Page 96

"I've been in that diner twice a week my whole life."

"I know how often you've been in it. I've been keeping the count since I was seventeen." She stopped. Started again. "You say it there. At that counter, in that room, at the hour it's full. You don't wait for it to go quiet first. And you don't say it to me."

"Who do I say it to?"

"Them."

"When?"

"You've had coffee in that room twice a week your whole life, Owen. You know exactly what hour it's full."

"I do."

"Then you don't need me to tell you," she said.

"One thing out here that isn't for them. Can I have that?"

"No."

"All right."

"It's not because I don't want it." Her jaw went and she got it back. "It's because if you say it to me now, out here, I’ll believe you. And then I'll do what I’ve done for thirteen years, which is take a thing I got handed in private and try to live on it. I've lived on it, Owen. I'm not doing it again."

He stood in her yard and took that.

"And then?"

"Nothing. That's the whole condition." Her voice went, one word's worth, and she stepped on it. "I'm not promising you a thing and I won't have you standing in that room for a promise. If you can't do it, that's an answer too. It's the one I've had for thirteen years. I'll take it and go."

"I'll be there."

"Don't tell me now. Tell them."

She reached out and took his right hand and turned it over. The knuckles had gone down. The middle two were still marked where they'd split on his cousin's mouth. She moved her thumb across them once and gave him his hand back.

She walked past him to her truck and got in and cranked the glass down.

"Mama. I won't be long."

"I'll be here," Edna said. "I've nowhere else to be."

She backed around the trailer and went out the drive and over the guard and onto the road, and they all stood there and watched her the whole way.

Down at the barn Duke hollered after her, and nobody went down to him.

"I've got to get these flowers out of the sun," Lauren said, and didn't move.

Brody came over to Owen's shoulder with his hands in his pockets, looking at the road where the truck had been.

"Pearl opens at five."

"I know, I've been going in there since I couldn’t see over the counter."

"I'm aware." Brody rocked back on his heels. "I'm telling you I'll be in it."

"You don't have to be in it."

"No," Brody said. "I don't."