Shine On Oklahoma Read online

  He figured the meds would take a good hour to kick in. Maybe more, but the whiskey should speed things along. So all he had to do was feed them, and hope to God they passed out before their boss arrived to witness, or possibly conduct, his execution. Shouldn’t be a problem at all.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  When the shower wound down, and most of the guests had left, Dax helped load mountains of gifts into the back of Rob’s pickup. There was enough for ten babies piled in there, Kendra thought.

  Ned and a couple of long-time waitresses were already busy taking down streamers. Joe’s little girl, five-year-old Matilda was running around gathering up balloons. She could manage two at a time, kind of hugging them to her waist, one under each arm, but then she kept trying to go for three. She bent over a pink balloon, wiggled her fingers and twisted her hands, but she couldn’t push her arms together around the balloons she already had. Little T-Rex, Kendra thought, and laughed out loud. Matilda pressed her arms harder, and both balloons sprang free. She dropped onto her backside on the floor. A blond curl landed across her face, and she blew it away with a pouty little puff.

  Kendra experienced a warm wave of something in the middle of her chest, behind her ribcage and a little to the left. She looked at her sister, hadn’t meant to, just did, and her eyes locked onto that bulging belly, and she thought of her niece being Matilda’s age, that cute and that precocious and that pretty.

  This thing was real. There was going to be a new person in her life. It was a big deal. Her eyes were getting all damp, stupid eyes, and when she dragged them off her sister’s belly, she found Kiley looking right at her. She had an odd look on her face, like she was trying to interpret Kendra’s interest in her belly.

  Getting up with effort, Kiley came over. Kendra turned a little sideways to watch Joey, Matilda’s father, handing her a giant trash bag.

  The little girl’s eyes lit up. “That’s brilliant!” She shouted, springing upright and at him, like she’d been sitting on an airbag as it deployed. He totally knew it was coming, too, because he hunkered down and caught her for a great big hug. “Thanks, Daddy.”

  “Any time, Princess.”

  Matilda looked at the bag, a green one, then at the balloons all around the room. “I might need more than one bag.”

  “I think you can make due with one,” her daddy said. “Maybe some of the other kids want to take some home. You think?”

  “Okay.” She ran off to fill her bag with balloons.

  “She’s cute, isn’t she?” Kiley asked.

  “If she was any cuter, I’d need insulin.” Kendra softened the words with a smile. “Watching her made me think about Diana. And how big a deal this is.” Her eyes were on her sister’s bump again. And something pressed outward from one side, then receded, then gave three quick little jabs.”

  “Ow!” Kiley said.

  “That’s…that’s unreal.” Kendra put her hand on there to feel it. “It’s like Alien.”

  “It is not like Alien!” Something poked outward slowly, making an odd and impossible lump. Kendra met Kiley’s eyes, lifted her brows. “Okay, it’s a little like Alien.” She smiled. They both did. “I really want you to stay, Kendra.” Kiley put her hand over the one on her belly.

  Kendra lowered her head. “You want me to change, so I can stay.” She already had changed. Sort of. But there was some stubborn streak preventing her from telling Kiley that. She wanted unconditional acceptance, she guessed.

  “It’s not so hard. And it feels wonderful not to have to deceive people all the time. You wouldn’t believe the…the lightness of it. Never watching over your shoulder, worried about getting caught in a lie, never worried about getting caught, period.”

  She didn’t doubt a word of it. It did feel good not having a cover to maintain. She hadn’t realized how good until she’d had to maintain one again. And lie to Dax. And try to get him to do something he didn’t want to do. And now she was racking her brain to figure a way to help him deal with Vester Caine once Jack was safe. There had to be a way to get Dax and Caroline out of this mess without one or both of them doing time.

  She was also worried about Dax finding out the truth, Dax not finding out the truth, Dax going along with the plan, Dax refusing to go along with the plan, her father getting killed, her sister and niece getting in the way of this, and what the hell to do with Miss Dolly for the rest of the week.

  Give me a minute, she thought, and I can make that list longer.

  “Hey.”

