I followed the smell of bacon. The whole house was quiet except for the grease popping, and Peanut turned when I walked in the room. He wore the same clothes from the night before and still had his baseball cap on. His country mile grin stretched across his face.

“What you know good, Mack?”

“Morning, Peanut,” I said.

“Thought you might be hungry. I cooked us up some bacon and eggs and got some biscuits in the oven. Hope you don’t mind they ain’t homemade. Katie’s the one who gets into all that.”

“Smells good.”

I took a seat at the kitchen table and watched Peanut flip bacon. He did it quickly—and then walked over to the refrigerator. He opened the door, grabbed two beers, and brought me one over. He sat it down in front of me, and I looked at it and then up at him. His ball cap didn’t hide his features like it did the night before. It looked like there was some excitement there, like a little kid running out to recess.

“I told you last night you’d drink a beer with me.”

“What time is it?”

“Beer o’clock.”

“Katie don’t mind?”

“Katie’s dropping the kids off at school and won’t never know ’bout one beer.” Peanut returned to the bacon and removed the skillet from the eye. He set it off to the side to let the cast iron cool and forked the bacon from it. Once he finished, he opened the oven to check on the biscuits. “They’re almost done.”

“Where is everybody?”

“That beer’s getting warm.” Peanut held his can but hadn’t drunk yet. I realized he was waiting on me and popped mine open. He took a big step across the kitchen, touched the rim of his can to mine, said, “Cheers.”

We drank long and hard, but Peanut chugged his and checked the biscuits one last time. He grabbed a dishtowel to take them from the stove, and we both made a plate. Peanut took a seat across from me at the table and started talking with his mouth full.

“I sent Caudell and your brother into town with your mama. They’re grabbing you some clothes and whatever else you’ll need to stay here for a while. Randy Jessup’s out searching for y’all. This’s the safest place for you.” Peanut swallowed what he’d chewed and shoveled more food into his mouth. He kept talking, “I made Deddy take the kids to school with Katie. She’s taking him to pick up his medicine and run errands. This way, we can talk.”

I took a swig of my beer, chased it with some bacon, stabbed the eggs with my fork. Peanut watched me eat and waited for me to swallow. He wouldn’t look away from me until I asked, “What do you wanna talk about, Peanut?”

“Mack, c’mon, we known each other since we was little kids.”

I stabbed the eggs so hard my fork clanked against the plate. “That goddamn money.”