Rowan opened the refrigerator and took out a soda as Marg went back to her potatoes.
“How are you doing, Dolly?”
“I’m fine, and you?” She said it primly, chin in the air now.
“Good enough. Maybe you could take a quick break, catch a little air with me?”
“We’re busy. Lynn—”
“Better get her skinny ass back in here right quick,” Marg interrupted. “You go on out, and if you see her, send her in.”
“I need to dry these greens,” Dolly began, but shrunk—as all did—under Marg’s steely stare. “Okay, fine.” She tossed aside her cloth, headed for the door.
Rowan exchanged a look with Marg, then followed.
“I saw a picture of your baby,” Rowan began. “She’s beautiful.”
“Jim’s baby.”
“She’s beautiful,” Rowan repeated.
“She’s a gift from God.” Dolly folded her arms as she walked. “I need this job to provide for her. I hope you’re Christian enough not to do anything that gets me fired.”
“I don’t think about it being Christian or otherwise, Dolly. I think about it as being human. I never had a problem with you, and I’m not looking to have one now.”
“I’ll cook for you just like I cook for the rest. I hope you’ll show me the respect of staying clear of me and I’ll do the same. Reverend Latterly says I have to forgive you to get right with the Lord, but I don’t.”
“Forgive me for what?”
“You’re the reason my baby’s going to grow up without her daddy.”
Rowan said nothing for a moment. “Maybe you need to believe that to get through, and I find I don’t give a shit either way.”
“I expect that from you.”
“Then I’m happy not to disappoint you. You can claim to have tripped over God or to’ve been born again, I don’t care about that either. But you’ve got a baby, and you need work. You’re good at the work. What you’re going to have to suck up, Dolly, is to keep the work, you have to deal with me. When I feel like coming into the kitchen, I will, whether you’re around or not. I’m not going to live my life around your stipulations or misplaced grudges.”
She held up a hand before Dolly could speak. “One more thing. You got away with coming at me once. You won’t get away with it again. New baby or not, I’ll put you down. Other than that, we won’t have a problem.”
“You’re a heartless whore, and one day you’ll pay for all you’ve done. It should’ve been you instead of Jim that day. It should’ve been you, screaming your way to the ground.”
She ran back to the kitchen.
“Well,” Rowan mumbled, “that went well.”
6
Rowan slept poorly, and put the blame squarely on Dolly. She’d checked the radar, the logs, the maps before turning in. Fires sparked near Denali in Alaska and in the Marble Mountains of Northern California. She’d considered—half hoped—she’d be called up and spend part of her night on a transport plane. But no siren sounded, no knock banged on her door.
Instead, she’d dreamed of Jim for the second night in a row. She woke irritated and itchy, and annoyed with her own subconscious for being so easily manipulated.
Done with it, she promised herself, and decided to start her day with a good, hard run to blow the mood away.
As her muscles warmed toward the first quarter mile, Gull fell into step beside her.
She flicked him a glance. “Is this going to be a habit?”
“I was running first yesterday,” he reminded her. “I like putting in a few miles first thing. Wakes me up.”
He’d gotten a look at her, too, and decided she looked a little pissed off, a little shadowed around the eyes. “Are you going for time or distance?”
“I’m just going for the run.”
“We’ll call it distance then. I like having an agenda.”
“So I’ve noticed. I think three.”
He snorted. “You’ve got more than that. Five.”
“Four,” she said just to keep him from getting his way. “And don’t talk to me. I like being in my head when I run.”
Obligingly he tapped the MP3 playing on his arm and ran to his music.
They kept the pace steady for the first mile. She was aware of him beside her, of the sound of their feet slapping the track in unison. And found she didn’t mind it. She could speculate on what music he ran to, what
They were both first stick on the jump list.
When they crossed the second mile she heard the sound of an engine above, and saw one of her father’s planes glide across the wide blue canvas of sky. Flying lesson, she determined—business was good. She wondered if her father or one of his three pilots sat as instructor, then saw the right wing tip down twice, followed by a single dip on the left.
Her dad.
Face lifted, she shot up her arm, fingers stretched high in her signal back.
The simple contact had the dregs of annoyance that the run and Gull’s companionship hadn’t quite washed away breaking apart.
Then her running companion picked up the pace. She increased hers to match, knowing he pushed her, tested her. Then again, life without competition was barely living as far as she was concerned. The building burn in her quads and her hamstrings scorched away even those shattered dregs.
Her stride lengthened at mile three. Her arms pumped, her lungs labored. The bold sun the forecasters had promised would spike the temperatures toward eighty by afternoon skinned her in a thin layer of sweat.
She felt alive, challenged, happy.
Then Gull glanced her way, sent her a wink. And left her in his dust.
He had some kind of extra gear, she thought once he kicked in. That’s all there was to it. And when he hit it, he was just fucking gone.
She dug for her own kick, found she had a little juice yet. Not enough to catch him—not unless she strapped herself to a rocket—but enough not to embarrass herself.
The last half-mile push left her a little light-headed, had her breath whooping as she simply rolled onto the grass beside the track.
“You’ll cramp up. Come on, Ro, you know better than that.”
He was winded—not gasping for air as she was, but winded, and she found a little satisfaction in that.
“Minute,” she managed, but he grabbed her hands, pulled her to her feet.
“Walk it off, Ro.”
She walked her heart rate down to reasonable, squeezed a stream from the water bottle she’d brought out with her into her mouth.
Watching him, she stood on one leg, stretched her quads by lifting the other behind her. He’d worked up a sweat, and it looked damn good on him. “It’s like you’ve got an engine in those Nikes.”
“You motor along pretty good yourself. And now you’re not pissed off or depressed anymore. Was that your father doing the flyover?”
“Yeah. Why do you say I was pissed off and depressed?”
“It was all over your face. I’ve been making a study of your face, and that’s how I tagged the mood.”
