Crys walked over and gently stroked her forehead. Bernadine could tell she’d been crying. A straw touched her lips, and she drew on it until cool water flooded her mouth and throat. “Where am I?” Her voice sounded raspy.
“Hospital. You were in an accident.”
Suddenly Mal was standing there too. “Hey, you,” he called softly. “Welcome back.”
Her foggy brain was still processing the word accident when suddenly it all came flooding back. “Somebody ran me off the road.”
Crystal had tears running down her cheeks. “Sheriff Will is looking for them.”
“Are you okay?” Bernadine asked her daughter. She dearly wanted to soothe the fear and sadness in her eyes, but she could barely move.
“I’m okay,” Crystal replied reassuringly, and gently stroked Bernadine’s forehead again.
Mal said, “All those blessings you’ve been passing out paid off. Doc said there’s not a scratch on you. You have some bumps and bruises, and your neck and back are going to be pretty sore for a while, but you’ll be able to go home maybe as early as tomorrow. They want to keep you around for observation just to make sure, though.”
Some of her anxiety diminished. “How’s my truck?”
“Pretty much totaled,” he told her.
“So I have to buy another truck?”
“Looks that way, but you were lucky. Trent and I found you just a few minutes after you crashed. It could’ve caught fire, anything, especially if you’d been out on the highway or some other place far away from home.”
“Was the other truck still there?”
He shook his head. “But there were was glass and pieces of the truck all over the road. It sustained a lot of damage. Dalton’s put a notice to all the body shops in the county, so if that truck shows up, he’ll know.”
Bernadine realized she was even more tired than she’d been earlier.
Seemingly sensing this, Crystal said, “Go back to sleep. OG and I will be here with you until they let us take you home.” Crys bent and hugged her as best she could, and the kiss she placed on Bernadine’s cheek eased her back into oblivion.
Chapter 23
Bernadine’s accident was the talk of the town, and when she was released from the hospital a few days after the crash, she came home to a house so packed with flowers that her living room looked like a florist shop. She was sore and bruised all over, but not so much that the outpouring of goodwill the flowers represented didn’t have an impact.
“Wow!” she whispered as Mal helped her ease down onto the sofa. There were roses and lilies and vases of colorful snapdragons standing next to others holding daisies, zinnias, and gorgeous blooms she didn’t know the names of.
A smiling Crystal said, “There’s a bunch in your bedroom, too. I started running out of places to put them.”
“I can see why.” Her back was aching something fierce, but she ignored it as best she could for the moment. She was just grateful to be home and in one piece. She’d take another pain pill in a little while.
Mal said, “How do you feel about visitors? Lots of people wanted me to let them know when you got home.”
“Give me a few hours to get situated, and then you can open the floodgates.”
There was a knock on the door. “I’ll get it,” Crystal said.
In the small moment that she was gone, Mal said, “You scared this brother to death. Glad you weren’t hurt any worse than you were.”
“Me, too. Thanks for finding me. Sometime soon, I want to hear the details.”
Crystal returned with Sheriff Will Dalton, who asked, “How are you, Bernadine?”
“I’ve been better, Will. You?”
“It’s been a pretty good morning. Got a tip on the arsonist and your accident.”
She sat up as straight as the pain would allow. “Did it pan out?”
“Took the suspect in a little while ago.”
“Who?”
“Dessa Stillwell.”
Bernadine was stunned. “Really.”
“Freda Stillwell came to the office this morning. She had some gasoline-soaked clothes in a bag. Said her grandmother came home the night of the fire reeking of gasoline, but she didn’t put two and two together until she saw the newspaper article about the fire the next morning.”
“Poor Freda.”
“Not poor anymore. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars buys a lot.”
Bernadine nodded and remembered her conversation with the girl the day of the Sanderson funeral about her financial plans for the upcoming school year. She was willing to bet Freda had already decided to turn her grandmother in for the reward money. “She told me she was real close to Mrs. Sanderson.”
“Told me the same thing. Might have been what initially cemented her decision.”
Mal said, “That, and that she and Dessa never got along. Dessa ran Bernadine off the road, too?”
He nodded. “Freda said when Dessa came home, Freda asked her about all the damage to the truck, and Dessa said she’d hit a deer, but when her grandmother parked the truck in the barn and began stacking hay bales around it like she was hiding it, Freda wanted to know why. Dessa told her to get back in the house and mind her own business. When she heard about your accident, she figured out why her grandmother was trying to hide the truck. That’s when she called my office. The deputies executing the search warrant on the place this morning found a voice enhancer too, so the mystery about the threatening calls is probably solved.”
Bernadine hoped he was right. “I wonder why she didn’t call you right after the funeral?”
“She said she had to find the clothes her grandmother was wearing the night of the fire. Took her some time. She found them in a crawl space at the top of one of the barns.”
Bernadine sighed and shook her head sadly. What a convoluted and sad tale. She wondered if Freda had been waiting all her life for some way to pay her grandmother back for not letting the girl go with her mom when her parents split up. “So, what about Al Stillwell? Was he involved?”
