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was leaning over to kiss her.
Feelings she hadn t felt in a long time washed over her. The
weak-in-your-knees, tingly, electric feelings she d witnessed vicari-
ously through movie love scenes or through Tiffany and her string
of boys. She d had similar feelings for Mac just not as intense
and that had been wonderful, but that was long ago. Now Mac was
gone.
 Haley?
Someone was calling her name. Without opening her eyes,
she felt around. Her hand closed in on her pillow. Yes, she was at
her house. Tiffany . . . no, Erica s father s girlfriend, had driven her
home.
She knew that if she opened her eyes, she d lose the moment, so
she willed herself to sink back into the dream. Her body began to
relax again, and Austin s face returned. He thought she was pretty,
not plain.
He really liked her.
JENNIFER JAYNES
She sank deep, deep, deeper.
Now she was at Luke s. Her mother was walking around in a
uniform, smiling and serving coffee. Her hair was done up, and she
looked happy. Austin and Mac were talking to her father at the bar.
Her father threw his head back and laughed.
That laugh.
She hadn t heard it for almost a year. It was one of those won-
derful, comforting parts of him she had forgotten.
Erica walked up to the two of them.  My mother snuck out in
the middle of the night, she said.  She wasn t meant to grow old
with a used-car salesman.
Now Tiffany was standing next to her:  I can t stay with the
same boy forever. I want to leave this backward town. I want . . . I
want . . . Haley, do you miss me? Haley?
The voice was louder this time. Becky s.  Haley! Wake up. Eri-
ca s here!
Haley tried one last time to hold on to the dream, but Becky
kept calling out to her and the kaleidoscope quickly melted away.
Haley opened her eyes.
Becky and Erica were standing next to the bed, staring at her.
 You okay? Erica asked.  Guess we overdid it, huh?
 I thought you had a shift today? Haley whispered. She
winced. It felt as though something was squeezing her head.
 Um, I did, Erica said.  It s already five o clock.
8
Two hours later, the sky was a deep shade of blue, the color of dusk.
Haley gazed out at the bayou, a cup of coffee in her hands. She
reached into her pocket, then dropped an aspirin on her tongue.
She still tasted last night s cigarettes.
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NEVER SMILE AT STRANGERS
The Smiths next door were firing up their grill, something her
father loved to do when he was alive. Mrs. Smith spotted her on the
porch and waved. Haley waved back, then closed her eyes.
Her head was pounding. I ll never drink again, she told herself.
At least not that much. She was starting to black out when she drank,
not remember things. Erica was right. She was losing herself. She d
always been responsible, and she took pride in that. Mac had been
right, too. Numbing the pain wasn t going to make it go away. It
was only prolonging things. They d already been prolonged long
enough.
She set the coffee cup on the table next to her and started to
rock. She needed to make some changes in her life, whether her
mother got better or not.
Major ones.
She couldn t just wait for others to do so.
It was time for her to take control of her life.
Hearing shouts, Haley s eyes popped open. Becky and Seacrest
were running across the Smiths yard. Mr. Smith, in front of the
grill, glared at the two girls as they bolted through.
 Haley! Becky yelled.
Immediately Haley sensed something was wrong. It was so very
out of character for the two to be running when they usually just sat
around trying to look cool for each other.
Becky started to say something, but she couldn t seem to get it
out. Seacrest was running equally as fast just behind Becky, her dark
hair whipping around her shoulders.
The girls reached the carport.  Did you hear? Becky asked,
standing in front of Haley, out of breath.
 Hear what? Haley asked.
 Oh, Jesus, you didn t, Becky said.
Seacrest stopped and blew air from her lungs. Her cheeks were
beet red.
215
JENNIFER JAYNES
When she heard her sister finally spit out the words, tears filled
her eyes.
 Charles . . . Becky repeated, as if stunned by her own words.
He killed himself.
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CHAPTER 54
THE MORNING OF Charles s funeral was drizzly and gray. As
Haley and Erica plodded toward the dusty green canopy over the
casket, Becky and Seacrest silently trailed them.
Sweat beaded across Haley s forehead, and her mind raced. She
thought of his last visit. He d been so concerned about his mother.
He also had told her that he needed for Haley to believe in him.
She felt sick at the realization that Charles was about to be low-
ered into the ground. She envisioned his poor mother finding him
in the backyard, hanging, lifeless, from a pecan tree.
She stroked the pendant around her neck. Maybe she d had a
hand in this. If only she d tried harder to understand what he had
been trying to tell her, to believe without question that he had noth-
ing to do with Tiffany s disappearance.
Because he hadn t, had he?
Haley sighed, still not completely sure.
She and Erica stood in silence while four tall black men lifted
the casket from the hearse and walked toward Charles s final resting
place.
A dog barked somewhere in the distance.
JENNIFER JAYNES
Charles s mother and little brother, Joshua, made their way to
the graveside, hand in hand. The crowd was small, but Haley won-
dered why most of the people who had shown were even there.
Three black women and the four men, no doubt family members,
stood next to Mrs. Johnson and Joshua. One, an elderly woman,
whispered to them.
A preacher stood several feet behind them. Then there were
Sheriff Hebert, Kim Theriot, and a handful of townspeople some
she recognized from Luke s and a few she didn t.
Opportunists, she thought, glaring at them. Most of the towns- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]