I didn’t know how I was supposed to react. But, still, there was a part of me that wanted to make Sheila turn right back around, to take me straight back to the cabin, to Richard. But, how could I do that? Especially with the way I’d spoken to him? I put my face in my hands, took a deep breath.
“What?” Sheila asked, taking her eyes off the road for a fraction of a moment to glance over at me. “You okay?”
I groaned. “No. What I said to Richard, about never speaking to me again. I can’t believe I said that.”
“What the hell? Why, Jess? He obviously cares for you!”
“Oh, God, maybe I should leave town. I should have taken Wyatt up on his offer as soon as he made it, then I could be far away from this place, with all my troubles over.”
“Come on,” Sheila said. “It’s not that bad. Richard’s a good guy. So what if he might get fleas in the summer.”
I turned and looked at her, my mouth agape.
“What?” she asked, glancing over at me again. “He’s hot. He might be a wolf some of the time, but look at him the rest of the time! He gave himself up for me, Jessica. What other guy would do that? You weren’t paying enough for him to do that, and you know it.”
I frowned, desperately wanting to change the subject. Sheila was wearing me down on the whole thing. I mean, who was I really to judge? So what if he was different. He didn’t kiss any different, and his arms and hands felt just like any other man’s hands or arms when they pulled me close. Well, that wasn’t necessarily true. His felt right when they did it, made all the other previous men in my life seem like poor imitations when they were stacked next to him.
Why was this happening to me? I find a perfectly good man. A perfectly sane, handsome, attractive man who’s good with my dogs, wants to support me. Who’s a great kisser. And he turns out to be a man only part of the time. What kind of luck was that? I suddenly realized, as these thoughts swirled around in my head, that I needed to change the subject.
“Sheila?”
“Yeah.”
“How’d you get wrapped up in this? I thought you were staying in tonight? I dropped the dogs off with you and everything.”
She sighed and groaned. “I fucked up, that’s how.”
I glanced at her, eyebrow raised. “How?”
“I went down to a Skull and Bones watering hole I know, got into talk to Wyatt, asked him about the deal. He was still smarting over what Richard did to him, I guess, and as soon as he realized I knew you and him, they grabbed me and pulled me along when they got a call about following the computer girl that works for Frost. Guess he thought I could be a bargaining chip or something.”
“Aw,” I said. “Thanks. That’s actually kind of sweet, in a weird way.”
She chuckled. “Well, sweet or not, it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Even stupider than Chad. And he was dumb as a sack of door knobs.”
I laughed. “Yeah, but he was so your type.”
She grinned, a little color returning to her cheeks. She looked like she’d begun to, at least partially, put the events of the last couple hours behind her. “I guess so. But, you know what? I think my type’s going to change after tonight. Those guys, Jess, the things they said to me, the way Wyatt looked when he put the gun to my head. It was unreal. I thought that shit was just in the movies. I can’t imagine ever being with a guy like that, not again. I thought these guys did Toys for Tots bike rides and shit.”
I reached out, touched her hand where it was tightly gripping the steering wheel. “I’m sorry,” I said. “But, thank you again, for trying to help. That’s what matters.”
We lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few moments after that. A little later, a notification on Sheila’s phone went off. She flipped it over in her lap and looked at the screen.
“What’s up?” I asked as she put the phone to her ear.
“Voicemail,” she replied as she listened to the recording. “Karen. Sounds like she’s been having a rough night. She’s been really clingy the last few months, what with her mom and all.”
I knew what she meant. The occasional drop-ins were okay, but sometimes Karen just grated on my nerves. But, she was a human being, and deserving of some sort of friendship, wasn’t she? “Well, her mom’s sick, Sheila. She needs our support.”
“I know,” she said with a sigh. “But, she just used to be so much fun. Probably not fair to her we’ve been hanging out so much, especially with me helping out at the shop with your accounting and stuff.”
“Yeah. I don’t know, if you two hadn’t been here for me when I came back from school, I don’t know what I would have done, especially when my family fell apart.”