  Kiley was searching her face when Kendra pulled her focus out of her own head. “Whatever it is,” her sister asked, “can you do anything about it tonight?”

  She thought and thought and thought. “I don’t think so.”

  Matilda ran past them, her trash bag bulging with balloons and bouncing along behind her. She raced through the batwing doors and outside into the parking lot.

  “If there’s nothing you can do about it right now, why waste your time on it?” Kiley went on. “Let it go and relax.”

  “Where’d you get that crap? Oprah?”

  “Allie. She reads a lot of self-help books.” Kiley sighed and went on. “If you want to talk about anything, I’m here. Okay?”

  Kendra’s eyes were all hot and wet again. “God, you’re so sappy now, you know that? What is that, a side effect of pregnancy?”

  “Yes. Yes, it is.”

  Matilda came racing back through, trash bag empty now, and flying behind her like a banner.

  Kiley laughed. “Thank you for the party, sis.”

  “Thank you for the niece.”

  Kiley hugged her and kissed her face. Then she joined her husband and headed out to their waiting truck.

  Kendra walked outside behind them, Dax falling into step beside her, little Matilda racing behind them, her trash bag once again bulging.

  They stepped aside to let Matilda and her bag of balloons pass, then followed her outside. She carried the bag right over to a pickup truck that had a mountain of balloons in its bed, climbed up onto the rear bumper and emptied her bag.

  “Matilda what are you doing?” Emily, asked, trying to sound like a stern mommy, except for the laughter bubbling underneath her words.

  “Daddy said I should make due with one bag, so…” She held up her hands, palms-up, on either side of her pretty face. Then she added, “I asked the other kids, Daddy. Nobody else wanted any.”

  Emily looked at Joey. Joey said, “She has not disobeyed me in any way. Followed my words to the letter. I said she could make due with one bag, and that’s exactly what she did.”

  Jason came up, slapped Joe on the shoulder and said, “I’ve got a tarp and some bungies. Let’s secure your daughter’s cargo, little brother.

  Kendra stood there with Dax and waved goodbye as everyone left. The shower had gone really well. And now she was going to help with the cleanup, and make the best of the evening, because there was nothing else she could do tonight, anyway. Her sister had been right about that. So she pushed up her sleeves and started back to the dining room with the few remaining people. Ned was still there, and he and Miss Dolly were using cleanup time to continue talking, and laughing and touching every now and then. It was kind of sweet.

  Everyone headed into the dining room. Kendra paused and glanced back at the bar. Might as well make clean-up as much fun as possible. She filled a glass with ice, then halfway with Coke, and then the rest of the way vodka, highest proof on the shelf. She dropped in a straw before moseying back into the dining room, where not a single balloon remained.

  #

  Dax could see that Kendra was tipsy. She was not drunk. He knew drunk from tipsy. She’d sneaked a couple of drinks when she thought he wasn’t looking, probably because she knew he was on the wagon.

  “It went really well, don’t you think?” she asked.

  “I think it was a huge hit,” Dax said.

  “I had a moment with Kiley, I think.”

  “I saw.”

  Every
body was gone, except for the two of them. The place was clean, chairs up on tables. Joey had been the last to leave, and he’d said, “I’ll leave the back door open. Lock it up before you uh… whatever.”

  They were walking that way now, toward the back door. Dax wasn’t sure if Kendra was expecting him to leave and lock it behind him, or stay, and lock it from the inside.

  He decided to find out, and locked the door, then looked at her, waiting for her to object. He did an internal happy dance when she didn’t.

  “Miss Dolly is sweet,” he said, arm around her shoulders, walking them back through the kitchen, into the saloon, and around to the staircase.

  “She’s been flirting with Ned all night. I’m a little bit worried about him.” She wrapped her arm around his waist as they climbed the stairs, let her head rest against his upper arm as they went up. “She’s in the…family business.”

  “He’ll be fine. He’s ex-Navy.” Then he thought a minute and smiled. “Besides, he’s smitten. Well and truly smitten.”

