Shotgun by Marie Sexton

Author:Marie Sexton [Sexton, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-13T23:00:00+00:00

I SPENT Saturday morning raking leaves in my backyard, basking in the warm Colorado sunshine and getting an outrageous sunburn on the back of my neck. I’d always associated sunburns with heat. It’d never occurred to me how much stronger the ultraviolet rays were a mile above sea level. I was slathering on the aloe when my phone rang around two. I stared in surprise at Dom’s name splashed across the screen.

“Hello?” I was once again struck by what a stupid way it was to begin a conversation.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “How’ve you been?”

Only a few words, but their effect was profound. Not joy at hearing his voice, as I’d expected, or relief at the apparent end of my exile. No, this was anger, sudden and bitter in my throat. I wanted to snap at him, to lash out and wound him somehow, but nothing came to me. My mind was infuriatingly blank.

“I’m sorry,” he said before I recovered. “I meant to call earlier, I just….”

I heard the lie in his voice—he hadn’t meant to call at all—but I also heard grief. I heard a note of sorrow that brought me up short.

“Lamar?”

“I’m fine,” I said grudgingly.

“I don’t blame you if you’re mad.”

I sighed, debating. Was there any point in demanding an explanation? Maybe if we’d been face-to-face, but over the phone, it felt wrong. I squashed my anger and asked, “How are you?”

“Good.” But it was a rote answer, not a genuine response. “Listen, are you home?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Naomi has something for you. Can we come by?”

“Sure,” I said, surprised. What in the world could his daughter have for me?

“Elena’s with us.”

His tone was odd. “Okay.”

“And no matter how much Naomi bats her eyes and begs, you can say no, I swear.”

I had no idea what to say to that.

“We’ll see you in ten minutes,” he said, and the line went dead.

They came in two cars, Dom in his GTO, followed by Elena and Naomi in a Subaru Outback. And they came bearing a yowling cat in a cardboard pet carrier.

“Hi, Mr. Franklin!” Naomi said, smiling broadly at me as she carried the thing inside. “Are you having a good weekend?”

“I guess,” I said, glancing uneasily at Dom, who looked uncomfortable and embarrassed as hell, and then at Elena, who smiled at me with bright, friendly curiosity. She looked so much like Naomi, I was taken aback.

“Lamar!” she said, shaking my hand enthusiastically. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

“Uh….” Had I met her before? “Really?”

“You don’t remember, do you? I was at the party where—”

“Lane,” Dominic growled. It took me a second to realize “lane” was apparently short for Elena. “Not now.”

She threw him an exasperated look, but Naomi spoke up before she could answer.

“I have a favor to ask you, Mr. Franklin. My cousin’s birthday is a few weeks away, and she really wants a cat. The rescue was in town today, so we went and got one for her. But see, her birthday isn’t until December, so I can’t

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