"What are you doing here, Austin?" Charity must have forgiven my outburst at the diner earlier this week. She raced up to me the moment she saw me standing at the bar.
We didn't have a lot of indoor places to hang out in Mason Belle. Well, actually, we had one. The Hut. It wasn't much to write home about. A handful of local, retired vets had gotten together and started the bar. They only opened on Friday and Saturday nights, and they only sold beer and a handful of liquors. Anyone who cared to call a label from the shelf needed to ride into Laredo, because they couldn't do it here.
It didn't bother me. I wasn't much of a drinker, and when I did drink, it was Southern Comfort, which they stocked, or an occasional beer. I rarely came into town, and I spent even less time at The Hut. I'd b
