Never Go Home by L.T. Ryan Page B

Can’t fit anymore.”
She reached both arms out wide in front of the endcap, then turned toward us.
She kept her arms out and extended her index fingers. “And you two must’ve
acted the part of good Samaritans and come over to help. Am I right?”
    Eric nodded.
Then he looked at Sean and me, pointed to the other side of the room, and said,
“Thanks for your help, now you two go back to your table. The Sheriff can
handle this. I’ll get you a fresh round of drinks.”
    Sean tugged at
my shirt. I stared at the deputy as we walked away. She winked at me as I
passed her. We found an empty booth near the back corner and sat down. I kept
glancing at the woman.
    “You’ll never
change, will you, Jack?” Sean said.
    I hiked my
shoulders an inch in the air. “In my world you have no choice but to act. If
you don’t, you’re dead. You can’t avoid trouble like that. Besides, what was I
supposed to do? Let him hit me? Screw that.”
    “You didn’t
have to take out Jed and then slam Matt’s head into the bar.”
    “Yes, I did.
Otherwise it’d still be going on. Or they’d show up at your house later
demanding we settle the score, or whatever crap lingo guys like that use.”
    “They might
still show up.”
    He had a point.
If those two were anything like they used to be, any scenario was possible.
    “If they do,” I
said, “I promise they’ll beg for a beating like I just gave them.”
    Sean leaned
back a few inches. He stared at me without speaking. I don’t know if he’d ever
seen me make a threat like that. He had always had his suspicions about what I
did. I never told him. I simply avoided the question. Perhaps that last
statement convinced him that my standard, “Government work” response was a
cover up.
    I calmed down a
notch. “Adrenaline, Sean. That’s all.”
    “Whatever,” he
said, pointing toward the bar. “We got a visitor incoming.”
    The woman’s
thick-soled boots rapped against the floor. She walked slowly, confidently. She
stopped in front of the table. I didn’t look up.
    “Hello, Sean,”
she said.
    Sean nodded and
said nothing.
    “And hello,
Jack,” she said.
    I looked at
Sean. He stared blankly over my head. I looked up at the woman. “Do I know
you?”
    “You don’t remember
me?” She feigned being hurt.
    “No, I don’t.
And Eric said the Sheriff would come take care of this. Where is he? I don’t
see Sheriff Woodard over there.”
    “I’m Sheriff
Woodard, Jack.”
    I turned in my
seat and looked up at her again. “Sheriff Woodard had one kid. A girl. I used
to babysit his daughter. You are not her. She was rail thin, bucktooth and
covered in freckles.”
    The woman
smiled. Her teeth were perfect. Her body was too. “Some of the freckles are
still there. Just too dim in here to tell.”
    “April?” I
said.
    “Hi, Jack.”
    “You’re the
sheriff now? What happened to your dad?”
    “Heart attack.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “He did it to
himself. Doctor warned him that his fifth would be his last. And it was.”
    “Wow, I’m
really sorry.”
    “Don’t be, he’s
OK now, taking it easy.”
    Sean slid out
of the booth. “Why don’t you sit, April? Catch up with Jack for a few. I’ll get
some drinks.”
    “Water for me,”
she said as she took his seat, smiling. “You look good, Jack.”
    “I try,” I
said, still a bit stunned that the awkward little girl I knew twenty years ago
sat across me as a fully developed woman. “You look… great.”
    “Time can do
that.”
    I thought about
the last time I’d seen April. She was still a kid, and I hadn’t left for the
Marines yet. I remembered taking her to the movies a week or so before I left
for recruit training at Parris Island. I was eighteen, she was eight.
    I heard Matt or
Jed say something. Sean’s voice rose a notch. I looked across the bar. Sean
stood at one end. Jed and Matt stood by the front door. They both looked at me
and pointed.
    “This ain’t
over Noble,” Jed said.
    April stood,
put