Dark River Road (27 page)

“Put your hand in the water,” Tansy told him, and he must have looked skeptical because she laughed and knelt down, slicing her hand through the water to splash him. He jumped back, but not quick enough to keep from getting doused. The water wasn’t cold.

“Hey, it’s warm.”

“I know. Strange, isn’t it? I think it must have something to do with the power plant. They get the water from that creek over there then pipe it all the way to the plant, but I don’t know what this pool is for.”

“Probably radioactive waste.”

“Always the optimist.” She stood up and unbuttoned her thick sweater. “I prefer to think of it as my own private hot tub.”

“Right.” He watched as she stripped off her sweater, then pulled her shirt over her head. He looked at the pool. “Are you really going to get in that?”

“Sure. Why not?”

He glanced at the metal structures across the creek. They made a faint humming noise. “Maybe because you might end up a crispy critter.”

“I haven’t yet. Thought you were supposed to be so brave now. You know, dangerous and reckless, all the stuff people say about you.”

“Did anyone ever mention stupid?”

“Just me.”

“Thanks.” He stood awkwardly while Tansy stripped down to her panties and bra. The air was cold enough for a bumper crop of goose pimples. She quickly stepped into the water and sat down, leaning her head back against the sloped side. He could see her beneath the water, the way nothing was left to the imagination even with her bra and panties still on. Maybe he needed to see Reverend Hale again after all, because his mind was going in a direction it should never go about Tansy.

“Well?” Tansy kicked a foot through the water at him. “Are you coming in or not?”

“Not.”

“Chicken.”

“It’s cold out here. Besides
 . . .
” He stopped because he didn’t want to finish that thought.

She eyed him. “Besides
what?
Besides, you’re a candy ass and all the rumors are wrong? Besides, you either don’t think you’ll be able to keep your hands off me, or besides, you aren’t the least bit interested? Pick one.”

“I pick the first two.” He crouched down beside the pool, but not close enough that she could drag him in. “I’m a little
too
interested.”

That seemed to please her. She leaned back against the sloped side again and smiled. “That’s better.”

He tried not to look at her. Scooping up some loose concrete gravel from the ground, he tossed a pebble into the pool. “So, where’s Leon?”

“I dunno. Somewhere, I guess. Don’t see him much anymore.”

“Thought you two were pretty much a thing.”

“Were.” She splashed around a little. “He got serious. I got bored. Besides, I’m not going to be here forever and Leon plans to come back after college and go into business with his daddy. That’s not for me. Can you see me as a farmer’s wife?”

“A farmer’s daughter, maybe.” He ducked when she splashed him again. “So where you going?”

“Anywhere I want. Everywhere I can.” She sat up. Water made her bra opaque. She shoved her hands through her thick hair, swept it to one side. ‘You should try this. It’s really nice sitting here in the warm water when the wind is so cold.”

“Right. I can feel my ‘nads draw up into my belly just thinking about it.”

She really laughed at that, then gave him one of those looks from beneath her lashes. “So what happened to you, Chantry?”

“Just what I wanted to ask you.” He wasn’t comfortable with the direction this was going. He tossed another pebble into the pool. “You started avoiding me.”

“Yeah, well. It wasn’t you. It was me.”

“Seems like I’ve heard that one before. It’s what girls say when they’re ready to move on to another guy. But hell, Tansy, we weren’t ever like that. We were friends. Friends don’t just move on.”

“Sometimes they get pushed on.”

“You think I did that to you?”

“I didn’t say you meant to. It was just
 . . .
time, I guess.”

“Time. Time for what?” He stood up. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. He didn’t like the way she made him feel, made him think of things he didn’t want to think about. Made him feel when he didn’t want to feel. Old hurts. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“Sure it matters. It mattered then and it matters now, but there ain’t nothing we can do about it, Chantry. What’s done is done. All we can do now is start over.”

She stood up, and he made the mistake of looking at her and wished he hadn’t. God, she was beautiful. Centerfold beautiful. She looked wild and exotic and tempting standing there like something he’d dreamed.

He stood still as she walked out of the pool and over to him, and when she put her arms around his neck and lifted to her toes to kiss him, he closed his eyes and kissed her back. She was wet and cold and hot all at the same time, sleek and soft under his hands. He wanted her so bad it hurt clear to his knees. It was crazy.

If it hadn’t started raining, he didn’t know what might have happened. Maybe he’d have forgotten all about the fact this was Tansy and done what his body wanted him to do. So he was glad when the clouds opened up and rain slashed down in torrents that drove them back to the car before it got bogged down in the mud.

They didn’t say much on the way back home. Tansy stopped in front of his house and cut the engine like she wasn’t ready to say bye yet. She looked over at the driveway.

“Rainey likes his new truck, I guess.”

“Yeah.” He dragged his arm over his face where his hair still dripped. She’d turned on the heater but he was wet to the bone and it didn’t help much.

“Daddy said Rainey bought it with the money you’d saved to buy Shadow.”

He didn’t want to think about that, and sure didn’t want to talk about it. The less he let himself think about the dog, the quicker he’d forget him.

