I trailed off because the atmosphere got thick and I was watching Krystal’s head slowly turn and tip back to look at Bubba.

Uh-oh.

“You take that case?” Krystal asked.

“Darlin’ –” Bubba started.

“You take it?” she snapped.

“I’m not goin’ fishin’ without my Jack,” he declared.

“Fuck me,” she muttered, turned and stomped from behind the bar and down the hall.

I looked at Bubba to see he was watching her go. Then his eyes came to me.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, “I didn’t –”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, gorgeous. She’d eventually find out. She’s already pissed as hell at me. Might as well get it over with all in one go rather than her gettin’ over her ‘tude then gettin’ somethin’ new to have ‘tude about it. Figure you did me a favor.”

“Well, I’m glad you can look at it like that,” I said.

“Bright side of life, Lauren. You live with a storm cloud, you learn to find the bright side,” he replied then followed Krystal.

I looked at Dalton then at Jim-Billy.

“Um… eek!” I said to Jim-Billy.

“You said it,” Jim-Billy muttered.

“Is it like that all the time?” I asked, moving closer to him.

“Chalk and cheese,” Jim-Billy answered. “Bubba’s a good ole boy, laid-back, mellow, all about havin’ fun, not about havin’ responsibility. Krystal’s had it rough, she’s worked all her life, it’s made her hard and she wanted her piece of something that was just hers. Thought she’d get it with the bar, bein’ the boss, not havin’ to eat shit for a livin’. As you can see, she’s still workin’ hard and Bubba’s fishin’. He sees nothin’ wrong with that, not one thing. She does double shifts a lot. I don’t see good things.”

“Didn’t she know –?” I started.

“’Bout Bubba?”

I nodded.

He nodded back. “She knew, Laurie. But he made promises to her, to Tate, he’d tow the line, he’d do his bit, he’d grow up.” Jim-Billy shook his head. “Tate gets in his face, Bubba goes on the wagon but he always falls off.”

I got closer and asked quietly, “Does he like fishing that much?”

Jim-Billy stared at me.

Then he leaned in and whispered, “Honey, he ain’t fishin’.” I didn’t reply and must have looked confused because Jim-Billy went on whispering. “Why you think you broke through that stone around Krystal’s heart and made her take a chance on you?”

“I don’t –”

“He f**ks around, Laurie, with anything that moves, anything that breathes. Off here there and everywhere, partyin’ and gettin’ himself laid. Folks around town call him Bender Bubba. He’s on a bender and anything goes.”

I looked to the doorway of the hall, asking, “Why does she put up with it?”

I looked back to Jim-Billy to see him shrug. “She loves ‘im.”

I could understand that. Many women who hadn’t been cheated on didn’t understand other women who put up with it. When Brad came clean, told me about Hayley, my very first thought was I forgive you. I couldn’t see a life alone. I couldn’t abide a life without him in it. I wanted him so bad and loved him so much, I would have taken him any way I could have him.

He just didn’t want me.

“Poor Krystal,” I whispered.

“Don’t let her hear you sayin’ that,” Jim-Billy whispered back.

I looked at him, bit my lip and nodded.

The door opened and customers came in. I knew them, they’d been in before.

I grabbed my tray, headed their way and smiled, calling, “Hey Steg, Bob, what’s up?”

* * * * *

“Need two Bud drafts,” I said to Krystal as I hit the bar.

“Gotcha,” she replied, turning to nab some mugs and turning back, her hand going to the tap.

I studied her.

There was a lot on my mind, primarily Tate, who was coming to put me on the back of his bike so he could drive me the five blocks to my hotel. Also on my mind was his rampant desire for my safety and willingness to secure it.

His words in the office, though, were flipping me out, scaring me and other, very different things besides. I didn’t get it. I wasn’t certain what happened in there or why it happened. All I knew was that it did.

But now, I was thinking about Krystal.

She put a mug on my tray and went for the other one.

“You okay?” I asked.

She didn’t look at me when she answered, “Yeah, why?”

“Tonia,” I said softly and her eyes slid to me then back to the mug she was filling.

“Girl was a waste of space,” she muttered and I felt my face flinch. Then she went on, “Still, Christ.”

“Yeah,” I said and she put the other mug on my tray.

Then she surprised me by asking, “You okay?”

“About Tonia?” I asked back and she nodded. “No,” I answered.

“No one deserves that,” she stated.

“No,” I agreed. “No one deserves that.”

“Folk sayin’, way she dressed, way she acted, brought it on herself,” Krystal told me.

“Really? People are saying that already?”

“Yep,” she nodded.

“Do they know all that happened to her?” I asked.

“All that happened to her?”

“The, um… thing with her hair,” I explained.

“What thing with her hair?”

I looked at her a second and then muttered, “Nothing.”

She examined me. Then her face changed in a way I couldn’t read.

Then she said, “Tate.”

“What?”

“Tate tell you what happened to her?”

“Um… yeah, he popped by earlier and –”

She cut me off. “No, folk don’t know all that happened to her.” Then she mumbled, “Fuckers.”

“Got that right,” I replied.

She caught my eyes and surprised me again. “Thanks for doin’ the stock take, Lauren.”

“Um… you’re welcome.”