A short laugh on the other end. "Brother, Marlena saw her cross the gravel from the kitchen window. She had somethin' to say to me about it before I was off the property."
I almost smile. Of course Marlena saw. Marlena sees everything that happens on the central yard from that kitchen window, and Marlena tells Phantom everything she sees.
"What did she have to say?"
"She saidthat girl is gonna be over there before sundown.Then I left, and she was right."
I roll a pencil between my thumb and finger on the desk.
The afternoon light is coming through my front window at the angle it does this time of day.
Phantom waits. He's good at that.
"She put her hand on my arm."
Long silence on the other end. The truck engine cuts out.
I picture him pulling onto the shoulder of whatever county road he's on, the way a man pulls over when he wants both hands and his whole head on the conversation. "How long you been waitin' on that, Rogue?"
"Two months."
"Bullshit."
I exhale through my nose. "Longer than I want to admit."
"There it is."
I don't say anything. I set the pencil down. I rest my forehead in my hand because I don't know what else to do with it.
"What're you gonna do about it?"
"Not a damn thing tonight. She's not ready."
"That ain't what I asked."
I almost laugh. He's right. It isn't an answer. It's a deferment. Phantom knows the difference and he's not gonna let me get away with the soft version.
I lean back again. The leather creaks.
I look at the white hat on the hook by my door, the dishtowel folded on my counter, and I look at the door Hadley walked through an hour ago.
"I'm gonna let her decide what she wants and I'm gonna meet her where she lands."
"Smart man."
"I'm tryin' to be."
He's quiet for a moment. I hear him take a breath and let it out the way Phantom does when he's about to say a thing he means. "Rogue."
"Yeah?"
"Your woman's been worth waitin' for. Just don't wait her out."
The line cuts. He hangs up the way he always does—no goodbye, no sign-off, just gone.
I sit there with the dead phone in my ear.
Your woman.
