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Chapter 7

  Jo Beth didn't say a word when Cal opened the door of his truck and heaved himself into the driver’s seat. She didn't need to. Her knees were clamped together and her hands were clasped tightly on top of her fat, frilly pink purse. She was making full body contact with the passenger side door and staring straight ahead out of the windshield. Her body language told Cal he was welcome to go fuck himself without her ever having to open her mouth.

  Cal ignored her. He turned the key in the truck's ignition and was pleased when the V8 engine roared to life in response. The exhaust pipes rattled as he clicked the gearshift into drive. He pressed his foot down hard on the accelerator and was pleased by how quickly the truck lurched into motion.

  Addison was pulling out ahead of him. The gray Ford paused at the edge of the diner's parking lot and waited until there were no cars in view coming from either direction. Addison slid the truck out of the parking lot with its tires screaming as the Chevy filled with white smoke and the aroma of burning rubber.

  “Idiot,” Jo Beth muttered under her breath.

  Cal checked briefly for traffic and then nailed his own accelerator to the floor. The Chevy roared into the roadway. The oversized mud tires were screaming as he held the brake under one foot and slid the truck out across the pavement leaving a pair of black streaks in the road behind him.

  “Good God Calvin!” Jo bounced roughly against the passenger side of the door. “That was stupid. What if there had been a cop?”

  “The only cop around here is Addy. He did it first,” Cal replied.

  “Y'all are both idiots.” Her broad forehead furrowed ominously. “What did he want, anyway? Besides condoms so he could go sleep with our waitress without having to worry about spreading any of the STD's he's already caught.”

  Cal laughed.

  She let out an exasperated sigh. “Did he have a decent excuse for ruining our dinner?”

  “He didn't ruin dinner. He didn't show up until we were just about done.”

  “If I see Addison from behind standing half a mile away it ruins my day.”

  “Is it because he's my friend or because you're the only girl in town that he hasn't slept with?”

  “It's because he's a creep.” She brushed her fingers through her bangs and frowned at him.

  “You seem to be the only girl with that opinion.”

  “You must not talk to very many girls,” Jo shook her head. “Addison has ruined more than a few lives.”

  “I don't know if I'd take it that far.” Cal raised an eyebrow in her direction. “He has a tendency to love-em-and-leave-em but it’s not like they don't know that when they get with him.”

  “You don't do it.”

  “I'm not that kind of guy.”

  Jo smiled gently at him. “I know. That's one of the reasons why I love you so much.”

  Cal bit the inside of his lip. He was thinking about the $6,500 diamond ring that was now in Addison's pocket. He hoped Addison wouldn't pawn it and spend the money on lottery tickets. He hoped Addison would at least split the lotto winnings with him if he did. Cal hit the accelerator harder and rolled down the window intending to clear his head with a blast of cool fall air.

  “Can you roll that up please? It’s too cold.” Jo's ponytail was whipping against the side of her head and she was frowning at him again.

  Cal sighed and rolled the window up partly. “It's stuffy in here.”

  “It wouldn't be if you had a working air conditioner,” she pointed out. “By the way, have you given any more thought about the trade-in sale we're having next month?”

  “Not really.” He patted the Chevy's steering wheel affectionately. “I'm kinda partial to this old bucket of bolts.”

  “You've been driving it since you were in high school.” Jo Beth raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow at him. “The credit union is doing all the financing. I can push your paperwork through for a brand new gas saver car at our lowest interest rate. I can probably even get you the maximum trade value for the truck. You would only have to pay around 20K for the car.”

  “I need a truck for work,” he said flatly. Addison's warnings about Jo Beth and minivans were still fresh in his mind.

  “Y'all have the shop truck for work. I don't want to hear that excuse.”

