Nick looked at her kind of funny. "What's with this new violent streak, huh?"
She shrugged. "Not sure. Kind of feels good, though."
He leaned towards her. "It's sort of hot," he said in his seductive voice.
Arden rolled her eyes. "I guess you want to have sex, now."
Nick's grin vanished. "No, don't do me any favors."
He got up and started walking away. Arden took a deep breath. She was being unreasonable. They'd just made up. Sort of. And it would be good to seal the deal. Besides, she hadn't been with him enough since they got engaged. And maybe that was part of the reason he had cheated on her.
"Wait," she said. He was at her door. He stopped with his back to her. "You should lock the door," she said. He turned and smiled. She got on her knees and started unbuttoning her pajama top.
"I love it when we do it in your parents' house," Nick said, rushing toward her. "Feels like high school again."
They undressed and rolled around a while. Nick finally pinned her beneath him. While he was doing his thing, she stared at the ceiling and thought about high school, since he had just mentioned it. He had cheated on her then, too. Of course she had forgiven him. They were just kids. But then again, maybe there was a pattern she should be paying attention to.
She closed her eyes and focussed on making all the right sounds in all the right places. When he finished, he rolled off of her and dozed off. Arden got dressed and went to sit in the soft chair by her window. She pulled one of Travis's romance novels out of the cushion and picked up reading where she had left off.
That day, Travis drove up to Jefferson City to visit the old man in prison, as he had every year around Christmas since he'd gone away. As usual, he invited Dustin and Neil and as usual, they said no. It was easy enough for them, Travis supposed. Sure, Travis had been the one to bear the brunt of the old man's violent outbursts, but he'd also been the one he spent the most fatherly time with. Did Beau Lanier kill those two people? Possibly. Probably. But to Travis, blood was blood, and he couldn't bring himself to completely turn his back on the old man.
Travis pulled his Cyclone onto the highway, turned on his police scanner, and pressed the accelerator to the floor. He loved the feel and sound of that engine. It felt good to drive fast. He hadn't done it in a while. He put all negative thoughts out of his mind and refused to even think of Arden. He just enjoyed the speed and the highway.
He arrived in the city in just under three hours. He went through the whole process of being admitted into the visitor's park at the correctional facility. And then he strolled casually to the table where his old man sat waiting for his visit. He didn't bring him anything, but every month Travis wired money to his father. He'd just written it into his budget as an indefinite expense.
Beau stood as a greeting gesture and then they sat opposite each other. The old man was as tall and broad as Travis, but Travis had inherited his mother's blue eyes. Beau's hair was thick and long and halfway to gray. His face was hard, the line of his jaw rigid, his body lean...leaner than Travis's.
"How's it going, Pop," Travis said.
"Oh, you know. 'Bout the same as always."
Travis grinned and nodded. "Got any Christmas plans?"
Beau narrowed his eyes slightly. "Yeah, me and my cellmate put together a choir from some of the guys on our cell block. I reckon we're going to sing carols for the guards next week."
Travis laughed and then Beau laughed with him.
"How're your brothers doing?" Beau asked.
"Good. Neil doesn't know it yet, but he's going to college next year, if you can believe it."
"Ha. No I can't. Didn't ever occur to me that boy even had a brain in his head, all them video games he was always playing."
"Yeah, well, it's that computer stuff. He wants to do some sort of programming. But he's having to work while he does school, so it's going to take him a while."
Beau nodded and Travis was never sure whether he was really interested or just so bored out of his mind that he was happy to keep the conversation going.
"What about Dustin. He doing alright?"
"Yeah. Real good. Finally asked a girl on a date the other day."
"Oh? Who'd he ask out?"
"Emma Harris. The preacher's daughter...you remember her?"
"I think so, though she'd have been just a young girl at the time."
"Well she's all woman, now, and Dustin's been wanting to ask her out for about two years."
Beau nodded again. "Duane?" he asked.
Travis folded his hands and leaned forward. "Duane's fucked up."
Beau grinned. "Like us, huh?"
Travis gritted his teeth. "Like you, you son-of-a-bitch. And it was you that done it to him." Travis waited for Beau's expression to sober. There was never any tip-toeing around the issues from the past. Beau knew what he'd been and how he'd treated his sons and he never once apologized. Travis wouldn't have accepted an apology anyway. "Everything I do to help him he just throws back in my face. I don't know what to do for him anymore."