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"Of course you are."
"Now why's that?" he asked with no particular interest.
"Because you're obviously an intelligent man, despite your surly manner, and anyone with intelligence can see that I'm a terrific worker."
"What I see is that I need a man."
She smiled sweetly. "Don't we all."
He wasn't amused, but neither did he seem annoyed by her flippancy. There was simply nothing there. "I'm only going to hire a man."
"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that, since sexual discrimination is illegal in this country."
"So sue me."
Another woman might have given up, but Rachel had less than ten dollars in her wallet, a hungry child, and a car that wouldn't run.
"You're making a big mistake. An opportunity like me doesn't come along every day."
"I don't know how to say it any plainer, lady. I'm not going to hire you." He set the screwdriver on the counter, then reached into his rear pocket and pulled out a wallet that had molded to the shape of his hip. "Here's twenty bucks. Take it and get out."
She needed the twenty dollars, but she needed a job more, and she shook her head. "Keep your charity, Mr. Rockefeller. I want steady work."
"Look for it someplace else. What I have is hard manual labor. The lot has to be cleared, the building needs paint, the roof repaired. It'll take a man to do that kind of work."
"I'm stronger than I look, and I'll work harder than any man you'll ever find. Besides, I can also provide psychiatric counseling for that troublesome personality disorder of yours."
The moment the words were out, she could have bitten her tongue because his expression seemed to grow even emptier.
His lips barely moved, and she thought of a flat-eyed gunslinger with a mile-deep grudge against life. "Anybody ever tell you that you've got a smart mouth?"
"It goes with my brain."
"Mommy?"
The drive-in's owner stiffened. She turned to see Edward standing in the doorway, Horse dangling from his hand and lines of worry etched in his face. He kept his eyes on the man while he spoke. "Mommy, I got to ask you something."
She moved to his side. "What's wrong?"
He lowered his voice into a child's whisper, which she knew the man could hear clearly. "Are you sure we're not gonna die?"
Her heart twisted "I'm sure."
The foolishness of coming here on this wild-goose chase once again hit her. How would she support them until she found what she was looking for? No one who knew who she was would give her a job, which meant her only chance lay in finding someone who'd moved here recently. That brought her full circle to the owner of the Pride of Carolina Drive-in.
He stalked to the old black wall phone. As she turned to see what he was going to do, she spotted a tattered purple flyer hanging nearby. Its curled edges didn't conceal the handsome face of G. Dwayne Snopes, the dead televangelist.
Join the Faithful at the Temple of Salvation
as We Broadcast God's Message to the World!
"Dealy, it's Gabe Bonner. A woman's car broke down out here, and she needs a tow."
Two things hit her at once—the fact that she didn't want a tow and the man's name. Gabriel Bonner. What was a member of Salvation's most prominent family doing running a drive-in?
As she remembered, there were three Bonner brothers, but only the youngest, the Reverend Ethan Bonner, had lived in Salvation when she'd been here. Cal, the oldest brother, had been a professional football player. Although she understood he'd visited frequently, she'd never met him, but she knew what he looked like from photographs. Their father, Dr. Jim Bonner, was the county's most respected physician, and their mother, Lynn, its social leader. Her fingers tightened on Edward's shoulders as she reminded herself that she had come to the land of her enemies.
"… then send the bill to me. And Dealy, take the woman and her son over to Ethan's. Tell him to find them a place to stay for the night."