  “Fine then. I just don't want a car.” It occurred to Cal that conversations like this were exactly why the ring was in Addison's pocket instead of on Jo Beth's finger. Not that Jo Beth's finger was where he'd envisioned that ring going when he'd bought it. The gaudy diamond set in an antique band was exactly Gracie’s style. He'd bought it because it was perfect for her. He'd thought she would come to her senses and take him back. She hadn't. Now everyone in town apparently thought he was going to propose to Jo Beth any day. He really hated living in a small town sometimes.

  “How much are you paying a week in gas right now?” Jo brought him back to the discussion about why he should trade in a truck he loved for a car he didn't want.

  “I can afford it.”

  “Can you, really?” Jo clucked her tongue at him and went into her bank teller/savings manager mode. “Just go with me for a minute here. Let’s just say this truck gets 15 miles to the gallon, which is probably being generous. A small car will get at least 30 mpg. That's being conservative. Most new models are getting 40 to 50 mpg right off the lot. That's a minimum of twice as many miles to every gallon of gas. If you're spending $100 a week in fuel, which I know you are, you would only have to spend $50 with a car.”

  “I never said you didn't have a point.” Cal closed his eyes briefly as he made the turn onto the road that would take them to her house for their weekly movie night. He couldn't even remember what movie it was they were supposed to be watching. He just recalled that it was some ridiculously sad, tragically romantic thing. Jo Beth would cry from the beauty of it and Cal would entertain himself by mentally balancing Walker Hardware's weekly invoices while he watched it.

  “Okay. Go ahead and figure that you can take the extra money you're spending in gas and put it into a high interest savings account or CD. Investing or saving $50 a week will give you a nest egg of $1,200 within 6 months. That is without the interest. Easily $2,500 a year. Figure the car will last you at least 10 years if you take care of it. The car will pay for itself completely just in the amount of money you'd be saving in fuel costs.” She looked at him sideways across the cab of the truck. “Not to mention the cost of repairs. Trading this money pit in on a car would be practical. How many parts have you replaced in the last 3 months?”

  “Maybe I'm not in the mood to be practical.” Cal didn't care that he was being stubborn and surly. “What the heck am I supposed to do with a car during hunting season?”

  Jo paused, thoughtfully considering the options. “Drive your Dad's truck, or Pappy's? You really only manage to shoot something what, three to five times a year?”

  “Something like that,” Cal agreed. Less than that last year. Not that he was admitting to it.

  “Just think of it the same way you did when you quit smoking. It’s a relatively small sacrifice you can make now that will have plenty of long-term benefits. I mean, how much money have you saved since you quit buying cigarettes?”

  “Quite a bit,” he admitted.

  “You're not coughing as much either.”

  “I never said you didn't have a point on the cigarettes.”

  “I have a point on the truck, too.”

  “Yeah, I know. Between your points and Dad's points I'm not going to have any fun left in my life.”

  Jo laughed. She apparently thought he was joking.

  “I'm serious. I can't smoke anymore because smoking is bad for me. Dad's on my ass about drinking because drinking is bad for my liver. Mom's on me about my weight and what I'm eating because she's afraid I'm gonna get pot-bellied like Dad. Not to mention that the extra weight is making my bad knee worse. Now you're on my case because of the truck.”

  “Oh, come on. It's not that bad.” Jo gav
e him her first genuine smile since Addison had put in his appearance. “Everyone just wants the best for you because they love you.”

  “If things get any better for me then I'm moving in with David.”

  “Oh Lord, you wouldn't. Your Mom does have a point about your weight and your knee though.”

  “Watch me.” Cal shot her a devilish smirk. He was only half kidding. “I could eat what I wanted. Drink what I wanted. The truck breaks down? No problem. I'd be living with my mechanic. He hunts out of the backyard too. I'd save plenty of money by not driving out to the lease.”

  “And you would spend hundreds more on gas driving to work every week. David lives just about on the county line.”

  “I figure we could carpool. His Toyota gets okay fuel mileage.”

  “You've been putting thought into this.” Jo eyed him nervously. Worry lines were sprouting across her forehead.

