“Nope but I’ll give you ten guesses as to who did it and I’ll bet you still won’t figure it out ‘cause there’s probably a hundred women in this town who’d do it,” Josie answered. “Both of you tryin’ to cozy up to our men, talkin’ shit about what we do and wear, makin’ trouble,” Josie said. “You know, Susie, anyone shot me because I was a bitch, I’d learn my lesson. Maybe you should take some of your Daddy’s money, go somewhere quiet and reflect. For, I don’t know, say,” she paused then finished, “a hundred years?”
Susie paled and whispered over the wind, “I can’t believe you’d say that to me.”
“And I can’t believe you’d get in Violet’s face when her brother was murdered three weeks ago!” Josie snapped. “Let me set things straight for you, Susie. Your Daddy’s money didn’t give you carte blanche to traipse around town bein’ like you are and you can’t trade on the tragedy of what happened with Denny Lowe to be like you are. We all know you sold Colt and Feb’s story to that reporter. We didn’t think much of you before, now we don’t think anything at all.”
“Josie –” Chip started, Josie jerked her head to look at her husband and lifted a hand.
“I’m done,” she stated, turned to me, switched topics and turned off her attitude so quickly I wasn’t keeping up. “You two come over for dinner. Maybe I’ll get Colt and Feb to come over too. I’ll make my pot roast. That’s a winter dish but my pot roast kicks ass. I’ll call,” she offered this invitation again like she wasn’t standing in the pouring rain and like she hadn’t just laid it out for Susie Shepherd in an extremely brutal way.
She came up to me and gave me a cheek kiss even though Joe still had me in his arms and I didn’t resist and cheek-kissed her back mostly because I was a little scared of her. Then she moved away, smiled at Joe and trotted over to her husband while I could do nothing but stare.
“Sorry, Cal,” Chip muttered.
“Nothin’ to be sorry for,” Joe replied and since his arms had loosened, I pulled a bit away and looked up at him to see he was looking at Susie.
“Later, Vi,” Chip called.
“Bye Chip,” I said and Chip and Josie moved away.
“You done or is Vi gonna have to put up with your shit every time she sees you?” Joe asked and I looked to see he was speaking to Susie.
“You gonna threaten me like you did Tina?” Susie sneered and I stared again since I couldn’t believe after that scene that she still had a sneer left in her.
“Nope, just not gonna pull her off you next time,” Joe replied.
“Whatever,” Susie muttered and started to turn away.
“Why?” Joe asked and Susie stopped.
“What?” she asked back.
“Why are you such a fuckin’ bitch? Honest to God, I don’t get it. You have everything and you always had.”
Susie’s face twisted briefly, a flash of pain then gone.
Then she snapped, “Not everything, Cal. Didn’t have a Mom.”
I almost felt sorry for her before Cal replied, “No excuse, woman, I didn’t either.”
They locked eyes and I was acutely aware that I was enduring their staring contest while standing in the wind and rain with a possible tornado approaching.
“Joe,” I whispered and Joe’s arms tensed around me.
“Learn from today, Susie,” Joe advised.
She rolled her eyes, flicked out a hand and repeated, “Whatever.”
“She won’t learn from today,” Joe muttered, let me go, took my hand and turned us toward the Mustang.
I noticed Vinnie and Gary’s cars were gone. We’d had to take three to fit everyone in what with Dad coming along, we were one over. This turned into a good thing as they had plenty of room to get everyone in and they’d all disappeared.
Joe moved me to the passenger side, bleeping the locks as he went.
He had the door open and I was about to fold in when we heard Susie call.
“Cal!”
We both looked at her.
“Don’t piss me off, Susie,” Joe warned.
She pulled her wet hair from her face and held it at the back of her head. Her eyes moved to me then back to Joe.
“I can make a man happy,” she announced.
“Seriously?” I whispered, my body getting tense and Joe put pressure on my back to push me in the car.
“I don’t mean you!” she shouted and her head jerked to the side and back to the front swiftly, reflexively, making her look like she’d suffered an invisible blow and something about that made me get even tenser but not with anger, with surprising compassion.
She was struggling with something and whatever it was, it was big.
“Why can’t I –” she started but Joe interrupted her.
“Jesus Christ, it’s rainin’, Susie. What the fuck?” Joe asked.
“Joe, listen to her,” I whispered urgently, my eyes glued to Susie.
But at Joe’s impatience she’d lost it. Her face closed down and she turned away.
“Forget it,” she shouted over the wind. Lifting a hand and dropping it in a weirdly defeated way, she jogged away, her ruined-sandaled feet making splashes in the puddles as she ran until she was under the awning that came out over most of the sidewalk in front of the strip mall and then she kept running until I lost sight of her because Joe pressed me into the car.