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.”“Where do you get that, Jenny? I just don’t see it.I think you’re trying to plant a seed in my head to get me back on the dating wagon.All you’re going to end up doing is making a fool of me.”Jenny reached over and squeezed Sarah’s arm.“I’m going to bed.I’ll leave you to your thoughts.”Chapter 9Dodge let lukewarm water splash directly in his face before he shut off the shower and reached for a towel.He hadn’t slept well the last few nights.He’d hoped the nearly cold water would allow him to wake up enough to shake off the dreams that had haunted him at night.He’d fall into bed exhausted from a day’s hard labor.Sometime after midnight, he’d sit up with a start, jolted awake and gasping for breath.His skin would be coated in a slick sheen of sweat and Wendy Hawkins angelic face the only recollection of his nightmare.He could see her as clearly as if she’d been seated on the bed next to him, her golden blonde ringlets shining in the moonlight.She always wore the same wide eyed look on her face when she’d silently begged him to go along with her story and change the course of his life forever.While he’d aged appropriately in his thirty-eight years of living, she’d remained the same, frozen in his memories as a shy nineteen-year-old.She used to run around in the shadow of his older sister, Isabel, sneaking glances his way when she thought he wasn’t looking.There were very few occasions when he hadn’t been looking and wondering how the soft roundness of her body would feel against all the hard planes of his.He’d been eighteen, a senior in high school, and willing to jump on anything remotely female.There’d been something about Wendy, the way she’d pretend to ignore him and then go out of her way to rub against him or flash a bit of skin in the most innocent way.He’d endured almost a year of her harmless flirtation.He’d wanted her as badly as he’d wanted Mary Lynn Fletcher, the first of many girlfriends who’d finally agreed to let him have her when they were both fifteen.Wendy was a tease.One night at the local pub, a place where the legal drinking age depended on how much money you slipped the bartender, he saw a golden opportunity with Wendy.She was there alone, or appeared to be when he first saw her.With the help of several beers, he’d decided to give her what, in his mind, she’d been begging to have for months.As he sauntered to the table where she sat nursing a bottle of Miller Lite, intent on picking the label off with her hot pink fingernail, he was stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the most intimidating man he’d ever seen.Dodge was big at eighteen, measuring in at near his present six-three, all sinewy muscle and lanky limbs.But he had nothing on the massive man who seemed to pound across the smoky bar and take the seat opposite Wendy in the dimly lit booth.Wendy smiled at him, that shy smile Dodge thought she’d reserved for him.She reached her hand across the table to link their fingers.His hands were big enough to crush her skull in his palm.Dodge stood there, right in the middle of the bar, flanked by feeble dancers and posters of exotic women in beer ads, just watching his innocent Wendy offer herself up to another.And that’s where his friend Tommy Thornton found him, staring into the booth.“What’s up, man?” Tommy’d asked, then let his gaze follow Dodge’s stare.Wendy and the monster were not only joined at the hands but were making serious attempts to molest each other with their legs under the table.“Whoa.Is that Wendy Hawkins? Damn, who’s that guy she’s with? He’s not from around here.”Dodge couldn’t answer.He and Tommy stood rooted to their spots, gaping as Wendy and her new friend eased out of the booth and out the back door toward the parking lot.“Do you think we should follow her? Make sure she’s okay?” Tommy asked.He was as innocent as any sheltered Hailey boy.Watching one of its better known young girls ushered out the back of a bar in the arms of a leather-clad unknown didn’t sit quite right.“Yeah, I guess,” Dodge said.They went out the same door the man had pressed Wendy’s back against when he pushed her outside.It had just swung closed when they saw Wendy in the passenger seat of an old Chevy Malibu, dented from one end to the next, snuggled up against the stranger.She spotted Dodge watching from the back alley and actually blew a kiss in his direction and laughed as the car pulled away from the lot.“Damn, I never thought I’d see the day sweet Wendy Hawkins took a walk on the wild side,” Tommy said as he emerged from Dodge’s shadow.“Do you think she knows what she’s doing?”Dodge watched the trail of exhaust from the Malibu’s tailpipe disappear into the cold spring night and shrugged his shoulders.“I would’ve wondered until she blew that kiss.I sure didn’t see that one coming.”That was the last time he’d seen Wendy before she weaved a tale so contorted, so believable, it’d caught him like a fish on a line.Her lies broke every allegiance he’d formed with family and friends.Her one night’s walk on the wild side had cost a lot of people their pride and faith, and had left Dodge wondering how his family could be so quick to turn their backs on him.As he looked at his reflection in the mirror, Dodge felt that same hardening in his belly he’d felt that night.He kneaded his side from habit after all these years, and tried to ease the weight that had settled there, heavier now than he remembered.He’d considered driving out to her gravesite one Sunday after he’d been back in town for a few weeks.The dreams had started up again as soon as he’d returned to Hailey.He thought maybe if he went to her gravesite he could somehow make things right between the two of them.Maybe she’d let him have his peace at night.But he hadn’t done it, and knew he wouldn’t.If anyone saw him at her grave, they’d assume he was guilty.He already felt enough guilt where Wendy Hawkins was concerned.Besides, his dad was getting on in years [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.”