Angels Fall

for some time." He spoke laaily, eyes closed, his head resting on her belly. "So I could perfect the matter before I got to you."
    "Good job." She reached down to toy with his hair. "You have to marry me now, Lo."
    "I have to…" His head came up. "What?"
    She stayed as she was, the same cat-drenched-in-cream look on her face. "Had to make absolutely sure we got on good in bed. You don't have good sex, you're not going to have a good marriage, to my way  of thinking anyway. So now that we know, we're going to get married." She shifted her gaze to his. Shock, she thought, but that she'd expected. "I'm not another one of your women, Lo. I'm the only woman from here on out. If all you want is what we just had, you say so. No hard feelings. But I can promise you, you won't get me here again." He pushed up until he was sitting, and she could hear him taking several long, steadying breaths. "You want to get married?"
    "I do. I'm a traditional woman, Lo, at the bottom of it. I want a home and a familv, a man who loves me. I've loved you as long as I can re-member. And I waited. I'm done with the waiting. If you don't want me enough, don't love me enough to start a life with me, I need to know it." For a time he said nothing, only stared over her head. She wondered if he saw the door and himself on his hasty way out of it. "I'm twenty-eight years old," he began.
    "'You think that makes you too young to settle down and—" "Just be quiet, will you, and let someone else talk for a change." "Fine." She'd be calm, she told herself as she sat up, tugged at the sheets to cover herself. She wouldn't make a scene.
    "I'm twenty-eight years old," he repeated. "I got a good job, and I'm good at the job I do. I got money put by. Not a lot., but my pockets aren't empty. I've got a strong back and I'm pretty good with my hands. You could do worse."
    He looked back at her now. "Why don't you marry me, Linda-gail?" She caught her breath, let it out again. "Why don't I?"

    LATER, SHE RUSTLED UP some scrambled eggs they could wolf-down in bed.
    "My ma's going to faint dead away."
    Linda-gail shook her head. "You underestimate her. She loves you so much."
    "I guess I know she does."
    "She loves me, too." Linda-gail scooped up some eggs from the plate they shared. "How come you didn't come in, help out with the repairs?"
    "She said she didn't need me. Had enough people crowding in. She didn't even want to talk about it. You know how she is."
    "She was shook, more than she let on. Who'd do that to her, Lo?" He paused. "I heard it was an accident. Reece flooded the bathroom upstairs."
    "No such thing. Somebody broke into Reece's, turned the water on. She wasn't even there."
    "But… Well, for Christ's sake, how come that didn't get back to me?"
    "Maybe because you were sulking in the tack room." Her lips curved as she slipped the fork between them. "'Somebody's been playing tricks, nasty ones, on Reece." 
    "What are you talking about?"
    She told him, at least what she knew, what she'd heard, and what she concluded from it.
    "It's a little scary when you think about it. Somebody's poking at her, and she doesn't know who. And if it's the guy she saw kill that woman—"
    "How can it be?" Lo interrupted. "That was weeks ago. He's long gone by now."
    "Not if he's from around here."
    "Well, goddamn, Linda-cail." He raked his free hand though his disheveled, sun-streaked hair. "It can't be anyone from the Fist. We know everybody. Don't you think we'd know it we had some killer standing at the counter of the mercantile with us, or having coffee at my ma's place?"
    "People don't always know. What do they always say when they find out their next-door neighbor is a psycho or something? 'Oh, he was so quiet, so nice. Kept to himself and never bothered anyone.'"
    "Nobody keeps to themselves so much around here," Lo pointed out.
    "Same difference. You never know until you know. I just wish there was something I could do to help her."
    "Seems to me you have. You gave her a friend."
    Linda-gail's smile bloomed again, warm this time, and full. "You're smarter than some people think."
    "Yeah, well, I like to keep a low profile."

    TIM McGRAW was crooning on the juke, with one of the carpenters Joanie had dragooned in an off-key duet while Reece juggled orders in the lunch rush. She could block out the music—the best way to stay sane—and most of the background clatter: a baby crying, a couple men arguing baseball. It was almost normal, as long as she didn't