  “Twitterpated,” she said, laughing. “It is kind of sweet.”

  “You’re kind of sweet, too,” he said, and he turned her into his arms when they stopped outside her door. And then he kissed her, and as usual, common sense and rational thought left his mind. “You taste like vodka.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll brush my teeth.”

  “I like it.” He kissed her again to prove it. He’d quit drinking, so this was as close as he was gonna get.

  She kissed him back and pressed her key into his hand. He turned them sideways and maneuvered it blindly, jabbing and missing a few times before he manged to turn the key and open the door. They stumbled inside, still kissing, fell onto the bed still kissing, undressed each other, still kissing.

  Sex with her always felt real. She didn’t pretend, she didn’t cover, she didn’t hide. She let him see her soul when he made love to her. He stroked her secrets. He kissed her scars. He touched her fears, until she let them all go.

  It had always seemed like she really meant it, when Kendra let him make love to her. And tonight, it felt like she meant it even more.

  Later, when they collapsed in and around and against each other, breathless, plummeting to earth from heaven like the winking sparks of a fireworks display, he said, “I love you, you know.”

  And she said, “Yeah. I know.”

  He hadn’t expected an I love you, too. He’d hoped, but he hadn’t expected it. Probably just as well. If she said it now, before he told her what he’d decided, it might change anyway.

  He sank back onto his pillows beside her, one hand behind his head, and watched her face. She was on her side facing him, knees bent and tipped over on top of his thigh, one bent arm across his chest, fingertips splayed over his heart. Maybe she was feeling it beat. It was beating fast. For her.

  He looked right into her eyes. “I don’t want to own a racetrack, Kendra. It’s probably the thing I want least in the whole world.”

  She flinched as if something had stung her. And then her gaze seemed to be looking within. “Why not?” she asked. But he got the feeling it was filler, to give her mind time to write the rest of the script. All that connection, all that openness, was fading now. She was gathering her masks around her once again.

  “On his deathbed, my father told me he’d have disinherited me if he’d known he was gonna die so soon. He’d intended to take care of it, just didn’t get around to it. Who expects to die at sixty, you know?”

  “Your father was an asshole.”

  “Yes. He was. But the fact remains, I don’t want it, Kendra. He didn’t want me to have it, and I can’t swallow enough pride to take it on a technicality.”

  “But…but you could give the profits to your mother,” she said.

  “Mom and I had a heart-to-heart this morning. She feels the same way I do. She’s a successful woman in her own right. She’s got her boarding stable, and she does really well for herself. She’s ready to let the track go, too. The SRA will pay market value if living heirs give it up.”

  Kendra swallowed hard. “So…then, you’ve decided?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. I have a few technicalities to work out first, but yeah. Ultimately, we’re letting it go.”

  “I think that’s a mistake, Dax.”

  “Maybe. I just keep thinking how I’ll feel when the newspapers run my name next to that track’s name, and talk about the family legacy. Maybe they’ll run my photo beside my old man’s. It’ll feel like a lie.”

  “Newspapers,” she said softly. Then she sat up quick, hugged her knees to her chest, rested her chin on top of them. “And my shot at a new life? At a new career?”

  “You already have a new career. Whether you keep it going, that’s up to you. If we’re gonna make this work, we have to give each other autonomy over our own lives.”

  “Autonomy, huh? So if I choose to go back to hustling fools?”

  “Autonomy within reason.”

  “That’s a double standard.”

  He nodded and sighed, sitting up beside her in the bed. “I only want to be with you if you can give it up for good, Kendra. I can be honest about that. Just tell me, do you only want to be with me if I own a racetrack?”

  She looked at him for the first time, and he wanted to believe it was honesty he saw in her eyes. But with Kendra, you could never be sure. “My feelings for you have absolutely nothing to do with your father’s racetrack. That’s the truth, Dax.”

  He clasped her hands. “I want to build something of my own,” he said. “No. I want us to build something of our own. Together.”

  She sighed, lowered her head, breaking eye contact.

  “Do you want that, too?” he asked at length.