  “I'm almost serious.” Cal leveled her with a look that was less friendly than he had meant it to be. “I'm getting tired of being nagged. I'm practically a candidate for sainthood when you compare me to Addison and David.”

  “Comparing you to Addison and David is like comparing a winning lottery ticket to a two-cent whore and a loaded double-barrel shotgun. You do realize that everyone thinks David is one fifth of whiskey away from blowing this whole town to hell with that sawed-off he keeps behind his seat?” Jo Beth scowled at him, shaking her head in an obvious display of disapproval.

  “I'm not sure I'd put it past him.” Cal shrugged his shoulders. “On the bright side, no one nags David.”

  “No one nags David because no one cares about David enough to nag him. He'd shoot anyone who tried. David is a 23-year old alcoholic who lives alone in a smelly, roach infested, falling-down-dump of a single-wide trailer in the middle of the woods. He's not getting laid. You like getting laid.”

  “You're saying you wouldn't sleep with me anymore if I moved in with David?”

  “I'm saying I wouldn't set foot in David's trailer if my life depended on it and so our sexual activities would be severely limited.” She was only half-teasing.

  “I guess that rules out turning into David. Addison's still getting laid, though.”

  “You're not Addison. Even if you wanted to try to be like Addison, you would fail.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” Cal tried to hide his irritation. He knew damned well he wasn't Addison.

  “Addison could live in a cardboard box on the side of Main Street and not bathe or use deodorant for a week and half the girls in town would still sleep with him.”

  “You're probably right.” Cal snorted back a laugh despite his determination to act surly. “Addison's a whole different beast than the rest of us, huh?”

  “Addison is a monster.” Jo scowled again. “You never did tell me what he wanted tonight.”

  “Oh, yeah. That. You remember Kerry Longwood?”

  “From school? Yes, I remember him. He was a really nice kid but kind of strange. He got picked on a lot. Mostly by David. Kerry and I were lab partners in chemistry my junior year.”

  “He's just moved back to Possum Creek and applied for a job as a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office.”

  “What?” Jo's mouth dropped open and she blinked at him several times. “Kerry couldn't wait to get out of here. He used to talk non-stop about leaving for college and never coming back. He hated this town.”

  “According to Addison, which means we should probably take it with a grain of salt because he heard it from Ian who heard it from the Sheriff, Kerry's come back to get revenge on everyone who ever made his life miserable. He apparently wants to revolutionize the Callahan County Sheriff's department and bring it kicking-and-screaming into the 21st century.”

  Jo paused for a minute, considering. “Good for him,” she said finally.

  Cal stared at her as if she had just taken the Lord's name in vain.

  “What?” she asked. “Someone needs to do something about it. I mean, we practically have two Sheriff's Departments. People who are on good terms with the Sheriff never get into any trouble, regardless of what they do. People who disagree with him get hit with $400 tickets for going two miles an hour above the speed limit.”

  “That's not true.”

  “Really?” She shook her head at him disbelievingly. “When was the last time you got a ticket?”

  “I haven't-. What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Never, right?”

  “Well, no. But.”

  “But nothing. You drive like you're trying to qualify for a NASCAR race. You just did a burn out in the middle of Main Street, and I've seen you race David clear through town going in excess of 90 mph. Yet, you've never gotten a single ticket. Haven't you ever wondered why that was?”

  “Probably because I've gotten lucky and haven't been caught yet.”

  “The only reason you haven't been caught is because Frank Chasson doesn't want to catch you. You're Joshua Calvin Walker, son of Jerry Walker. Your Pappy donates very very heavily to the Sheriff's re-election campaign. It also doesn't hurt that you are one of Addison's best friends.”

  “Addison doesn't have anything to do with it.”

  “You can't really believe that?” Jo sighed exasperatedly. “Chances are high that if you're doing something wrong then Addison is with you. If Frank busted you then he would have to bust his own nephew as well. That's not going to happen because Addison's mother isn't going to tolerate her baby brother the Sheriff making trouble for her precious baby boy.”

