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escaped to her room unless forced to spend time with everyone.
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JENNIFER JAYNES
Had Tom told her anything about what he d seen? He was a pig,
but surely he wouldn t do that.
Kelsey moved closer. She eyed the open garbage can and the
shards of glass on top.
Rachel readied herself for a quick comeback should Kelsey
remark about her drinking again. Lately, that had been Kelsey s
argument of choice.
 I saw a man in the backyard, Mom, Kelsey said finally.
Rachel dropped the rug.  What? When?
 The other night.
 What? Where were you?
Her daughter hesitated.  In the woods. He was coming from
our yard.
 Why were you in the  Rachel stopped. Kelsey was talking to
her for the first time in weeks. She couldn t put her on the defense.
She needed to know about this man.  Did you recognize him?
 No. It was too dark. All I could tell was that he was tall, her
daughter said, rubbing the back of one of her arms.  Mom, this guy
was creepy.
Rachel reached for the phone on the wall. She was livid. She was
calling the sheriff again. She d file a lawsuit against the department
for not doing more the last time she d called.
 Mom?
 What, darling?
 I, uh . . . she said, then stopped. She gazed into Rachel s eyes,
her eyes almost soft.
Almost.
 There s something else.
Rachel noted that the usual anger in Kelsey s eyes had vanished.
In its place was what appeared to be confusion.
Rachel put down the phone. Was this about Mac? So, Tom had
told her? Suddenly, she felt ashamed.
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NEVER SMILE AT STRANGERS
 What, baby? Go ahead, you can tell me, she said, preparing
herself.
Kelsey s voice was gentler than it had been for over a year.  Why
are you staying with Dad?
Rachel blinked.  What?
 I know what he did. Everyone knows what he did, Mom. And
he treats you like shit. He doesn t come home. He won t even talk
decent to you. So why do you stay with him?
Rachel was at a loss for words.
Kelsey dug her hands into the front pockets of her jeans and
looked down at the floor so she didn t have to meet her mother s
eyes.  You used to be so strong, Mom. What happened to you?
8
Rachel watched the blood swirl down the drain. There was a lot of
it. Too much.
She d cut the inside of her hand picking up a missed sliver from
the broken wineglass. Now she was running cool water over it. The
sheriff was on his way over to take a report from her and Kelsey. All
the windows in the house had been checked, and she d instructed
the kids to keep the doors locked. She still felt they were unsafe in
the house.
She was ashamed. Kelsey s words had hurt her worse than she d
ever been hurt, even by Tom. Her daughter was right. She was no
longer as strong as she d once been.
No wonder the family had grown so far apart.
Now there was this strange man. He wasn t a product of her
imagination. She had to protect her children. She had to do so
many things differently.
She quickly bandaged her hand, then picked up the phone.
Her hand trembled as she dialed a phone number she hadn t dialed
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JENNIFER JAYNES
in a long while. After a few moments, someone picked up on the
other end.
 Mom? It s Rachel, she said, sniffing back tears.  The kids and
I . . . we re going to come out to Phoenix for a while, if that s okay.
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CHAPTER 49
THE NEXT AFTERNOON, Erica sat on the sidewalk outside
Luke s with a grilled cheese sandwich and a cold Coke. She pressed
the chilly can against her forehead and neck.
Red ants swarmed in the cracks of the sidewalk and in the gravel,
busying themselves with a sandwich crumb. She watched them for
a while, until the white glare of the sidewalk grew so intense, she
felt it burning her eyes through her cheap sunglasses. She spread her
slender legs out in front of her and squeezed her eyes shut.
She still was confused by what she d seen two evenings earlier.
When she d stopped at Mrs. Anderson s hoping to ask her a ques-
tion, Mac s truck had been parked in front of the house. She had
been mildly curious when she first saw the truck, but as it grew later,
she thought it even more bizarre for him to be there, especially since
Tom Anderson didn t appear to be home.
While she waited, she found a swing set in the backyard. It was
bathed in darkness, and she was confident she wouldn t be seen. She
sat on the swing and watched the house long after the lights had
gone off.
Were they having an affair?
No, they couldn t be.
JENNIFER JAYNES
It just didn t make sense. She thought about Haley.
The rumble of an eighteen-wheeler grew closer, and she opened
her eyes. The rig pulled into the gravel lot, and after some rattling,
the engine cut off. The trucker stepped out into the dust the rig had
kicked up. He grinned at her.
Through her sunglasses, she glared back.
Why were men such children? Especially truckers, who would
flirt with anything that moved. Had they always been such horrible
flirts? What came first, she wondered, the urge to flirt or to drive big
trucks?
 Howdy, the man said, walking up to the building. He tipped
a baseball cap and smiled.
She kept her eyes narrowed until he walked past, her lungs
filling with diesel exhaust and dust. She closed her eyes again and
wished to be in the city, where her mother was. There, the air burst
with exotic food aromas blending with the exhaust of stop-and-go
traffic. There wasn t an ounce of back-road country dust in sight.
Everyone would be different there. They d even be celebrated
for it.
And Erica knew that she d finally fit in.
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CHAPTER 50
HALEY GRABBED A cane pole for fishing from its place in
the overgrown, wasp-infested monkey grass and stepped cautiously
onto the small rectangular pier behind Erica s house.
Most of the families in Grand Trespass lived on lots that backed
up to the bayou. Most had small piers, splintering and warped from [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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