“How’s Dempsey’s arm?” he asked abruptly. “I heard he hurt it unloading some bags of manure for old man Quinton.”

“Just sprained. He’s got it in a brace right now. He’ll be okay. He’s just bad-tempered.”

“He’s not used to sitting around. Tell him I’ll help him out if he needs me.”

“I think he’d like it if you just showed up to talk to him. He gets awful cranky lately. Says I stay out too late and too much.”

“Yeah, I hear the same thing.”

They shared a look. Before he got out of the car, she said, “Hey, come hear me sing next Saturday night, okay?”

“Where you singing?”

“It’s amateur night over at the Hideaway. There’s a thousand dollar prize for the winner and I got plans for that money.”

“Sound pretty sure you’ll win.”

“I’ll win.”

He thought about Tansy as he went up to the house, skirting Rainey’s six year old Chevy sitting in the rain. He barely glanced at it. Just the sight of the truck made him feel tight inside, like he wanted to hit something. Preferably Rainey.

Mama was in the kitchen when he went in the back door, and she turned to look at him. “I knew you’d get wet walking home in the rain. I have some hot soup ready for you.”

He could smell it. His stomach growled as he went to change out of his wet clothes and get back to the kitchen before Rainey stirred from the living room. Mama set him a big bowl of homemade soup on the table, and put some hot cornbread with it and a glass of sweet tea.

“I hope the afternoon with Reverend Hale went well, Chantry,” she said, and he pulled out his chair and sat down without looking at her.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Were you able to talk easily with him?”

“Yes, ma’am. I think me and the reverend have come to an understanding now.”

“The reverend and I,” Mama corrected, but she sounded pleased. “That is excellent. I am very pleased. I know things have been difficult for you lately. Even without
 . . .
problems
 . . .
a young man’s adolescence can be tumultuous. There are certain phases young people go through that you have probably already discussed with the reverend. It is so important that you remain focused on your school work, Chantry. Your grades have slipped drastically. If you ever hope to earn a decent scholarship—”

“I’m not going to college.” He hadn’t meant to say it quite like that, but it had just come out before he could stop it. He looked up. “There’s no point in it. Sorry.”

“No point?” She looked horrified. “We are talking about your future, Chantry.”

When would he learn to keep his mouth shut? He put his head down and ate his soup and let Mama list all the advantages of a college education without interrupting. It was a familiar list. He’d heard it so many times he could recite it with her, good salary, prestige, knowledge, sense of satisfaction, benefits
 . . .
he just never heard the one thing that’d make a difference to him. He didn’t know what that would be, but he never heard it. Maybe it was because he knew that sometimes a college education could lead straight to Cane Creek. It had for Mama.

“What are you badgerin’ that boy about now?” Rainey asked, coming into the kitchen for another beer. “What’s he done this time?”

Chantry kept his eyes down. Sometimes he thought if he just looked at Rainey he might not be able to keep from hitting him. So he kept his mouth shut and his head down and tried not to listen to anything Rainey said. It usually worked.

“Chantry and I were just discussing college,” Mama said.

Rainey snorted. “Waste of time. I can get him hired onto a construction crew this summer. He’ll make pretty good money if he can keep his ass out of trouble like my boys do.”

Chantry figured if Beau and Rafe were good examples, he ought to do fine. They got in fights every week-end they were in town and usually ended up in jail for a night.

Mama sounded tense. “I do not want my son working construction the rest of his life.”

There was a beat of silence, then Rainey said, “He too good for that? It’s honest work, by God, and you thought it was good enough when you married me.”

“Yes, and now you are on disability because you fell from the top of a building.”

Chantry got up from the table and put his bowl in the sink, then walked around Mama and Rainey to go to his room. This argument was his fault. That didn’t mean he was going to hang around and listen to it.

Rainey eyed him but didn’t say anything when he walked out. Ever since he’d gotten cold-cocked, Rainey had kept his hands to himself. Except for that one time in the garage. Chantry hadn’t even tried to stop him, he hadn’t put up a hand to block a blow; he’d just stood there and let Rainey whip him with that belt until he went to his knees. Mama had told the police sergeant that there would be consequences and she’d kept her word. Maybe he should be grateful. The pain had taken his mind off Shadow and eased the shock of Mama’s betrayal. But only until it stopped.

After that, he resolved never to let Rainey hit him again. Now he knew he could take him. And he was pretty sure Rainey knew it, too.

That next Saturday night, Chantry and Donny showed up at the Hideaway around nine. It was a long wooden building built right on the edge of a backwash of the river. A gravel parking lot curved out front, and a flashing neon sign advertised cold beer. There were so many cars in the lot they ended up parking along the road. There was a brisk wind, and being this close to the river made the air bone-cold and damp.

Donny looked over at the building. Music rattled the windows, gushed out every time the door opened. A majority of the vehicles in the lot were trucks, some with company logos on the doors, many with winches attached to the front bumpers, almost all of them with gun racks in rear windows. Some of the men going inside dressed in slacks and shirts and had women with them, but most wore dirty jeans, work boots, and denim jackets. Construction workers, farm workers, men used to using their hands and muscles to make their way in life.