine a day might actually help, not hurt.”
Tuck grinned. “Stop by my apartment. I got a jug.”
“Of what?”
“Bourbon.”
“Holy shit.” Burt struggled to his feet, collected his fishing pole, and said, “Lead the way.”
As Tuck walked up the bank, he realized he’d just made another friend. Maybe living here could be interesting after all.