“Not that we can tell so far. He’s in Oklahoma, and we verified that he was working the night of the fire, and the night you crashed.”
“Thanks for letting me know, Will.”
“Glad we can finally put this mess to bed. Now I can concentrate on practicing for the Idol competition.”
Bernadine laughed. “What?”
“Yes, ma’am. Planning to win, too. Wife’s already spent the five hundred dollar first prize.”
Mal asked, grinning, “And what are you doing?”
“I’m not telling you, July. It’s a secret, but it’s no secret who’s going to be taking home that money.”
Crystal shook her head and chuckled. “You old people are a mess.”
Later that evening, seemingly everyone within fifty miles had stopped by to wish Bernadine well. She was particularly happy to see Roni, who’d finally returned home from her whirlwind worldwide tour. Reverend Paula came by to pray with her, and when the last group of visitors finally departed, Bernadine hobbled into the downstairs guest room, downed some pain meds, and crawled into bed. But as she lay there, she thought about Freda and her grandmother. On one hand, her money would offer Freda a tremendous future, but on the other hand, her money and the lawyer it paid to handle the lawsuit had contributed to what Dessa felt was no future, and Bernadine wondered if she’d ever rid herself of her feeling of guilt.
By the end of May, Bernadine was all healed up and back in her office, working full-time. Jack bought Eli an old car so that he and Crystal could attend a series of weekend art classes at the Fort Hays University, which freed Jack up on those same weekends to help Rocky with the motorcycle. Preston heard nothing further from his birth mother or grandmother, but at his mom’s suggestion he sent Dr. Winthrop a handwritten thank-you note for the kick-ass telescope. He continued to hold hope that they’d meet face-to-face one day in the future. And according to the rumors, Riley and Cletus had flown to Hollywood.
/> And all over town people were practicing for Henry Adams Idol. Some contestants, like Jack and the Mad Dads—the name Amari gave them—practiced publicly at the kiva under the contest’s music director, Roni. Others, like the Paynes, were practicing secretly, hoping that the element of surprise would boost their chance of taking home the big prize. Devon’s rehearsals were better too, mainly because Trent quietly bribed Amari and Preston with a twenty-dollar bill to “encourage” them to play along.
On a late Monday afternoon in the middle of June, Bernadine looked up from her desk to see Tamar enter her office. Trailing in the matriarch’s wake was the leather-clad, oh-so-handsome bad boy Diego July.
Tamar said, “He’s here to talk to Crystal.”
“She’s down at the college in Hays, checking out an art exhibit. Hello, Diego.”
“Hi, Ms. Brown.
“I’ll send her a text.”
Bernadine couldn’t read Tamar’s mood, but she sensed Tamar wanted the matter between Crys and Diego resolved as quickly as possible and Bernadine did, too.
When Crystal read the text from Ms. Bernadine on her phone, she blinked and read it again. Diego? At her office? Goose bumps flew up her back. She looked around for Eli and saw him over by a canvas, talking to a couple of kids from Franklin High. She hastily gathered up her tote and the brochures she’d picked up when they entered the exhibit, and hurried over. “Excuse me, but Eli, you have to take me to the Power Plant. Now.”
He looked up from his conversation. “Be ready to go in just a minute.”
Ignoring the irritation on the faces of the kids he’d been talking with, she countered insistently, “We have to go now. Ms. Bernadine wants me at her office, and it’s an emergency. Come on!” She grabbed him by the arm.
He told the kids, “Guess I’m going now.”
While she pulled him along, he dug into his pocket for his car keys. “Your mom okay? She’s not hurt again, is she?”
“No, no. Diego’s here, and—”
“Diego?” Eli asked flatly, and came to an abrupt stop. “I’m driving you back to see him?”
“Yes, and don’t trip. Car’s over there.”
“I know where I parked.”
During the ride back to town, she pulled down the mirror to check her hair and makeup. She ignored the way Eli rolled his eyes . . .
“So you think he’s here to ask Ms. Bernadine for your hand.”
“Stop hating.”
“Then stop being so damned dumb!”
“Just drive.”
“Don’t worry. Getting your dumb butt to Diego as soon as possible.”
“You’re just jealous.”
“Of a jerk who never finished high school? You doing meth now?”
Crystal wanted to punch him out. How many times was he going to throw Diego’s being a dropout in her face?
When they arrived at the Power Plant, she got out, stormed to the door, and didn’t look back.
And there he was. When she entered, Diego stood up, and the smile on his superfine face made her heart beat like it was going to burst through her layered tees. “Hey, Diego.”
“Hey, Crystal.”
She tore her eyes away from him and settled them on the inscrutable faces of Ms. Bernadine and Tamar.
“Thanks for being so quick,” Ms. Bernadine said, showing a small smile.
She nodded at Tamar. “Eli brought me back.”
“Diego has something to talk to you about. Tamar and I’ll be in Lily’s office, so you two can have some privacy.”
“Okay, thanks.” She couldn’t believe she was actually going to get to talk to him alone, but Tamar and Ms. Bernadine slipped out.
Once they were gone, she sat down, and he did the same.
“How you been?” he asked.
