Love Drunk Cowboy

chapter 12

Austin’s stomach was growling loudly when she hung up. She’d had a chicken sandwich from the McDonald’s drive-through in Oklahoma City but had only eaten half of it. It was difficult to eat when all she wanted to do was cry.

A tour bus passed her and quickly pulled back in front of her little sports car. It had a picture of a bronc rider on the back in bigger-than-life-full-living color and the words “See Texas” across the side. That brought a picture of Rye to her mind and she sighed.

It was near dark when she pulled into the gated apartment complex where she lived and showed the guard her ID card. She parked her dusty Corvette in the garage, reset the security code when she had lowered the door, and went into the apartment through the back door. The spotless kitchen was decorated with shades of bright yellow against a black marble countertop, charcoal gray tile floor, and stark white cabinets. Four modern chrome and black leather stools were drawn up to a bar separating the dining area from the kitchen. A matching glass-topped table with chrome legs and chairs with black padded seats took center stage in the dining area with the same décor flowing into the living room with its black velvet furniture, misty gray carpet, and bright yellow throw pillows. A brass floor lamp illuminated an original oil of a sunset and the ocean hanging above her sofa.

She carried her suitcase to the bedroom and dropped it beside the king-sized bed that looked like an acre and a half after the twin-sized one she’d been sleeping on in Terral. She checked her answering machine. It looked like blinking lights on a Christmas tree. Holding her breath and hoping to hear Rye’s deep voice, she hit the button and threw herself across the bed.

The first one had been left the day she went to Terral: her mother telling her that she was sorry she’d missed her. It went from there to telemarketers trying to sell her bogus extended warranties on her car, lesser insurance on her house since she owned it (which she did not), to more insurance on her life in case her children needed it for final arrangements, to surveys to see if she was in agreement with all of President Obama’s recent activity. But there was no message from Rye.

“Shit! He doesn’t have my house phone. Just my cell phone.”

She grabbed it but the batteries were dead. “Damn newfangled gadgets anyway,” she grumbled.

She picked up the house phone and dialed his cell number and it went to voice mail.

“I’m in my apartment. Please call me at this number,” and she unknowingly rattled off Verline’s house number in Terral.

She stretched out on the sofa with the phone right next to her. She shut her eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep. She dreamed of watermelon fields, watermelon wine, and Rye. They’d taken a bottle from the cellar and were picking their way through fully ripe watermelons on their way to the river to lie on the banks and watch the moon come up. They were older in her dream. White frosted the temples of Rye’s black hair and her dark tresses were streaked with silver. The happiness she had in the dream vanished when the telephone awoke her two hours later.

“Hello?” she said groggily.

“I figured you’d be up and on the road.” Her mother’s voice wasn’t happy.

She sighed and looked at the clock. It wasn’t quite ten. She wondered what Rye was doing.

“I’m not in Terral. I’m at my apartment. I decided to let the hired help bring in one more crop before I sell the place so they’ll have a job. They have work visas and their families depend on their summer paychecks. So I’ve got all summer to take care of things in Terral. I made an arrangement with Harvey to take Fridays off,” Austin answered flatly.

“Well, damn!”

“I thought you’d be happy that I’m home.”

“I thought it would be over and done with today and you’d be permanently home where you belong.”

Where do I belong? Everything looks so sterile here and so cluttered there. Is there a happy medium somewhere in between the two places?

“Well?” Barbara quipped when Austin didn’t answer.

“Guess I’m not,” Austin said.

Was Rye already asleep or had he gone to his folks’ house to talk to Gemma?

“I’m calling to tell you that your aunts couldn’t get away so we’re having the dinner next week instead of today.”

She could’ve cried. She would have stayed in Terral until after dinner with the O’Donnells if she’d known. She would have had one more day with Rye and worked late on Sunday night to catch up at the office.

“You will be here?” Barbara asked when Austin didn’t answer.

“I’ll be here. I can leave early on Sunday and be back in time for supper. But I’ll be leaving each week as soon as I get away from work on Thursday. I have to be at the Ryan bank on Fridays for payroll. Greta and Molly expect me at the Ryan drugstore at two for ice cream.”

“I expect by the time you get that crop in you’ll be damn glad to come home permanently. It’s probably a wise decision because you’ll see the contrast between Podunk and living right.”

