Logan McKenna Mystery 0.5-Bella & Jagged Dawn by Davisson Valerie

Author:Davisson, Valerie [Davisson, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense, American Suspense, Crime Procedural, Crime Thriller, Murder Investigation, Portland, Oregon, Prequel
Publisher: Vaughn House Publishing
Published: 2020-08-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

1966

Red Sleeve, WV

Norah

“That winter was harsh, but we got us an early spring. It was a week before my birthday.”

“How old were you then?” Will asked.

“It was 1930, so I musta turned twenty-five that year. I plum forgot ’cause since Aunt Leila passed, ain’t nobody to remind me. Elsie was still a child and didn’t think on things like that yet, and Grandpa could barely remember his own name, let alone his birthday.

“I wish you could have seen it! The mountain, I mean. The mountain just busts out with life in spring. Lady slippers, ferns unfurlin’, reachin’ for the sun, and frogs waking up from the mud. Deep, purrin’ croaks of the males tryin’ to get the attention of the female frogs all swole up with spawn. Even the dogwood dressed for church. Azaleas so pink they’d hurt your eyes. It’s late in the summer now, comin’ on fall. Maybe you can come back sometime in the spring and see it for yourself. I’d like that.

“But back to my story . . . Giovanni just come out of a bad spell and with the sun on his face, looked almost as healthy and strong as when he’d arrived in our holler. It had only been two years, but I couldn’t remember what lonely felt like. It was as if he’d been in our lives forever. I knew by then how I felt.

“He must have finished whatever he’d been workin’ on, because he took most his suppers regular with us again.

“One late afternoon he was settin’ on the porch when I got home. I’d been to the Cooper’s place to help Martha’s second to youngest ease her pain some, get the swellin’ near her shoulder down. Their ornery mule swift kicked at that girl’s head and if she hadn’t ducked, woulda kilt her. As it was he broke her collarbone. Most mules is docile, but that’n wasn’t.

“Anyway, by the time I got home, it was gettin’ dark and I was tired and hungry. I saw Giovanni sittin’ on the porch steps awaitin’ on me with a grin as wide as the creek at Beaver’s Dam. I didn’t know what he was grinnin’ for, it’d take me at least another hour to fix supper and it was dark already.

“But he and Elsie’d taken care of that and fixed me supper that night. Giovanni’d stoked the wood stove fire up and Elsie did the rest. She made pretty good hambone beans and some cornbread. We was runnin’ low on honey, but still had enough ’til we could steal some from the bees in a few weeks, when it warmed up some more.

“I could feel the excitement rollin’ off Giovanni in sheets, but waited for him to share whatever news he had. Maybe he had family arrivin’ from Italy or some other news from his home. I hoped his news wasn’t goin’ to take him away from us. I knew he couldn’t stay forever, but I was hoping to spend whatever time he had left with the man I now know’d I loved.

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