"My boys clean the barn. Bleach. Power-wash the concrete. By tomorrow afternoon there's nothing here."
Phantom nods. "All right. We’ll get out of your way. You handle it."
We walk out of the barn the way we walked in, through the live oaks and back to the trucks.
Roan drives his F-350 back to the clubhouse. Phantom drives ours. I'm in the passenger seat. Banshee in the back.
Nobody talks for the first hour.
Around Sweetwater, Phantom looks at me as we pull off an old back road and rip the wrap off the truck. "Spur."
"Yes, Prez?"
"You good?"
"I'm good."
"You sure?"
"I told her I'd come home to her, Prez. I’m pretty damn sure it can’t get any better than that."
He nods and we get back in the truck.
I look out the window at the brush country going by in the late afternoon light.
The mesquite is throwing long shadows now. The sun is coming down behind the western horizon.
We pull through the gate of Sharp at sundown.
The whole property is on the porch of the main house. Marlena at the door with Cal on her hip. Grace beside her with Waylon. Bex sitting on the porch swing with a coffee. And Dakota at the top of the porch steps in jeans and one of my flannels, her hair loose down her back.
I get out of the truck before Phantom has it in park.
I cross the gravel, climb the porch steps two at a time.
She's already coming to me.
I catch her against my chest. Her arms go around my neck and her face goes into my throat.
She's not crying, she's holding on, the way a woman holds on to a man who came home to her when she didn't know if he would. "Spur."
"Yeah, baby."
"It's done?"
"It's done."
She holds me tighter.
Banshee finds Bex on the swing.
I lift Dakota off her feet and carry her into the main house and up the stairs to the back bedroom.
I close the door behind us.
Asher Addison is in pieces in a hog pen a few counties away. The Lyle family is in this house, all in one piece. My woman is in my arms.
I lay her down on the bed and climb in beside her without taking my boots off, and we hold onto each other.