“Maybe so but then maybe I’ll decide I like Podunk better.”

“I hope not! Have a good week. I’ve made plans for tomorrow or I’d invite you over for lunch. See you in a week for dinner.”

“I’ll be there.” Austin’s heart whined for Rye O’Donnell.

She was in the shower when she heard her cell phone ringing again and hurried out to grab it. Standing there dripping water onto the hardwood floor in her bedroom she answered breathlessly.

“Hey, girl, where are you?” Gemma asked.

“I came back to Tulsa. Didn’t Rye tell you?”

“No, he called and wanted to know if I’d heard from you but he didn’t mention that you’d left. Then I can have your share of shortcake at dinner tomorrow?”

“Sure you can. Did you think about a shop of your own today?”

“I did. I told Rye and he said that he’d even finance it and Momma said she and Daddy would help me get started. There’s an empty building down beside the Chicken Fried Café a couple of miles south of Ringgold. It used to be a little used car place years ago and they used the building for an office. It’s a good size and there’s parking room. Come back and help me decide on colors.”

“I’ll be there on weekends. Probably getting in late Thursday night and coming back about noon on Sunday,” Austin said.

“That is wonderful! Have a good week and we’ll see you next weekend.”

***

Rye turned on the television and surfed through the channels. Nothing, not even the bull riding, kept his attention. He popped the tab on a second beer, carried it out to the front porch, and stared at the empty house across the road. Finally he walked over there and sat down on the porch. Rascal meandered around the end of the house and laid down close enough that Rye could scratch his ears.

“Are you already missing her too?”

Rascal set up a noisy purr.

“I thought I had another day at the very least. Actually, I hoped for a miracle and that she’d stay on forever. I had big things planned.”

Rascal arched his head back.

Stars twinkled in half the sky. The other half was a mass of black clouds rolling in from the southwest. Depending on how big the storm was and how slow or fast it moved, there was a good chance neither he nor Raylen would show off their bronc busting powers the next day. He’d looked forward to a little rivalry between him and Raylen, just to show off for Austin. Now it would be work and not fun, so he didn’t care if it poured down rain all day.

“Let’s call her again.” Rye pulled his phone from his shirt pocket and it went straight to voice mail.

“Why in the devil didn’t I make sure I had her home phone number as well as her cell number? Maybe her cell phone is dead and she’s recharging it? Maybe she turned the ringer off or maybe she’s in the shower. What do you think, Rascal?”

Rascal jumped up in his lap. He scratched him with one hand and tried calling her one more time but got voice mail again telling him to leave a message at the beep. He was so engrossed in her voice that he didn’t realize it was time for him to leave a message. “I was petting Rascal and didn’t realize it was time to talk. This is Rye. I was checking to make sure you made it home all right. Call me when you have time.”

He’d barely finished talking when his cell phone rang.

“Hello,” he said breathlessly.

“What were you doing?” Gemma laughed.

“Nothing. The phone startled me.”

“Hoping it was someone other than your sister?”

“You are nosy.”

“And you thought it was Austin, didn’t you?”

“Did you call for a reason or to tease me?”

“Momma says it’s raining and the weatherman says it’s a slow moving storm coming from out around Amarillo so we won’t be breaking horses tomorrow. We will have dinner and I already talked to Austin so I get her share of the shortcake.”

“Okay. I’ll leave my spurs at home and be there in time for dinner.”

“Aren’t you interested in what she had to say? I called her to see if she was still coming to dinner and to tell her that I’m considering her idea about a beauty shop in this area.”

“I talked to her awhile ago,” he said.

“Good. My battery is about to go and I’m getting those annoying little beeps so we’ll see you for dinner tomorrow.”

***

Austin had been in the shower when both phone calls came in. She was drying her hair when the house phone rang and she raced to the kitchen to grab it on the second ring, hoping to hear Rye’s deep voice on the other end.

“Hello,” she said breathlessly but it wasn’t Rye. It was her mother.

“I’ve got the whole day free tomorrow after all. Let’s do brunch and shop away the afternoon. I hear there’s a sale on women’s suits at Neiman’s. I’ve been looking at a cute little red one that might be half price today.”

“I thought you were going to be busy?”

“Ask me no questions. I’ll tell you no lies. I’ll pick you up at eleven. Dress casual since we’ll be trying on clothes.”