  Cal had never thought about it that way. He didn't really appreciate the knowledge either. “If Kerry applies for that job then Frank's not going to be able to hire Ian because Kerry's better qualified.”

  “Once again, so what?” Jo held out her hands in a shrug.

  “What do you mean, so what? You like Ian.”

  “Sure, I like Ian. He's a nice guy. He also can't spell to save his life. He had to take his police training class three times before he passed. Frank might as well be hiring Katie. Katie is the one who does all of Ian's thinking for him. You know that as well as I do. Ian is getting hired for that deputy position for the same reason Addison got hired on as Game Warden. Frank Chasson is handing out favors.”

  “Ian and Addison are both qualified for the jobs.”

  “Barely. The only reason either one of them went to Callahan Community and took the classes was because Frank had promised them jobs before they enrolled. Don't bother trying to justify that one, Cal. You know it’s the truth as well as I do. Hell, Addison will tell anyone who asks that he's the Game Warden because his Uncle asked him if he wanted to be.”

  “You think Kerry should get the job over Ian?”

  “I think that Kerry's a smart guy. He probably has excellent qualifications for the job. I think he deserves to have his hard work acknowledged. You know what it’s like to run a business. Why would you be opposed to hiring the most qualified candidate for a job?”

  Cal frowned but didn't reply as Jo kept talking in an increasingly agitated tone.

  “I've never gotten a job because of a favor. When I applied at the bank they hired me because I had a great GPA and my work references were stellar. They called Mrs. Robertson for a reference, and she told them I never missed work and always did more than she asked me to. It was the truth. I busted my butt while everyone else was out partying on boats and in the woods, but you know what? Never calling in paid off. It's still paying off. I've been promoted twice since I was hired. You know why?”

  “You're a hard worker.”

  “I always go the extra mile, Cal. Mary Jean had to have back surgery last month. Guess who cleaned the bathrooms while she was gone? Not only do I do the things other people don't want to do, I do them with a smile on my face. It may be a fake smile, but people can't tell. No one has ever given me a job because of my last name.”

  He turned and glared at her. The last comment had stung. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
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  She blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “Everyone in town knows that the only reason I have my job is because of my last name.”

  Jo sank back against the seat of the truck, the fire and passion going out of her in an instant. “I wasn't talking about you.”

  “You might as well have been. It's not exactly a secret I work for my Pappy.”

  “It's a family business. You're going to inherit it one day. That's different,” she backpedaled. “You have to know how it works.”

  “It’s a handout. Just like everything else in my life. I get paid 50K a year to work in a hardware store but only because my last name is on the sign. You just said the cops don't pull me over because of my last name. If you really want to think about it, there isn't much in my life that isn't a direct result of being Joshua Walker's grandson.”

  “Cal, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way.”

  “Like you said a minute ago, can't ignore the truth.” He pulled the Chevy into the driveway of her parents meticulously landscaped and maintained double-wide and hit the brakes harder than necessary. Gravel went flying in all directions.

  “Cal.” She put her hand on his arm. “I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. You know that.”

  “I know. It's just-never mind. Can we watch the movie tomorrow?”

  Jo stared at him as if she had been slapped. “You don't want to come in now? I said I'm sorry.”

  “It's not that.” He lied even though they both knew the truth. “I'm just not in a great mood, okay? I need to go cool down for a little while.”

  “Mom's probably baked you a double-chocolate cake.”

  “Your Mom's baking is going to have me so fat I'm going to have trade in this truck for a bus if she doesn't quit soon.”

  “She believes the way to the heart is through the stomach,” Jo shrugged, clearly unhappy that he wasn't cutting off the motor or making any move to get out of the truck. “I've got about 30 lbs. of brownie I could stand to lose.”

  “You look fine,” Cal told her. “I'll give you a call tomorrow afternoon, okay?”

  “You working in the morning?” she asked.