but every minute that passed was painful. In the distance, clouds churned and darkened, joined by the faint rumble of thunder. It would be raining within the hour. After that, a rainbow would probably appear. Luke had always felt the irony of living a gritty, black-and-white life in a town where rainbows appeared more often than just about any other place in the country.
By the time the priest closed his Bible, Luke felt as if a century had passed.
“Thank you, Father,” he said.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Father Andrews asked.
“No. Nothing.”
He nodded to the coffin. “This will all be taken care of by this evening.”
“I know. I talked to the people here earlier.”
“Well, then.” Father Andrews reached out his hand. “It’s good to see you again. I’m just sorry it’s under these circumstances.”
Luke shook his hand. With a final solemn smile, the priest headed back down the sidewalk.
Mrs. Kaufman turned to Luke. “So are you staying in town for a while?”
“No,” he said, slipping his hat back on. “I have to be at a rodeo in Phoenix day after tomorrow, so I need to get on the road.”
“I’ve been watching the standings. Looks like you’re heading to the World Championship this year.”
So she knew what he’d been up to. Luke wondered if anybody else in this town had been inclined to keep up. He doubted it. It was more likely that they were waiting for his photo to show up on the post office wall.
“Keep your eye on ESPN the first week of November,” Luke said. “You just might see me win the bull riding championship.”
“I’ll be watching.”
If Luke won the championship, endorsements would follow. Hats, jeans, pickup trucks—you name it. More than once he’d fantasized that one of those companies would buy space on the big billboard on the outskirts of Rainbow Valley and splash his face all over it. Then nobody in town would be able to enter the city limits without knowing that the kid they swore would follow in his father’s footsteps had actually made something of himself.
Luke glanced at the coffin one last time, waiting for some kind of emotion to overtake him, but all he seemed to be able to feel was relief. He and Mrs. Kaufman turned and made their way down the sidewalk toward the cemetery entrance.
“So how are things at the shelter?” Luke asked.
“Good, I hear. I’m not there anymore. This damned stroke. Had to retire.”
So that was it. Luke figured it had to be something pretty substantial to slow Rita Kaufman down.
“Are you married?” she asked as they walked.
“Nope.”
“Girlfriend?”
He smiled furtively. “Several.”
“Ever think about settling down?”
“It’s hard to settle down when I’m in a different town every week. But it’ll be worth it when I win the big one.”
“What then?”
“Guess I’ll have to figure out what to do with all that money.” They stopped by the cemetery gate. “Thanks for coming. I appreciate it.”
“I’m sorry about your father.”
Luke knew her condolences weren’t just about his father’s death. They were also about his life. And Luke was damned sorry about that himself. An unseasonably cool breeze swirled around him, accompanied by a rumble of thunder, and he had the most unnerving feeling that his father had stepped up to take one last swing at him before heading to whatever afterlife was waiting.
Luke had grown up with the knowledge that he was nothing but a rock around his father’s neck, a kid dropped on his father’s doorstep by a woman even more disreputable than he was. She’d been a mother only by the broadest definition of the word, a woman who’d decided a two-year-old was just a little too much to handle between turning tricks and soaking herself in alcohol. His father heard she died years later, giving him an unneeded reason to pop open another bottle of whiskey.
“I’m glad he’s gone,” Luke said. “You suppose I’m going to hell for that?”
Mrs. Kaufman lifted her shoulder in a tiny shrug. “Nah. You did enough time in hell when you were a kid. I’m thinking maybe that gives you a free pass to heaven.”
“Nice to know. Now I can act up all I want to.”
“Don’t get cocky. Whatever the Lord gives, the Lord can take away.”
Luke smiled briefly. Then his smile faded. “You know that bull riding championship?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to win it.”
Mrs. Kaufman’s steely blue eyes softened. “You know what, Luke? I believe you.” She paused. “And I hope that’s the thing that finally makes you happy.”