Free Fire - C. J. Box [11]
Joe wondered what he had caught her thinking about.
“You’re dressed up,” Marybeth said to her mother. “Are you going out?”
“I’ve got a meeting in town tonight,” Missy said dismissively.“Just the county arts council thing.”
“My little artiste.” Bud Sr. grinned and reached over and stroked Missy’s shoulder. “Don’t you want some more steak?”
“No, thank you. You know how I feel about red meat.”
Bud shook his head. “She’s as tiny as a bird, my little artiste.”
Now Sheridan coughed in her hand. Marybeth shot her daughter a look.
“Good steak,” Joe said.
“Damned good steak.” Bud Sr. nodded. “Real food.”
“Ees good,” Eduardo said, and Pascal agreed.
Marybeth looked at Joe, her eyes saying, Get me out of here.
On the way back to their house, Joe shone his flashlight on the path and everyone followed him holding hands in a line: Joe, Marybeth, Sheridan, Lucy.
“Come along, my little ducklings,” he said.
“Come along, my little artistes,” Sheridan said. “My tiny littlebirds.”
Joe laughed.
“Sheridan,” Marybeth said sternly. “Don’t mock.” Then: “Joe, you’re not helping the situation.”
“Sorry.”
The stiff grass had a sheath of beaded moisture. It would frost tonight, Joe thought.
“Look,” Sheridan said after a moment, “you don’t have to say anything about what happened today at school. I know I screwed up. I never should’ve taken the bait from that ass Jason Kiner. I’ll never do that again, not because he doesn’t deserve a good ass kicking, but because it embarrassed me and it embarrassedyou. I’m better than that. Okay? Can we drop it now?”
Joe waited for Marybeth to answer. This was her department.
“Okay,” Marybeth said in a way that made it clear the discussionwas over.
“She said ‘ass’ twice,” Lucy whispered, and Joe laughed again. Luckily, so did Marybeth and Sheridan, both relieved that a confrontation had been averted.
As they approached their house, Joe squeezed his wife’s hand in the dark and she squeezed back.
“I know that look in her eye,” Marybeth said later, once the girls were in their rooms, Sheridan doing biology homeworkand Lucy working on another project for Mrs. Hanson.
“What look?” Joe asked from the couch. The file the governorhad given him was in his lap. The woodstove was lit and ticking as it warmed, the television was off. He’d been waiting for his wife to change clothes after they returned from dinner. She hadn’t had time earlier. Even in her worn baggy sweats, Joe felt a zing when he saw her come down the hallway. He liked how she walked across the floor to him. His wife was blond, trim, attractive. Although she was the same age as Joe, when he looked at her he saw the image of the girl he had seen for the first time on the campus of the University of Wyoming, the girl he knew, that instant, he wanted to marry. It was the best decisionhe ever made, and he still felt that he could be exposed at any time as not being worthy of her. She brought a purpose to his life. And he was as crazy in love with her as Bud was with Missy.
“That determined look in her eye,” she said, “combined with the sweater and the pearls.”
Joe finally got it that Marybeth was talking about her mother.
She said, “It’s like a knight putting on his armor or an Indian painting his face. She’s getting ready to take action.”
“What action?” Joe asked, patiently waiting for Marybeth to finish with her theory so he could tell her about the offer.
“I don’t know for sure, but I’m suspicious. I think we’re looking at the opening phase of another round of trading up.”
Joe nodded. Bud Longbrake was Missy’s fourth husband. The first, Marybeth’s father, was a small-time defense attorney in Denver. The second was the owner of a real estate company. The third