Chapters (43)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- 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
- Epilogue
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- Readers Guide
- QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“Everything. Your daddy’s going to kill me. Probably he’ll throw away anything I leave, with me taking off without giving notice. Oh! Mary Kay was favoring her back left leg yesterday. I couldn’t find anything, but I thought I’d check it again this morning and see if she shook it off. And there’s a rail loose in the big arena. Two posts down from the gate. I meant to fix it this week, but Curt’s going to have to do it. Hold off on training Taz with the rest of the group I got ready for you. She’s still iffy about ropes, and I’ve got an idea I want to try on her, if your daddy will give me another chance after this.” He spotted a stray boot and threw it in on top of the jeans.
“I’m not going to let him fire you.” Andra grabbed a crumpled tote bag off the closet floor and started folding shirts into it. “If your mom’s sick, you have to go. Leave anything you want to. It’ll be here when you get back, and it won’t fit on the plane anyway.”
“I’m taking my truck.”
She stopped moving, and he ducked around her to strip shirts off hangers, wadding them into the empty corners of his suitcase.
“What for?” Her voice was so small he almost didn’t catch it.
“The buses barely run to the Lower Ninth, and ambulances are even slower. We don’t have a hospital nearby since Katrina. If Mama needs help, I won’t be able to get it for her without my truck.” He slammed his suitcase shut and ripped the zipper closed.
“That’ll take days to get home. I’ll drive your truck down, and you can fly. You’ll get there faster. I mean, if she needs you right now . . .”
“Can’t afford gas and a plane ticket, too.” Not to mention they’d need every penny for medication and supplies if she was sick again. He grabbed his suitcase and the tote Andra had packed, then hefted his saxophone case and headed for the door. That’d have to be enough. He’d do without everything else. “I’ve got a friend looking in on her for now. He’s supposed to call me as soon as he gets over there.” He nodded toward the kitchen. “Will you turn off the coffeepot, please? Pour it out so it doesn’t mold.”
She rushed to do it, and he’d tossed his stuff in the bed of his Datsun and was halfway to the barn by the time she caught up. “LJ, what do you need your saddle for? You said you didn’t have a horse to ride back in the city.”