I didn’t care. And if he only wore his at home while watching games, I didn’t care about that either.
But I was wearing mine in town.
After, of course, all the bad guys went away. Had to keep my head down. Too much happening, I didn’t need to be in their face.
It was Monday about a week and a half after I got home and all that time had been busy.
I got home on a Thursday. Ty had to work both Friday and Saturday. Friday was taken up with me getting the house in order, catching up, sorting shit out, getting my car and then dinner with Julius and Anana. Saturday, Ty arranged for Tate, Deke, Jonas and Bubba to go get my shit from Dominic and Daniel’s and me unpacking it. Sunday was shopping where we bought a square coffee table and a big rug for the living room that was a beautiful light cream with a black edge that went perfect with the black couch and Tuku’s pen and ink. Ty again slid straight into shopping mode with no pressure from me and he also bought a big, oval, art deco, black dining room table with six matching chairs, their seats and backs upholstered in cream. We moved the sectional and TV from the side wall all the way across so it formed a cozy seating area in front of the fireplace and left a huge expanse of space behind it where we put the dining room table when it was delivered.
I, of course, on a lunch break bought the big, round, glass vase I had my eye on at the Carnal Country Store and the proprietress thanked me profusely for buying it saying, “Sugar, that thing has been on my shelf for a year and a half. Ranchers and bikers do not have an eye for glass vases. But I thought it was pretty. I gotta learn, if it don’t have an antler or a skull on it, I’m screwed.”
I was happy to take it off her hands and happier that she’d marked it down fifty percent.
The vase looked perfect in the middle of the table.
The next Thursday, Ty’s day off but I was back at work, I came home and it had two dozen blush and cream roses in it.
That was my husband. He did bling of all kinds, some of it didn’t shine as bright but that didn’t mean it wasn’t awesome.
Outside of the time I spent with Ty, reacquainting myself with friends, getting back to work, unpacking and sorting our home, I spent my time getting my shit sorted. I went to the DMV and got a Colorado driver’s license and plates for my new (red with wide, black racing stripes running up the hood, roof and down the back, 2012, f**king gorgeous) Charger. I’d already had my mail forwarded from Dallas but I put another forward on it when I left, sending it to Ella. I again changed that. I also got on-line and changed all my information with anyone who carried it. I’d closed my bank account in Dallas when I was there but opened one in Carnal. And Ty put money in it so I could pay off my credit cards which I did.
I did all this because I would do all this (eventually) but I did this as a matter of priority because Ty asked me to make certain that “those assclowns got no shit to f**k with you with”.
I saw the wisdom of this advice and didn’t delay.
Bessie had politely declined our offer but did not decline keeping the cash I earned from my Charger, cash I left behind with her. She promised me, once she got on her feet, she’d pay me back. I let her promise me that and when she tried to pay me back, I would decline. I knew she’d take care of me for free, I knew she’d take care of me no matter what but I needed to give her that. It didn’t cover what I owed her for pulling me together after I fell apart but then again, nothing would. But it would be something.
Then she left Panama City Beach and headed to Miami. She’d never been there but she heard it was a fun place to be and was going to check it out. The last word I had from her (which was yesterday) was that she liked it, wanted to give it a shot and was currently looking for a job.
I had mixed feelings about this. Dallas was a one day, very long haul from Carnal. Miami was a lot f**king further. But she’d been in a shit situation and unhappy almost as long as I had been with Ronnie. It was good she was making this change and if she liked Miami then I would like Miami for her.
And anyway, it would be fun when Ty and I could visit her there.
Things had changed for Ty and I and when I say that I mean for the better. There was nothing between us now, it was out there, open, talked about. He shared more, I got to listen more. Day to day, he relaxed more, he smiled more, he laughed more and my man was f**king funny so I laughed more too. We’d weathered one hell of a storm but we did not come out with nicks and dents. We came out tougher, stronger, closer.
But even though home life was good, great, the best, the sun shining all the time not only because it was August in Colorado but because there were no clouds over our life, Carnal was different.
There were clouds over Carnal, big, black, threatening thunderclouds. Everyone felt them, everyone was being cautious, quiet, braced and waiting for that first crack of thunder and bolt of lightning, hoping they weren’t too close when it struck.
Although the news travelled slow, the murder of Misty Keaton, allegedly by Officer Rowdy Crabtree, sent low, buzzing shockwaves through the town.
I thought Ty would at least receive suspicious glances but this did not happen. Ty had been gone awhile but Ty was well-known, well-known enough that folks knew that was not his style.
But the town was humming with gossip and at the salon, as it had a tendency to be at salons, that hum was fast, furious and prolific.
Therefore I learned, not surprisingly, that Misty was not well-liked. No one had much against her five plus years ago, though she was known as a gold-digger intent on making a good marriage. But public opinion of her plummeted when she lied about Ty’s alibi then took another significant drop when she married Chace Keaton. This was because many guessed the connection and, to my surprise, I learned that many liked Chace and didn’t like him saddled with the likes of Misty. When she married a town cop who happened to be in line for a large inheritance, she instantly decided her shit didn’t stink and let everyone know she felt that way and they should too. This behavior was further frowned upon. After that, what was left of her popularity took a nosedive but she didn’t care much seeing as she had a hot guy in her bed, his ring on her finger and his Daddy’s fortune on the way, all she had to do was wait for the old man to die.
Through salon gossip, I also learned that this didn’t work out for her as she had planned. From the beginning, Chace made it blindingly and publicly apparent that he was not blissfully married. He put up with her. He went through the motions. But he didn’t like either. And because he could barely stomach the sight of his wife, when he needed to get him a little somethin’ somethin’, he went elsewhere and did this openly.
By the time Misty Keaton had walked into Carnal Spa that day I met her, she’d spent five years living with a man who could barely stand the sight of her, didn’t hide that and cheated on her repeatedly and blatantly. Salon buzz said that, as year slid into year and Chace didn’t come to heel, Misty became more and more beaten. Salon buzz said that, even though she was what she was and did what she did, she actually loved her husband and his continued hatred of her was wearing her down. Salon buzz said that even before Ty was released, Misty was rethinking her actions. Salon buzz said that Misty was coming to the conclusion that Chace’s Daddy’s millions weren’t worth that. And salon buzz said that Misty bought it because the authority knew this and needed to assure she didn’t do something they wouldn’t like much.
And salon buzz said that Rowdy was set up to take the fall mostly because he was an ass**le. In a long line of local cops that people did not like or trust, Rowdy stood out prominent because he was not only the dick I knew him to be but a serious dick. He used the authority his position provided him as a weapon, his badge and uniform as a shield. He regularly and randomly f**ked with citizens of Carnal and he did this for shits and giggles.
Although no one believed Rowdy took Misty Keaton to Harker’s Wood, shot her and left his weapon, primarily because he had no motive to do this and wasn’t stupid enough to leave that kind of evidence seeing as he was a cop, just a dirty one, still, no one really cared if he went down for it.
“What comes around, goes around,” Avril stated, smiling gleefully and leaning against the high front of my reception desk, in for a mani/pedi and also gossip.
But underneath all this gossip and speculation, there was fear. A woman was dead. No one liked her much but that was pretty extreme. Whoever was spooked was seriously spooked and the citizens of Carnal were worried about what was next.