Dark River Road by Virginia Brown Read Free Book Online

couldn’t do anything to stop her. He hated that.
    By lunchtime, they had about ten feet of ditch dug out. It was long but shallow, with the banks sloped. Chantry sweated so much he’d taken off his shirt and tied a strip of cloth around his head to keep the sweat from dripping into his eyes. Dempsey kept on his tee shirt, but it was wet clear through, sticking to his wiry frame like a second skin. For a man in his fifties, Dempsey kept in pretty good shape, Chantry thought. He could outwork most men half his age.
    Tansy pulled an old cooler from the cab of the truck and took out their lunches. She had a mad look on her face, and Chantry guessed she hadn’t seen Chris Quinton all day. He didn’t say anything to her. Anything he said would be wrong.
    Dempsey didn’t say anything to her, either, even when she turned the truck radio to a pop station and turned it up pretty loud. A band called U2 played their new number one hit, then the DJ segued into a slower tune by Billy Vera. He knew this only because Tansy kept up with all the names of the songs and their artists. Some of it stuck with him, but most of it didn’t. When a really fast, loud song played, Dempsey looked pained but still didn’t say anything.
    They ate sandwiches and drank sweet tea out of Mason jars. Mama had made Chantry two meatloaf sandwiches and he finished them both. He was still hungry, and when Dempsey offered, he took his extra sandwich, too. Thick ham slices on white bread.
    “Good God,” Tansy said, and gave him a disgusted look, “how do you eat so much and stay so skinny?”
    “I’m not skinny,” he said around the last bite. “I’m lean. Mean. Fit.”
    “You just a skinny white boy.”
    “Hunh.” He flexed his arms, sucked in his stomach and threw out his chest. “I’ve been working out. Superman ain’t got nothin’ on me.”
    Some of Tansy’s good humor returned. She poked at him, laughing when he skidded out of reach. Sitting on the lowered tailgate of the truck in the shade, Dempsey watched with a faint smile as Tansy chased him around the truck.
    “Too damn much energy,” he heard Dempsey say as they rounded the rear of the truck.
    He let Tansy catch him after a minute, and she tackled him with both arms around his middle to take him down on a patch of grass under one of the old oaks. They rolled over a couple of times just like they used to do when they were small kids, roughhousing familiar fun. Panting and laughing, he lifted to his elbows to look at her. She’d rolled to one side, and her halter top had come down so that one of her breasts was bared. The pink nipple was tight and beaded, her breast full and firm, and he couldn’t help staring even as he moved to cover her.
    “Hey,” he said, and started to reach to pull up the edge of her top, but Tansy had already caught the material between her fingers to give it a tug.
    “Well looka here, the fag wants to cop a feel,” a voice said behind him, and he didn’t need to turn around to know it was Chris Quinton.
    Chantry didn’t like being on the ground with Chris standing over him, and immediately got to his feet and turned around. Tension made his muscles tight, and he watched warily as Chris and his two friends made a half-circle around him. Behind them, Cinda and Mariah watched from the side veranda. They wore two-piece bathing suits and looked like they’d just gotten out of the pool. He wondered how much they’d seen and what Cinda thought seeing him roll around on the ground with Tansy.
    “He trying to cop a feel?” Chris said to Tansy with a grin. “I didn’t think fags liked girls. Come on over here by me, and I’ll keep him from touching you.”
    Tansy still sat on the ground. Chantry knew she didn’t know what to do, and he kept his eyes on Chris. The others would do whatever Chris wanted. He just had to keep his eye on Chris to figure out what would happen next.
    When Chris stepped to one side Chantry pivoted to keep him a safe distance