Ever Bound by Odessa Gillespie Black Read Free Book Online

reality because I see her doing things I know will only lead to heartache. She just—she acts like I’m the enemy. I don’t know. I can’t explain it. She frustrates me so bad. I feel like I should help her, but we just can’t communicate without arguing. All I know is nothing about us makes any sense.” I tossed the broom against the wall.
    Mama stared at me with a far-off look. “It makes perfect sense.”
    I stood there dumbly staring at her.
    “I’ll be preparing the kitchen for dinner.” With a grin, she hummed as she started for the cottage.
    “Don’t start that humming stuff. You women act like us men are supposed to know exactly what you’re thinking. What am I supposed to do now?”
    “You have to see for yourself.” She turned to me and planted a firm kiss on my forehead. “I love you. You aren’t my little boy anymore.”
    “I’ll always be your little boy, Mama.” I felt bad for my outburst. As I approached her for a hug, little wrinkles around her eyes crinkled with her smile.
    My reflection in the glass panes revealed something else. My cheeks were flushed and I looked…happy?
    As frustrated as I was, there was no way.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    Annabeth walked with Drew to school again.
    I ignored them.
    Mostly.
    They shot each other googly eyes and acted all lovesick.
    Couldn’t she see he was full of manure?
    I could. Plain as day.
    And she was falling deeper and deeper into his trap.
    Throughout the day, they passed notes behind Mrs. Peachtree. After about the tenth pass, I almost jerked one from his hand and tore it to shreds, but I folded my arms and stared out the window.
    A gasp jerked my attention back to Annabeth.
    Her face twisted as she read the little folded paper. She tossed it back to him without writing anything in return. She sat erect, facing the chalkboard, and didn’t look at him for the last hour of school that day.
    The more my gaze stayed on Drew and Annabeth, the louder and more openly Grace flirted with every boy in the class.
    At one point, she got so loud Mrs. Peachtree called her out. “Miss Rollins, though you are plenty old enough to control yourself, if you continue to disrupt my lessons, I’ll have your father come here and spank you in front of the entire class.”
    “Daddy probably wouldn’t mind to do that, I’m sure.” Grace stood eerily still and stared at Miss Peachtree.
    The classroom was quiet, all but a chair scraping on the wooden floor.
    “If you continue on this plight to destroy yourself and hinder my pupils from learning, I’ll have no choice but to remove you from the school.” Mrs. Peachtree’s bright young face reddened.
    That would be the best thing that could happen.
    “Stay after and help me with the chalkboards and sweeping.” Mrs. Peachtree turned on her heel and began writing on the chalkboard.
    By the time the bell tolled and we were able to leave school, Drew had made up with Annabeth.
    She was back to smiling at him and acting like he was the prince of some small country.
    I couldn’t stomach Annabeth holding hands with him, so I stayed back and waited until they were out of sight.
    * * * *
    That night, a knock on the cottage door startled me.
    Of course my first thought was that Grace had come to hound me again, but one of the sharecroppers with a sweat-covered brow stood at the threshold. “Master Colby, come quick. Someone has let all the horses out of the stalls, and there’s something smeared all over them. It’s terrible bad.”
    I got Pop and gathered a robe on as quick as I could.
    Chaos covered the rear grounds of the Rollins Plantation. Horses stomped all over the place as sharecroppers chased after them. Hens clucked and flapped their wings in the hen house as if a wild animal was after them. The pigs snorted, screamed and slammed against the walls of the pens. Finally, a few of them broke out.
    It was a nightmare.
    The workers chased horses that were smeared with some red substance from mane to tail.
    After