Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
He doesn’t offer me a greeting, so I guess it’s up to me. “Hi,” I say. “I… um… Jim Bob told me that there was a misunderstanding this morning and…”
He turns his horse around, like he’s about to go back the way he came. But then the horse starts backing up and I let out a breath.
“Listen, Ike—”
“Get on, Lowyn. We’re gonna have this talk up the hill.” His voice is the same. Deep, and rumbly, and… well, different too. Because it comes out kinda mean.
But there is no way out of this. I have to have this conversation and I already knew when I got in my truck that it was gonna happen up on the hill. So I walk over to the horse, and he offers me his hand. I raise my arm up and he grabs it—tight—right at the elbow, and then he says, “Jump up,” and the next thing I know, I’m sitting on that horse right behind him.
There’s no saddle or nothing. Just me and Ike on the back of a horse. And a moment later we’re galloping up the hill at a breakneck speed and I’m holding on to him like my life depends on it.
“Are you OK?”
I don’t look at Amon when he asks this. Just stare out the window as we make our way back into Disciple.
Lowyn is married. Not proper married. Lasher—who, I guess, was not only my mama’s brother-in-law because he was hooked up with her sister at one time, but is also Lowyn’s brother-in-law because she was hooked up with his brother at one time?—anyway, he said it was a festival wedding. The Blackberry Festival, to be precise. Never heard of it. Regardless, festival weddings—while legitimate in the eyes of the people in attendance—are not legal as far as city and state requirements go.
Which doesn’t really make me feel any better, because up here people don’t care much about city and state requirements. What folks up here do care about are local customs and traditions. So if those Blackberry people think Lowyn and this Ike Monroe guy are married, then they damn well are.
“Collin?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
I turn my head so I can see him. “Well, I just found out the girl I love—the only girl I’ve ever loved—has been hillbilly-promised to a mountain man who lives in the woods doing God knows what and might be better armed than a Mexican cartel. So… yeah. I could be a little pale or somethin’.”
Amon is chuckling before I even finish. “Collin Creed. You and those words of yours.”
I just turn away and look back out the window. Grimm was so apologetic. I really do think he sincerely felt bad about having to be the one to tell me.
He said, “I don’t know what you think of me, Collin. But you were my best friend all growing up. When you left, I’m sure you never thought about me again, not with all the things that were going on with you. But I thought about you a lot. Lowyn and I became friends. Dated a little here and there, but nothin’ serious. I was just a shoulder to cry on, really. And I didn’t care much that she got herself caught up in the Blackberry stuff. She snapped out of it pretty quick and Jim Bob stepped in to get her back, but the ceremony had been done. As far as anyone around up there was concerned, she was really and truly married.”
I pressed him, and Lasher, for more information about this Blackberry Hill place. I have thousands of questions. But they shut up real quick. And then Lasher said the conversation was over and I needed to go see Jim Bob to get any more information.
So that’s where we’re going.
“Do you wanna stop by Lowyn’s first, Collin?”
“I dunno. What do you think?”
“I think you should. Just ask her what’s goin’ on. She’s not gonna lie to you.”
This makes me think back to our date out there at that place on the Watauga River where she ate spaghetti and meatballs and I asked her where her husband was.
I was asking because it was too good to be true that she was still single. But she had a little reaction that I didn’t notice at the time, or maybe just interpreted the wrong way. She was just about to take a sip of her wine when I asked her that, but she stopped, and if she had taken that drink, she might’ve choked. The answer she gave was something else too. It was her opinion on the merits of marriage. Or… no. Her opinion on the merits of a husband. ‘I don’t want a husband,’ that’s what she said.
When we get back into town Amon doesn’t stop at Jim Bob’s government building. He goes around the block to McBooms and parks right in front.