Shine On (21 page)

“Thank you but that does not answer my question.” She smiled.

“Okay, okay. Don’t you think we would need some law on our side to keep a place like that open? I think I’ve already told you a dollar will go a long way in this town,” he answered honestly. She did remember him saying that now that he pointed it out.

“So, is Sheriff Drake a bad guy then? You know, because you’ve bought him off?” She looked genuinely confused.

“One… that is another question but I am going to let this slide and answer it anyway because I behaved badly earlier. Two… no, he is not a bad guy.” Silas shrugged. “Am I a bad guy for taking you to a place that serves alcohol when we both know it’s against the law? Some would say yes, some would say no. Good…bad… Most people are just people falling somewhere in between, Emmie. I guess most of us try to do more good than bad. But no, he’s not bad.”

She nodded thinking through what he’d said.

“Now my turn,” Silas began. “Explain to me what you did with this moonshine of Ronnie’s that you found.”

“Oh… good verb choice there. I have to tell a lot if you say explain. Sort of sounded like a teacher there,” she teased him.

“I’ve had a lot of practice… a lot of years of school.” He smiled pleased with himself.

“Actually, Ava found the ’shine a few weeks ago when I asked her to get something from the pantry. We each tried a sip, just out of curiosity. But there was this friend of Ronnie’s,” she started to falter. She wanted to tell him the whole truth: finding Walt in the cave, making the paste, asking him to buy it, the dumb apple pie moonshine idea, and following Bo through the woods. She wanted to tell him every last detail but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She didn’t want to lose him over this or get Walt in trouble. So she told him as much of the truth as she could. That’s all she’d promised anyway, right? She took a deep breath before continuing.

“He was just this guy that used to be around. So, I told him he could have it. I know I should have just poured it out but I couldn’t.” She looked down ashamed. “I wanted some of the money and thought maybe it would help me dig my way outta this hole I’m in.” She finished and looked up at him.

His mouth was actually open in surprise.

“Please, please don’t think less of me,” she actually said aloud.

He closed his mouth and composed himself. “Emmie do you have any idea how dangerous that was? Never, ever, go confront anyone else about selling moonshine. You think this partner of Ronnie’s owes you anything? Em, these guys are ruthless out there. Burning down Cliff’s barn is not the worst thing they have done.”

He walked over and pulled her up from the chair and wrapped his arms around her. He had no idea she felt this desperate for money. He’d met the moonshiners in this town. Most were three-tooth rednecks with no heart.

She slipped her hands inside his suit coat, wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and buried her face into his brown vest. Emmie breathed him in. He smelled so good—fresh and oddly like leather too. It made no sense but he did. She was half afraid he was going to walk right out the door when she told him about the ’shine but he didn’t. Her brain was arguing there was more of the truth to tell. She chose to push the rest of the truth away for now.

Silas picked her up like she was as light as a feather. He sat her on the counter so they could be eye level. He meant to just kiss her once on the forehead. But one kiss turned to two, three to four. Her forehead, her cheeks, her nose, her mouth. His hands snaked into her hair pulling pins until her hair fell down around her shoulders. She was beautiful. He put his hands gently on each side of her face. “Promise me you will not talk to that man again. You asked me about good and bad. No one involved in these moonshine feuds is good. The thought of you being mixed up… I can’t…” He shook his head and closed his eyes.

“You really needn’t worry about this man I promise.” She laughed at the thought of him being so scared for her to talk to Walt or even Bo. Both were good people.

He pulled back from her and tensed. “This is nothing to laugh at Emmie. This man is dangerous. I really need to know who you gave this moonshine of Ronnie’s to. Who is he?” He cursed himself for asking but he had to know. This man could have this money. Or at the very least that moonshine was probably the goods he had already paid for, it was his moonshine she’d given to some stranger. More importantly, this man was involving Emmie in some business he didn’t want her to know about, much less caught in the middle.

“He’s harmless. Trust me.” She pushed her unruly waves behind her ears then reached out to touch his face.

Silas stepped away from her. His brows wrinkled. He reached into his vest and pulled out a cigarette and lit it, pacing the length of the counter.

“Emmie I can’t just trust you on this. I need to know.” He made every effort to keep his voice calm, hushed even. He would not scare her again.

Her heart raced. She couldn’t, there is no way she could tell him. Walter was family. The dog must have returned because he started pawing at the front door. She ignored him and swallowed hard. “Silas, I can’t.”

“It’s not that you can’t, it’s that you won’t,” he snapped.

“No, you don’t understand,” she pleaded, hopping down from the counter.

“No, Emmie you don’t understand. This man is using you, some naive little girl desperate for money. This man is using you just like Mr. Thomas is using you,” he said, walking toward the door.

“Please, don’t leave angry.” She reached for his arm again. He pulled away and opened the door.

“You really won’t tell me his name. Don’t you see I’m just trying to help you?” He made one last attempt.

“I can’t. It’s not what you think,” she repeated.

He looked hurt first, then angry. He walked out and started to close the door behind him. He had to leave before he lost it. He didn’t know what to think about her protecting this other guy. Which bootlegger was it? He mentally started going down the list of those he knew in this area. He would find him and when he did…

She pulled the door open before it snapped all the way close. Spotty ran inside. She stepped around him quickly. “Silas, come back. Let’s talk about this.”

But he kept right on going without another word. Never looking back.

Chapter Thirty-two

T
hat night Emmie couldn’t sleep—or the next night—or the next. There was too much on her mind. She hadn’t seen Walt since the night she’d followed Bo into the cave. She hadn’t heard from Silas since their fight on Sunday afternoon. She wasn’t sure exactly which direction to step with either of these issues. So, she had done nothing but spend the last few days stewing over how to fix things.

