Chapter 21

Grady was jostled awake by a body plopping down on his bed. “Wha?”

“It’s me, Grady,” Bri said. “Go back to sleep. They won’t stop yakking, and I need to sleep. Bettina’s snoring like a drunk sailor, and you’ve got the biggest bed with the quietest room. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Grady woke again when his alarm went off. He creaked open his eyes, watching Brianna come out of his bathroom with an unbuttoned shirt and braless. His piss hard cock reminded him that partially naked women first thing in the morning are a beautiful sight. He was moving too slow, and she slipped out of the room, only bending down to scoop up her shoes before closing the door after departing. Grady squeezed his dick, lamenting how unfair life was.

By the time he got to the kitchen, only Bettina was there, and she was packing herself a lunch. She brought him up to date at least. Jessica had already left with Kimberly to file a complaint in the closest city with a municipal police force, which was Plainview. Rumor had it there was a battered women’s shelter too. Brianna was in the barn and would rouse Christina, who had school.

Sitting down and doing his work, school and office, were enough to put him in a dour mood. Christina wandered in through the back door as Grady was surveying the pantry, trying to determine what to put up for lunch.

“Skipping school?” Grady asked.

Christina grumbled. “I overslept and Bri didn’t wake me up.”

“You wanna take a ride on the trail?” Grady asked. “We can pack a bundle of sandwiches and go.”

“My mom is going to kill me,” Christina said. “She warned that I had to be in school today, acting as if I know nothing about anything. I don’t think anyone knows that Kimberly’s hanging out with me, but this town has eyes and ears everywhere, hiding behind every wall and under every surface. I swear it’s true.”

“It’s water under the bridge. Ride?”

“Yeah, sure,” Christina said with a dash of enthusiasm. “I haven’t been riding since we came to this hick town.”

“I’ll take one of the quarter horses; you should choose one the horses that your mother and Bri haven’t ridden on the trails.” Grady glanced at the digital clock on the oven, “Thirty minutes?”

Forty-five minutes later, they were heading down the Western Trail. He gave her the same spiel he had given the others as he passed the tree marking the trail split, continuing straight on. Christina was not talkative even though she would answer questions, she asked none of her own. When they reached the marker stones, her eyes glazed over like everyone else.

He repeated the script and then led her horse to the grove of trees. When she recovered, he passed over a water bottle and laid out the sandwiches. She gave him a slight stare before trying the off-brand corn chips. They were not what she recognized, but they were a local attempt, and Grady thought they tasted better. She was a rolling barrel of judgments.

“I hate this town, Grady,” She said between bites of her sandwich. “The school is small, backwards, and mostly a step or two from smart. What they’re studying now I did last year. People know each other on the street, and they pretend to get along when it’s all a lie. I realize people lie, cheat, and steal everywhere, but here,” she held out her hand palm up, “they make-believe that no one can see it, and no one can do anything about it.”

She took a slug of water. “I know you think this place is beautiful, but all I see is desolation. The kicker is I know you’re right and I’m wrong. You’ve been nothing but nice to me, always appropriate, unlike half the male population at school. Still, you are, like, the embodiment of the everything-ness of this town. I don’t like this place, which means I can’t like you – at least that’s how it works in my head.”