few doors down the street from Katy’s house.”
Nate squirmed uncomfortably. He’d had it bad in those days. He couldn’t begin to count the nights he had driven to Katy’s neighborhood and sat there in his car, staring at that house, wishing he were welcome. He would sit there puffing on a cigarette, wishing he wasn’t a social pariah, wishing Katy wasn’t off-limits, wishing he had the right to escort her around town and let all the other boys know she belonged to him. Oh, yeah, and he’d also wished he could win the lottery so he could afford to take her out to fancy restaurants, like the kids of Coyote Flats’ high society did when they dated.
In those days Nate barely had enough pocket change to fuel his gas-guzzling, bucket-of-rust car and put food in his mouth. His ill-fitting clothes were hand-me-downs that the United Methodist Women’s Society donated to his family once a year, along with a Thanksgiving basket of food.
It had been humiliating to be dirt poor and to be head over boot heels in love with a girl whose weekly allowance was higher than the salary he made as part-time attendant at the service station.
Embarrassment and humiliation didn’t keep Nate from caring deeply for that warm, sweet young woman who treated him as if he were special, though the other members of her social clique flung up their noses and pretended he didn’t exist. Nate honestly didn’t know what Katy had seen in him back in those days, but she had bolstered his confidence, defended him to her snooty friends, treated him with the kind of respect he had never encountered in Coyote Flats.
Nope, Nate reminded himself. There had been no one like Katy Bates. Every woman he’d been with since then had never measured up to her. She had been kind, caring, supportive and generous of heart. Nowadays, women were easily accessible because of his financial success in the oil industry. But Nate hadn’t had time for lengthy relationships, not when he was obsessively driven to succeed in business, to keep the promise he had made to himself when Sheriff Fuzz Havern had loaded his sorry butt into the squad car and driven straight to Bud Thurston’s ranch. During that late-night drive, Fuzz had told Nate that he was going to get one chance to make something out of his life. If he blew it, he would be on his own.
That long-winded lecture from Fuzz was something Nate had never forgotten. He’d been scared and desperate enough to listen that fateful night.
“Katy has changed drastically over the years, hasn’t she?” Fuzz said, jostling Nate from his pensive musings.
“I almost didn’t recognize her,” Nate admitted. “What happened?”
Fuzz rose to his feet. “I’m going to rob your fridge of a Coke to wet my whistle. Want one?”
Nate nodded as he rose to let the mongrel outside. When he returned, Fuzz handed him an iced-down cola, then sprawled in his chair. “The only reason I can tell you about what happened to Katy is that the two detrimental influences in her life are dead and gone, so you can’t revert to your old ways and beat the hell out of them.”
Nate winced. God, how grim was this tale? he wondered. It must be bad if Fuzz predicted Nate would be tempted to tear off on a mission of revenge.
Fuzz sipped his cola, then focused solemnly on Nate. “I chose to transport you out of town that night, despite the fact that Judge Bates wanted you incarcerated so he could have you delivered to a detention center. From that day forward, the judge took Katy firmly and relentlessly in hand. You already know about Dave’s crusade to pick her friends for her.”
Nate nodded. He remembered that Katy often confided her frustration with her old man. Dave saw his daughter as a reflection on his prominent position in the county. He was convinced that he and his children had a lofty image to uphold. The family was wealthy and high-class, and they were not supposed to associate with white trash, not even in this small community with its cross section of socioeconomic classes. Katy resented her father’s snobbish airs, but Dave ruled his roost with a stern hand, and when he pounded his gavel, he considered his decrees forevermore written in stone.
“Judge Bates decided the Butlers, who owned the big ranch south of town, would make an ideal connection. The Butlers had money coming out their ears,” Fuzz explained. “They also had a son and daughter who were close enough in age to Katy and her brother, James, to make a double match.”
Nate swore under his breath. He had never had a smidgen of respect for the high-and-mighty Judge Bates, who looked down his nose at the less fortunate. But Dave’s patriarchal matchmaking filled Nate with disgust.
Fuzz took another sip of his drink, then continued. “Dave pushed his son at Butler’s daughter, shelling out money so James could escort Shelly to the fanciest restaurants, the best movies and musical concerts held in Odessa.” He glanced pointedly at Nate. “Of course, if James wanted to date someone else, there was no pocket change handed out.”
“In other words, the judge used money to bribe his son into turning his attention to Shelly Butler,” Nate muttered.
“You got it,” Fuzz confirmed. “As for Katy, she was only allowed to date Brad Butler. If anyone else asked her out during high school she wasn’t allowed to go.”
“Brad Butler,” Nate murmured thoughtfully. “Wasn’t he the hotshot football star who went to play at West Texas State for a couple of years after graduation?”
“Right,” Fuzz replied. “Bradley’s dad made generous contributions to the college athletic program to get his kid on the roster. Brad was big and mean and loved full-body contact sports, on and off the playing field.”
The bitter sound of Fuzz’s voice caused alarm signals to clang in Nate’s brain. Sure as hell, he was going to hate hearing what came next.
“With Dave Bates pushing and prodding both his kids, they married into the Butler family. James was married a month after he graduated high school and had a child within the year.”
“A girl who works at the library with Katy?” Nate asked.
“That’d be Tammy,” Fuzz confirmed. “Her mama ran off with another man when Tammy was six, causing the Butlers and the judge all sorts of embarrassment. James only comes around a couple of weekends a month. He is married to his profession as a legal consultant for one of those highfalutin corporations in Dallas. Tammy lives with Katy most of the time.”
“And Katy’s husband?” Nate questioned. The first thing he had noticed when he recognized Katy at the café was that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. According to what Fuzz had said earlier, Nate knew that Brad Butler had died. “What happened to the football star?”
“Six feet under,” Fuzz said without an ounce of regret. “Same as Judge Bates, who had a heart attack and keeled over on the courthouse steps. Dave and Brad are probably rotting in hell together as we speak.”
No love lost there, Nate noted. It was easy to tell that Fuzz wasn’t a member of Dave or Brad’s fan clubs.
Fuzz squirmed in his chair, clearly unenthused about continuing this briefing. “You got any chips and dip in that fully automated refrigerator of yours?”
Nate smiled faintly as he came to his feet. He remembered how Fuzz had carried on about the ice-and-water dispenser in the door of the freezing unit. The man loved to watch crushed ice plunk into his glass.
“Sure, Fuzz, dip and chips coming right up.”
Chapter
