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nothing. He was gone.
    I knew I was running out of time so, using the notes I had taken earlier, I hurried into the back room and ordered the list of beers that were the most popular at my tables. Packing the bottles onto my tray, I returned to the main room just as Kevin was checking my row. He nodded as I passed and continued to watch while I traded the players’ empty bottles for full ones.
    I kept up the same pace the rest of the night until last call. Time hadn’t dragged at all, but my feet certainly had and my nipples felt like they were on fire. My apron was full of cash and chips, so that was what I’d focused on—and on Christy, who had pulled me into the back room to go over the closing duties after we’d dropped off the last round of drinks.
    When she went to the bathroom, I took the opportunity to peek into the poker lounge. Most of the tables were empty except for the stragglers who were sitting around bullshitting and a few other players waiting in line at the cashier window. None of them were Hart.
    “We have to stock the glasses, refill the napkins, and make sure the station is clean. Then we can go home,” Christy said from behind me. I hadn’t realized she’d returned, or that I was still staring at the exact place where I had spoken to him.
    I felt like I was standing outside after a storm had passed, surveying the devastation. Broken branches and leaves and tiny pebbles had collected around my feet. The sky was black; I could taste the earth in the air. As I took my first step, my shoes squeaked with moisture.
    I was completely drenched.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
    “DO YOU KNOW what the rain is?” he asked.
    I was curled in a ball in the corner of the couch. A candle flickered on the table. It was the only light in the house; we’d lost power from the storm. He’d even let me take the candle into the potty with me, but he told me not to flush. I kinda liked that. The noise the toilet made could be so loud and scary at night.
    I pulled the blanket even tighter around me. “No…what is it?”
    “It’s the tears from all the people who cried today. The sky pulls them out of all the tissues and sleeves and holds them up there until it’s full. Then, it comes raining down on us.”
    A chill ran over me, covering my skin in tiny bumps as I remembered how mean the rain had sounded. It felt like our house had been shaking. “Why did the storm sound so angry?”
    “The sky doesn’t just take tears; it also takes the sounds that people make. That yelling you did while you cried this afternoon came right back at us, didn’t it?”
    I couldn’t control my temper sometimes. I wanted to. I tried really hard to. I just didn’t want Mommy to go to work because Darren got so sad whenever she left. And what made him sad, made me sad.
    “So if I cry softly, it won’t thunder as much?”
    “Come on over here, Rae.”
    I glanced toward the rocking chair where he was sitting. The candle lit up his face and his open arms. With the blanket still around me, I tiptoed over to him. He pulled me onto his lap, tucking my legs into the side of the chair and wrapping his arms around me. We swayed back and forth.
    “You’re a good girl. You have no reason to be shedding those tears, and especially no reason to be yelling like that.”
    Back and forth.
    Mommy said I was a strong girl, a smart girl. He always said I had the prettiest smile of all the girls he’d ever seen. Strong, pretty girls didn’t need to cry. Darren didn’t need to cry, either. I wanted to tell him that, but he was in his room. He was always in there. He said he didn’t like hanging out anywhere else in the house. He was so silly.
    I stretched my hands out of the blanket and placed them on top of his. His knuckles were so rough and hard. Chapped like my lips after I cried. They held me tight, but it didn’t hurt.
    “Rest your head on my chest and let’s see if we can get you to sleep. It’s past your bedtime, my good girl.”
    I pressed my