Peanut sat back in his chair and looked at me the way a dog does when it can’t understand its master’s tone.

“All you and my brother are worried about is some fucking money, and there’s a girl out there that’s probably gone die.” I dropped my fork onto the plate and pushed it away from me.

Peanut reached over for my last piece of bacon. “It ain’t the money, Mack, it’s the damage it’ll do to Kendall Murdoch. I jerk that rug from underneath him, and he won’t be able to stand up to me.”

“Why do you need me and my brother, Peanut?” I asked. “You got a whole army of men that can help you get that money. Hell, Caudell could do it all by himself.”

Peanut all but licked his plate clean and fingered the few crumbs. He licked them from the tip of his finger and said, “It ain’t that I need y’all’s help, Mack. It’s that y’all’re indebted to me, and this’s how you’ll work it off. If y’all feel like this’s something you wanna do more of, we can work an arrangement out. I feel like I owe y’all that.”

“What do you mean, owe us this?”

“You know things didn’t end well between your deddy and mine. This’s always been just as much y’all’s business as it is mine. I wanna make things right between us if you’ll let me, Mack. Bring the Dooleys back into the fold.”

I leaned across the table. Peanut smelled like bacon grease and cheap beer. I could tell he didn’t like me being so close. “I don’t want shit to do with this business. I made my mind up about that when my Deddy got locked up in Sweetwater.”

A car door slammed. I got up from the table, but Peanut grabbed my wrist. Before I could take it back, he said, “It’s fine if you don’t wanna work with me, Mack, but you still got this debt to work off.”

4.

I stood under the showerhead and let hot water wash away the last few days.

Dirt swirled around the shower drain, and I scrubbed my skin until it was raw. I stood under a cold shower until all of me trembled.

I dressed in the clothes Mama bought for me and left my towel in a basket. Katie was around the house somewhere, and I did my best to stay out of her way. The radio played in one of the kids’ bedrooms, and she sang along.

Buford squatted outside Mama’s door when I walked up. He acted like he didn’t see me and sneered at me when Mama said ‘hey.’ “There something I can help you with, boy?”

I stepped into the old man’s space and said, “You can start by getting outta my way.”

Mama spoke up with a voice warm as honey. “Give us just a few minutes here, Buford, and come back by. You can finish telling me that story about Walt. I ain’t never heard it before.”