She lifted dull eyes to his. “Becky came by today.”
“Did she say something to upset you?”
She shook her head slightly, tears brimming within her eyes, and she touched her trembling fingers to his shadowed cheek. “You went to prison for killing Boyd McQueen. I didn’t know. All these years, I didn’t know.”
“All these years? Sugar, you’ve known me less than a year. If I never mentioned his name, it was because I didn’t figure it would mean anything to you.”
“I didn’t know you were innocent.”
“I told you I wasn’t a murderer.”
“I thought you meant you hadn’t killed anyone in cold blood. I thought it had been self-defense.”
“And you married me anyway, thinking I’d killed someone?”
“It was your eyes, your dang blue eyes. They weren’t the eyes of a killer.”
He smiled warmly. “There, see. You did know. You just didn’t listen to your heart. I was doing the same thing with my music. Not listening.”
“They beat you in prison, didn’t they?”
“Loree, that’s all in the past. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve got you and Grant—”
“Who gave you that cut on your back? The one I tended.”
He gave a deep sigh wondering why she was hanging onto this discovery like a starving dog with a bone. “Duncan McQueen. Boyd’s brother. We got into a fight right after I got out of prison. Seems he thinks I should have hanged.”
“Is he the one who attacked you the night of the play?”
“I don’t know who attacked me that night. It was dark.”
“But it could have been him—”
“What does it matter—”
She shot out of the rocker like a bullet fired from a gun and turned on him. “It matters. God, you don’t know how much it matters and you’d hate me if you did.”
She ran into the bedroom and slammed the door. He heard his son give a pitiful wail. Silence quickly followed, and he knew instinctively that Loree had carried his son to her breast.
Right now he wouldn’t mind being held to Loree’s breast, comforted, and loved.
He looked at the sagging flowers in his hand and somehow felt as though they reflected his life.
Austin knocked on the door and waited an eternity for Becky to open it. “What exactly did you tell Loree?”
Becky grimaced and groaned. “I told her we were together the night Boyd was killed.”
Austin cursed harshly and jerked his hat from his hat.
“I thought she knew!”
“Thought who knew what?” Cameron said as he came to stand in the doorway.
Austin watched the blood drain from Becky’s face.
“I thought Loree knew that Austin was with me the night Boyd died.”
Cameron’s cheeks flamed red and he averted his gaze. “Oh.”
