The Orchard at the Edge of Town by Shirlee McCoy Read Free Book Online Page A

course, he’s always willing to sting if someone swats at him.”
    â€œKind of hard to swat a bee if it doesn’t leave the hive.” As far as Simon knew, Dusty rarely came to town.
    â€œWhen his wife was around, he was happy enough and came to town all the time.”
    â€œThat lasted . . . what? A couple of weeks?” Simon had heard the story plenty of times—poor Dusty marrying a woman who’d left him to pursue her dream of becoming a movie star.
    â€œYour guess is as good as mine. I was about three when all that went down, so I’ve just heard that Dusty used to smile. I’ve never seen it.”
    â€œMaybe he’ll return to his old habits if Rose Devereux agrees to marry him and live in Apple Valley permanently. If that happens, it should be enough of a distraction to stop him from calling here every day with a dozen complaints,” he suggested because he thought it would make her smile.
    She laughed and shook her head. “There you go! The answer to all of Dusty’s problems and most of mine.”
    â€œHow are yours going?” he asked.
    â€œYou mean Dad? Same as always. He’s grumpy. I’m tired.” She rubbed the back of her neck and looked way more exhausted than a woman her age should ever be. “Alzheimer’s is a vicious taskmaster, I can tell you that for sure.”
    He resisted the urge to ask if he could help. She wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to look weak or who enjoyed the pity of others. She’d muddle through until she couldn’t anymore, and then Simon and Cade would find a way to help without letting her know that’s what they were doing.
    Like the meals that had been provided for the past couple of months. Ostensibly from the Apple Valley Community Church ladies’ auxiliary, the meals had been the product of a late-night brainstorming session between Cade, Max, and Simon. Emma had no idea, and she never would if anyone involved in the covert operation had anything to do with it.
    Help from the church her mother had once attended was something Emma couldn’t refuse.
    Help from her coworkers?
    No way would she take that.
    He snagged a third cookie, knowing it would annoy her and take her mind off her father.
    â€œHey!” she said, slapping at his hand just like he’d known she would. “Those are for the customers.”
    â€œCustomers? The ones having a spa day in our rooms without a view?”
    She laughed again, waving her hand toward the back of the building. “Go!”
    He went, because time was ticking away and the girls were probably hunched over their cereal bowls complaining that they had to eat puffed rice instead of the sugary flakes Daisy usually bought for them. He’d snuck three boxes of those into Riley Park and fed the ducks and fish with them. He’d figured they’d needed a little extra sustenance before winter arrived. As for the girls, with the amount of sugar Daisy was constantly pumping into them, he didn’t think they’d be missing out.
    He walked down the hallway that led to Cade Cunningham’s office, the cream-colored paint barely covering old brickwork. It was a cool building, probably built sometime at the turn of the last century. He hadn’t actually intended to work there. It had just kind of happened.
    Megan had wanted to be buried near her parents. She’d told him that while she was pregnant with the twins, because she’d been sure that giving birth to them would kill her. By that time, she’d spent three years struggling with chronic back pain from a car accident that had chipped a vertebra and broken her pelvis. She’d been terrified that carrying twins, giving birth to them, would make the pain intolerable. Simon had been scared too, but he’d watched her bloom during her pregnancy, listened to her talk about the twins and all her dreams and hopes for them, and he’d thought that the pain had