The Lonesome Young by Lucy Connors Read Free Book Online Page A

maybe because nobody noticed his shifty eyes.
    “I don’t believe in this shit, you know that,” he said. “I’m just here to see you. You haven’t been answering your phone or texts, so I thought I’d try to get you in person. It’s not like your mom can kick us out of church, like she did with your house.”
    “Us?”
    He nodded toward the door to the kitchen. “Ethan’s in there, talking to one of the Orson girls.”
    “Which one?” The eldest, Rebecca, was engaged, so it was probably her. Ethan loved nothing more than to cause trouble.
    “The pretty one,” Jeb said, grinning at a group of girls who were too young and too nice for him.
    “They’re all pretty,” I said grimly, weighing my options. I could go see what he wanted, or I could walk out the door and head home right now. Trouble might happen, but I wouldn’t be anywhere near it.
    My mom’s laughter rang out from where she was chatting with one of her friends, and I sighed. She hadn’t been able to laugh at much recently. I wasn’t quite sure how or when I’d been elected family peacekeeper, but the last thing the Rhodales needed was another scene, especially at church. I headed for the kitchen.
    Time to deflect trouble.
    Ethan leaned against the stainless steel restaurant-sized refrigerator while he talked to—no surprise—Rebecca, the engaged Orson girl. He looked up when I walked in.
    “That didn’t take long.”
    “I like to get unpleasant chores out of the way first.”
    Rebecca cast an alarmed glance at me and left the room, walking fast. After the batwing half-doors had swung shut behind her, I curled my fingers and made a come-on gesture.
    “Let’s have it.”
    Amusement faded from Ethan’s face. “I have a job for you.”
    I nodded. “Yeah. No ‘hi, Mickey, nice to see you, kiss my ass’ or anything. Just right to the point, as always.”
    “I don’t have time to waste. I’ve got supply problems, and demand keeps going up, up, and up,” he said.
    “Supply problems because you stepped on somebody else’s toes, burning down that trailer?”
    He glanced over at the doors, and I could see the back of Jeb’s head. Standing guard, no doubt.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about, little brother, but let’s just say that I’ve learned that these aren’t great toes to have stepped on.” Ethan looked a little bit worried, and Ethan never looked worried. He’d had a half smile on his face even when the jury had found him guilty, so this was practically hysteria.
    There was a commotion outside the kitchen, and then Reverend Dohonish entered the room. Mom had almost taken my head off the one time I’d said it out loud, but our minister was shaped like a bowling pin or a turkey vulture. I sometimes entertained myself during the most boring of his sermons by imagining that his long, skinny neck, undersized head, and enormous belly were covered with feathers and he was going to take flight any minute.
    “You boys planning on doing the washing up?” His words were pleasant enough, but there was a hint of steel underneath them.
    “Just having a simple conversation between brothers,” Ethan drawled.
    The minister’s sharp gaze took in Ethan’s carefully studied relaxed posture and my tenseness. “Maybe you can have it someplace else. The girls want to get in here and start doing the cleaning.”
    “Throwing me out, Reverend? I thought you’d at least preach a little bit about wages of sin at me,” Ethan said, mocking the man and everything he stood for in two sentences.
    I didn’t want to be around when he snapped.
    “I already gave two sermons today. You tell Anna Mae that we’d surely love to see her back here. Any Sunday. That goes for you, too,” Reverend Dohonish said. He turned to me. “Mickey, you’re finally right with the law and with God. Don’t start this up.”
    I felt my spine stiffen at his words. The worst part of small-town life was the blithe way everybody stepped right into your