Redemption Road: Jackson Falls Book 5 (Jackson Falls Series) by Breton Laurie

Author:Breton, Laurie [Breton, Laurie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Laurie Breton
Published: 2013-12-06T05:00:00+00:00

Harley

The last time he’d cut his hair to please a woman, Nixon had been in the White House, and his momma (Harley’s, not Nixon’s) had lined up all three Atkins boys in the kitchen the first Saturday night of every month. While she looked on with approval, Big Earl took out the clippers and gave them all buzz cuts, assembly-line style, starting with the oldest and working his way down the line to the youngest. Funny, he hadn’t thought of that in years. When he’d been living in New York, he’d gone every other Tuesday to a chic Midtown salon to make sure he fit the part of the up-and-coming young associate in a respected law firm. Since he’d left that life behind and moved here to be, of all damned things, a dairy farmer, he hadn’t given much thought to his appearance. After all, his herd of Holsteins didn’t notice his daily grooming—or lack thereof—and it was highly unlikely that Billy Bradley gave a damn whether or not his hair was a gnarly mess when he showed up, half-asleep, in the milking parlor at four-thirty every morning. He cleaned up acceptably for social occasions. Considering the dearth of young, single women in Jackson Falls, it wasn’t as though he was looking to impress anyone. Most of the women he saw at the IGA were backwoods mamas in polyester pants.

But after Colleen Berkowitz told him to cut his hair, he’d looked in the mirror, really looked at himself for the first time in months, and realized how closely he resembled a barbarian.

Not, he reminded himself, that he cared what Colleen Berkowitz thought. But even in a rural enclave such as this one, a man had to be presentable. As he pulled away from Shelly’s Cut-n-Curl, the closest thing to a barbershop in this cultural wasteland, he caught a glimpse of himself in his rearview mirror. He had to admit that the cut looked great. Short and neat, his dark hair parted on the side and slicked back to reveal the widow’s peak he’d inherited from his Grandmother Atkins. There was nothing here for the Ice Princess to criticize.

The ancient wall phone in the kitchen was ringing when he came into the house. He caught it in mid-ring, propped the receiver between shoulder and ear so he could remove his coat, and said, “Meadowbrook Farm.”

“Mr. Atkins?”

“Yes.”

“This is Paulette Thibodeau, the school nurse from Jackson Middle School.”

Panic, preposterous in its swiftness and intensity, rose like a flash fire. “Has something happened to Annabel?”

“Everything’s fine, but Annabel had an incident this morning. She started her period while she was in math class. She didn’t know what was happening, and when she saw the blood, she panicked and ran to my office.”

A sharp pain sprang to life behind his right temple. “Shit,” he muttered.

“I would have assumed that by this time, her mother would have talked to her about this.” The woman’s voice held a clear note of censure. He should recognize it. He’d used that same tone often enough in the courtroom.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.