Page 56 of Married With Lies
“Hardly feel it.”
“Good for you,” she says and turns her attention to Peggy. “I need to drive into town. I’ve got an order to pick up at the feed store and Jasper made plans with his friends this afternoon so he needs a ride home.”
“Take your time,” Peggy says. “Everything is under control.”
I stand up. The dogs begin barking so I need to wait until they’re finished before speaking. “I’ll go with you for the drive to town.”
“What for?” Sadie says, climbing to her feet.
I don’t have a good reason. I just want to look at something besides the ranch. “Maybe I’ll buy some souvenirs.”
Sadie is so easy to read. Right now she’s irritated. Her cute mouth pouts for a second and then she sighs with resignation. “All right. But you might want to grab a sweatshirt first.”
“Don’t have one.”
“You don’t have a sweatshirt?”
“No.”
“You can borrow one of mine.”
“Are you serious?” I wouldn’t be able to get one arm into one of Sadie’s shirts.
She shrugs. “It’s worth trying. My clothes all run baggy.”
“That is unfortunately true. But your clothes will never fit me. It’s a nice sunny day outside. I’ll live without a sweatshirt.”
“But the high today is only fifty degrees.” She seems genuinely distressed at the possibility I might shiver. It’s annoying.
“Well, we can stand around and argue about it all fucking day or we can go.”
“Hey!” Peggy bangs a wooden spoon on the counter. Then she waves the thing at me. “Don’t you use that filthy language in here.”
“Sorry,” I say, wondering if she’d hit me with the spoon if I’d said something else.
Peggy keeps the spoon in the air while I take my dishes to the sink. “Leave them,” she says. “No doubt you’ll wash them all wrong and I’ll need to do it all over again.”
I have no special skills when it comes to dishwashing but I think I could manage not to screw up the task. I have a feeling this line of argument won’t work with Peggy.
“Thanks for breakfast,” I say to her.
Peggy lowers her spoon and sniffs. “You just watch yourself, young man.”
“I’ll do my best.” I nod at Sadie. “Ready to go?”
She sighs. “We might as well.”
16
CALE
Sleepy Rock is a postcard, the sort of place where the Hallmark Channel of Lifetime Whatever movies are filmed.
Not that I’m knocking the setting. Far from it.
Center Street, the main drag, is a narrow thoroughfare lined with charming pastel-colored buildings, none of them higher than two stories. At one end is a really old building that looks like a courthouse. In front of the courthouse, a banner stretched between two pine trees promises that there will be square dancing on Friday evening.
Sadie insisted on driving her pickup truck so I’m wedged against the window of the cab beside Jasper, who talks a lot.