Bears of Burden Complete Series Box Set by Candace Ayers

Author:Candace Ayers [Ayers, Candace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lovestruck Romance
Published: 2017-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

3

Ophelia

The Burden Gazette was a two-page paper that could barely scrape together stories enough to fill front and back of its pages. In a town the size of Burden, a reporter had a hard time fabricating enough news to warrant a paper, but one of the old-timers insisted on keeping it going, and for that, I was thankful.

It wasn’t the exciting journalism career track I’d been on in Nashville, and it certainly wasn’t anything worthy of adding to my resume, but it was a job. Karen, an old hippie throw-back of a woman, the one who had insisted on keeping the newspaper alive, hired me straight away after I’d wandered into the tiny office to talk to her. She’d been doing all the research and writing herself and she was relieved to be offered a break.

I was paid a penny a word, and on a good week, I’d make up to a hundred and fifty dollars. Normally, though, I made closer to a hundred. It was a mere fraction of what I had made in Nashville, but, again, it was a job.

To be fair, I wasn’t sure how Karen was even able to afford to pay me as much as she did. The paper sold to a lot of the locals, but that didn’t account for much. By the time she paid for the weekly printing costs and office space, I had to assume I was being paid out of her own pocket. On the one hand, I felt slightly guilty about that, but on the other, I had bills to pay. Student loans and insurance ate up just about every cent of my income. Without Kyle’s help to buy groceries and such, I’d go hungry.

Despite it all, I liked it. I found the gig quaint and charming in a weird way. Sure, the little Burden Gazette wasn’t anything I could take too seriously, but memories of seeing my parents reading it when I was a little girl were still fresh in my mind. I pictured mom at the kitchen table, sipping from the mug of coffee in her hand, as she devoured the tidbits of local gossip, and dad after work relaxing in his easy chair while scanning the same pages.

It was easy work, and through interviews and such, I got to reintroduce myself to locals that I hadn’t seen in over a decade. I’d left Burden shortly after Mom and Dad had both perished in a plane crash. It happened just before graduation. My initial post-high school agenda had been to get a job in Burden, maybe save up some money for a few years before heading off to college. I had envisioned working during the days and spending the nights curled up in the sunroom, talking to Mom while she and Dad played cards. The horrible accident had changed all that. After my parents had passed, I couldn’t get away from Burden fast enough. Everything that triggered a painful memory.

Kyle came to see me wherever I was, so I’d never have to set foot in my hometown.

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