Dorothy Garlock by A Place Called Rainwater Read Free Book Online Page A

couch in a room upstairs. I'll ask Aunt Justine if we can bring it down. We can move the counter out a little to make room for it and put it behind a folding screen. You and Mrs. Evans could take turns taking a little nap during the late hours. That is, if she wants to stay with you.”
    “She'll want to, miss. She ain't fond of spendin 'the nights alone. I thought maybe you'd not need me now that the young man is here.”
    “We need you, Mr. Evans. Thad won't be here long. You know how these fly-by-night roughnecks are: Here today and gone tomorrow.”
    “He seems like a nice fellow; said he's from your hometown.”
    Several responses came to Jill's mind, but she said, “I think I'll sit on the porch for a while.”
    On her way to the door, she stopped to speak to one of their weekly roomers, who sat in the lobby reading a newspaper.
    “How are things at the barbershop, Mr. Boise? ”
    “Fair to middlin', miss. New crews comin 'in means more hair to cut. Mr. Langley is right pleased.”
    “I met him tonight at the meeting.”
    “He said he was goin'.”
    “I'll let you get back to your paper.”
    Jill stepped out onto the porch. The bench on one side of the door was occupied by a man and his wife, who were on their way to visit relatives in Bartlesville. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the couple, Jill went to the bench on the other end of the porch.
    She enjoyed being here in Rainwater and liked the responsibility her aunt had given her. It troubled her that Aunt Justine had taken some of her authority away when she rented the room to Thad and hired him to help her. She didn't want his help. She could see the writing on the wall. Before long,
she
would be helping
him.
    Thad had charmed her aunt.
    Now that she thought about it, Thad had always been a charmer when it suited his purpose to be so. Jill giggled as she remembered his telling Birdie Stuart, a city woman whom none of them had liked, how the floor at a country barn dance was made slick by using fresh cow manure. Thad and Joe hadn't wanted Birdie to go to the dance, and Thad convinced her that it was the custom to dance barefoot in the fresh manure in a brand-new barn and that, if she went, that was what she would be expected to do.
    The story had been the talk of the neighborhood for the rest of the summer. Thad had been only eighteen at the time. Now, seven years later, he could probably charm the bark off a tree if he set his mind to it.
    What also lay heavy on Jill's heart was that she owed that boy of eighteen a debt of gratitude that she could never repay.
    A young couple came out of the hotel and stood on the porch. The man put his arm around the woman with him and pulled her tightly to his side. She laughed up at him and he dropped a kiss on her forehead; then, arm in arm, they crossed the street to Martha's Restaurant. Jill wondered if they were on their honeymoon.
    Once in a while a truck went by with several men in the back. They yelled good-naturedly to their friends on the walkway, who yelled back. She heard someone call out something about “wildcat, ”but she couldn't make out the words.
    The screen door opened and Thad came out onto the porch. He stood for a moment in the path of light from the lobby. He was no longer the boy she had known back in Fertile. His legs were long, his shoulders broad, his hips slim. He was a man a woman could weave a romantic fantasy about… that is, if she hadn't known him all her life. Jill wondered why some woman hadn't caught him and put a ring on his finger.
    She hoped that he wouldn't notice her and would walk down the street and blend in with the rest of the men loitering in front of the stores. She wasn't that lucky. He came to where she sat, slouched down on the bench, leaned back against the wall and stretched his long legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. Folding his laced fingers over his midsection, he looked off toward the main part of town as if he didn't know that she