Authors: Holly Copella
I
t was 8:00 A.M. Sunday
morning and only a few hours since Dina was attacked at the tavern. Despite
the early hour and lack of sleep, Dina sat on the porch in a pair of Casey’s
borrowed shorts and t-shirt. She hugged her knees to her chest while her fixed
gaze overlooked the pastures surrounding the Remington farmhouse. She looked
exhausted from little to no sleep last night after her close call. The screen
door opened. Casey walked onto the porch, eyed her quiet friend, and sat on
the porch railing facing her.
“Did you sleep?” Casey
asked gently.
“A little,” Dina replied
without looking at her.
Casey took a deep breath
and looked across the farm. It was a difficult conversation to have with her
friend. She finally looked back at Dina.
“I wish I could say what
happened was just a random event,” Casey announced with great seriousness, “but
it wasn’t. My return made you into a target.”
Dina suddenly looked at
Casey and appeared stunned. “Do you really believe that?”
“I don’t have to believe
it,” she replied. “I know it. I returned to Darwood Falls with a stick
clutched firmly in my hand and poked it at a hornet’s nest.” She rested her
head against the support beam and sighed deeply. “Now they’re going to hurt me
by going through you.”
There was an odd silence as
Dina stared at Casey. She finally looked at Dina and appeared curious.
“You don’t believe me, do
you?” Casey asked.
“Actually, I do,” Dina
replied softly. “It was the Harford boys, wasn’t it?”
Casey shrugged.
“So what do we do?” Dina
asked.
“The guys think you should
take a little vacation for a few weeks,” Casey announced.
“Excuse me?” Dina suddenly
remarked.
“Ruger has a nice place a
few hours from here,” she replied. “You can stay there until this blows over.”
Dina stared at Casey a
long, silent moment then finally responded. “Until
what
blows over,
Casey?” she suddenly asked. “What are you really doing here?”
She didn’t respond. She
wasn’t sure how to respond. Casey stared at her friend and felt responsible
for last night’s near miss. It was her fault, and she wasn’t sure if she could
live with herself if she got Dina killed. Last night’s dream was enough to
convince her that she couldn’t handle the guilt.
“You need to go away for a
few weeks,” Casey informed her firmly.
“No,” Dina replied and sat
up straight while planting her feet firmly on the porch. “Two years ago, you
ran away from your fears. Now you’re back to face them. What happened to me
last night was nothing compared to what you’d gone through. You need me. No
matter what your reason for returning, I intend to stay and fight alongside
you. I won’t leave you.”
Casey stared at Dina with
little reaction. She sighed and returned her head to the support beam. “I
tried,” she announced simply.
The porch door slowly
opened on cue. Casey didn’t bother looking. Dina uncertainly looked back at
the open door.
†
I
t was Tuesday evening and
business at the tavern was starting to pick up despite the early hour. Melanie
waited on tables while Wiley tended bar. Melanie hurried from table to table
and appeared frazzled. She approached Wiley at the bar and exchange empty
pitchers for full ones.
“Where’s Dina?” Melanie
scoffed. “She’s an hour late.”
“I don’t know,” Wiley
replied. “I haven’t heard from her since that business Saturday night. She
didn’t call to say she was going to be late.”
“She’s doing this on
purpose,” Melanie whined. “She knows we get busy on bowling league nights.”
“She’ll be here,” he
assured her.
Vaughn and Tucker sat on
the other side of the bar in their street clothing with mugs of beer before
them. Vaughn scribbled on a piece of paper. Wiley approached, studied them
with interest, and appeared curious.
“What’s so interesting on
the north side of the bar?” Wiley teased.
“Plotting our attack for
the bachelor auction,” Vaughn said without looking up from his paper.
Wiley held back his laugh
and shook his head. “Are you seriously making Jeannie bid on you?”
Vaughn looked up and
appeared serious. “It’s the only way my ass goes on stage.”
“I think it’s a lot of
fun,” Tucker remarked cheerfully.
“You would,” Vaughn
scoffed.
Tucker enjoyed making
Vaughn squirm. “You’re too image conscious, Vaughn.”
“It’s not my image,” he
retorted to his best friend. “It’s my ego I’m worried about.”
“Speaking of the fair,”
Wiley announced then grinned. “Have you seen the revised fair flier?”
Wiley placed the flier on
the bar before them and pointed at the new addition. Both men studied the
flier with shared looks of surprise. Tucker suddenly laughed.
Vaughn appeared stunned and
looked at Wiley. “This is a joke, right?”
“Nope, no joke.”
“I’ll believe that when I
see it,” Vaughn scoffed and pushed the flier away.
Melanie appeared between
the two men and clung to both their shoulders while looking at the flier on the
bar near them. “Believe what?” she asked cheerfully.
“Casey’s working the
kissing booth,” Tucker said while grinning lustfully.
Melanie’s expression
suddenly dropped to something resembling a sneer. She snatched the flier,
looked at it, and then tossed it down with disgust.
“Someone put that in there
as a joke,” Melanie scoffed. “She’d never do that.”
The front door was thrown
open, causing several patrons to turn and look. Dina hurried across the
tavern, paused before the bar, and handed Wiley her purse in exchange for an
apron.
“I’m late, I know,” she
announced nearly out of breath while tying the apron around her waist.
“It’s okay,” Wiley replied
with little concern.
Melanie glared her
disapproval at Wiley. “Speak for yourself,” she huffed then looked at Dina who
stood alongside her. “Is Casey seriously working the kissing booth?”
Dina grinned and appeared
pleased with herself. “Yeah, I talked her into it. Great, isn’t it?”
“Well, bless you, Dina,”
Tucker said while raising his beer and chuckling.
Melanie turned to Vaughn
and sneered at him. “Well, it looks like you might get your chance after all.”
