Page 25 (1/2)

APRIL

The rusted Chevy pickup truck clanked to a stop, and when Lauren Huntser , it jolted her awake

She y blinks Her head felt streith broken ether, would forht now, thatlay in pieces inside her throbbing head

She rehter, and NBA highlights on the overhead TVs Di green, amber, and black

Black

She'd asked for a drink froood way A steady hand had poured the liquor into her glass a moment before she'd thrown it back

"Another one,” she'd rasped, plonking the elass down on the bar

She re She stole his cowboy hat; it looked better on her A black Stetson to match her itsy-bitsy black dress, her black drink, and her foul, blackon to in a tacky dive like this, a rare gem of a bar in the noses-up, la-di-da world of Jackson Hole, Wyo with her family She'd sneaked out and her parents would never find her here The thought was a bright light on the horizon Soon she'd be so tipsy, she wouldn't re down canvas

Paint Color Art She'd tried to escape there, to a world of splattered jeans and stained fingers and soul enlightenment, but they had yanked her back, shut her down They didn't want a free-spirited artist in the fahter with a diploma from Stanford

If they would just love her Then she wouldn't wear tight,

cheap dresses that infuriated her mother or throw her passion into causes that offended her father's egoism and stiff, aristocratic morals

She al, see her slinking down the cowboy's leg Grinding hip-to-hip Murs she could think of into his ear They only paused dancing when he went to the bar to get her a fresh drink She could have sworn it tasted different froined the bitter taste

He asked if she wanted to go somewhere private

Lauren only debated a moment If her mother would disapprove, then the ansas obvious