“I do.I like it.Think it’s gonna stick.”
“What are you playing?I don’t think I’ve ever heard you play anything that wasn’t gospel in church.”
“That’s because Wyatt and I were too young to play Earl’s.The only public place we were allowed to sing was church.And now, I perform for an audience of Ham, about a hundred head of cattle, and whatever coyotes can’t dash away fast enough the second they hear me hit a bum note.”
“Will you play for me now?”
“Well, it’s gonna cost ya some more of that cobbler.”
“And that will cost you another trip to SaveCo.”She laughs and then says quietly, “One where I don’t ruin everything.”
“I’ll take you anywhere you want, darlin’, anytime.And you know, just because you ain’t ever had sweet, don’t mean you won’t get used to it.Eddie was an asshole, Dais.Your mama and daddy?They were no good.But that don’t mean that you don’t deserve the world.You just need to let someone give it to you.”
“West?”
“Yeah, Dais?”
“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m really glad my car broke down.”
“Me too.”I exhale slowly.
She sighs.“Some nights, I feel so lonely I can’t stand it.”
“I know the feeling.”I hit the speaker button and set the phone on the table beside my whiskey and strum a couple chords to, “I’m so lonesome I could die”.
“You make it better.”
“Right back at ya, darlin’.”
I slide into Riley Green’s “Don’t Mind If I Do”, and then I play Chris Stapleton’s “Whiskey And You”, and wish she was here on my porch with me.I want her sharing this lounger, her steady heartbeat echoing through my chest, with her back to my front, and my body wrapped tightly around hers.I can’t pinpoint the moment I fell for Daisy-Mae, but as I listen to her softly breathing into the phone, I know I’m head over heels, and I’d give anything to make her mine.
“Get some sleep, darlin’,” I say into the phone, my voice gravelly from whiskey and singing.“I know I’ll be up all damn night.”
Chapter Eleven
Daisy-Mae
