If Fried Chicken Could Fly by Paige Shelton Read Free Book Online Page A

time when you’re supposed to figure out what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. It was interesting to see that he’d changed paths just like I had. Being a police officer in Broken Rope was far from the world of architecture. My position as a cooking school teacher was pretty far from law school, too. Had we found our callings, or were we two of those people who can’t ever find what they really want out of life so they keep trying different jobs and careers? I hoped for the former.
    Cliff looked up suddenly and was surprised at my intense stare.
    “What?” he said.
    “Nothing.”
    He put the folder down and cleared his throat. “I suppose I owe you some sort of explanation for returning to Broken Rope.”
    “No, not at all. It’s none of my business.” I regretted the words immediately. Darn straight he owed me an explanation. I should have stomped my foot and said as much.
    “Well, nonetheless, I do want to talk to you at some point. I have some things…things I should tell you, but now’s not a good time.”
    “Sure, we’ll talk.”
    Cliff nodded and looked as though he was about to say something else when the door flew open with a gust of personality and the distinct smell of fish.
    “Verna, thanks for coming,” I said as I hugged her, fish smell and all.
    “I didn’t have any choice, young’un. I was summoned, even if it wasn’t by a summons.” Verna laughed at her own jokes all the time. Usually it was because she was the only one who thought they were funny, but sometimes it was because everyone else listening was still adjusting to the volume and tone of her deep loud voice.
    Verna Oldenmeyer was the woman who’d originally been the inspiration for my wanting to become an attorney. She was smart, big, brash, never bothered with her short red hair and never wore a stitch of makeup. The smart part was what inspired me. When I was a young girl, I’d listen to her banter with anyone who was in her space. She’d win every time. I liked the idea of winning and had decided that it was because she was so smart that she won. When I learned she was an attorney, I wanted to be one, too. It was the dream, the career ideal, that I held on to for years.
    When I dropped out, I thought Verna would be more disappointed than my parents, but she hadn’t been disappointed in the least. Instead, she hugged me tightly the day after I got home and told me that her biggest secret was that she sometimes wished she’d dropped out of law school, too.
    I didn’t believe her, but I appreciated the lie.
    When she wasn’t practicing law, Verna was all about fishing or genealogy. If she didn’t have a worm in the water, she was in front of the computer looking for direct links between someone from Broken Rope’s past to someone who was currently alive. She came upon dead ends more often than not though. Since so many infamous Broken Rope characters lived on the wrong side of the law, they frequentlydied young or without family that would claim them. More than direct lineages, she’d find cousins-by-marriage or similar non-blood relations, but finding those connections had become one of her passions.
    “We took you away from camping,” I said.
    “Yep. Left Ben snoring on the air mattress. Good grief, is that Cliff Sebastian?” she said to me as though he couldn’t hear.
    “Hi, Verna,” Cliff said as he walked forward. He extended a hand, but I saw him prepare for the inevitable embrace. Verna might battle tough to win arguments, but she was still big on hugging.
    She pulled him to her and his cheek was forced into the snap on the top pocket of her fishing vest. He was probably grateful she hadn’t left a hook on it.
    “What in blazin’ are you doing in Broken Rope?”
    “I moved back recently to become an officer with Jim.”
    “None of that makes any sense. Is he speaking Martian? Have I lost my mind, or has he, Betts?”
    I shrugged.
    “You’ll take me and Ben out to Bunny’s for pancakes