“You can take the skins outside to feed to the chickens,” Granny replied. Dahn nodded, grabbed the bucket of skins and pits, and ran outside to call the chickens. Everyone seemed rather stuck on the fact that Ollie had arrived at the same time I did. I didn’t say a word to erase the curious looks my brothers and Bella kept throwing my way. Let them guess. It would do them good not to know every damn thing that took place in a Bastian’s life.
Dahn barreled back inside. “They loved the skins! Dad and Sheriff Ollie had a coffee date today while I was making new friends at the rec center. Dad said I could shoot woodchucks if you taught me how, Uncle Baker. Can I have another peach?”
No one replied to my gabby son as they all were gaping at me and Ollie. Okay, well, I guess there really werenosecrets at Bastian Acres.
4
Chapter Four
The following Sunday we gathered together in the kitchen for breakfast before putting on our Sunday best to head to church. Granny was doing her best to show her four less than pious grandsons that taking a few hours for the Lord was enjoyable. Personally, I’d never been much of a religious man, preferring science over fantasy, but it was a good thing for Dahn to be exposed to the faithful sects as well as the agnostics/atheists so he could decide for himself what path he chose. Religion was a personal thing. So, wearing a tie, dress shirt, a suit jacket, and freshly pressed jeans, I slid into my best boots and offered Bella an elbow as we filed out into the steamy August morn.
“You look quite summery,” I said as I escorted her to my SUV and opened the door for her.
“Thank you. This lemon sorbet chiffon is just so beautiful! Granny bought it for me at the fabric shop in town a few weeks ago when we went to visit her friends in the nursing home. I’msure it was far too expensive, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Ah, visit meaning playing poker in the community room,” I teased as she climbed up and tucked her flowy dress around her slim legs.
“Yes. Something about one of the ladies was having a bad time with lumbago, so they held the game at the Lilac Hills Home for Independent Living. I got to sit in for a hand. I lost all my silver buttons. Those women are card sharks!”
Dahn jumped into the back, minus his tie but otherwise dressed nicely and still clean. “I got Pretty Petunia to take five steps with the collar!”
“Oh, well done!” Bella exclaimed from the front. “When we get home, we can change into play clothes and practice twirling. Your first class is tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, it is. At eleven. Hey, Uncle Linc, are you riding back here?”
Linc, looking like a cat stuck in a rainstorm, crawled into the back to sit behind me. His knees were an inch from being pressed into his chest. The crew cab wasn’t all that roomy, especially for a man of his size.
“I am, yes,” Linc grumbled and slammed the narrow door shut. Bella and I exchanged a look, and I closed her door. Jogging around the front, I waved at Baker rolling off to town with Granny and Ford. Hanley was off scouting for eagle nests and other signs where he could capture them fishing along the river in the rain creeping our way. I jumped behind the wheel, moved the seat up as far as it would go, and asked if everyone was buckled. “No, I am not.”
A small bit of a tussle broke out in the back as Dahn did his best to help his uncle snap his belt into place. Finally, after some heaving and hawing, they got the belt out enough to fit over Lincoln’s broad chest.
“We good?” I asked, placing my hat on Bella’s lap and peeking into the rearview.
“Perfect,” Linc muttered, sounding as if everything were far from perfect. He could have ridden in the big truck with Baker and made Ford ride in the back. Sure, it was highly illegal, and Ollie would probably cite Baker for it if he saw it, but everyone out here did it. In my months in rural Oklahoma, I’d seen everything from a bison to a set of twins on bikes in the back of a pickup.
I cranked up the AC so Bella and her pretty, curled hair would stay cool. The stereo was preset to a soft rock subscription channel. Hall & Oates were crooning about a maneater as we drove past acre after acre of cornfields. These must be commercial cornfields for livestock feed, as most sweet corn had already been harvested.
Bella was in the middle of telling us about a man back in New York named Corny when she gasped as if seeing a ghost out the window. I slowed instantly, assuming she sighted an animal about to leap out in front of us. I didnotwant to plow into a deer or an antelope. I’d only made two damn payments on this car. Light truck. Whatever.
“What?!” I asked, slowing to a halt before a cow lumbered out of the cornfield. My sight darted around frantically, but the only thing I saw was a scarecrow about forty feet from the road wearing an indigo dress. “Is it a cow? Deer? Bison? Dog?”
“My dress,” Bella whispered, pointing at the scarecrow with a shaky finger. “That’s…that’s the dress one of the women who came to the boutique bought.” She was on the verge of tears, her glossy lower lip trembling. “I worked so hard on it…”
She began to cry softly, burying her face in her hands. A wave of anger swept over me. What kind of horrible person did something like that to a sweet, kind woman like Bella? I wanted to rage at someone, preferably the ass who used that pretty frockfor a fucking scarecrow but now was not the time to vent at the injustices of this world. I hurried to pull out my hankie and hand it to Bella.
The three males in the vehicle said nothing for a long moment. Seemed none of us quite knew how to handle a weeping woman. The longer she wept, the more irate I became at the sods who did this. Surely that had to be some kind of hate crime…
“It’s pretty,” Dahn finally said, which broke the silence. Linc and I both started trying to console her as best we could. It took her a moment to gather herself, but once she had, her chin came up defiantly.
“It’s fine. She paid me for the dress. What she does with it after she leaves my shop is between her and the dress. Let’s keep driving, please.” Bella dug into the little clutch she had to pull out some lipstick. I glanced at Linc, who nodded sadly, so we rolled on. Bella dabbed at her eyes, reapplied some mascara and gloss, and looked like a billion dollars when we arrived at church. With her head held high, she took hold of Lincoln’s arm—I would have offered the lady mine but my brother nearly knocked me into the next county to get to Bella first—and paraded into the stuffy chapel like a princess on the arm of her prince.
“Why did the lady buy the dress for a scarecrow? I thought they wore old clothes?” Dahn quietly asked before Ford, Baker, and Granny arrived. A blessing really because I wasn’t sure I could give him a good answer. Because people are assholes didn’t seem a fitting reply. He forgot his question quickly as he marched inside. He waved at a small cluster of boys about halfway down the aisle of pews. They waved back and motioned for Dahn to sit with them.
He turned big brown eyes to me. “Can I, Dad?”
“I think you should sit with family. After the service, you can hang out with your new friends.”
He moped for a few minutes, shoulders slumped, arms folded, seated beside his great-grandmother. Once the sermon began, he nodded off several times. As warm as it was in here, I was tempted to doze off as well. Thankfully, the pastor kept it short, and with a fast blessing, we were able to pile out to catch a hot breeze.
