Justified by April Boulware

Author:April Boulware [Boulware, April]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

28

Sally was walking on clouds most of that day. The excitement, the reassurance, the gentle feeling of safety waking up in Kirk Watts’ arms; she was riding a high she never felt before.

Whatever fear she’d felt over the past few days, the nightmares, the questions, all the uncertainty about this man and the goings on in this strange, little town; it became insignificant to how Sally felt right now.

She felt happy. She felt safe. She felt like Kirk Watts somehow cared about her, and she had never experienced that kind of care from a man. She had no idea a man like that existed. Even with all her weird, vivid nightmares, the man’s addiction to opium, the weird things in his room, and his scary ex-lover next door, none of it was foreboding enough that Sally didn’t want to feel.

It probably should have been. She probably should have thought more about all these things, but she was intoxicated without any liquor, she was high without taking a thing. She was simply going about her day counting the minutes until Kirk Watts promised to get her and take her out to his cabin.

She knew it would be late. She knew he’d wait until past dark, past when the boarding house died for the night.

She waited out on the front porch for the man. He’d told her he’d come around that way to get her so they wouldn’t wake Lydia going through the kitchen.

It was early November in Texas. It was dark, there was a chill in the night breeze, it told Sally it was going to rain, but it wasn’t too cold. She sat on the floor of the wide porch, her legs dangling over the edge of the smooth, whitewashed boards. She listened to the crickets, watched the stars shining in the black, night sky. The smell of rain was in the air and the breeze rustled the branches of the large oaks out in front of Ms. Dorris’ house, sending the orange and brown leaves swirling to the ground at Sally’s feet.

Sally enjoyed sitting there. She enjoyed feeling calm.

The moon had risen high in the sky before Sally heard footsteps crunching around the side of the house. She slipped off the porch and smiled seeing Kirk Watts round the corner.

He was carrying a canvas sack swung over his shoulder, and he’d cleaned up. He was in clean clothes, his shirt was buttoned up to his throat, he’d shaved. He smiled at her.

“Damn, that feels good,” he slipped a hand around her waist.

“What?” Sally stood on tiptoes against him and kissed his lips.

“You seem happy to see me.”

Sally knew she was, “You make me feel good.”

“Yeah, same,” he kissed her quick and then found her hand, linked his fingers through hers and started off down the road out of town. They left the road almost right away and followed the creek as it bent deeper into the woods. Sally wasn’t sure how far they went or how long they walked. Kirk was quiet most of the way and Sally was too.

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