Page 22 of The Lonely Road

From the front of the store, I hear Jay call out, “I can hear you, Taya.”

“I know, Jay.”

Mason gives me an almost-smile—it lives at the corner of his mouth but doesn’t commit. “He’s not wrong to charge a premium. He’s the only option.”

“He knows he’s the only option. That’s the problem.”

Jay Buck makes a sound that might be a laugh and might be a disagreement, or maybe…no, definitely both.

We drift down the aisle together as two people moving in the same direction in a small space, touching and not touching.

It’s organic, this meeting and closeness. It’s unsettling how much I like it.

“How’s the case going?”

I frown enquiringly at him.

“The water rights case,” he clarifies. “Someone at the Horseshoe mentioned it.”

Everyone knows about Clara Whitman’s travails, and everyone is sympathetic. “It’s ongoing.”

He nods. No follow-up.

It should mean nothing. He asked a question, and I gave him an answer. End of story.

And yet, I notice the absence of the next question—the question that should come, the question that usually does. It feels like a cross-examination that stops just short of the point. It’s a technique—give the witness room, and they’ll fill it.

I know this because I use it.

I don’t fill it.

“Ah…I’m going to go pay for these.” I dip my chin toward my basket.

He extends his hand.

“What?”

“I’m going that way as well. And your basket seems heavy. How about you carry mine and I’ll carry yours?”

It’s sweet. Really, really sweet.

So we exchange baskets.

“Just coffee and beer?”

“I’m staying at the inn, can’t stand the shit coffee Gary makes, so I told him to give me a machine so I can make my own. The beer…well, sometimes you want to lie in bed and watch a ballgame, you know?”

I can picture him immediately, in bed, watching a game, relaxed, as he drinks his beer. And I’m lying next to him and⁠—

Damn it, Taya! Snap the F out of it.

When we reach the register, Mason sets my basket down. I give him his, and he takes it and waits behind me.

Jay’s gaze moves between us. He doesn’t comment, which is comment enough.

Jay eyes Mason head to toe. “Been seein’ you around.”

“Yes, sir, you have.”