The day once again had brought with it the warm temperatures of Indian summer. Sweat poured down his back and ran into his eyes as he worked. The hard labor kept him from thinking too much about Billy Joe Hunt, who had arrived a half hour before and started issuing orders like the controlling, domineering old coot he was.
Even though Richard knew that a number of people who knew their history were watching to see what would happen between him and Billy Joe, Richard couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the man. Billy Joe looked his age now, which had to be late fifties. He had a paunch from too much moonshine and too many barbecued ribs. His hair, which had gone gray over the past ten years, was clipped marine-cut short so that almost none showed beneath his baseball cap. His blustering, arrogant voice carried on the still morning air.
Only once had Billy Joe looked over to where Richard worked. Their gazes had clashed for no more than a heartbeat, but Richard had felt old hatreds welling up inside him. Swinging his hammer with vengeful force, he had split the next piece of wood he’d tried to hammer into place.
“Easy there,” Luke had called over to him, his expression sympathetic. “I know you and Billy Joe have some things to work out, but today’s not the time to go bringing it up. We’re here to do a job.”
Luke’s placating tone irritated him. “You say it as if we squabbled over an old toy. Damn it, that man was single-handedly the cause of my mother’s death,” Richard blurted, his rage as fresh now as it had been some fifteen years earlier when he’d learned who’d been responsible for the cruel rumors that had destroyed his mother’s will to live. “You can’t honestly expect me to put that aside.”
“Yes, I can,” Luke said stubbornly. “Just for today, Richard. We’ve all got to pull together. Everybody in town knows what kind of bully Billy Joe Hunt is. He has a wicked tongue and a hard heart, but he does know how to build just about anything. That’s why Anna Louise went to him. She knew we needed his expertise.”
Richard didn’t want to hear what a paragon of building know-how Billy Joe was. “Too bad nobody seemed to recognize the rotten side of his nature fifteen years ago, when he made my mother the target,” he retorted bitterly.
“There are a lot of people in Kiley who regret what happened back then. Many of them were too quick to judge Janie Walton.”
“They believed a man like Billy Joe over her, just because he was a local boy and she was still considered an outsider even after living here for nearly fifteen years. My mother died because of the way she was shunned by everyone she’d thought of as friends and, not long after, my father gave up himself. It just took another two years for the depression to get so bad he killed himself.”
He heard a sharply indrawn breath just then and looked around to see Anna Louise staring at him, an expression of horror on her face. Tears had welled up in her eyes. “I didn’t know,” she whispered. “If I’d known, I would never have called on him to help.”
Richard fought for control over his temper. He didn’t want to get into this with Anna Louise. He didn’t want a lecture on forgiveness. “Like Luke said, it was a long time ago,” he stated with cold matter-of-factness. “Let’s get this recreation hall built and I’ll deal with Billy Joe in my own way, in my own time.”
“Please, tell me what happened,” she begged.
He saw the compassion in her eyes, heard it in her voice, but he couldn’t speak. The ache in his chest hurt too badly. “Not now, Anna Louise,” he muttered gruffly. “Just keep him away from me.”
* * *
To Anna Louise’s relief there were no confrontations between Richard and Billy Joe Hunt the rest of the day. Apparently fully aware that he could be the cause of a quick explosion of Richard’s hair-trigger temper, Billy Joe had steered clear of him. Work on the recreation hall had proceeded at a brisk pace, with music blaring from radios and cheerful banter among the men.
Still, Anna Louise had kept a wary eye on Richard, worrying herself sick about the anger and hatred she had heard in his voice and even more about the anguish she had seen in his eyes. How could he ever expect to find peace inside himself, if he couldn’t find forgiveness?
At least she finally had some inkling about what had driven him away from Kiley. She might not know all the details, but she knew enough to guess that he’d blamed the whole town for the loss of his parents and that he held Billy Joe Hunt responsible for stirring up whatever had happened.
When dusk fell, Richard was apparently the first to leave the building site. She looked everywhere for him as the others began making their way toward Tucker Patterson’s store where chili and sandwiches had been prepared for the workers.
“Have you seen Richard?” she asked Luke Hall when he passed her on the road.
“Look for him out by Willow Creek,” he suggested. “That’s where he always used to go when he was hurting. I doubt that’s changed.”
Her heart heavy, Anna Louise walked up the hill to Maisey’s, bypassing the house as she made her way to the creek behind it. As much as she would have liked to have Maisey’s spin on things before she talked to Richard, Maisey had made it clear that any answers on this touchy subject would have to come from Richard himself.
A full moon, rising fast, lit the way. A breeze had picked up, chasing away the last of the Indian summer warmth and replacing it with bitter cold. She pulled her jacket more tightly around her and wished she’d thought to stop for a
