POWER BACK

Chapter 35: The Rains

The Rains

February

She opens her mouth like someone just punched her in the stomach, her eyes fixed on the ground, then the distance, anywhere but on her assailant. She looks like she wants to speak but can't get the breath to. She shakes her head, then her gaze shifts to her perfect bare feet.

This doesn't feel real.

"Peyton?" I say. "Please say something."

Say anything. Tell me I'm a bastard for hurting you. For not telling you the truth. Tell me that you're angry, but it will all be okay.

Tell me I'm not alone.

She shakes her head again and raises eyes brimming with tears to meet mine.

Then she turns, walks back through her front door, and closes it softly behind her.

I am alone.

Standing there in in the pouring rain, I wait like a fool, hoping she'll come back out. But she never does.

I climb into my truck and just start driving. The rain isn't as heavy, so I head out to the lake. On the way, I stop at the gas station next to the bait shop.

Looking through the limited beer selection, I finally settle on a case of Lone Star.

I set the beer on the counter and wait for the cashier to come out from the back room.

She hurries out to the front, head down, staring at her phone. When she glances up at me, we both do a doubletake.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't little Jack Chaplin," she says with a mischievous glint in her eye.

It's Elizabeth Walker, Joe's old "friend with benefits."

"Hello, Liza," I say, nodding.

She looks down at my purchase then glances back up at me. "You and me both know you ain't old enough to buy that," she says.

I nod.

"Besides, Joe says you don't drink on account of your dad."

"Been a rough day," I say.

She studies my face. "I guess you're not so little anymore." She picks up the case and scans it.

I hand her the cash.

When she counts out change her fingers brush along the palm of my hand. "Joe coming home anytime soon?"

I shrug. "Not sure."

She smiles. "Well, tell him I said hi next time you see him."

"Will do."

She winks at me before I turn to leave.

I take my case and my pop chair to the dock, then I grab my fishing gear out of the truck and settle in.

I really don't want to go home. Just can't face my parents yet.

All that Bree told me spins through my head like a vortex that takes everything with it. I'm caught in her gale like a sailor at sea.

There's no escape.

But I have to keep moving, ride out the storm and pray I survive.

The foam fizzes through the crack in the pop top of my first beer. The swigs slide down my throat, cold and sharp and bitter.

It fits my mood.

She said she got a positive test result in November, right before Thanksgiving.

"When I told Gram I was pregnant, she thought it would be best if I went and lived with my mom," she said. "Then they hatched a plan to find a couple that would want to adopt my baby."