Patty slid her feet from the booth seat and sat up, blinking. “My goodness, girl, that was so long ago.”
“Ruby said she was working the early shift.”
“That’s right. You know I do remember. It was a crazy day. We got in a busload of Canadians down here for a whist tournament.” She frowned. “Wow, how many years ago was that now?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“My memory is better than I thought.” Patty grinned. “I remember because your mama came in late. I really had my hands full. I knew she was sick, being pregnant with you and all, but I was so mad at her.”
“Did she say why she was late?” McCall asked.
“She was all rattled, you know how she gets. It was plain as her face that she and Trace had had another fight. I wondered if she’d been to bed at all the night before, everything considered, you know?”
McCall didn’t know. “Such as?”
“Well...” Patty looked uncomfortable. “The way she looked. She’d been crying and that old pickup she drove... It was covered in mud. I asked her where the devil she’d been since your mama wasn’t one for driving much, especially on these roads around here when they’re wet.”
McCall thought of the road into the ridge south of town. “And what did she say?”
“Said Trace borrowed her truck.” Patty mugged a face. “I knew that wasn’t true. He never drove anything but that pretty new black Chevy his mama bought him as a bribe to leave Ruby. He took a perverse satisfaction into getting that truck dirty and staying with Ruby just to show his mama he couldn’t be bought.”
McCall had wondered where Trace had gotten the pickup. Now she knew. Her dear grandmother.
“So where do you think Ruby had been in her pickup?”
Patty shook her head. “You could ask her.”
“She gets upset talking about Trace.”
“I suppose so. Well, just between you and me, I think she’d been out looking for Trace after a big, ol’ knock-down, drag-out fight,” Patty whispered, although there was no one to hear. “She was upset that whole day. I felt bad for her. One look at her and you knew something big had happened. I think your mama knew he wouldn’t be coming back.”
RUBY CAME HOME late smelling of grease and cigarette smoke. McCall had been waiting for her. Her mother looked tired and there were blue lines on her calves from spending so many years on her feet.
McCall felt sorry for her mother and guilty. How different Ruby’s life might have been if she hadn’t gotten pregnant. Just as things could have been different if Trace had lived.
Or things could have turned out just the way they had.
“Didn’t you work today?” her mother asked.
Had Ruby heard about her visit with Red Harper and thought McCall was checking up on her? “Nick had something come up and asked me to fill in for him.”
Ruby glanced over at her as she entered her trailer, and McCall saw worry in her mother’s eyes. All the questions about her father. The visit to her grandmother. Talking to Red about Trace. Now to find McCall waiting here for her. No wonder Ruby looked worried.
“I had a beer earlier with Red to talk to him about my father,” McCall said as they entered the trailer, figuring Red had already warned Ruby. “You didn’t tell me the two of you were going out.”
Her mother shrugged. “It’s just a date to a movie.” She turned to look at her daughter and for a moment McCall thought her mother might cry. “Am I why you don’t date?” Ruby asked, the question coming out of the blue.
She squirmed under her mother’s intense gaze. “There’s no one I want to go out with.”
“There hasn’t been anyone since that Crawford boy.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Not that busy.”
“Mom—”
“Fine. I know that boy broke your heart, but, McCall, it was years ago. You have to get back on the horse that bucked you off.”
McCall laughed. That was exactly what her mother had been doing since her husband left her. “And how has that worked out for you? Have any of these men you dated made you forget my father?”
This time there was no doubt about the tears in her mother’s eyes.
“I’m sorry. I—”
“No, you’re right,” Ruby said with a shake of her head. “I keep looking for what I had with Trace.” She smiled ruefully as she swiped at her tears. “What else can I do, baby? At least the man you’re in love with is still around and available. That should tell you something. If you weren’t so stubborn—”
“You don’t know anything about it.”
“Don’t I? I know what that boy did to you. He broke your heart. Just like your daddy broke mine.” Her mother turned away and said, “You want some coffee?”
“No, thanks,” McCall said as she watched her mother go into the kitchen to pour herself what was left of the coffee and reheat it in the microwave.
“Mom, I’m sorry, but I need to ask about my father.”
“Fine, let’s get this over with,” Ruby said as she leaned against the counter and blew on her coffee to cool it. “Then I mean it, McCall, I don’t want to hear any more about him, okay?”
McCall hated this, but she was afraid her mother might have found out about another woman and done something desperate, something she’d regretted all these years.
“All these years I’ve heard rumors, whispers behind my back, about my father. Now I need to know the truth. Was there another woman?”
Ruby put down her coffee, angry now. “You heard Trace chased girls the way some dogs chase cars, right?”
“Is it true? Did he cheat on you?” McCall knew her mother. No way would Ruby have just taken that lying down, and after what Patty had told her, McCall didn’t like what she’d been thinking.
Ruby made another swipe at the tears that brimmed in her lashes. “There was talk. Your father swore there was nothing going on.”
“Going on with whom?”
Ruby
