Last of the Dixie Heroes Read Online Free PDF Page B

him, standing behind his chair, close. “Crystal. I’ve been thinking about Crystal Crick lately.” She touched him, very light, on the back of the neck, sent another jolt through him, this one with cold tingles at the end.
    “What are you doing, Marcia?”
    “What I want,” she said, her fingers trailing down under his shirt collar. “What you want too, I hope.”
    He turned and stood up, breaking contact. “I don’t understand,” he said.
    She raised her hand, as though she were about to lay it on his chest, but didn’t. “You took over today.”
    “I’m his father.” Roy would have stepped back, but the table was there.
    “He’s a lucky boy.” Marcia’s hand came down on his chest, her fingertips twisting around a button.
    What was going on? Roy looked in her eyes, learned nothing. All he knew was that she’d met Barry at a conference seven months ago, left Roy a few weeks later, and their divorce had come through last week. She’d always been decisive, long as he’d known her.
    Marcia tilted up her face. “Give me a kiss, Roy.”
    “Why?” Roy said.
    She paused. “Why?” she said. “Don’t you want to?”
    “But what’s it for?” Roy said.
    Marcia wrinkled her forehead in a way that was new, made him wonder if confusing things were happening in her life, made him feel a little sorry for her. “What’s a kiss for?” she said. “Is that what you’re asking?”
    “What’s this kiss for?” Roy said.
    She stepped back. “You don’t like me much anymore, do you?”
    “It’s not that,” Roy said. “But what about Barry?” And a hundred other things, but that one came first.
    “Do we have to talk about him?” Marcia said.
    Roy didn’t understand. In this very room, at almost the same time of night, she’d said:
I never dreamed I could feel this way about a person
. Meaning about Barry: that was the night Roy had first heard of him.
    “We do,” Roy said.
    Marcia’s eyes filled with tears. She wasn’t a crier. “No one can ever make a mistake in your world, is that it?”
    A mistake? Had it all been a mistake? “What kind of mistake?”
    “Oh, Roy, don’t badger me. I’m so tired I can’t hardly think right now.”
    “Does this mean you and Barry aren’t getting—”
    Marcia started crying, just as he was thinking, She doesn’t look tired, she looks great. But then she didn’t look great anymore, with the tears, and her face all blotchy.
    “I deserve this, you not caring anymore,” she said, or something like that, it was hard to distinguish the words.
    Roy’s arms came up. His hands opened. They curled around her upper arms. He pulled her in.
    Marcia cried against Roy’s chest. Maybe it would have been all right if they’d left it at that, but one thing led to another.

    Something buzzed in the night. Roy woke, turned on the light. Marcia was sitting on the edge of the bed, her back to him, bent over, fumbling through clothes on the floor. She straightened, put her cell phone to her ear. The buzzing stopped.
    “Hello?” she said.
    She listened. “I don’t know any Grant—” she began, stopped. “Oh, I didn’t recognize you without the doctor part. Why, yes, thank you, I’m fine.” She listened some more, said, “Same to you,” clicked off.
    Marcia turned to Roy. For a moment her eyes didn’t appear to be seeing him at all; then they did, although the look in them seemed a little funny, maybe too thoughtful for the middle of the night.
    “Barry?” Roy said.
    “Don’t be silly, Roy. That was the doctor.”
    “What doctor?”
    “Why, Dr. Nordman, the lip doctor. Doing his post-op check.”
    “Isn’t it a bit late?”
    “He just got out of surgery.”
    They looked at each other. He waited for the return of the expression he’d seen in her eyes before they fell asleep, a look not unlike the one she’d had on that trip down Crystal Creek. It didn’t come back.
    “Who’s Grant?” he said.
    “Dr. Nordman’s Christian name. That’s why I