“I’ll be ready.”

She found his messages on her cell when she went back to the bedroom and called him. He answered on the first ring.

“I need your house phone number. You never did give it to me,” he said. “You’ve always called me on your cell phone or Verline’s phone.”

“I left it on your answering machine.”

“You left Granny’s number on my answering machine.”

She giggled. “I’m sorry, Rye. Here it is.” She rattled it off and wondered if it was an omen. Had she begun to think of Terral as home and automatically rattled off the phone there?

He wrote it down and memorized the numbers as she said them. “We’ve been playing phone tag for over an hour.”

“I miss you,” she blurted out.

That put a smile on his face and lightened the heavy rock lying where his heart was supposed to be. He jumped up from the sofa and danced around the living room pretending the phone was Austin. “Oh, honey, I’ve been lonesome all evening. That house across the road is just as lonesome as I am.”

She felt as if he’d kissed her with his words. “I’m so sorry I didn’t see you before I left. It was tough leaving Terral. I thought I’d be ready to get back to Tulsa. I wasn’t.”

The rock was gone and his heart skipped two full beats.

“Good! I knew you were a farmer the first day you dropped seeds in the ground.”

She yawned. “Can we talk about this more tomorrow? I’m so tired and sleepy tonight that I’m actually weepy.”

“Yes, darlin’, we can. You sleep late and I’ll call in the afternoon.”

“Good night, Rye. I wish I had a good night kiss.”

“So do I. Good night.”

He said the words so softly that she touched her lips to see if they’d been kissed.

***

“Damn!” She exclaimed the next morning when her apartment door shut behind her. She hurriedly unlocked it, ran back into the apartment, and picked up her cell phone. She didn’t intend to miss a single one of Rye’s calls even if she was with her mother all day. She jogged to the car where her mother was waiting.

“Good morning. I’m glad for emergencies,” Barbara said.

“Want to explain what you are talking about?”

“Not really because you are going to have a fit about it, but I suppose this is as good a time as any. I’m seeing a doctor, a surgeon.” She spit it out as if she was telling Austin about the new line of Chevrolets coming out in the fall.

“But…” Austin sputtered.

“Your father has been dead for years. I’m still young enough I’d like to have a male companion and James is a wonderful man.”

Austin took a deep breath. “Okay, how long have you been seeing him?”

Barbara squirmed in the driver’s seat of her Chevy Tahoe. “Why did you ask that?”

“Just wondered.”

“I started seeing him six months after your father died. I knew you’d be a blister so I didn’t bother to tell you until now. But now that’s out of the way, we’ll go to brunch and do some shopping,” Barbara said and began to talk about how many cars she’d sold that week since her stock was back up.

Austin giggled.

“What’s so funny? Selling cars is what makes my living.”

“You are talking too much which means you are nervous,” Austin answered.

“If I’m talking, then you can’t and I don’t want to hear all that you are thinking about me having a companion all these years and not telling you.”

“I was happy these past weeks in a strange kind of way. I thought I’d be sad after the memorial service and when I had to pack Granny’s things. But it was weird how happy I was. I’m not mad at you. I want you to be as happy as I am.”

You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry. It felt like Verline was in the backseat of the shiny black Tahoe whispering in her ear.

Barbara didn’t comment but changed the subject abruptly. “Your grandparents are finally tired of taking trips. I’m glad since they’re both in their eighties now. I worry when they go to those faraway places that they’ll have a heart attack over there. They were my age when they retired and gave me and your father the business. They were both fifty-two and still young, like I am. If this promotion doesn’t come through for you, I’ve been thinking about retiring in the next five years and giving you the business.”

You want to sell cars or make wine?

Austin turned around and made sure her Granny wasn’t sitting there in her overalls and boots.

“So?” Barbara asked.

“So don’t expect me to make a decision like that on a moment’s notice. I figured you’d run that business until you dropped dead after a record selling day.”

“I planned on it but then…”

“But then you figured out how much fun James can be. Right? Is he about ready to retire? Oh, my God, is he about to propose to you? Or has he already done so?”

Barbara pushed back a strand of hair. “I’m not ready to hand you the keys today but the place will be yours someday. I was younger than you are when your father and I took charge of it.”

Wine, her heart whispered.

Cars, common sense said.

But what if it’s neither or maybe both? she argued.