“Where do you get that, Jenny? I just don’t see it.I think you’re trying to plant a seed in my head to get me back on the dating wagon.All you’re going to end up doing is making a fool of me.”Jenny reached over and squeezed Sarah’s arm.“I’m going to bed.I’ll leave you to your thoughts.”Chapter 9Dodge let lukewarm water splash directly in his face before he shut off the shower and reached for a towel.He hadn’t slept well the last few nights.He’d hoped the nearly cold water would allow him to wake up enough to shake off the dreams that had haunted him at night.He’d fall into bed exhausted from a day’s hard labor.Sometime after midnight, he’d sit up with a start, jolted awake and gasping for breath.His skin would be coated in a slick sheen of sweat and Wendy Hawkins angelic face the only recollection of his nightmare.He could see her as clearly as if she’d been seated on the bed next to him, her golden blonde ringlets shining in the moonlight.She always wore the same wide eyed look on her face when she’d silently begged him to go along with her story and change the course of his life forever.While he’d aged appropriately in his thirty-eight years of living, she’d remained the same, frozen in his memories as a shy nineteen-year-old.She used to run around in the shadow of his older sister, Isabel, sneaking glances his way when she thought he wasn’t looking.There were very few occasions when he hadn’t been looking and wondering how the soft roundness of her body would feel against all the hard planes of his.He’d been eighteen, a senior in high school, and willing to jump on anything remotely female.There’d been something about Wendy, the way she’d pretend to ignore him and then go out of her way to rub against him or flash a bit of skin in the most innocent way.He’d endured almost a year of her harmless flirtation.He’d wanted her as badly as he’d wanted Mary Lynn Fletcher, the first of many girlfriends who’d finally agreed to let him have her when they were both fifteen.Wendy was a tease.One night at the local pub, a place where the legal drinking age depended on how much money you slipped the bartender, he saw a golden opportunity with Wendy.She was there alone, or appeared to be when he first saw her.With the help of several beers, he’d decided to give her what, in his mind, she’d been begging to have for months.As he sauntered to the table where she sat nursing a bottle of Miller Lite, intent on picking the label off with her hot pink fingernail, he was stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the most intimidating man he’d ever seen.Dodge was big at eighteen, measuring in at near his present six-three, all sinewy muscle and lanky limbs.But he had nothing on the massive man who seemed to pound across the smoky bar and take the seat opposite Wendy in the dimly lit booth.Wendy smiled at him, that shy smile Dodge thought she’d reserved for him.She reached her hand across the table to link their fingers.His hands were big enough to crush her skull in his palm.Dodge stood there, right in the middle of the bar, flanked by feeble dancers and posters of exotic women in beer ads, just watching his innocent Wendy offer herself up to another.And that’s where his friend Tommy Thornton found him, staring into the booth.“What’s up, man?” Tommy’d asked, then let his gaze follow Dodge’s stare.Wendy and the monster were not only joined at the hands but were making serious attempts to molest each other with their legs under the table.“Whoa.Is that Wendy Hawkins? Damn, who’s that guy she’s with? He’s not from around here.”Dodge couldn’t answer.He and Tommy stood rooted to their spots, gaping as Wendy and her new friend eased out of the booth and out the back door toward the parking lot.“Do you think we should follow her? Make sure she’s okay?” Tommy asked.He was as innocent as any sheltered Hailey boy.Watching one of its better known young girls ushered out the back of a bar in the arms of a leather-clad unknown didn’t sit quite right.“Yeah, I guess,” Dodge said.They went out the same door the man had pressed Wendy’s back against when he pushed her outside.It had just swung closed when they saw Wendy in the passenger seat of an old Chevy Malibu, dented from one end to the next, snuggled up against the stranger.She spotted Dodge watching from the back alley and actually blew a kiss in his direction and laughed as the car pulled away from the lot.“Damn, I never thought I’d see the day sweet Wendy Hawkins took a walk on the wild side,” Tommy said as he emerged from Dodge’s shadow.“Do you think she knows what she’s doing?”Dodge watched the trail of exhaust from the Malibu’s tailpipe disappear into the cold spring night and shrugged his shoulders.“I would’ve wondered until she blew that kiss.I sure didn’t see that one coming.”That was the last time he’d seen Wendy before she weaved a tale so contorted, so believable, it’d caught him like a fish on a line.Her lies broke every allegiance he’d formed with family and friends.Her one night’s walk on the wild side had cost a lot of people their pride and faith, and had left Dodge wondering how his family could be so quick to turn their backs on him.As he looked at his reflection in the mirror, Dodge felt that same hardening in his belly he’d felt that night.He kneaded his side from habit after all these years, and tried to ease the weight that had settled there, heavier now than he remembered.He’d considered driving out to her gravesite one Sunday after he’d been back in town for a few weeks.The dreams had started up again as soon as he’d returned to Hailey.He thought maybe if he went to her gravesite he could somehow make things right between the two of them.Maybe she’d let him have his peace at night.But he hadn’t done it, and knew he wouldn’t.If anyone saw him at her grave, they’d assume he was guilty.He already felt enough guilt where Wendy Hawkins was concerned.Besides, his dad was getting on in years [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]