Goodbye Earl(75)

She heard Silas say, “Hey, Fritz,” and turned to see him walking across the grass. She was relieved he wasn’t in his uniform for reasons directly related to murder and prison.

“Hey, Castelow,” she said. He got next to her and pulled a big broken branch out of the tree, down to the grass. She thanked him.

“I’ll finish doing this. I can bring the truck back later today and take care of it for you.”

“Not today, no. Don’t worry about it. Later this weekend, maybe?” she said, not wanting to be too weird about it, but she definitely couldn’t have Silas popping up tonight.

“All right. Sounds good,” Silas said. “Do you know when you’re going back to New York? You’re hanging around until Caro’s out of the hospital?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I have a ton of vacation days saved up, and I can work from home a lot and make my own hours anyway,” she said. She’d had a conference call with a few of her coworkers that morning, and she was grateful everyone was so understanding about everything. She’d told them a little about the farmhouse, a little about Caroline. One coworker went above and beyond and even ordered flowers from Plum Florals and had them delivered to Caro’s hospital room.

“Your man’s not stressing yet?” Silas asked.

“My man,” Kasey said with a snicker. She thought of Trey calling Devon her man when he’d asked about him at the wedding reception. When Trey said it, it was annoying. When Silas said it, it was cute. She’d taken her engagement ring off. When she looked down at her bare finger, Silas did too. “He’s fine. He’s very patient and busy. He has plenty of things to do with his brain.”

“Right. Well, I heard Beau tried to beat Trey’s ass in the hospital parking lot yesterday. Were you there for that?” Silas asked.

“Yep. I wish he had.”

“Grayson wants to kill Trey too. I mean, he wants to forreal kill him. I had to stop him from coming into the police station the other night when Trey was there.”

“Okay, so, I guess y’all need a sign-up sheet for people who want to kill Trey Foxberry, and go ahead and put everybody but his mama on that list,” Kasey said, with ice water in her veins. She wondered what time it was. Trey wasn’t coming over until nine, because he had to go to the distillery in Jesse County.

Maybe he’d die in a car wreck on his way. Her daddy died in a car wreck; the drunk driver died too. If her daddy could die in a car wreck, so could Trey.

“This cop buddy of mine wants to kill him too. He and another guy are taking shifts at the hospital, watching and making sure Trey doesn’t try anything with Caro. Although, he’d have to get past Mimi first, I know,” Silas said, letting out a short, breathy laugh.

She loved when he laughed like that after making a dumb joke. She remembered it from high school, and she remembered it from the other night when he came by the hotel, the night before Trey put Caro in the hospital. They’d had two beers and shared a small plate of devils on horseback in the bar downstairs—all swank with bare, hanging lightbulbs. They played two rounds of pool and listened to Neil Young and Aaliyah. P!nk and Gorillaz. James Brown and Kings of Leon and the Notorious B.I.G. and Kenny Chesney. Kasey’s mind was full of worry about Caro, and Silas knew that. He distracted her by telling her more funny stories about the Goldie stuff she missed over the past fifteen years.

What really happened to Katie Brunswick’s houseboat last summer and how the insurance company didn’t believe the lie. How Stanley Morrison saved a man’s life in Myrtle’s Diner when he choked on a meatball. Why the mayor ordered the fountain in the town square to remain empty for the second half of 2012. Silas had done The Smile and his breathy laugh then too. He’d smelled so good—woodsmoke and apples—like he always did. Once, when she was bending over to aim at the corner pocket, he walked behind her, and someone accidentally bumped him. My bad, Castelow, the guy said. No worries was Silas’s reply. Kasey felt the warmth of the front of Silas’s thigh on the back of hers and he said, Sorry, Kase, touching her shoulder. She denied herself the pleasure of pushing her body against him. To tell him she remembered. She remembered everything.

The sexual tension had been stupidly, syrupy thick, and she was grateful they were so far away from her hotel room. What would’ve happened if they were closer to it? She was grateful that Caroline would be spending the night with her. What would’ve happened if she weren’t? Would Silas try to kiss her? Would she let him? She’d had plenty of surprise dreams about him over the years. Dreams where they’d only kiss or only have sex or only talk all night. Dreams that left her frustrated and sometimes touching herself awake in the morning. That hungry high school energy they’d had for each other sizzled on the back burner of her heart as she watched Silas leave the hotel. She’d gone upstairs to her room alone, and while she waited for Ada to drop off Caroline, Kasey had called Devon to let him know how much she loved him. Told him about the dalmatian puppy she had seen in front of the firehouse.



She’d finally called Devon back earlier this morning too because his nonstop texts were driving her crazy. She told him she needed two more weeks and she’d return to NYC. It seemed like a decent amount of time to give herself. If she needed more, she’d figure it out then. She didn’t have a reference point for how she’d feel after murdering a man, even if he deserved it.