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I had been hoping it wouldn’t have come to that and I sighed. I wasn’t no good at lying, so I nodded my head, knowin’ full well the dishes were still on the table and there wasn’t no lyin’ about him not bein’ up.
“Sure, Hank. He’s real swell, a hard worker if I ever met one.”
I led Hank on back to the house, and at first I got a lil’ worried. Asher weren’t there, and I thought he might’ve gone to hide, which would’ve only made Hank suspicious. But out he came, with a long sleeved shirt on, givin’ a nod to Hank all proper like.
“Morning Sheriff,” he said in his deep, gruff voice.
“Howdy, fella. What was the name there again?” he asked.
“It’s Asher,” he responded promptly, but Hank’s look made it clear a first name just weren’t goin’ to cut it. “Asher Quay.”
“He just started yesterday and already he’s finished off the garden, and gotten started on clearin’ out some rubbish from out back. I wouldn’t be able to do it without him, not by a long shot,” I piped up cheerfully.
Hank smiled at that and nodded.
“Big strong lookin’ fella. Certainly seems like Asher here’s the type to get the job done,” he pivoted upon his booted heels and turned his gaze back to Asher. “Should probably dress lighter’n that though, if yer gonna be workin’ on a day like today, fella. Thick, long shirt like that’ll suffocate ya.”
Nothin’ got past Hank, it seemed.
“Gotta be careful of gettin’ burned, though. If you’re not used to bein’ out in the sun all day you’ll be lookin’ like a lobster in no time,” I joked, but it felt forced.
Hank gave me a polite smile and nodded his head.
“Take care of yaself, Shelby. And know though I ain’t yer pa, you can come to me like I was,” he said, reachin’ out to rest a hand on my shoulder for just a moment. “Have a good one, you two.”
With that he began to walk off, back to his pickup, leavin’ Asher and me in the kitchen together alone once more.
I felt like his hand lifted from my shoulders and left a boulder in its place. I was weighted down from the anxiety, and I looked up at Asher.
I was afraid he was gonna go. That what I was offerin’ wasn’t gonna be worth it to him at all, and I’ll be honest, I’d never been so scared. It was silly, of course. I was a girl who’d lost her pa, and whose ma could barely remember her, so of course I’d been scared and upset before.
But not like that. Maybe it was just because in Asher I saw the first bit of brightness in so long. It weren’t all just physical, though I’d be a damn dirty liar to say that didn’t play a part. But I was intrigued by him, and I didn’t wanna have things messed up so soon.
Asher watched Hank drive off, then took a deep breath that pumped up his big chest.
“I shouldn’t
stick around, I’m already causin’ trouble,” he said at last, and I’d already estimated that was comin’. He grabbed his bag from around the corner of the door and headed off toward the shed where he’d kept his bike. “I’ll work for my meal this mornin’ still, but then I should be goin’.”
“Asher, no,” I said with way more of a whine than I’d intended as I followed after him, still bare footed.
“I’m gonna go sort this all out with Marcus, get him off your back and it’ll be fine. I really could use the company, y’know?”
“And I really like your company. And your cookin’,” he said as we walked on through the sunny mornin’ into the shed. “But I really don’t wanna get wrapped up in the law, and your Sheriff don’t seem like the type to let things go. He’s probably already lookin’ up my name as we speak,” he said, dropping his back by the door and going to his motorcycle.
“So what’s the big deal with that?” I said, hoping once again to find out his secrets, why he was so concerned about people finding out who he was. Not that I’d be any different, not wantin’ a run in with the sheriff in a new town, but he was makin’ a thing of it.
“I’m nobody you wanna be mixed up in anyhow,” he said, and grasped his bike by the handlebars before he froze. A moment later he dropped to his knees and looked over the bike, lettin’ out a curse as he inspected the metalwork.
“Fuck!” he swore again, risin’ up and lookin’ away with his fists balled up in anger.
I had a sinkin’ feelin’ that we hadn’t caught Marcus on the way in, but the way out...
“W-what is it?”
He gave a kick to his bike and pointed down at the machine.
“That fucker,” he said, grittin’ his teeth in anger. “Well I ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon. Not unless you got a motorcycle shop I don’t know about somewhere nearby, and they accept payments in ‘thank yous’.”
