Rachel Gibson - True Confessions

2001

There were two universal truths in Gospel, Idaho. First, God had done His best work when Hed created the Sawtooth Wilderness Area. And except for the unfortunate incident of 95, Gospel had always been heaven on earth.

Second-a truth just as adamantly believed as the first-every sin known to heaven and earth was Californias fault. California got the blame for everything, from the hole in the ozone to the marijuana plant found growing in the Widow Fairfields tomato garden. After all, her teenage grandson had visited relatives in L.A. just last fall.

There was a third truth-although it was viewed more as an absolute fact-come every summer, fools from the flatlands were bound to get lost amid the granite peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains.

This summer, the number of lost hikers rescued was already up to three. If the count stayed at three, plus one more fracture and two more cases of altitude sickness, then Stanley Caldwell would win the Missing Flatlander Betting Pool. But everyone knew Stanley was an optimistic fool. No one, not even his wife- whod put her money on eight missing, seven fractures, and had thrown in a few cases of poison oak for excitement-expected Stanley to win the kitty.

Almost everyone in town played the pool, each trying to outdo the other and win the sizable pot. The betting pool gave the people of Gospel something to think about besides cattle, sheep, and logging. It gave them something to talk about besides tree-hugging environmentalists, and something to speculate over besides the possible paternity of Rita McCalls brand-new baby boy. After all, though Rita and Roy had been divorced going on three years now, that alone didnt put him out of the running. But mostly, the pool was a harmless way for the locals to pass the hot summer months while they pulled in tourist money and waited for the relative calm of winter.

Around the beer case at the M & S Market, conversation centered around fly-fishing versus live-bait fishing, bow hunting versus real hunting, and, of course, the twelve-point buck the owner of the market, Stanley, had shot back in 79. The huge varnished antlers hung behind the battered cash register, where theyd been on display for more than twenty years.

Over at the Sandman on Lakeview Street, Ada Dover still talked about the time Clint Eastwood had stayed in her motel. Hed been real nice and hed actually spoken to her, too.

You have a nice place, hed said, sounding just like Dirty Harry; then hed asked for the location of the ice machine and for some extra towels. Shed about died right behind the check-in counter. There was some speculation on whether or not his daughter with Frances Fisher had been conceived in room nine.

The citizens of Gospel lived and breathed the latest gossip. At the Curl Up and Dye Hair Studio, the favorite topic of conversation was always the sheriff of Pearl County, Dylan Taber, usually because the owner herself, Dixie Howe, dropped his name while chatting over a shampoo and set. Shed cast her line in his direction and planned to reel him in like a prize trout.

Of course, Paris Fernwood was angling her bait in Dylans direction, too, but Dixie wasnt worried. Paris worked for her daddy at the Cozy Corner Cafe, and Dixie didnt consider a woman who served coffee and eggs serious competition for a businesswoman like herself.

There were other women vying for Dylans attention as well. There was a divorced mother of three over in the next county, and probably others Dixie didnt know about. But she wasnt worried about them, either. Dylan had lived for a time in L.A., and hed naturally appreciate someone with flash and cosmopolitan polish. In Gospel, there wasnt anyone with more flash than Dixie Howe.

With a Virginia Slims cigarette clamped between two fingers, the light catching on her bloodred nails, Dixie settled back in one of the two black vinyl salon chairs and waited for her two oclock cut and color.

A thin stream of smoke curled from her lips as she thought of her favorite subject. It wasnt just that Dylan was about the only eligible man over the age of twenty-five and under fifty within seventy miles. No, he had a way of looking at a woman. A way of tilting his head back a fraction and gazing through those deep green eyes of his that made her tingle in all the right places. And when his lips slid into a slow, easy smile, all those tingling places just pooled and melted.

Dylan had never set foot inside the Curl Up and Dye, choosing instead to drive all the way to Sun Valley to get his hair cut. Dixie didnt take it personally. Some men were just peculiar about walking into a classy studio like hers for a custom design. But shed love to run her fingers through his thick hair. Love to run her hands and mouth over all of him. Once she got the sheriff into bed, she was sure he wouldnt want to leave. Shed been told she was the best lay this side of the Continental Divide. She believed it, and it was time she made a believer out of him. It was time Dylan used his big, hard body for something other than breaking up fights at the Buckhorn Bar.

There was only one potential little storm cloud in Dixies plans for the future, and that was Dylans seven-year-old son. The kid didnt like Dixie. Kids usually didnt. Maybe because she generally thought they were a pain in the ass. But shed really tried with Adam Taber. Shed bought him a pack of gum once. Hed thanked her, shoved about ten sticks in his mouth, then ignored her. Which would have been just dandy if he hadnt plopped his skinny butt on the couch between her and his daddy.

Dixie wasnt worried about Adam, either. She had a new plan. This morning shed heard from Dylans secretary, Hazel, that hed bought a puppy for his son. Dixie figured that after she closed the shop for the day, shed go home and squeeze her biggest assets into a skimpy halter. Shed swing by with a big, juicy bone for the new dog. That finally ought to get the kids attention. Just like her double Ds ought to finally get his daddys attention. If Dylan didnt notice and take advantage of what she offered him, then he was just plain queer.

Of course, she knew he wasnt. Back in high school, Dylan Taber had been a wild man, tearing up the streets of Gospel in his black Dodge Ram, one hand on the wheel, the other on some lucky girls thigh. Most, but not all, of the time, that lucky girl had been Dixies older sister, Kim. Dylan and Kim had what Dixie would call a real fire-and-ice relationship. It was either hot or cold. Nothing in between. And when it was hot, it heated up Kims bedroom like an inferno. Back then, Dixies mother spent most of her time at one of the local bars, and Kim had taken full advantage of her absence-not that her mother would have noticed if she had been home. Before shed become born-again, Lilly Howe had spent most of her time drinking, drunk, or passed out.

Dixie might have been only eleven at the time, but shed known what the sounds coming from the other side of the bedroom wall meant. The choppy breaths, deep throaty moans, and sighs of pleasure. At eleven, shed known enough about sex to figure out what her sister was doing. But it wasnt until several years later that she could appreciate how long theyd made those springs squeak.

Dylan was thirty-seven, the sheriff of Pearl County, and he had a son to raise. He was respectable, but Dixie would bet her last bottle of blond hair dye that beneath the uniform, he was as wild as ever. Dylan Taber was a big man in the community now, and the rumor around town was that he was big where it counted, too. It was time she found out for herself.