The Way of Women by Lauraine Snelling Read Free Book Online Page B

girl.” Harry walked them to the door. “See you, sheriff. You keep all those gawkers away now, you hear. Don’t let old Harry make a penny up here. My boats are gonna rot out with no one to rent them. And what’s a lodge without guests? That’s right. You and old Dixie Lee. Keep an honest man from earning an honest living.”
    “Maybe it’ll all calm down by the time fishing season opens. Then you’ll really be in the bucks.”
    “Yeah, and overrun by all them sightseers.”
    Frank snorted as he swung open the door. “Can’t have it both ways, old man.”
    “Nope, just wish we was back the way it was. I’ve had a good life here. The best.” Harry stared at his boot toes a moment. “See you soon?”
    “Soon.” Jenn gripped his hand. “Very soon.”
    Frank and Jenn dove for the Blazer, both of them laughing as they ducked their heads against the squall that tried to wrest the car door from Frank’s grasp. Jenn threw herself up to the seat just as Sig leaped into the back, his tail brushing across her face. She sputtered, wiping both dog hair and raindrops off her chin, then honked the horn at Harry when she realized the fogged windshield prevented him from seeing her wave.
    Frank honked again as he backed the truck and turned to head down the loopy road. Beautiful it was any time of year, but treacherous would be more likely today. Good thing he had four-wheel drive. They might need it.
    His concern proved unfounded when they pulled into the Toutle parking lot, an hour and a half later. The river had nearly crested the road in a couple of places, but Highway 504 was holding its own. Both Frank and Jenn had retreated to their inner dungeons as they returned to civilization, neither of them speaking for the final twenty-five miles.
    “Thanks for the ride.” Jenn picked up her pack, prepared to step out. Her teeth clenched on some of the choice words she’d been rehearsing to deliver. Instead she went with her heart. “If you ever want, I mean, need to talk about what happened, I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”
Besides, I’m your friend from those eons ago
.
    “You get some rest,” he ordered, eyes straight ahead. “And for heaven’s sake, eat.”
    “Who do you think you are?” She bit off each word precisely. “My keeper?”
    “By the looks of you, somebody’d better be.”
    She let the slam of the door answer for her.
And see if I offer again. Ha!
her inner voice added. Sometimes only the wounded recognized each other.

A PRIL 30, 1980
    B ut, Daddy. I don’t want you to go.”
    “I’m sorry, baby.” Harvey Sedor swallowed past the lump in his throat. “I have no choice.” He hugged five-year-old Lissa to his chest. With callused fingers, the tip on the index finger lost to a saw blade on a past job, he brushed the limp strands of blond hair from her pale face. Her skin had become thin and transparent, like cellophane covering blue veins. The treatments had done that to her. But the poisons the doctors had dripped and injected into her innocent body weren’t doing their job. The cancer seemed to feed on them instead. And now they were down to experimental procedures, a bone marrow transplant followed by months of isolation. They also had no money and no more insurance.
    When Harvey allowed himself to think of the mounting medical bills, despair settled on him like oily smoke from burning tires. That kind of smoke seeped into every pore, coated throat linings, and reddened eyes. The smell of it clung to one’s hands for days. Despair was like that.
    He rocked her gently, knowing how easily she bruised. Her thinarms clung to his neck as if she knew something he was unwilling, no, unable to tell her. He thought she had fallen asleep until she lifted her gaze to his.
    The purple bruises under her eyes tore at him. “Daddy?”
    “Yes.”
    “Am I going to die?”
    “No!” The denial was an explosion tearing out his heart.
Not if I have anything to say about it!
A taunt. A scream. A