Box

56

For a split second, I freeze. I think about askin’ Sheriff Boyle what he means, but his meanin’ couldn’t possibly be more clear. He’s starin’ at me with dead eyes, like he’s been drinkin’ all afternoon and come to a snap decision.

“You need to go home, now, Sheriff. Luby’s gonna be worried about you.”

“Luby’ll be just fine, Trudy.”

“You’ve been drinkin’. You shouldn’t be here.”

“You have no idea what it’s been like these two years. Seeing you sashay your sweet little ass all over town, hooking up with this loser or that one, always trying to get away, like our town isn’t good enough for you. Then you hook up with a fuck up like Darrell, your own brother, and now you aim to run off with a guy old enough to be your father, who’s my age, by the way.”

“You need to head on home now, Sheriff, Luby’ll have dinner waitin’ on the table.”

“What have you got for me, Trudy?”

“Excuse me?”

“You give it up for all these losers. I’m the law in this town. I’m the one who protects people. You let a total stranger feel you up at the fence? What about me?”

“You’ve already got a woman, Sheriff. And a fine one, at that.”

He scrunches his face up and runs his fingers through his hair and says, “You send for me to come to the hospital last night like I’m some sort of errand boy, tell me how to run my business. Then you tell me to go fuck myself.”

“Well, I’m sorry about that. I was frustrated. I definitely owe you an apology.”

“You owe me a helluva lot more than that. I’m thinking of something pink.”

“That’s the drink talkin’, Sheriff, not you. You need to think about Luby, and how this sort of talk would make her feel if she heard it.”

“I was there that night you walked out on the football field to accept your award. Homecoming Queen.” He sighs. “Most beautiful girl in five counties. Watching you grow up, seein’ you make one bad decision after the other. I always showed you respect. But the way you treated me last night? I figured if half the town was getting in your pants, the Sheriff might as well get in there, too.”

“First of all, you can count on one hand the men who’ve been in my pants, and when you do, you’ll have four fingers left over. Whatever else you’ve heard is lies and speculation. I’ve done some things I’m not proud of, but Darrell’s the only man I’ve been with in that way.”

“Well, that’s about to change,” he says.

He pauses a few seconds, then bolts out of the chair and comes straight at me.