“I’m good. How about you?”
“Good.”
Crystal felt like a kid on Christmas morning.
“I hear you and the boys were put on lockdown because of what you told Ms. Brown about me.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry if I got you in trouble.”
“You know I’m too old for you, right?”
Crys looked down at her hands. “I went with a guy twenty-one before.”
“Then he needed his ass kicked. You’re still a kid. Besides, you’re not that girl anymore. How long have you been off the street?”
“Almost three years now.”
“You don’t want to go back out there, not even with me.”
“How do you know?”
“Just by looking at you. You’re a princess now, Crystal. Perfect hair, makeup, clothes. You told me in the e-mails that you’d been to Spain, and that you and Ms. Brown fly around on her jet. Nobody I knows does that. I’ll bet you even know what kind of wine to pick at those fancy eating places.”
“Sometimes.” She wasn’t allowed to drink, but she’d been to many upscale restaurants with Ms. Bernadine and her girls.
“I’ll admit, the first time I saw you, you knocked me to my knees, and because you were working at the Dog, I thought you were a college girl, but when Trent told me your real age, I knew I had to back off.”
She kept her eyes focused on the ring she was twisting on her finger.
“Crys, look. If I made you think that we could be more than friends for now, I’m sorry. I thought you knew we were just kicking it. No way would I have wanted you to run away from home. And if you want to know the truth, I’m not looking for any kind of a serious relationship. Things might be different later on, but right now, I’m a July. It’s all about me, and the more ladies the better. You don’t want to get caught up in that.”
His bluntness made her feel stupid. It also hurt. Playing it off, she waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’m good. Sorry Tamar made you come.”
“She thought it was important to get this straightened out, and so did I.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“Still friends?”
“Sure.”
“Crys?”
She met his eyes and hoped he didn’t see the tears stinging them.
“You may be young, but you are so way out of my league. Maybe one day we’ll be more even.”
“Not if you don’t go back to school, we won’t be.”
He laughed. “See? Way out of my league.”
Crys still felt young and silly, but a part of her was glad they’d had this talk. “Thanks, Diego.”
“Any time.” He stood up, and she followed suit.
He walked over and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Stay sweet, baby girl. Tell Tamar I’m gone, would you?”
“I will.”
Flashing her a smile, he strode out of the office.
Once he was gone, she wiped the tears from her eyes and took out her phone. She didn’t want to see anyone, so she sent Ms. Bernadine a text saying she and Diego were done and that he was gone and she was going home.
When she stepped outside, Eli was still parked by the curb. He leaned over and opened the passenger door. She got in.
“You okay?”
She didn’t reply.
“You want to talk?”
Her voice came out in a whisper. “No. Just take me home.”
Eli started up the car and did as she’d asked.
When he pulled up into her driveway, Crystal sat silently before confessing. “You were right.”
“About what?”
“Diego. He told me I was too young for him.”
When Eli didn’t respond, she looked over. “You aren’t going to laugh and say, Told you so?”
“Friends don’t do that.”
She dropped back into silence.
“I’m going to ask Samantha to go out with me.”
She stared. “Samantha from school?”
“Yeah. Been talking to her off and on for the past few weeks. When she’s away from Megan, she’s kinda cool.”
Crystal wondered why her life seemed to be falling apart. “Why’re you telling me?”
&nbs
p; “Just wanted you to know, I guess. That friend thing again.”
“Okay. Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you later.”
She got out, and he backed down the driveway and drove the short distance across the street to his house. She entered her silent house and immediately ran up the stairs to her room. Closing the door, she sat on her bed and cried. Nobody told her growing up would be so complicated, or that being a princess would make her feel like she was living in a cage. She wanted out, for at least a little while, but didn’t know how that was going to be possible.
Back at Bernadine’s office, she and Tamar sat in Lily’s office in silence. Bernadine had purposefully turned on the com on her desk before leaving with Tamar because she wanted to hear what Diego said to her daughter, and as the mom, she had a right to be nosy.
Tamar said, “Sorry Crystal’s hurting, but I’m glad the so-called relationship turned out to be not what she thought.”
Bernadine agreed. Her heart ached for Crystal, but not the way it would’ve had she really taken it in her head to run away from home. “Thanks, Tamar.”
“You’re welcome.”
When Bernadine got home from work, Crystal was sitting out on the deck. “Hey, Crys.”
“Hey.”
“How’d it go with Diego?”
She shrugged. “He said he was too old for me, and that he hadn’t been hitting on me. I feel so stupid.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Well, I do, and I feel like I can’t breathe. I like my life here, but I miss my old one.”
Bernadine sat down in one of the empty chairs at the table. “And what do you miss?”
“You want the truth?”
“Always.”
“Being able to go and do what I want, when I want. I miss the streets and the noise and the people. I can’t tell you the last time I smelled a McDonald’s.”
Bernadine showed a small smile. “Out here is definitely different.”
“Sucks sometimes.”
“So, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. Diego said I’m not the same girl I used to be. He called me a princess because I get to fly on jets.”
“Regular kids don’t get those kinds of perks. So, do you want to be the old Crystal?”