You Believers Read Online Free Page B

license plate— POSITIV .’ You like to think positive, right?”
    “I try,” Katy said.
    “You like to do good things, right?”
    She nodded, looked back at the other guy in the car.
    Jesse sighed. “Well, Ronald’s granny, she’s sick, and he’s got these groceries in his trunk, and he’s gotta get the stuff to her, and if he makes it there, he can get a neighbor to work on the car.” He nodded, rocking in the seat beside her. “See, she’s waiting, and we’ve got these groceries in the trunk, and it’s a long ways out there through farm country. And that car, it’s always stalling out, and you got no idea how bad that can be in this heat.”
    It sounded like a good story, but there was something off. “I need to get home,” she said. “My fiancé—”
    “What about Randy? Nah, Randy isn’t your fiancé.” He said the word mean and teasing. He lifted the hundred-dollar bill and held it to her face. “For your gas and trouble. It’s just forty-five minutes from here. But then, you know that ’cause Randy lives out there, and you like to drive out and see him.”
    She studied her hands on the steering wheel. The engagement ring shone in the sunlight. Something was wrong. This felt like ajoke. It had to be a joke. Maybe it was Billy’s joke. Maybe Billy had found out about Randy. Maybe Billy somehow knew where Randy lived. “Is this a joke?”
    “Nah, man,” Jesse said. “This is serious. Listen to that car of his.”
    She listened to the chugging, staggering sound of the engine. “I’m sure it’s something simple,” she said. “You can just pull up there to a station. You could use some of that hundred dollars to fix his car.”
    He smiled again as if he were telling her a joke she just didn’t understand. “Not when we can get it fixed for free. And besides, I can’t keep track of the money he owes me.” He opened his palms in a little helpless gesture. She studied that hundred-dollar bill. “It’s the principle of the thing,” he said.
    “I mean why would I want to drive out to Lake Waccamaw?” she said. It was just too strange that Lake Waccamaw was exactly where she was heading as soon as she changed into that new underwear. He waved the money again, then shrugged, made a move to get out of the truck. But he didn’t leave. He paused, looked back at her.
    She reached for her purse. It lay open between them.
    “Look,” he said, “nothing funny is going on here. We just need you to go along in case the car dies. We can fix the car for nothing if we get out there. Ronald’s granny, she’s waiting, and if we don’t hurry, that milk in the trunk is gonna turn. I need a ride, that’s all.” He dropped the hundred dollars into her purse, zipped it tight, and tossed the purse into her lap. “There and back,” he said. “And tonight you and your fiancé, or Randy, can go have a steak dinner on me.”
    “I don’t eat steak,” she said.
    “Tofu, then.” He smiled. “Go have twenty tofu-bean-sprout suppers on me.”
    He was really good-looking when he smiled. Like some rock star. Flashing eyes, sandy hair that fell in his face. He had country-boy good looks, the kind of face that promised wild rides in fast carsthough green hills. Definitely the type she liked. “Come on,” he said softly. “My friend over there, his granny’s waiting, and she doesn’t have a phone. All you gotta do is start the engine and pull out, follow that car.”
    She clutched her keys and took in his clothes, Polo shirt, good jeans, Nikes that looked brand-new. At least he had good clothes. And he was polite for a guy who’d jumped into her truck. She sat back. It was a risk. But it would make a great story to tell her friends. And Randy, he’d love it that she’d taken such a risk and made money doing it.
    “A hundred bucks. How else you gonna make a hundred bucks so fast?”
    “All right,” she said. “There and back.”
    “There and back.” He laughed.
    She started the engine,