Luckily, the isolation had given her more than enough time to work on their Halloween costumes. Although, things were so screwed-up with Silas she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to spend four hours in a car with him on the way to Louisville. The only positive that had come from this week was Ava’s reaction to her costume. It was nearly finished. She just needed to take in the bodice and hem the skirt. She’d even gotten most of the fabric cut for her dress. Ava was thrilled with the progress on both, wondering why in the world Emmie would want to work with children when she had such a natural talent for fashion, one of the highest compliments Ava could offer.

Emmie poured her third cup of coffee and drained the cup as quickly as possible, in hopes it would give her an instant energy boost. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working this morning. She put a few extra dabs of powder under her eyes in an attempt to hide the dark circles forming there then headed into town.

When she entered the store, she noticed Will looked almost as tired as she did. “Good morning, Will,” she called, putting her purse in the drawer behind the counter.

“Morning,” he answered, barely looking up from the money he was counting.

“Good Morning, Emma dear,” Mr. Thomas sang from his office. She hadn’t realized he was in there. “It’s nice to hear you call my brother by his first name,” he added snidely.

Of course she called him by his first name, she had known Will since they were in the third grade. His family had moved into town and taken over the shop his brother now owned. But even back then, Mr. Thomas had been old enough to work at the store. He had always been Mr. Thomas and Will had always been Will. It was a tough habit to change.

She just ignored his jab, having too much going on in her mind right now to be drawn into his little game. “Good Morning, Mr. Thomas.” Okay, so maybe she didn’t totally ignore the jab. Emmie just threw him a little passive-aggressive punch of her own.

Mr. Thomas said nothing but turned and walked to the back storage room, busying himself with who knows what. She and Will worked in silence for a while. It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable but not friendly either; which was odd because they had always gotten along fine. Will was always the smiley kind of boy. Lately she hadn’t even seen him grin. Without saying a word Will walked into the backroom, carrying that same small black box Mr. Thomas had received in the mail. What in the world was that thing?

“Emma?” a familiar voice pulled her from her thoughts.

She looked up to find Bo Johnson smiling back at her. In the light of day she could see he wasn’t quite a lanky as he used to be. No doubt toting barrels of ’shine had added to his girth.

“Good Afternoon, Bo. What can I do for ya?” Emmie put her fabric and thread back in the sewing basket and stood to meet Bo’s stare.

“Well, I ran into Walter this morning. We was getting things ready for the…” he looked around to be sure they were alone, “for my pap’s celebration and he said he didn’t know if you were coming. I was coming into town anyway, so I told him I’d check with ya.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Bo. To tell you the truth I didn’t realize it was so soon,” she answered honestly. Well, partially honest, she had actually forgotten all about it.

“Yep, it’s tonight. Think you can make it? We’re gonna have plenty of food. My uncle is gonna smoke a pig,” he answered.

Emmie laughed out loud, “Excuse me?”

He smiled, his hazel eyes dancing with humor. “Not like smoke.” He mimed a cigarette. “He’s gonna smoke a pig… like the cooker? He makes really good barbecue.” He looked down like he was embarrassed.

Emmie hadn’t been out for fun since the speakeasy a few weeks ago. She hadn’t seen any of those folks for so long, maybe she should go. She knew Bo and Walter went to Ronnie’s old church, so there was bound to be plenty of people there she knew.

That would be a long walk though. “Is Walter going?”

Bo nodded. “He said to tell ya he could pick you up, if you want to go.” He paused and looked down again. “Or I wouldn’t mind to pick you up.”

“No, no need to go to any trouble. Walter lives right next door.” Emmie thought for a moment. What had she planned to do tonight, work on their dresses? She still had nearly two weeks to get those finished. Didn’t she deserve a little time out? It would be good to be with Walter and Mae.

“Yeah. I’ll be glad to come. Thanks for the invite. Can I bring something?” she asked.

He smiled from ear to ear. “Nope. Glad you’re coming.”

“See ya tonight, Bo,” she said, digging out the supplies she needed from her sewing basket.

“See ya, Emmie.” He turned to head out then spun back around on his heel. “And Em, this is a barn party. So, don’t feel like ya need to dress fancy. I know you been hanging around them Del Grande’s… it ain’t gonna be like that.”

Emmie smiled. She nearly asked if she could bring Ava with her but she knew better. She got the feeling this was a private gathering and Ava would rather be tarred and feathered than go to a party at a barn.

***********

When Walter showed up just after seven in his truck, she was disappointed at first to see that he was alone. Spotty chased the car until it reached the end of the drive and moved faster than he could keep up.

“Where’s Mae and Max?” Emmie asked.

Walter laughing and chewed on his pipe before he answered, “You think Mae’s gonna let Max go to a barn party at the Johnson’s… celebrating the fact that ain’t none of the Johnson’s going to jail?”

“Oh,” Emmie thought aloud, “I guess I hadn’t put all that together.” She started to feel a little out of place. What was she stepping into? Emmie bit her lower lip as she thought.

“Don’t fret about it, Emmie. Just gonna be some folks playing music and some good food. We ain’t gotta stay long. Just felt like I needed to show my support to him. Mr. Johnson’s been a friend,” Walter said as they made their way to the Johnson’s land.

Walter pulled his truck into the flat area about fifty feet from the barn. They were actually in an older barn. Walter pointed out their newer one off in the distance.

“How close are we to the river?” Emmie asked. Except for the glow of the lights from the barn and the stars in the sky it was so pitch black she couldn’t see the river but she could hear water rushing in the distance.

“It’s just right there. If there was a fuller moon tonight, you’d see it,” Walt answered, pointing to his right.

As they neared the party she could hear music coming from the barn. Banjos, guitars, and a jug band were set up near the back. From the looks on the smiling faces they’d hit the ’shine early. There was a group of teenagers dancing at the front of the barn.