Rescue Me

genuine. “But that never stops me. How’s your daddy?”
    “Good and getting better. Thanks for asking.” She turned her attention to Vince, who twisted a small cube of blue chalk on the tip of his cue. “I see you’re making friends.” It had been almost two weeks since she’d seen Vince at the Gas and Go. Two weeks since he’d told her she looked like shit and that she owed him. Two weeks since she’d told him that her orgasm was worth only forty cents.
    “Sadie.”
    “Y’all know each other?”
    She glanced at Jane, then returned her gaze to Vince. “Yes. He had trouble with his truck and I gave him a ride into town.” Since she didn’t want to discuss the other ways she knew Vince, she turned the subject. “Jane, Pammy, and Deeann and I went to Ms. Naomi’s Charm School together,” she told Vince. “They were much better at the Texas dip than I was.”
    Vince looked at all four women. “What’s in it?”
    Jane and Pammy laughed. “That’s funny.”
    “The Texas dip is a debutante curtsy,” Deeann explained as she handed her cue to Pammy. She moved to a clear spot several feet away, then she extended her arms out to her sides and slowly bowed like a swan until her forehead almost touched the ground.
    Sadie looked up from Deeann’s flowing red hair to Vince, who watched with one brow cocked. He set the chalk on the edge of the table, then moved to the other side. He leaned his big body over the table and lined up a shot. The long cue slid between his knuckles as the Christmas lights shone in his dark hair and black shirt. She couldn’t tell if he was impressed with Deeann or not.
    Deeann rejoined them and took her cue. “I can still dip.”
    “Wow, I wasn’t even that limber at seventeen. Very impressive.”
    “Remember when you tripped on your train at the Cotton Cotillion and your rose headdress fell off?” Pammy reminded Sadie, like she’d ever forget. After that, she hadn’t really bothered to pile and pin and spray her hair into a headdress of any kind. She’d just worn her hair straight, which had caused a bigger scandal than the headdress debacle.
    “That was tragic.” Both sisters laughed as they had years ago, and Sadie guessed they hadn’t changed much over the past ten years. What the women didn’t know was that Sadie didn’t care. They no longer had the power to make her feel bad about herself.
    “But you were always so pretty it didn’t matter,” Deeann said, genuinely trying to make Sadie feel better.
    “Thank you, Deeann,” she said, and thought to return the favor. “I parked my car in front of your shop. It looks like you have some real nice stuff. I’ll have to stop by before I leave town.”
    “I hope you do. I make my own jewelry, and if you decide to stay in Lovett, and don’t want to live out there at the ranch, let me know. I sell real estate, too.”
    Her interest piqued, she said, “I’m an agent in Phoenix. How’s the market around here?”
    “I’m not getting rich, but it’s picking up slightly. Brokering a lot of short sales.”
    Short sales weren’t what agents bragged about the most. “Me too.” Sadie liked that about Deeann.
    “Goodness, are you going to bore us with shop talk?” Pammy asked.
    Sadie glanced at her watch and pretended she had somewhere to be. Just because she didn’t care what the sisters said, didn’t mean she wanted to hang out with them. “It sure was great to see y’all.” Lord, had she just said “y’all”? It had taken years to extract that contraction from her vocabulary. She looked at Vince, who lined up another shot. “Good night, Vince.”
    He shot the six ball in the side pocket and rose. “See ya around, Sadie,” he said, more interested in his game than in her.
    She said good-bye to Lloyd and Cain and headed toward the beer vendor. Overhead, dark blue and orange streaked across the night sky. She ran into JH employees and former employees, and by the time she made it to the vendor, it was full dark and Tom and the Armadillos took the stage at one end of the parking lot. She was tired but didn’t want to go home. She didn’t always mind being alone. She’d been raised on a ranch filled with people, but she’d always been alone. But lately she’d either been in a hospital room alone or listening to her grumpy daddy.
    She was Sadie Jo Hollowell. Most people knew her name. Knew she was Clive’s daughter, but they didn’t know her. Her whole life, people either loved or hated her