Page 26 of Shane
“Local news said Finch got one shot off.” Shane dropped his arm to take hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him. “My God, where’d he shoot you?”
“It was nothing. I was wearing a vest. I survived. It happens. Let it go.”
“Where?” he persisted.
She tapped her chest up high on her breastbone, damned near the hollow of her throat. “Here. Nothing to worry about.”
“Hey, guy-zzzz!” Butch hollered, dragging that last word into two, long, annoying syllables. “Enough whispering. I ain’t dumb, ya know. If you’re gonna talk about me, do it louder.”
Everlee took hold of both Shane’s wrists. “Would you mind if we went somewhere else?”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. “You bet.”
Like a man on a mission, Shane escorted Everlee back to his truck, opened her door, put his hands around her tiny waist and lifted her up over the running board and onto the passenger seat. “Sit back,” he told her as he deftly reached around grabbed hold of her seatbelt, and fastened it snugly.
She sat there smiling down at him, a funny glow in her eyes. “Jiminy Christmas, Shane. What’ll your dogs think?”
“You like ice cream?” he asked instead of answering her silly question. His dogs only ever got the back seat. Riding shotgun was for someone special and here she was.
“Doesn’t everybody?”
“I know a place.” For some crazy reason he couldn’t explain, Shane’s face cracked into a big grin. It’d been so long since he’d really smiled that it almost hurt. He peered around the back of Everlee’s seat to his girls and asked, “Want a treat?”
Molly and Dolly both let loose excited yelps, and Everlee laughed. She probably couldn’t help it because the enthusiasm of those two crazy dogs was contagious. Shane ran around his truck, climbed in, and threw one arm over the back of his seat. Deftly, he backed his rig out of Arlington Heights the same way he’d driven in, and he and Everlee left What’s-His-Name screaming his guts out in the rear parking lot.
For a day that had started out embarrassing as fuck, it was ending pretty great.
Chapter Nine
“He’s not even a veteran,” Everlee told Shane. “Butch never served anyone but himself, and he’s been an addict for years. He’s a thief. Stolen valor. None of those medals he’s wearing are his, neither’s the uniform. His mom probably bought the stuff for him at the Army/Navy surplus thrift store. She’s an enabler, treats him like he’s still her baby boy. Guess that’s what happens to moms when they only have one kid.”
“Not so,” Shane said quietly. “I was my mother’s only child, but we were always a team, the two of us. It was us against the world, and I’m no baby.”
That was for sure. “Where’s your dad?”
“Don’t know. Mom never said. He left when I was a little kid.” Shane shrugged like that was no big deal. “How about you? Did you live in Washington all your life before you moved here?”
“Yes, born and raised. Lived in Fife with my parents until I joined the Air Force. First assignment was JBL, Joint Base Lewis McCord. Married badly, as you just saw.” She ran a hand through her bangs, then over her head to the back of her neck. “Divorced quickly. Had a chance to start over at JB Elmendorf-Richardson up north, so I took it. Best decision I ever made.”
Well, second best. Leaving home was first, always would be. But there was no way she’d ever tell Shane why she’d really joined the Air Force, or how thrilled she’d been to finally put on Air Force blues. The day she’d enlisted was the day she’d put the past behind her, and in the process, gained a real family she could rely on, and saved herself. All those Disney princesses had it wrong. Waiting around, pining for some Prince Charming to stumble by was stupid. Smart women did not do that.
“You liked Alaska?”
“Loved it. I’d go back in a second, but there’s not much decent work for civilians up north, and nobody has benefits or pays as good as Alex.”
“So now you run down bad guys.”
It might’ve seemed like a trite thing to say, but Everlee caught the ring of pride in Shane’s statement. “Yes, and I’ll do it again, anytime, anywhere. Finch had it coming. He killed two little kids while fleeing arrest. Just ran them over like they were garbage in his way. No slowing down. No remorse. And they were in a school crosswalk! The bastard was on the street selling his shit the same freakin’ night.”
“That’s something to be proud of, what you did.”
“Well, of course. And I am. I’m not always a klutz, you know.”
Shane slowed his truck, then turned into the overflowing parking lot of a small barn painted white and black, Holstein cow colors. The neon sign in the shape of a giant ice cream cone that commandeered the peak of the barn declared: Farmer Boyz. Best Ice Cream in the State.
Strings of Christmas-colored lights glowed from the eaves, outlining the repurposed barn in dazzling reds, blues, yellows, and greens. Even the black spinning rooster weathervane at the uppermost point of the roof was fitted with tiny, sparkling white lights. A small crowd waited patiently in lines at the four front windows.
“Sit tight,” Shane said as he pulled around the building to the opposite side.