“Chance for what?” Dina
asked.
Melanie folded her arms
across her chest and glared at Dina. “Our sheriff has the hots for Casey,” she
snapped.
Vaughn groaned and refused
to look at her. “I do not,” he growled. “Don’t start with that.”
Tucker, Dina, and Wiley
stared at Vaughn with curious looks and awaited an explanation. He avoided
looking at them and shifted with discomfort.
“My interest in Casey is
and was strictly professional,” Vaughn boldly announced.
Dina snorted a laugh then
hurried to a nearby table to tend to customers. Tucker suddenly laughed,
causing Vaughn to glare at him. Wiley appeared interested.
“Something to add?” Wiley
teased.
“Don’t do it,” Vaughn
warned Tucker.
Tucker didn’t seem
concerned by Vaughn’s threatening look. “Back when Vaughn first started as
deputy,” he announced while chuckling, “he had his eye on this hot, little
number.”
“Tucker,” Vaughn growled while
shifting in his chair.
Tucker ignored his friend.
“He had his eye on her for weeks before he finally asked me who she was. That
girl was Casey Remington.”
Wiley and Melanie stared at
Tucker with surprise then looked at Vaughn with equal astonishment.
“She couldn’t have been
more than fifteen!” Wiley suddenly cried out.
“Oh, that’s disgusting,”
Melanie scoffed with a sneer.
“Okay, fine,” Vaughn
snapped. “I thought she was attractive, but I didn’t know she was just a kid.”
Wiley and Tucker laughed.
“Come on,” Vaughn cried
out. “Back me up here, she looked twenty.”
“Well,” Wiley chuckled,
“that is true. It’s a good thing Tucker set you straight before you made a
fool of yourself.”
Vaughn snorted then
sneered. “Are you kidding? The bastard let me embarrass myself. It’s amazing
we’re still friends.”
Melanie and Wiley suddenly
looked at Tucker. He started to laugh.
“Oh, come on,” Tucker
announced while maintaining his grin. “Initiating the new guy is part of the
job.”
“You let him ask her out?”
Wiley demanded with surprise.
“I didn’t ask her out,”
Vaughn scoffed and shifted in his chair. “I approached her mother in the
antique store and asked to see her sister. When she told me that Casey was her
daughter, I was able to escape before completely embarrassing myself.”
Wiley shook his head and
glared at Tucker. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Melanie suddenly sneered.
“And that’s why we didn’t work out,” she announced then glared at Vaughn’s
profile. “He couldn’t get her sweet, little ass out of his head.”
Vaughn refused to look at
Melanie or even acknowledge her.
“Leave him alone, Mel,”
Wiley announced then grinned lustfully. “I think Casey has a sweet, little ass
too.”
Melanie frowned with
disgust, grabbed her full pitchers, and walked away as Dina returned with
several empty beer bottles.
Vaughn shook his head and
groaned as Melanie left. “That night of bad judgment just keeps coming back to
bite me.”
“At least you have being
drunk as an excuse,” Tucker scoffed then finished his glass of beer. He pushed
the empty glass to Wiley and indicated he needed a refill. “I dated that
devil’s whore of my own free will.”
“Who’s the devil’s whore?”
Casey suddenly asked from behind both men.
Both looked back at her as
she appeared seemingly out of nowhere and jumped onto the empty barstool
alongside Tucker. He seemed pleased to see her. Vaughn appeared even more
uncomfortable possibly wondering how much of their conversation she had
overheard.
“Melanie,” Dina casually
replied while hiding her humor.
Casey was suddenly
interested and grinned slyly. “Is this topic officially open for debate?” she
teased.
“No, it’s closed,” Vaughn
snapped.
Tucker grinned at Casey,
unable to hide his lust, and stared at her longer than he should have. “We
just heard the exciting news,” he announced.
“Oh? What news?”
“You in the kissing booth,”
Dina teased while dramatically batting her eyelashes.
Casey rolled her eyes and
groaned. The subject was already getting on her nerves, and she still had
three more days until the official nightmare began.
“If you’re having
performance jitters, you can practice on me,” Tucker offered slyly.
“Same here,” Wiley
announced with a grin and leaned on the bar before her.
“Thanks, boys, but I think
I’ll manage,” Casey replied while hiding her embarrassment.
Dina took her filled
pitchers and left the bar. Melanie soon returned with a tray of empty
glasses. Wiley kept his attention on Casey. He was obviously a little too
happy to see her.
“I see you signed up for
the talent show,” Wiley announced with a pleased look.
Melanie turned to Casey and
now appeared stunned. Too much was being thrown at her at one time. “You
entered the talent show?” she suddenly squawked.
“Under extreme duress, I
assure you,” she muttered in response but noted the look on Melanie’s face. It
was almost entertaining to behold.
The rage was boiling up
inside Melanie, but she seemed to pull herself together and made an effort to
suppress it. “So, uh, what are you planning to do?”
Casey shrugged carelessly.
“I suppose that’s up to my brother and Ruger.”
The expression on Melanie’s
face suddenly dropped. “You haven’t planned anything?” she cried out with
surprise. She managed a tense laugh and shook her head. “Oh, Casey, you’re
going to bomb. The fair is this Saturday.”
“You’ll be fantastic,”
Wiley told Casey while grinning.
Casey thought his devotion
to her was almost staggering. He wouldn’t believe anything bad about her even
if he caught her standing over a dead body with a smoking gun in her hand.
“You’re sweet, Wiley,”
Casey said warmly.
Wiley seemed humored.
“Remember that when I see you at the kissing booth,” he teased.
“You get a freebie,” Casey
announced and leaned across the bar. She motioned him closer with a beckoning
finger and kissed him quickly on the lips.