After the Storm

Chapter 7

Seated at the well worn bar, he stared at the peeling label of the Coors he was drinking. After going to the Tractor Supply and the hardware store to get the items he had come for, he had passed a bar. Knowing he had about an hour before he was to head to the attorney's office he had decided to get out of the heat and have a beer or two. It had been awhile, and God knew he could use a little liquid courage.

The divorce papers were burning in his breast pocket, a heavy reminder of why he was headed to the attorney in the first place. Heading back from the car and into the cool, dimly lit oblong room with a counter on one side, a pool table by the door, and a scattering of ragged vinyl upholstered metal chairs, he inhaled deeply, letting the misery of stale beer and ashtray funk sink in. Two ceiling fans turned discordantly on their wobbling bases, the short chains a constant whir accompanying the scratchy CD jukebox playing sad country songs in the far corner next to the single unisex bathroom.

He had thought the run down shit hole suited his low mood perfectly and he had settled in to drown his misery just enough that he didn't feel the pain quite so sharply. The bartender willingly kept the beers coming; he downed them, one at a time, as he went over the last seven years of his life. He had met Amber at a ball, she being another soldier's date. He had noticed her, as she seemed to be happy, laughter filling the air around her. He had asked about her and to his fortune had found out she was accompanying her cousin, as he had not had a date. He worked up the courage to ask her to dance, and as they said, the rest was history. He had caught the bug, thinking he needed to get married to have a wife to come home to, and she seemed like she was interested. He was a Ranger and gone often on training, and had been deployed a couple of times. Every time he came home, she seemed more and more put out that he was there. He wrote it off as Amber trying to keep from being hurt every time he left. She seemed to be doing well, otherwise. Had plenty of friends, always looked nice when he came home to her. She always threw a welcome home party. He could not figure out what went wrong. He had been asking her if she wanted kids, so she wouldn't be lonely, and she had always told him she wanted to wait until he could be home, so the kids didn't have to watch him leave. She was an Army brat, and did not want her kids to suffer like she did, she said. He believed her.

Behind him, the racket of a pool game brought him out of his reminiscing, and he looked up from where he was seated facing the door to inspect the interlopers on his pity party. Two tough looking cowboys were loudly ribbing each other on their poor pool skills, each with a giant wad of chewing tobacco pushing their lower lips out comically. Every few seconds one or the other would pick up a bottle and spit in it. Riggs thought it was a nasty habit, and thanked his stars he never picked it up. He leaned his head back against the plaster wall and closed his eyes, trying to sink back into his misery, noticing he had fifteen more minutes to wallow. Something one of the other men said caused him to slowly open his eyes and pay attention. He set the feet of his stool back on the ground and his beer on the counter.

"...shit yeah, brother! I heard she's back and hotter than ever. Remember how everyone made fun of her in high school? I guess puberty hit late in her case. She's s'posed to be rich too," said the shorter of the two.

"Emmaleigh Mason? Hot? I remember her being stuck up an better'n e'reybody. Like to knock her down a notch, if you know what I mean?" the taller of the two replied with a wicked grin.

"You mean knock 'er up?" the short one said as he air humped the pool table.

The tall guy laughed and shrugged. "What ever. What say you and me head over to her ranch and act like we's willing to work for her, and maybe, you know, get in a little side action. It'll show her uppity ass to come back like she ain't been gone for years. Kent Dickerson as good as had that land. Maybe he'd give us a little bonus to run her off, you think?"