Rescue Me

this morning.”
    “What?” She blinked and swallowed hard. “He felt better yesterday.”
    “I’m sorry. Are you alone? Do you have someone who can drive you to the facility today?”
    “My daddy died? Alone?”
    “I’m sorry. We won’t know the cause of death until after autopsy, but it was peaceful.”
    “Peaceful.” Her face felt tingly. Her hands were numb and her heart felt tight and on fire in her chest. “I . . . I don’t know what to do now.” What was she going to do without her father?
    “Have you made arrangements?”
    “For what?”
    “Come in and talk to someone in the administration office.”
    “Okay.” She stood. “Bye.” She hung up the phone on the bedside table and stared at it. Thump-thump-thump , her heart pounded in her chest and head and ears. She grabbed her flip-flops and purse and headed down the hall. Past the wall of Hollowells. The doctor was wrong. Her dad had been himself yesterday. Cranky and cantankerous. Fine.
    She moved out the front door to her car. She thought maybe she should tell Clara Anne. Clara Anne would cry. Carolynn would cry. Everyone would cry and the news would beat her to Amarillo. She wanted to hold it in. Hold it inside herself for a while. Until she talked to the doctors. Until she knew . . . she didn’t know what.
    Miranda Lambert blared from the car speakers as she turned over the engine. She turned down the volume and headed toward Amarillo. Her daddy couldn’t be dead. Wouldn’t she have known it? Wouldn’t she have somehow felt it? Wouldn’t the world be different? Look different?
    Her mouth was dry and she took a drink from an old fountain Diet Coke in her cup holder. Her ears had a strange, high-pitched buzzing. Like cicadas were in her head. Her fingers tingled and she wondered how it could be that the wildflowers on the side of the road weren’t wilting and dying like she was inside.
    She drove through Lovett and past the Gas and Go. Vince’s truck was parked by the Dumpster in back. Had she just seen him a little over an hour ago? In her kitchen? Eating breakfast? It seemed like more time had passed. Like a week. Like a lifetime. Like when her life had been whole.
    Before.
    Before her world came apart.
    V ince plugged the coffeemaker into the socket in the office and pushed the on button. Most of the demolition was done and the remodeling would begin soon.
    A soft rustle drew his attention to the doorway. Sadie stood there. Keys in one hand and a pair of flip-flops in the other.
    “Change your mind about ripping up those floor tiles?” he asked.
    She looked at him and licked her lips. “I need a fountain Diet Coke.”
    He slid his gaze over her, from the top of her blond hair to the toes of her bare feet. There was something off about her. “I threw the fountain machine away and ordered new.”
    “I’ll take a can.”
    Something wasn’t right. “I emptied the refrigerators and pulled them out. All that stuff’s stacked in a corner of the storage room.”
    “That’s okay. I’ll take one anyway.”
    “You want a hot Diet Coke?”
    She nodded and licked her lips again. “My daddy died last night.” She shook her head. “This morning, I mean.” The keys rattled in her hand and her brows lowered. “The hospital called. I have to go make arrangements.” Her brows lowered as if nothing made sense. “I guess.”
    He dipped his head and looked into her eyes. “Did you drive here, Sadie?”
    She nodded. “My mouth is dry.” Her eyes were wide, glassy, with the thousand-yard stare of someone in deep shock. He recognized that look. He’d seen it in the eyes of hardened warriors. “Do you have water?”
    He grabbed his coffee mug and filled it with water from the sink. He took the keys and shoes from her and handed her the water. “I’m sorry about your daddy.” He put her things on the old desk and walked back toward her. “I didn’t know him, but everyone who mentioned him had good things to say.”
    She nodded and drained the mug. “I need to go.”
    “Hang tight.” He took her wrist and placed his fingers over her pulse. “Not yet.” He looked at his watch and counted her heartbeats. “Do you feel light-headed?”
    “What?”
    “Is someone in your family driving you to Amarillo?” Her pulse was fast but not dangerously high. “One of your aunts or cousins or uncles?”
    “My daddy was an only child. My aunts and uncles are on my mama’s side.”
    “Can one of them drive