Home to Whiskey Creek by Brenda Novak Read Free Book Online

late would be halfway to Sacramento.
    Gran had a cup of tea waiting for her when she entered the kitchen. Adelaide could smell the mint. She normally liked tea, but tonight she didn’t have enough strength to hold the cup. And she had another problem. While pulling on a pair of cutoffs and a tank top she’d figured out why her legs hurt worse in back. Thanks to the fact that she’d slid down the wooden supports of that mine shaft when whoever it was had shoved her in, she had as many slivers in her butt and thighs as she did on her hands.
    They had to come out and she couldn’t do it on her own, so she’d brought the magnifying glass Gran used for reading and a pair of tweezers, along with the Band-Aids. She hoped her grandmother would be able to help because Adelaide couldn’t wait to crawl into bed and block the past twenty or so hours from her mind. Everything from that first terrifying image of a man looming over her bed to the shocking realization that it was Cody’s brother who’d pulled her out of the deep, dark hole. The hole that might otherwise have become her grave.
    * * *
    The lights were still on at Milly’s house, only now the blind in the kitchen was down.
    Conscious of the late hour and that he’d be intruding, Noah hesitated on the stoop with the bag of supplies he’d brought from his place. He knew that Adelaide, who’d tried to avoid even incidental contact with him in his truck, wouldn’t be happy to see him. She’d disliked him instantly. But most people didn’t have the kind of first-aid supplies he kept on hand for mountain bike spills. And Adelaide had refused to go to the hospital, so...he figured she might need them.
    Telling himself he was going the extra mile largely for Milly’s sake, because he knew how much her granddaughter’s injuries would upset her, he took a deep breath and knocked.
    The curtain moved; someone was peering out at him. After what’d happened, he was relieved to see they were taking precautions.
    He raised the bag to show he’d brought something. Then he heard the bolt slide back.
    “Noah!” Milly exclaimed as soon as she got her walker out of the way so she could open the door. “How nice of you to come back.”
    Surprised by the intensity of her relief, he looked over her gray head to find the living room empty. Was Adelaide in bed? “She okay?”
    Milly lowered her voice. “Who knows? She refuses to see a doctor. Do you think I should make her?”
    He’d already tried and was sure it wouldn’t work. In his estimation, they were better off going with the “do-it-yourself” method he held in his hand, unless her injuries were worse than she’d let on. “Have you found anything serious?”
    “Not really. She says nothing’s broken. And I’m doing all I can to get her cleaned up, but...it’s not easy when your hand shakes like mine.” She motioned to the sack. “What do you have in there?”
    “Iodine, painkiller, large bandages.” He didn’t mention that the painkiller was prescription-strength, a couple of pills he had left over from when he’d broken his jaw in a free-ride bike race six months ago.
    “That’ll come in handy.” She glanced over her shoulder. “But what I need right now is another pair of eyes and a steadier hand.”
    “For what?”
    He’d expected her to take the bag and say good-night. Instead, she drew him inside. “Come see what you can do.”
    “With?”
    She didn’t clarify because Adelaide called out. “Gran, who is it?”
    Milly used her walker like a cattle prod, herding him into the kitchen. “It’s Noah. He’s here to help. Isn’t that nice of him?”
    “Noah!” Adelaide was at the sink, rinsing out a cup. But she whirled to face him, and he immediately jerked his gaze up to her face. She was dressed in a tank top and cutoffs that weren’t even fastened. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and the cutoffs were very short, the sort a girl might wear around the house but not out in public. Obviously, she