“Just be prepared to offer me your jacket if this skirt gives way.”
She took her time aiming her ass into the seat while she held her breath and Colt couldn’t stop his smile even as he held back his own laughter. Once she accomplished this feat, he sat beside her and slid an arm around the back of her chair. She cautiously let her weight fall to the side until it hit him and she settled with her hand on his thigh.
The pastor headed to the podium but Colt’s eyes caught on something and he looked to his left.
Mrs. Harris was turned in her seat. She didn’t smile, she didn’t nod, she didn’t do anything, just looked at him and Feb. Then he watched her turn back when the pastor started talking and he wondered what was on her mind. Colt and Feb being back together was no balm to her soul, he knew, nothing would be.
Colt’s eyes moved to a casket containing the body of a woman who lived half a life. Pressed to his side was a breathing woman who’d done the same. Both, he figured, in one way or another, did this because of Denny.
He lifted his arm from the back of Feb’s seat, curled his fingers around her shoulder and bent his head so his mouth was at her ear.
“Love you, baby,” he whispered, her head tilted back, her eyes caught his and then, with that February Owens light pouring out, she smiled.
*
Doc waited until after the funeral and everyone was walking to their cars from the graveside to make his approach.
Colt stopped Feb at the passenger side of the truck and waited for the old man to arrive.
“Colt, February,” Doc said when he made it, his face showing this wasn’t a friendly visit. He had something on his mind.
“Doc,” Feb smiled at him and Doc smiled back, then his eyes went to Colt.
“Let the dead dog alone, Doc,” Colt told him, he felt Feb’s body jerk in surprise at his side but he didn’t look away from Doc.
“I see, you two together, you worked it out. And you two here, I figure you found it in your hearts –”
“Nothin’ to find, Doc, let it lie.”
Doc stared at him then he looked at Feb then back at Colt before he said, “Boy–”
“She told you it was me,” Colt said.
Doc closed his eyes, opened them and said, “I know, man like you, even the man you were then, you’d –”
“She didn’t do anything to me, Doc. Let it lie.”
Doc got closer and his eyes slid to Feb and back to Colt and Colt knew what he was communicating.
Softly, he informed him, “The baby she had wasn’t mine.”
“Colt –”
“It wasn’t mine, Doc, let it lie.”
“She told me –”
“Let it lie.”
“Boy, you know now, I know you do, no denyin’ it, you got a son.”
“The baby was Denny’s.”
Colt watched as Doc took a step back, his face showing surprise.
“I reckon,” Colt went on, “she didn’t wanna tell you because either she was in denial herself or, if she told you she’d been raped, she expected you’d try to get her to report it, something she didn’t have the strength to see through. She picked me because she knew you’d let that slide and she picked Craig for the birth certificate because she wanted me and Feb to have no more harm. Now the bones are exposed Doc, let’s all let them lie.”
“I had no idea,” Doc whispered, pain stark in his voice.
“She didn’t want you to,” Colt told him.
“I coulda helped her.”
“We all could have, Doc, like I said, let it lie.”
“Rape?” Doc was still whispering but looking away, the pain now stark on his face.
Feb moved forward and gathered the old man in her arms and, to Colt’s surprise, he let her. He was old, that much was obvious, but he never acted it. Now he looked like a hundred years of life had settled in his soul.
“You couldn’t fix what you didn’t know was broken,” Feb said softly to him. “But you gave her the peace of mind she was askin’ for at the time.” She pulled back and looked at him before she asked, “And that’s a good thing, right?”
“Never easy livin’ with the knowledge that you could have done more, February.”
“Nope, you’re right,” Feb replied. “So you’ll have to live with the fact that you did what she asked, kept her secret, and, in a time when she was scared as hell, you gave her a little bit of feelin’ safe.”
Doc moved out of Feb’s arms and lifted a hand to pat her shoulder but his mind was active behind his eyes, sifting through memories, trying to figure out what he missed, where he’d gone wrong and what more he could have done.
Colt decided to put a stop to it. “Denny Lowe started to wage war awhile ago, Doc, with a lot of casualties along the way.” Doc looked at him and Colt continued. “None of us even knew he was doin’ it and comin’ out victorious. Don’t give him another victory, not standing yards from the grave of one he brought low. Amy wouldn’t want that for the rest of us left standin’. In fact, she died so that we could all let it go.”
Doc looked at him for a long time and he looked at him hard.
Then he said, “You were always a smart lil’ bugger.”
“Yeah, I think you mentioned that when I was about five and a fair few times since,” Colt told him.
Doc kept looking at him then he turned to Feb. “How’re you sleepin’, February?”
Feb moved into Colt, slid her arm around his waist and put her head to his shoulder before she whispered, “Sleepin’ good, Doc.”
Doc took them both in and said, “Two weeks ago, you asked me, I’da said I never thought I’d see this end for you two.”
“Drink it in,” Colt suggested, as he lifted his arm and curled it around Feb’s shoulders.
The pall on the day was lifting because the funeral was over, he was taking Feb to a home she was moving her shit into and he thought it was highly likely he had something to do with her sleeping well. All was not well with the world, but at least it was better.