“Thank you for the offer but that’s five years down the road…”

Barbara sighed. “That place got its hooks into you, didn’t it?”

“Oh, Mother, you are getting worked up over nothing.”

“It’s my comeuppance. Your grandmother said that I took her son and someday I’d regret it. I loved him, Austin, with my whole heart but I could not live in that godforsaken place.”

“I doubt there was much in the way of business down there that you all could have made a living at.”

“We could have worked in Duncan or in Wichita Falls, either one, and been closer but…” She let the sentence dangle.

When there’s a but there’s a regret. Do whatever you do without a but and you’ll be happy.

Austin looked over her shoulder again but the backseat was still empty.

“Let’s eat and shop,” Austin said with as much excitement as she could muster.

They were walking into the mall when Austin’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She picked it out to see a text message from Rye.

Call me when you wake up. I’m lonely.

Barbara went straight for the suit rack in her favorite dress shop and Austin said she was going to look at shoes. She sat down in the back corner of the shoe department and sent him a text.

Shopping with Mother. Will call when I get home. Miss you!

She was trying on a pair of high heels when the phone buzzed again.

Miss you too! I want to hear your voice. Call me when you can.

They shopped until the stores closed in the mall, then made a trip through Walmart for their weekly staples like bagels, non-fat cream cheese, skim milk, and yogurt. When Austin got home the little red light was flashing on the answering machine so she poked the right button and held her breath.

“Darlin’, the day dragged by like a lazy old house slug. If every day is like this until Thursday I won’t live through them. Call me when you get home. I can’t wait to talk to you.”

She played the message through four times. His voice in her ear made her breath a little heavier and she wished she could dart across the street and talk to him. Ask him what he thought about her selling cars or even simply find out what had gone on in his day.

Before she took the first bite of the fried rice she called him. On the fifth ring his answering machine came on again. She called his cell and got his voice mail.

“Hi, this is Austin. We must be playing phone tag again. I’ll be home all evening. Shopped with Mother. I just now checked the messages. I’m so sorry I missed your call.”

The phone rang four times before she went to bed but none of them was Rye. She’d barely turned out the lights when the phone rang again.

“Hello?” she said.

“Austin, this is pure hell,” he said bluntly.

“I know. I hate it too, but it’s the only way I can keep things going on two ends of the state,” she groaned.

“I want to kiss you good night. I want to hold you, not this damned old cold phone,” he said.

“Me too,” she sighed. How was she going to leave next time knowing that Rye wanted to kiss her good night every night?

“Tell me about your shopping day,” he said.

“You don’t want to hear about dress racks and trying on clothing.”

“I want to hear your voice. You can read the whole Bible or talk about accounting. I don’t care what you say. I just want your voice in my ear as I fall asleep.”

“Where are you?”

“On the sofa. Why? Where are you?”

“In bed with the lights turned out. I’m shutting my eyes and thinking about us being on the quilt beside the river. I can hear the tree frogs and the crickets,” she said softly.

“You are killing me,” he moaned.

“And you are running your hand up my thigh all the way to where my cutoffs end and oops, there it is right on the elastic of my bikini underwear,” she said.

“And the other one is sneaking up on those bra hooks. God, Austin, I want you so bad,” he said hoarsely.

“Now your lips are on mine and I can taste strawberry shortcake and Coors beer. It’s a wonderful combination. Your tongue is teasing my mouth open and I run my hands over your rock hard muscles. I touch the tat but it’s not sticky like barbed wire. I can’t even feel where it begins and where it ends.”

“Your hands are like silk on my skin. I’m going to take off your shirt and taste you from nose to toes,” he said.

She giggled. “If I’m going to sleep at all tonight, darlin’, we’re going to have to stop this phone sex before you talk about that or I’ll be walkin’ the floor all night.”

“You could tell them all to go to hell, be here in five hours, and we could have the real thing. Wait a minute… your breasts taste faintly like that coconut bath oil you use.”

“God Almighty, Rye! I’m so hot the sheets are steaming.”

“Me too. Good night, darlin’. I know you’ll be at work tomorrow. I won’t call but I’ll text through the day and save that coconut thought for tomorrow night.”

