“All three?”
He nods.
“How did you know where I was?” I say, keeping my voice low.
The waitress appears and sets my coffee down. They’re still using the same mugs.
“It’s still Folgers,” he says.
“You heard my question,” I say.
Hesighs, leaning back in his seat. It’s hard to believe he’s real after years of him living only in my memory. But here he is, flesh and blood, with the same face, the same drowsy existence, like nothing phases him.
“You said you wanted to be a cowboy,” he says. “I looked west. It wasn’t hard to find you.”
“Who told you?”
“You sleep with a lot of women, Jen. One of them was bound to talk.”
“Jesus.” I look out the window. “That’s invasive.”
He’s quiet until I force my eyes back. His expression is soft.
“I still love you like my own blood,” he says.
“I’m disappointed you didn’t die,” I say. “I’m sure you had ample opportunity.”
His face splits into a lazy grin. “Still a funny guy, huh?”
My mind goes back to what I said to Della about her being funny because she’s fucked up. That’s another thing she and I have in common. I take the photograph out of my pocket and slap it down on the table.
“You dropped this,” I say.
He picks it up. “Guess this doesn’t mean anything to you?”
“No,” I say. “And it was pretty low sending it with her.”
“So you like her, though?”
“Don’t talk to me about Della Caudill,” I say.
His grin flashes again. “I thought you might.”
I take a beat to calm down. “Actually, how about you talk about her? Why did you send her to me? You could have done this yourself.”
He shakes his head. “The Caudills are more powerful now. Matthew Caudill is dead, his son, Leland, is encroaching on my territory. They’re backing me into a corner, slowly.”
I study him. Of course, an ulterior motive. “So you’re gonna kneecap him by helping his wife take his son?”
“Yeah, something like that,” he says. “I thought you might want to help, given what the Caudills did to you.”
I narrow my eyes. “You can’t manipulate me the way you used to.”
“I never did—”
I lean in. “Yes, you did,” I say. “We sat right here at this table, and you convinced me it somehow wasn’t your fault that Holly did that shit to me. And I fucking believed you.”
“Everything I said that day was the God honest truth,” he says.
