Texas Heat — Chapter 5
A thin line runs between betrayal and sacrifice. Figuring out the difference could cost a man his heart
Corey waited as the boy turned the thirty-second walk to the library door into a three-minute production. Turtles moved faster. It’s exactly what he’d have done at that age if forced to leave his mother with someone he didn’t trust. With one last scathing glance in Corey’s direction, the kid finally exited the room.
Corey turned on Tiffany, “Explain what you meant about having proof. Why would you leave me in that stinking prison if you could have gotten me out?”
Tiffany sank into one of the chairs in front of the desk. “A couple of years after you went to jail, I overheard my father arguing with his foreman, Pete Jenkins. Dad said he wanted a repeat of the Corey Donovan episode. Mr. Jenkins said he wasn’t doing my dad’s dirty jobs any longer. They argued some more. I couldn’t hear all that was said. But I did hear Mr. Jenkins say he wasn’t framing another innocent man. My Father torched his warehouse and framed you, Corey. By the time I knew that you’d been in prison for over two years. I begged him to do something. When he refused, I went to the sheriff. He just laughed at me. My father found out and said if I interfered any more, he’d do whatever it took to make sure you stayed a lot longer than the original seven-year sentence, or worse. Then I heard you’d gotten into some trouble and they added another five years. What was that about?”
Corey shuffled his feet. “Two guys on my cell block grabbed a guard and tried to force an escape. For reasons of their own, they implicated me, and I couldn’t prove otherwise.” He shook his head. “Let’s just leave it at that. None of this is important now anyway.”
Corey didn’t want to get sidetracked. He was having too much trouble fitting her information into the picture he’d drawn. “Why didn’t you talk to Pete? He knew I wasn’t guilty of arson — he might have told the authorities.”
“Pete Jenkins died of a heart attack two weeks after the conversation with my dad.”
“Then why didn’t you come to see me and explain all of this? Give me some information, anything?” Corey hated the pleading tone in his voice.
“When Les Covington rescued me from an intolerable situation with my Father, he only asked one thing of me — that as long as I was married to him, I wouldn’t see you. I was young and under a great deal of stress. At the time, it seemed the only way out. I gave him my word.”
While her words held no apology, what they did hold were years of regret. Things were clearer and in some ways muddier than when he’d first walked into this room. He needed time to absorb what he’d heard. But one thing he knew for sure. He’d just acted like a jerk.
“I’m sorry for the way I treated you earlier.”
“You have changed,” she said contemplatively. “And before you get the wrong idea, I mean there was a day when you would never have apologized for anything, even when you knew you were wrong.”
The revenge he’d planned for so long melted away. In its place, a profound sense of loss sent an aching pain through his chest. What was done…was done. It would take time, but he’d get it all straight in his head. When he did, maybe his heart would follow suit. The important thing now was his son. The true meaning of the relationship hit him squarely in the face for the first time. He had a son. He settled into the chair opposite Tiffany’s.
“I want to talk about the boy. I want to get to know my son. If you’ve got any objections, you’d better get over them.”
“I don’t have any objections, Corey. I want you to know Joey. I want Joey to know his father. Why else would I have told him the truth about you? I wanted to give you time after your release to adjust before I made Joey’s existence known. If you hadn’t come back to Deliverance, I would have hired professionals to find you. Joey needs a father.”
“What about you? What do you need?” He regretted those words the moment they’d slipped out of his mouth. They revealed too much.
A pink tinge brightened her cheeks. “I just want my son to be happy and…”
“Forget I asked. It’s none of my business anyway.” He quickly changed the path of their conversation. “I appreciate your help earlier with the boy. I’m sure you think I was too rough.”
“Yes, I do. And just so we’re clear on this point, I won’t meekly stand by and see Joey hurt, especially by you. If you intend to take an active role in his life now, you can’t walk away later if it gets to be more than you bargained for.”
“I’ve never walked away from anything. You of all people should know that.”
“Good. Then we’re agreed that you’ll help Joey build the right skills, those things only a man can teach him.”
“If you think an ex-con is qualified teacher material, maybe you need to rethink your definition of the right skills.”
“I know what you’re made of, Corey Donovan; it’s in your eyes even when you don’t want it there. You wear honor and integrity like a second skin. They’re part of you. Prison didn’t erase them, just hardened them some.”
