Chapters (110)
- Cover
- ALSO BY J. TODD SCOTT
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUE
- I
- II
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- PART TWO
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- PART FOUR
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- EIGHTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Excerpt from LOST RIVER
- LITTLE PARIS
- DILLON
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
MEL HAD INSISTED ON DINNER, so she was putting together a salad and working on some black beans when Chris brought Garrison in. Chris was going to grill steaks to serve over the beans, along with a homemade chimichurri sauce Mel had picked up from Vianey Ruiz. Barely three months after giving birth to Jack, Mel still had the beautiful, tired . . . exhausted . . . look of a new mother, but she’d insisted on playing the good host, even to a man she wasn’t sure she liked. She had seen Garrison maybe once at the hospital after Chris’s shooting, but that was several years ago, and they’d never spoken. All she knew about him was whatever Chris had said, and since Chris’s own opinion had waxed and waned, he had been reluctant to have her go out of her way. But she greeted Garrison warmly, without a hint of reservation. She took his folder and replaced it with a cold Rahr, and said that Jack was still asleep, but would be up soon. She told Chris to get the steaks on the grill, and that whatever they needed to talk about could be done just as well, and probably better, on a full stomach.
Garrison smiled, agreed, and took a long drink of his beer, as Rocky sat on the floor at Mel’s feet and looked up at everyone.
—
CHRIS DID THE STEAKS MEDIUM-RARE, the way everyone wanted, and they sat in the kitchen and ate them with the windows open so they could watch the sun roll lower and smell the creosote and the sweet acacia. Mel finished first and brought Jack in and showed him off, and as Chris held his son, Garrison said he looked big and might grow up to be a football player, like his dad. Mel asked if Garrison had children of his own—carefully avoiding the question of whether he was married, something Chris didn’t know—and Garrison said that he had two daughters, Angie and Megan. Angie was a freshman at Juniata in Pennsylvania who hoped to be a doctor someday, and Megan was a senior in high school, also back east. She was a field hockey player, and pretty damn good.
He admitted he didn’t get to see enough of her games, but she sent him plenty of videos. He hoped maybe she’d consider University of Texas at Austin, or maybe Chris and Mel’s alma mater, Baylor, but so far none of the schools she was interested in were this far west.
Garrison then asked for another beer, and Mel went to get him one.