Salt: A small town coming of age novel about healing from trauma by Ava Dunn

Author:Ava Dunn [Dunn, Ava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Olive Reads
Published: 2023-07-03T16:00:00+00:00

As I drove her home, she rifled in her canvas beach bag and pulled out the book I had borrowed for her. She flicked through to the end. ‘Want me to read you the end?’

‘Yeah,’ I said eagerly. I drove to the waterfront of Rhyll and parked while Sanna read me the last couple of chapters. Sometimes she misread a line by skipping to the next and was momentarily confused before she flushed red and then read back over what she had already read out to me to find her place. I just smiled and let her continue making a mess of the excellent work of the author. She finished it and grinned at me with pride. I clapped. She said, ‘It was really good, huh.’

I nodded and she flipped through the novel, a cold rush of breeze coming off the pages.

She said, ‘My friend wants to be a writer. He’s going to give me some of his stories to read.’

I said, ‘That’s cool,’ flinching at her use of he and his. Sanna was not Tessa. I didn’t need to worry about her cheating on me, but for some reason, it made me anxious. To hide my reaction, I gestured to the coffee shop opposite us. ‘Want to get a coffee to warm up?’

She smiled. ‘Okay, then. Your shout.’

We walked into the coffee shop and parted a small group of elderly women. They all looked at the at the little belly bump Sanna had and I saw her excitement and confidence shatter. I handed her my parka and said, ‘Cold?’

She took it and put it on with a small, grateful smile. We sat at one of the tables outside and shared a delicious sticky date pudding. With her mouth full and lips lined with icing sugar, Sanna asked, ‘What are we gonna do about names?’

I shrugged and spooned another heap of pudding for myself. ‘I don’t know.’

‘I asked if they were boys or girls.’

I raised an eyebrow.

‘They said it was too early to tell yet. But I think I have a name for one.’

I waited with anticipation but felt a bowling punch in the gut when she said, ‘We should name one Alex.’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ I looked down at my lap and pushed the pudding away.

‘Why?’

I shrugged. ‘I just don’t.’ I slammed my foot down to stop it bouncing under the table.

Sanna flopped back into the chair back and picked at her nails. ‘Okay, fine. We won’t name one Alex.’ We finished our coffees in silence.

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.