Surprisingly, after going over the conversation again, she did fall asleep, almost as if in the afterglow of the real thing. She slept soundly and dreamed of Rye. The next morning she awoke with a start at seven thirty and realized that she hadn’t set the alarm. She was about to be late to work for the first time in her life. Jumping out of bed with a shriek she ran to the bathroom to take a quick shower and slap on makeup. Breakfast would have to wait. She had thirty minutes and fifteen of that was the drive to work. She wanted to talk to Rye but there was no time.

She reached her office with one minute to spare and found a thick folder on her desk with a sticky note on the top from her secretary saying that she needed to look at it carefully before the morning’s business meeting. She picked up a pencil and yellow legal pad to take notes and started reading. Her stomach growled and her cell phone rang at the same time. She pulled the phone from her purse hoping that it was Rye but it was her mother.

“Where are you?” Barbara asked.

“In my office playing catch-up so I won’t be in the dark at the meeting that starts in a few minutes.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you. James and I are going down to Eufaula this evening and watching the sun set from his boat.”

“Have fun,” Austin said.

“I know you’ll be busy this week but don’t forget about our dinner next week,” Barbara said.

“How could I forget? You and my two aunts keep me well reminded.”

“Don’t get snippy. Terral does that to a person.”

Austin leaned back in her leather desk chair and sighed. “Got to get back to work. Good-bye, Mother.”

Austin had just finished looking over the notes for the morning meeting when her assistant appeared at the door with the week’s itinerary.

“Thank you, Laura,” she said.

“So you’ve got everything settled down in southern Oklahoma?”

“Nothing is settled and I’ll be working four-day weeks, so keep that in mind. We’ll have to get five days done in four most of the summer.”

Laura was a short brunette who loved too much blue eye shadow and mini-skirts that were too tight and short to pass an office dress code but she was the best help Austin had ever had. “It’s a good thing you are here because Derk has been sucking up to the boss man. I think he wants that promotion that you are supposed to get. Something is different about you. You don’t look the same.”

Austin set her briefcase on her desk and gave herself a quick glance-over to make sure she hadn’t done anything stupid in her haste.

“It’s not your suit or your makeup,” Laura said. “It’s something about your face. You are smiling.”

Austin smiled even bigger. “Are you saying that I don’t smile?”

“Yes, you smile, but it never reaches your eyes. I’m saying that you look happy. Remember how I’ve told you that you need to get a life. Did you?”

“No, I didn’t, but I did go to a rattlesnake festival and I rode those little tea cups things with the sexiest cowboy in Jefferson County.”

“Well hot damn! That’s a step in the right direction.”

“Gotta run. Hold the fort down,” she said and was almost to the meeting when her phone buzzed.

She looked at the message from Rye.

Are you at work?

As she walked she answered: On my way to a meeting.

He wrote back. Kick ass.

She laughed aloud and hit the speed dial for his cell phone.

He picked up on the first ring.

“I needed to hear your voice,” she said.

“Shut your eyes.”

“I can’t, Rye. I’m rushing from my office to the conference room. I’ll fall on my ass rather than kicking ass,” she laughed.

“Then shut one eye and imagine that I’m kissing you good morning,” he said.

She stopped dead and shut both eyes. If anyone passed her in the corridor they could think she was catching her breath before walking into the conference. The kiss that she imagined didn’t make her have to change underwear but it didn’t miss it far.

“Thank you, Rye,” she whispered and opened her eyes to find two secretaries rushing past her.

“Keep that in your mind all day,” he said.

“I really do miss you.”

“Me too,” he said.

Austin slid into her chair seconds before Derk strolled in with his million-dollar smile and overabundance of confidence.

“You’re back!” His smile faded but his confidence didn’t waver. “It’s been hectic but I’ve kept the wrinkles ironed out.”

“Good for you,” Austin said.

He held up a palm. “No thanks necessary. Just doing what any good man would do.”

She didn’t miss the emphasis on the words good man. The gauntlet had been slapped down in front of her and her competitive side picked up the challenge. She’d show him that a good woman could iron out wrinkles faster and better than a man could any day of the week. The room filled quickly after that and Monday began with a rush that didn’t look like it would slow down a bit until the weekend.

Her boss was giving them a rundown of the quarterly report in minute detail when she felt the phone vibrate in her pocket. She carefully pulled it out and read the message from Rye.

What are you wearing right now?

She bit the inside of her lip to keep from giggling and wrote back with one thumb. A business suit and spike heels.

