Page 56 of Reckoning

“How long do you want to be loved, darlin’?”

Briar was locked so deep into his gaze that she almost forgot to breathe. “Forever is enough.”

“It has to be, because I’m never givin’ you up,” Tate said, echoing the last line in that stanza.

Then he wrapped his arms around her, settled his mouth on her lips, and kissed her; slow, lingering kisses that became a deep and abiding ache.

The ache stayed with them, long after Briar was gone, and long after Tate had gone to bed.

* * *

A few days later, Lilith drove Tate to Doctor Joe’s to get his stitches removed and stopped at Sparks Grocery on the way home. Lilith hadn’t set foot in that store in years, and yet, she thought just this once, with Tate beside her, there wouldn’t be any issues.

Andy Sparks, Tate’s boss, was elated to see him up and about and was about to ask him if he planned on coming back to work until school started, when Tate’s expression froze.

Even from two aisles over, Tate heard a woman say his mother’s name, and something about witchy ways and hillbilly, and heard the derision in her voice.

Before either woman saw him coming, Tate was suddenly standing between his mother and Bev Harwell, a teller from the bank. The second Bev saw Tate, her whole demeanor changed.

“Tate, it’s wonderful to see you up and around. I know Andy will be glad for your help again. He’s told everyone how you saved him from that bank robbery. We have such turmoil at our house, trying to sort through what the tornado did… I was wondering if you could maybe tell me what happened to my—”

“I heard what you just said to my mother. You need to take your blinders off, lady, look at where you live right now, where all of us live. It is as hillbilly as it gets. We’re down in a holler, between a mountain and a river, with half the town trooping up a mountain every Sunday to listen to an unordained preacher spouting fire and brimstone, and the congregation dumping money in the pot to pay for their sins of the week, then going back down the mountain for Sunday dinner. You are a peck shy of a bushel if you think I’m going to help you find anything after disrespecting her that way. And no…I am not going back to work and bag groceries for the women in this town, because at one time or another, every freakin’ one of you has made my mother cry. So don’t any of you ask me to find anything for you ever again. My mother has groceries to buy, but hers will be the last groceries I bag for anyone here. Now get away from her.”

Bev was red-faced and wishing for a hole to crawl into when Tate turned his back on her as if she’d ceased to exist.

“Mom, give me your list. You push the cart. I’ll get the stuff.”

Lilith put her hand on Tate’s arm, then lifted her head as she handed him the list. “Thank you, son. I need some baker’s yeast. I like Red Star if they have any,” she said, and they walked away, talking as if nothing had happened, leaving Bev Harwell standing.

Andy Sparks overheard all of it and glared at Bev Harwell in disgust. “You just cost me the best employee I ever had,” he muttered, and walked off before he said too much.

Tate calmly finished the shopping as if nothing had happened, and as the items were being scanned at the checkout stand, he was talking and teasing the cashier as always while he bagged their groceries.

Lilith watched, seeing her son in a different light. As they left the store, she slipped her hand beneath his arm and leaned her head against his shoulder.

“I’m about as proud of you right now as a mother can be,” she said.

“And I’m about as pissed as I’ve ever been. I’ll get over it, but that heifer won’t forget it, so there’s that.”

Lilith burst out laughing. “Heifer?”

He shrugged, then grinned. “I’m still hot under the collar. Get in, Mama, and turn that air conditioner up to high.”

She was still laughing as she got in and started the car, then watched as he returned the empty cart to the store before coming back on the run.

His stitches were out, and he was feeling no pain.

Tate Bandy was good to go.

* * *

With the town still trying to pull itself back together, Abel took off an hour every day to go home for lunch, just to satisfy himself Lilith was okay.

He was in the kitchen digging through the refrigerator when he saw Lilith and Tate drive up, so he went out to help. “Did you get those stitches out, son?”

“Yes, sir, I did,” Tate said, and picked up a couple of sacks and went into the house while Lilith was getting out.

“What’s his big rush?” Abel asked, as he got the last two sacks from the trunk.