Page 81 of The Second Dance

I shake my head. “You must be the very last grape on the grapevine. Andy and I are kaput.”

He looks at me, then looks at the pasture, and starts laughing. “You keep telling yourself that.”

“I’m serious.”

“Is that why you’re out here busting your ass over a few birds when you ought to be tilling the west quarter?”

“I just wanted to getthisdone and over with so I could move on.” I shove my hands in my pockets. “As for Andy? I’m not going to keep putting myself through the ringer for something that’s doomed to fail.”

The smile slides from his face. “We did have an effect on you, then.”

“You and mom had nothing to do with it.”

“Like hell, we didn’t. We were supposed to set the example, and we fucked it up.”

“Dad, get over yourself. This is my life we’re talking about, not yours.”

“Okay. So, what areyougoing to do to get that girl back?”

“What more can I do? I already put myself out there twice. She’s not interested. I’m trying to take a no as a no.”

“That’s your generation talking.”

“Consent is key.”

He laughs. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s pick this conversation up in fifty years when you’re crying in your beer over the one who got away.”

“Fifty years? You’d be 96. You planning on living that long?”

He throws his truck into gear. “Longer.”

“Lord help us all.”

He barks a laugh. “If she really don’t care about you, that’s one thing. But there’s a difference between moving on and giving up. And son? I didn’t raise no quitters.”

Satisfied at having gotten the last word, he peels off, spraying mud behind his truck. He honks twice just as he’s turning onto the highway.

“Cheeky bastard.”

46.

Andy

Heather leans forward on the little table and looks me dead in the eye. “You do realize this means we have to kill her?”

I laugh, shaking my head.

“I’m kidding.” She laughs. “Mostly. I would like to strangle her, though. Just a teensy tiny bit.”

“Get in line.”

“I always wondered who it was who spread that story around.” She shakes her head. “I figured that dumb ass Tyson Kyle had something to do with it. But that it started with that mousy little friend of yours? Girls are scary. That’s all I can say.”

“I just can’t understandwhyshe did it.”

“Jealousy.”

I shake my head. “What was there to be jealous of?”