I stop a moment to look at her.
She shrugs. “It’s true, Gideon.”
I say, “In the two hours I’ve been here, I’ve been knocked out cold, tied to a chair, hung by my neck to die, and had a roof come crashing down on me.”
“So?”
“Where’s all this fun you’re talking about?”
“Are you always this negative?”
“Yes.”
“You know how I see the last two hours?”
“Tell me.”
“You had a wonderful home-cooked meal, you French-kissed the Wilford County homecomin’ queen, you felt her up, and found true love.”
“True love?”
“Well, far as you know.”
“What does that mean?”
“I got a feelin’ about you. And you’re about to get me on a road trip. Not many men can say that.”
“How many, exactly?”
“Let’s just fix my Daddy’s leg and get out of here,” she says.
As we approach Scooter, he says, “Don’t let him touch me, Trudy. He’s gonna give me an overdose and kill me.”
“Don’t be silly, Daddy. He’s a doctor. And a damn fine one, too.”
“You’ve only got his word for that.”
“I trust him. Now let him give you somethin’ for the pain.”
As I cover him with my beach towel he says to Trudy, “You know what he said to me a minute ago?”
“What’s that, Daddy?”
“He said he was gonna think about me every time he fucks you.”
She looks at me and says, “You said that?”
I shrug, check his pulse.
She says, “Well, how thoughtful is that! Weird, but thoughtful.”
She thinks on it a minute, while I check his pupils with my penlight, then says, “More weird than thoughtful, I think.”
By then I’ve given him a shot of morphine. When he seems stable, we head for the car.
11
“Can we go now?” she says.
We’re in the car again, but this time I’m holding the keys.
“Look,” I say. “I appreciate the compliment, I really do. And I understand how things happen at warp speed in small towns. But I met you exactly two hours ago. And while this might come as a shock, I’m not ready to let you move in with me.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t even know your middle name.”
“Leigh. Can we go now?”
I shake my head. “That was a figure of speech. What I mean is I don’t know you well enough to take on whatever baggage you might bring.”
“Like what?”
“Your father’s the deputy sheriff. He tried to hang me just now. And your brother sounds scary.”
“All you’ve heard about my brother is his name.”
“The way your father said his name was scary.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure, Gideon?”
“Sorry.”
She sighs heavily. “How long would it take you to know me?”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t be puttin’ too much time into this relationship if it’s not goin’ anywhere.”
“It’s not so much a time thing.”
“Then what is it?”
“I can’t just take you out of town with me.”
“Why not?”
“I mean, I don’t even know if we’re compatible yet.”
“Our kiss didn’t tell you that?”
“Sex would say it better.”
She frowns. “Are you playin’ me?”
“I’m not sure what that means.”
“What type of girl would I be if I dropped my drawers for the first guy who offered to drive me out of town?”
“Based on what you said, I might be the seventh guy.”
“You’re makin’ way too many assumptions about my last six attempts to escape this shit hole. For your information, I only ran off with one man. The other times were on my own.”
“What happened to him?”
“Who?”
“The guy you ran off with?”
“It didn’t take.”
“Which is my point exactly.”
“Again, you’re makin’ way too many assumptions. The reason it didn’t take is because he died.”
“Excuse me?”
“He had a heart attack.”
“Where?”
“Starbucks.”
“The town?”
“The motel at Starbucks. I don’t like to talk about it.”
“He died during sex?”
“Just before.”
“How old was he?”
“Old.”
“Like what, sixty?”
“Older.”
“Eighty?”
“Let’s talk about somethin’ else, okay? ’Cause you’re really killin’ the mood here.”
I don’t want to talk about something else. I want to ask how long she’d known this octogenarian before he agreed to run off with her. I want to ask if she met him at the restaurant, same as me. I want to know if she made him steal the handcuffs while Scooter was taking a shit. I want to ask if he cuffed her to the fence. I want to know how far he got with her before his heart gave out.
But what I say is, “Tell me where you live, and I’ll take you home.”
“Call my cell phone first.”
“Why?”
“So I’ll have your number.”
She gives me her number and I call her cell phone.