Immediately he replied: Cute black panties with the suit?

She covered the giggle with a cough and took a drink of water. No one even noticed.

Hell, no. I had to throw them in the trash after that morning kiss.

She made one note before she got his reply: Pretend I’m under the desk doing wicked things.

She clamped her knees together so quickly that the stress sent a runner down her black hose, but he wasn’t going to win the game.

Are you naked? she typed in while she pretended to listen.

Immediately he responded. No!

What are you wearing then? she asked.

A barbed wire tat. Want to play with it?

Honey, I’d rather play with something else.

Okay, you vixen. I’m crazy with wanting you. Come home!

Will you meet me at the door wearing only a tat?

Yes, ma’am.

When she looked up Derk was watching her with a wicked grin as if he’d hacked into her phone and read everything she’d written. She picked up her pen and tried to pay attention but it wasn’t easy.

Barbara called at noon and her voice was happy. “Busy, are you?”

“Very.” Austin talked and made notes for Laura at the same time.

“Just think how worn out you’ll be making that drive twice every single week. You’ll be making mistakes at work and someone else will wind up with the promotion.”

“Mother, stop trying to manipulate me. I’m thirty. I know what I’m doing.” Austin rolled her eyes. And after that text session this morning, I’d fight a hurricane to get to Terral this weekend.

Laura covered her mouth to keep the high-pitched giggle from escaping.

“Well, I hope so. You are about to stagnate right where you are with no chance of going up the next ladder step because of a stupid watermelon crop.”

“I’ve got a meeting in five minutes. If that’s all you want to talk about then we’ll discuss it later.”

“Oh, yes we will,” Barbara said.

Austin put the phone back on the base and said, “Mothers!”

“Amen,” Laura said. “Mine is out combing the countryside for a husband for me. I keep telling her I’m only twenty-five but she says I’m getting long in the tooth.”

“Mine is scared to death I’ll find a husband. She wants me to grow up to be like my aunts. A career woman to the bone marrow.”

Laura picked up the notes and went back to her desk. “Ain’t they wonderful?”

The day went by in a blur. Austin picked up takeout Chinese on the way home and remembered that she and Rye were supposed to have dinner at an oriental place in Duncan on the night they went to the rattlesnake festival. Was that just three days before? Lord, it seemed like a year.

She set her briefcase and purse on the sofa, carried the sack with her supper to the bar, and propped a hip on a stool, intending to call Rye the minute she finished eating. She’d barely swallowed her first bite of rice when the phone rang. She picked it up on the second ring and said, “Hello.”

“I just got in the house from a long day of plowing. How’d your first day back in the big business world go? I want to hear all about it. Don’t leave out anything,” Rye’s said.

His voice was both soothing and exciting. She shut her eyes and wished she was standing in his kitchen with a beer in her hand, watching his expressions as he talked.

“It was hectic as hell. I found out a man at work is kissing ass to get my promotion. Had dinner with my mother yesterday and now she wants to give me the dealership within five years.”

“Details.” Rye carried the phone to the living room and melted into his recliner, wishing that Austin was sharing it with him, so close that he could hear her heart beat and smell her hair all freshly washed with that coconut shampoo.

“First you tell me about things in Terral. Are my watermelons coming up out of the ground? Are Felix and the hired hands doing all right over there? What about Gemma? I haven’t heard from her since Saturday.”

He talked first about the watermelons, the cat, and the hired hands. “Darlin’, that is not what I want to talk about,” he said.

“I know what you want to talk about but I’m telling you after that text session I’m not sure my body can handle it.”

“Ah, come on, Austin, tell me again what you want to play with that’s lower than my tat.” He laughed.

“Rye O’Donnell, I…” she stopped herself before she said “I love you but I really can’t take any more phone sex.”

“You what, Austin?”

“I’m going to take a long cold shower and hope that cools me down.”

“If you are as hot as I am that won’t do the trick. Three more days and then it’s going to be more than phone sex or text sex.”

“You’d better eat oysters all three days,” she said and told him good night.

Hanging up was every bit as hard as turning north on Highway 81 out of Terral on Saturday afternoon. She held the phone to her heart and shut her eyes tightly.

One word played through her mind with country fiddles and Floyd Cramer’s tinkling piano music in the background.

It was wine.