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“Wes,” he says flatly.
“Well, Wes, welcome to my kingdom.” She spreads her arms and glances around the food court. “I’m Q. That stands for queen, ’cause I’m the muhfuckin’ monarch up in here. Me and my crew been runnin’ this place goin’ on three years now. You and y’all other stray cats”—she flicks her fingernails at the rest of us sitting around the table—“are guests in my castle. That means y’all gon’ have to pull y’all’s weight, or you gon’ get put out.” Her angular eyebrows shoot up in warning as she points toward the barricaded exit.
“Ya boy Carter here”—she points a lazy finger at my ex—“is on patrol duty. Duck Dynasty over here hunts birds and deer and shit from up on the roof. And mama bear”—she points to Mrs. Renshaw—“cooks it all up real nice. But y’all …” Q taps her fingertips to her lips as her eyes roam from Wes to me to Lamar. Then, she snaps her fingers. “Y’all gon’ be my scouts.”
“Scouts?” Wes’s body language is relaxed, but his tone is challenging.
“That’s right. We’re runnin’ low on shit now that all y’all strays are up in here. Somebody got to do some shoppin’.”
“I can’t leave,” I blurt out. “Please. Let me do something else. We have a hurt friend, and somebody has to stay here to take care of him.”
Q eyes me suspiciously. “You good at shit like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like nurse-type shit.”
I sit up and nod. “My mom is … was … an ER nurse. She taught me a lot.”
Q snaps again and points one long fingernail right between my eyes. “Good. You gon’ be my medic. And you can start with that one.” She swings her finger from my face to Mr. Renshaw’s.
I glance at Mr. Renshaw and watch the color drain out of his rosy cheeks.
“Don’t let me down now.” Q cackles as she sashays back to her table, full of other rough-looking, gun-toting, unwashed teens. “I’d hate to have to feed y’all to the Bonys.”
They’re runaways, I realize.
We’re all just strays and runaways.
Turning to Carter’s dad, who hasn’t spoken a word since we sat down, I ask, “Why do you need a medic, Mr. Renshaw?”
He gives me a sad smile. “That ain’t important right now. What’s important is that you know how sorry we are about your folks, Rainbo—I mean, Rain.” Carter’s grizzly bear of a dad looks at Wes, remembering what he said about my name, and gives him a solemn nod.
Mrs. Renshaw reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “I am so sorry, baby girl.” Her dark brown eyes glisten as they bore into mine. “I knew we shoulda taken you with us—you and your mama. I won’t ever forgive myself for that, but at least we’re all together now.”
Lamar and Sophie both get up to hug me and give their condolences, but my attention is focused solely on Carter. The boy I grew up with. The boy I gave all my firsts to. The man who should be consoling me right now. But instead, he’s just staring at me like he doesn’t know what to say.
“Rainbow …” he finally mutters.
“Rain,” I snap back.
His honey-colored eyes fill with remorse, and for a second, I regret being so mean. That face … I was in love with that face for as long as I can remember. I know every angle. Every expression and smile and dimple. It kills me to see him hurting. I want to curl up in his lap and let him wrap his long arms around me like he used to …
But then I remember overhearing Kimmy Middleton say she made out with him senior year, and suddenly, I don’t feel so bad anymore.
“Hey, Carter, remember Kimmy?” I watch the guilt crawl across his handsome face, and it’s all the validation I need. “She burned your house down.”
“What?” Mrs. Renshaw screeches. “Our house?”
Carter’s eyes go wide and dart from me to his parents.
Sophie starts to cry.
Mr. Renshaw stands up, slams his chair in, and stomps away with a definite limp.
“What happened to him?” I ask, desperately wanting to change the subject after the bomb I just dropped on them. “Why does he need a medic?”
Mrs. Renshaw shakes her head and looks over her shoulder as her husband hobbles toward the atrium. “We got in a bad accident on our way out of town. As soon as we left for Tennessee, it was obvious that everybody on the highway was under the influence of something. People were speedin’ and weavin’ all over the road. We had only made it to Pritchard Park when a car up ahead of us pulled in front of a tractor-trailer and made it jackknife right in the middle of the road. It ended up rolling about three times and blocking the entire highway. There was a huge pileup, and we were caught right in the middle of it.”
