“Don’t move too fast,” Caddy said, leaning back on her arms, hands flat on the bed. “Take care of you.”

“Been taking care of myself too damn much,” Boom said. “I go from sitting at my house to getting a ride over to rehab three times a week. I ain’t gonna lie to you. Ain’t nothing for me to do but sit around and watch television and drink. Drank me a whole damn bottle of Jack Daniel’s last night. Only thing that kills those damn snakes in my head.”

Caddy nodded, both of them sharing the ugly addiction, although Caddy hadn’t a drink or pill in more than three years. She’d come down hard when Jamey Dixon got killed, acting like she was tough and doubling down here at The River, until one night she found herself rolling up in the backwoods for a few pills, a little weed, one little hit from a pint of Aristocrat vodka to keep those demons in check. The next thing she knew, she’d left Jason and Tibbehah County and was back somewhere in Memphis, Quinn kicking in the door to an apartment with an ax handle in his hand and taking her home.

“The kids’ league banned me for the rest of the season.”

“I know.”

“I want to apologize to Jason,” Boom said. “He don’t need that bullshit in his world.”

“Not necessary,” Caddy said, patting Boom’s huge thigh. “That boy’s seen ten times worse from me or his grandmother at Thanksgiving. One year she got so damn loaded she performed the ‘American Trilogy’ on top of the kitchen table.”

Boom grinned, shook his head, feeling the rough edges of his beard. “Everything’s gonna be better when I get a truck back, jamming those gears and hitting the highway. Get the hell out of my little shack. Damn, Caddy. I think I’m losing my mind.”

Caddy wanted to tell him about riding up to Memphis with Tashi Coleman, riding past those shitty little motels and pool halls, spending some time back in the belly of the beast, Dixie Belles, to find out where they could track down Ansley Cuthbert. She didn’t think much of it that night, while she was doing it, watching the whole thing like it was a movie playing back in her head. But since then, it had brought her full awake at three in the morning, gasping for breath, sweating, turning on the nightlight to make sure she was safe in bed, heading into Jason’s room to pat the covers, make sure her son was still with her. No. Boom didn’t need to know all that. He had too much of a burden on him now, a damn good man who’d lost his way and his purpose. Something in sad supply in Tibbehah.

“You think I should tell Bentley the truth?” Caddy said. “That we’re flat-ass broke?”