Chapter 6

I got on one side of Al and Darvin got on the other side, and we walked pretty fast back to Darvin's truck. Darvin unlocked the passenger door, I opened the door, and Al scurried in. It was clear she was scared, and I wasn't calm myself. Darvin got in and we slammed our doors at the same time. He started the engine, put it in gear, and drove off without fastening his seat belt, and the sudden start messed up my attempt to fasten mine.

"Sorry," he said, "but we don't need to be around if Bennie decides to come back with help. I'll pull over in a bit."

And after a bit, when we were north of Lomas, he did. But he didn't immediately fasten his seat belt. He put both hands on top of the steering wheel, looked out through the windshield, and blew out a breath. "I hate that kind of thing."

I said, "You seemed so in control."

"I was in control. But it's always hard on me. I hate fighting and I hate confrontation. I'm in a line of work where it happens, but that don't mean I like it."

Al hadn't said anything, but now she leaned over a little and kissed Darvin on the cheek. "Thank you, Cowboy. He'd have hurt me if you hadn't been there." As far as I knew Al hadn't met Darvin till I introduced them, but it sounded like she'd heard of him.

"Not a problem, Al. But maybe he wouldn't have hurt you too bad. I saw what Alan did."

"What?" She looked over at me, but I had no idea what he was talking about.

"That man was ready to tackle Bennie all by hisself." I was used to Darvin's poor English, but that version of the pronoun was new to me. "I don't know how he'd have done, but Bennie woulda knowed he'd been in a fight." I decided that the stress was making Darvin's English get so bad.

"I don't know about that," I said. "That guy could have cleaned the floor with me."

"Yeah, he's bigger than you are, an' prob'ly stronger. But he's a coward or he wouldn't bully women, an' you got an advantage."

"What advantage?"

"He don't love her."

Back at the hotel room I sat down on the bed while Darvin and Al took chairs at the table. Al leaned her elbows on the table and looked at him. "What did you mean back there?"

Darvin grinned. "Back where?"

"Don't play around!" she almost shouted – except she used stronger language.

I stirred, wondering if now might not be the time to mention Al's language. But Darvin spoke first. "They ain't no need to cuss at me, Ms. Hitt." He'd called her Al back in the truck, but that was while he was still dealing with the stress of confronting Bennie. "I know I'm fusteratin' sometimes – I can hit beside the point real good. But let's omit the needless words, hm?" He smiled at her and went on. "But I know what you mean."

He looked at me for a minute, then back to Al. "Bennie don't love you. Oh, I know you say he does, and he said he does, but Alan was right. A guy loves you don't do to you what he's done. Alan does love you."

I was going to speak, but again someone beat me to it – Al, this time. "How the ... how do you know?"

"Like I said, he was ready to tackle Bennie all by his lonesome. An' I could tell he was scared to death. He knew Bennie was bigger an' stronger, and I bet Alan don't know nothin' about fightin' neither." I shook my head. "But he was ready to do it anyway," Darvin said. "He was ready to get pretty well beat to a pulp – for you. That's what love is."

Now she turned to me. "Is that true?"

"Yes, I was ready to fight him for you. But love?"

She didn't let me continue. "When you took me away from ... from that life, you told me you wouldn't tell me about love, you'd show me. Is that what you meant?"

"No ... well, I don't think so..." As I spoke I realized that I was perhaps not being honest. I had never thought of Al that way. Sure, when we were kids I'd thought that someday we might be more than friends, but it was vague. There wasn't any thought of love – the kind of love that leads to marriage – involved. Yes, we'd had our joke about love and oatmeal, and I had certainly loved her as I would love my best friend whoever he or she was. But love?

"Al," I said, "I never thought of it that way. But ... but maybe Darvin knows what he's talking about. I did try to push you behind me. I was ready to get hurt to protect you..."

"Will you marry me?"

I stared at her. "What did you say?"

"I asked you to marry me."

I looked at Darvin, who was singularly unhelpful. At that moment he was examining the toes of his boots, with his legs stretched out in front of him. I looked back at Al. "Don't take this the wrong way, Al, but why?"

She was still leaning on her elbows, but now she turned in her chair. She put her elbows on her knees and leaned toward me, and I don't know when I've seen a more intense expression. "You said you would show me love, that I didn't know what love was and you'd show it to me. Well, you did. You kept your word. Do you know how little of that I've seen in my life? My daddy raped me, and every other man I've ever known almost has had me, and they've told me they loved me. And some of them have hit me and some of them have tied me up and some of them have burned me with cigarettes..." She was crying now, brutal wracking sobs that seemed to tear her apart. "You and the Cowboy over there are the only men I've known in all my life who didn't treat me like a piece of meat. And Cowboy doesn't love me. You do. Who else am I going to marry?"