Tiffany stood in the open doorway and watched the rear wheels of Corey’s pickup spin on the smooth driveway as he gunned the accelerator. She didn’t know what had prompted him to leave so suddenly. One minute he was sitting opposite her discussing their son. The next, he’d mumbled something about an appointment he was late for and left. He would be upset later when he realized his hat was still on the edge of her desk.
Her legs felt like soggy tortillas. Shutting the door, she stepped to the side and sat down on the foyer bench. Maintaining composure in front of Corey Donovan was an exercise that required more energy than she’d imagined. It tested all her skills to be so close to the only man she’d ever loved and pretending otherwise. Love wasn’t an element of their relationship. How could it be? Corey was never one to forget or forgive the injustices done him. Though she was innocent of much, she was still the catalyst that had cost him twelve years of freedom. Dare she pursue her plan to compensate him for his lost years? After today’s encounter, she had reason to doubt.
****
Corey propped his booted foot on the porch railing and let several gulps of iced tea slide down his parched throat. After three hours repairing his roof in the ninety-six-degree heat, he needed this break. After working in construction all week, it was hard to get motivated to do the same thing on the weekend. He couldn’t expect to turn this small piece of land with its two-bedroom cottage into something he could be proud of unless he kept at it, though. Although it wasn’t the big cattle spread he’d dreamed of as a boy, he could still call it home as long as he made the payments to the Deliverance Central Bank.
Charlie Knighton, the bank’s current president and an old friend of his father’s, had co-signed the loan for him. With the death of his parents seven years earlier in a car accident, Corey had received a condolence card from Charlie with a short sentence scrawled at the bottom. When you get out, come see me. Pride had almost held him back. But with ninety-eight dollars in his pocket when his bus hit Deliverance, he hadn’t been able to afford pride.
Charlie had helped him get a job and this place. Said he had promised Corey’s daddy in the emergency room of some hospital in Abilene. The sound of a car engine brought his attention back to the present and to the big black Lincoln coming up his driveway. He eyed it with suspicion since it was the last kind of vehicle he expected to see stop in front of his porch.
Tiffany Covington slid gracefully out of the driver’s side and then motioned to her son to do the same. Gesturing did not work, so she walked around the car and spoke to the boy through his open window. Corey could see she was not having much success getting the kid out of the car, so he decided to see what she wanted and let her get on her way.
Two weeks had crawled by since he’d fled her house like a scalded cat. He still wasn’t ready to look into those revealing eyes of hers, eyes that had tried to shutter her emotions, but had not succeeded. Her defense of his honor had blindsided him. More than that, it had given him hope, a possibility that didn’t work with a heart fully barred, locked, and posted against trespassers. He sat his ice tea on the nail bucket that doubled as a side table and stepped off the porch.
“What brings you to this side of Deliverance, Mrs. Covington?”
The sweetest smile ever to grace a woman’s lips spread across hers. He knew, if sampled, her mouth would taste like honey.
“Hello, Corey. I’m sorry if we’ve come at an inconvenient time. We were on our way to the rodeo grounds. Joey participates every Saturday night during rodeo season.” She paused, looking at the ground.
He stood his ground and gave her a level stare, not menacing, but not too friendly either. “My place isn’t exactly on the way, so why are you here?”
Lifting her head a little, she smiled again, this time making his stomach roll. “Ah… We came to bring your hat. You left in such a hurry that afternoon that you forgot it. It looks brand new. I’m sure… I mean… we were sure you’d be missing it.”
“Yeah, I have missed it.” He waited, but she didn’t move. The silence was awkward. “Why don’t you get it for me, then you can be on your way.”
“Yes,” she said and turned back to her son. “Joey, please get the hat out of the back and give it to Mr. Donovan.”
“I told you, I ain’t doin nothin for him.”
The insolence in the boy’s voice matched the bold dislike in his eyes. Corey stepped to the side of the car, took hold of Tiffany’s arm, and moved her away from the door. He purposely made his movements slow, giving the boy time to think before he opened his door.
“I would appreciate you getting that hat if you don’t mind?” Corey backed away from the door, not wanting to intimidate the kid by crowding him. The speed with which the boy moved was almost comical. In less than three seconds he was standing outside the car, hat extended.
Corey took the hat and ran his fingers along the creases. “You think maybe a gentleman would offer the lady an apology? Seems to me you were kind of rude to her.” Corey watched as defiance, and then acceptance raced across his son’s face.
“Sorry, Mom,” he said, quickly before diving back inside the vehicle.
To be continued…
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