“I think I get your meaning.”
“That’s good. You’re smart, Royal.” He pulled a toothpick from his pocket and put it in his mouth. “That might just keep you outta trouble.”
Boyd tipped his head low and walked around Royal to peer into the shadowed interior of the sedan.
“And who’s this in the car with ya?”
“This is Reverend Edwards’s daughter, Lovey.” Royal thought if Boyd knew of Lovey’s connection to the local minister he’d be less likely to say or do something inappropriate. She hoped.
“Miss Edwards?” He leaned into the open window of the sedan, propped on his elbows. He had to push back the brim of the hat so that it didn’t bump the top of the window.
“It’s actually Mrs. Porter,” Lovey answered. She sat ramrod straight in the front seat with her hands folded in her lap. Royal could see her clearly through the windshield.
“Beg your pardon, ma’am?”
“Porter is my married name.”
“Oh, yes, I’d forgotten. I’m well acquainted with your father, Mrs. Porter. And I’m sorry for your loss.”
Boyd obviously knew more about her than she knew about him, but she didn’t recognize him. Her father must have spoken with this man about her return home. But why would her father share personal family details with a man such as this?
“Well now, does your father know that his daughter is taking her life into her hands accepting a ride from Royal?” He gave Royal a cocky sideways look. “Why, Royal here drives so fast along these mountain roads that most of my deputies prefer to just let her pass. They’d rather let her be on her way than risk their own lives in pursuit.”
Lovey didn’t respond. She watched Royal through the windshield trying to gauge her reaction to this man that Lovey had been around for less than five minutes and already didn’t like, or trust. She’d made mention of a husband because she thought it prudent if this man believed she wasn’t alone in the world, unattached, but now she realized he already knew about her husband’s death. What else did he know?
“She’s been a very conscientious driver while I’ve been in the car, Sheriff. But thank you for your concern.” Lovey tried to keep her voice even, despite the fact that she felt protective anger rising in her chest for Royal.
“She’s polite, Royal.” He stood and adjusted his hat before he reached over and pulled at her collar near where the lipstick smudge glowered at Lovey through the windshield. “Your taste in women is improving.”
Lovey felt her cheeks flame hot as he turned and nodded at her through the open window. “Ladies,” he said as he began to walk back toward his car. Before he reached the car, he turned back. “Royal, you tell Wade he better come find me and settle up.”
Royal watched Boyd pull away and drive toward town before she climbed back into the car.
“I’m sorry.” Royal gave Lovey a pained look.
“Sorry for what?”
“Sorry that you had to be part of that.”
“What was that about anyway?”
“I’m not sure. But I’m gonna find out.” Royal put the car in gear and pulled back onto the road.
“He noticed the lipstick on your collar.” Lovey tugged lightly at the soiled collar of Royal’s white shirt.
“Oh, damn. I’m sorry about that too. I hadn’t noticed.”
“It’s okay.” And she hoped it would be. But deep down in the pit of her stomach she feared that Boyd Cotton was not someone who kept secrets unless it suited him or unless he benefited from the secret in some way. She was afraid Boyd might hold this secret over her head like the blade of a guillotine.
Chapter Sixteen
Royal had been so rattled by the encounter with Boyd that she hadn’t made plans to see Lovey again. She’d felt bad that Boyd had tainted the afternoon by whatever he was implying. Royal hadn’t gone to find Wade either. She was in desperate need of a few minutes alone to sort through her feelings.
After dropping Lovey at her house, she’d driven back into town and was now up in her rented room, seated in front of her typewriter. Papers were scattered in disorderly piles, each with a few lines of text or single words.
Royal rolled a fresh sheet of paper into the Corona and hit the return until she was a quarter way down the blank sheet. She took a sip of whiskey and stared at the white space over the black ribbon as the liquor warmly slid down her throat.
She leaned forward and allowed her fingers to hover over the raised keys for a moment before she began to type. The pressure and the recoil of each keystroke was as soothing to her soul as her mother’s embrace. She watched the words slowly reveal themselves, lightly embossed into the previously unblemished sheet.
Sometimes she started with only disconnected words.
Sometimes she began by typing small sets of words, bits of ideas not yet fully formed.
The scarlet hue of virtue.
The slanted, tangled earth.
The insistent heart.
She took another small sip of whiskey before returning her fingers to the keyboard.
Possibility, like a door left slightly ajar.
She thought of nothing and everything at the same time. Her mind hummed with considerations of what might be. She was falling for Lovey. She’d known it the first time they’d kissed. And the more time she spent with Lovey, the more her feelings were confirmed.
Royal leaned forward, her head in her hands, and exhaled a long, slow breath.
Lovey Porter, what have you done to me?
❖
As the seven o’clock hour drew near, Lovey regretted that she’d so quickly agreed to let Joe stop by. Spending a little time with Royal on the drive home had done nothing but confirm her growing feelings. And now she’d put herself in a situation where she was going to have to entertain a male caller, when that
