“Why didn’t you go into the house?” Booker asked. “Isn’t Delbert home?”
“I guess not,” Travis told him. “I rang the bell, but no one answered.”
“Delbert likes to play pool. He’ll be along.” Booker nodded toward the front door. “Let’s go inside where it’s warm.”
Katie followed her brother and Booker into the house. She was thinking she should probably call her parents, have them come and get Travis, but she didn’t particularly want to talk to them after the way they’d treated her. She knew her brother wasn’t going to be happy with that course of action, either. Only she didn’t have a lot of alternatives. She didn’t have a car to drive him home herself, and she was already a guest in Booker’s house. She couldn’t invite him to stay with her.
“Wow, you really are pregnant,” Travis said, focusing on her stomach the second Booker flipped on the light.
“I’m not that big,” Katie said. From the corner of her eye, she saw Booker grin and thought he mumbled something like “yet,” but Travis drew her attention back to him before she could respond.
“It’s just…I couldn’t picture you…like this,” he said. “Mom and Dad have been bitching about you having a baby for weeks now, but I haven’t seen you once.”
“Bitching, Travis? Don’t talk like that.”
“I didn’t think you were a Goody Two-shoes anymore.”
“I’m the same person I was.”
“Why haven’t you called me?”
“I didn’t want to upset Mom and Dad.”
“Well, you did the right thing. Mom and Dad wouldn’t have let us talk, anyway. They told me I’d be grounded for three weeks if I had any contact with you.”
“They obviously don’t mind any more,” she said. “They’ve practically chased you into my arms.”
“They don’t understand anything.” He peered at Booker as though expecting him to agree with this defiant statement, but Booker said nothing.
“So.” Travis shoved his hands in his pockets and shifted nervously on his feet. “You don’t mind if I stay here tonight, do you?”
Katie refused to look at Booker. “Um…I don’t know…let me…well, you see…” She took a deep breath. “Why don’t you go watch TV in the living room while I talk to Booker?”
“Okay.”
Travis left the kitchen, and Katie waited for the television to go on before braving a glance at Booker. When she finally turned, she found him leaning against the cupboards, his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans.
“I know this doesn’t look good,” she said. “But I think, if we let Travis stay the night, I could probably work things out with my parents in the morning.”
“Because the three of you are so close?” he said, wearing a pained expression.
“No, of course not. But this situation is a little different from mine. I mean, I’m an adult. My parents had every right to turn me away. Travis is only fourteen, and—”
“He can stay,” he said.
“Surely they’ll see that—” Katie had been so busy thinking of what to say next that it took her a moment to realize she didn’t need to say anything at all. She’d already gotten what she wanted.
Booker scooped his keys off the counter. “I’m going into town to see if I can find Delbert. He and Bruiser should’ve come home by now. I’m thinking he might not have been able to get a ride.”
He let Travis stay that easily? And he was going into town after Delbert?
Katie covered her mouth to hide the fact that she was tempted to laugh. She’d always considered Booker so dark and mysterious, so dangerous and unreliable. He was an ex-con. Who would’ve guessed he had a heart too soft to turn anyone away? First Delbert and Bruiser, then her, now her little brother…
He squinted at her suspiciously. “What?”
“Nothing,” she said, but her lips were twitching so badly, she couldn’t hold back any longer. Booker didn’t just let people move in—he took care of them. She thought of the way he’d helped her sell the Cadillac, bargained to get her to go to an obstetrician Rebecca regarded as especially good and had taken her to buy a computer. He was tired, but he was going back out because Delbert and Bruiser weren’t home.
“You mind telling me what’s so damn funny?” he asked.
“I don’t think you’re such a badass after all,” she said.
“Oh, yeah? Well, go ahead and laugh. When I run out of beds you’ll be the first to go,” he grumbled and stomped out the door.
BOOKER SLOWED AS HE reached the edge of town. The Dundee police force—which consisted of a whopping three members—liked to catch people speeding just as they were coming past the feed store. It helped swell the public coffers. But Booker knew better than to get pulled over. Ever since he’d broken the police chief’s sprinkler system by peeling out on his lawn when he was visiting Dundee at fifteen and driving Hatty’s car, Chief Clanahan hadn’t liked him. And that sentiment had definitely filtered down to Officers Bennett and Orton.
Besides, going slow suited him just fine—tonight. He hadn’t found Delbert along the highway as he’d expected, and was hoping to spot him walking around town. Or at the Honky Tonk. The Honky Tonk stayed open until two o’clock on weekends. Delbert was never out that late, but it was still the best place to start looking.
When Booker drove into the parking lot, he saw Officer Orton sitting in his patrol car and rolled down his window as he pulled alongside him.
“What you doin’ out so late, Booker?” Orton said.
Booker ignored the question. “Have you seen Delbert?”
“He was here for a while. That dog of his was tied out front, just like always.”
“When did he leave?”
Orton rubbed his chin with his thumb. “I guess it’s been an hour or so.”
“Was he on foot?”
“Isn’t he always?” Orton said, chuckling.
Booker began to roll up his window but paused when Orton spoke again.
“What’s between you and that retard, anyway?” he said. “Prison turn you a little funny, boy?”
Booker’s muscles bunched as the desire to break Orton’s jaw washed over him. Like so many of the prison guards Booker had met while serving time, Officer Orton was drunk on his own power. But Booker wasn’t going to be stupid enough to let Orton draw him into a fight. “If that’s an invitation, I’m not interested,” he said and drove away.