  “I…I’ve got too much going on right now to figure out something that deep on five minutes’ notice, okay?” She dropped her face to her palms, pushed them up and back through her hair.

  “That’s fair,” he said. “You’re right. Take some time. I know this is a big change, Kendra, but I need your honesty. I need you to trust me. If we’re gonna go forward together, I need there to be no secrets between us. That’s crucial.”

  She lowered her eyes, hiding whatever was happening behind them. Again.

  Sighing, he rolled out of the bed, stood up, and felt her looking at his naked body while he gathered up his clothes. “I’m gonna go.”

  “Stay,” she said.

  He turned around, his pants in his hand. “You need space to think about all this.”

  “I think better when I’m wrapped up in you. Stay, Dax. Really.”

  She could hurt him so bad if she wanted to. She was still keeping secrets from him. She might be sincere, or she might be a spider inviting the fly to a sleepover in her web. Man, he was some kind of idiot where this woman was concerned.

  He dropped his pants on the floor and crawled back into her bed.

  #

  The idea had come to Kendra full blown, as if left behind by the vodka’s receding tide. She knew exactly what she had to do. As soon as Dax was snoring peacefully, she crept out of the bed, took his cell phone from the nightstand, and pressed his thumb to the home button to unlock it. Then she grabbed a robe and slipped out into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind her, but not letting it lock.

  She walked a few feet down the hall in one direction, only to be brought up short by creaking and thumping and Miss Dolly saying, “Oh, Ned, oh, Ned!”

  Kendra pivoted and tiptoed in the opposite direction as fast as she could go, clicking icons to keep the phone from locking up again on the way. In a quiet spot, she gave a gentle shudder to try to disengage the images of Dolly and Ned from her imagination as she surfed for the email address she needed.

  #

  Ace and Phil passed out before the end of the second football game. Phil was on the sofa, all cocked over to one side with his face on the arm and his mouth open. Ace had got up, staggered three steps, and then hit the floor like a sack of feed.

&n
bsp; Jack searched them, found his phone in one of Ace’s pockets—thank God. Ace wasn’t bright enough to have removed the battery and tossed it someplace far away to prevent anyone tracking it, should they try. And Vester Caine hadn’t thought to tell him to, because nobody can tell an idiot everything he needs to know. Some things were supposed to be obvious, like always keep the barrel end of your gun pointed away from you, and don’t stick Tic-Tacs up your nose.

  He pocketed his phone and Ace’s pocket knife, then tossed Ace’s and Phil’s phones onto the coffee table. Just as he did, one of them vibrated. Curious, Jack glanced at it.

  It was a text from Kendra, showing on the lock screen. When he’d called her the first time, it had been from that phone. And Caine had used it to text her as well. He was too smart to use his own. Records could be subpoenaed, after all. He could see the full content of the message on the lock screen.

  It’s done. Watch tomorrow’s Aurora Free Times for proof.

  Jack smiled from ear to ear, shaking his head. “Well, what do you know? She pulled it off.” And here he’d been worrying she’d gone soft on the mark.

  Too bad he was already this deep into his escape plan. There was an SUV in the driveway, the one they’d driven here in. He took the keys, and all the cash in both their wallets, which turned out to be over six-fifty. On the way to the front door, he snagged the whiskey and a handful of Vester’s Cuban cigars. Then he put the cigars back and took the entire humidor. He could’ve looted the place for a lot more, but he figured he should git while the gittin’s good, as his mother used to say.

  She’d been a master, his mother. Reminded him a lot of Kendra.

  He opened the front door, cringed at the loud creak it made when he did, and glanced back at the men sprawled in the living room.

  “Goin’ somewhere Jack?”

  Jack’s head snapped right just as Vester Caine got up from the porch swing, rising slow to his full height of about 6’4”, big enough that he probably didn’t even need the gun in his hand. He walked casually closer, flipped a light switch, and the porch was suddenly flooded and blinding. Looking down at the bottle Jack held by its neck, he shook his head, reached out with a free hand and took it while Jack was still trying to decide whether he could hit him upside the head with it and run.