Stranger on the Shore by Carol Duncan Perry

Author:Carol Duncan Perry [Perry, Carol Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2012-05-30T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Sarah and her grandmother had started cooking as the first rooster announced the morning. The sun was now ten-o'clock high. When vehicles began arriving at the farm an hour before, she had shooed her grandmother from the kitchen to meet their guests and finished the chicken herself.

Now, with a sense of accomplishment, she removed the last two pieces of golden fried chicken from the frying pan and onto an already heaping platter. Covering the platter with a clean white cloth, she set it on the harvest table beside several similar platters.

The logistics necessary in preparing for the Lutteral clan's annual Fourth of July picnic would have horrified a professional caterer, but over the years the family had devised a system that functioned almost automatically. Each branch of the sprawling family made itself responsible for a particular favorite at the yearly feast. Sarah had mastered Grandmother Lutteral's specialty, a buttermilk-batter fried chicken, while still in her teens.

Sarah slipped her functional apron from around her neck and stepped onto the back porch for a moment of fresh air, lifting the damp hair from the back of her neck to let the slight breeze cool her. Her eyes scanned the large expanse of lawn, now mushrooming with picnic tables made from sawhorses and raw lumber. If the early-morning crowd was any indication, this year's family reunion would be one of the largest in years.

Her eyes shifted to the long driveway that was already lined with various parked vehicles. Jordan's blue SUV was not yet among them. Her lips curved into a smile as she remembered the look on his face when she'd issued both invitation and warning. "Be prepared with evasive answers," she told him. "The great-aunts are notorious for considering the younger generation's love lives, or lack of it, community property. Any unattached single is fair game."

Unbidden, her mind slipped back to their time in the gazebo the afternoon before. She couldn't be sorry it happened, although she realized the significance of those magic moments were more hers than his. Jordan had been unusually pensive when they'd parted the night before.

Sarah drew a deep breath as a sudden dark thought crossed her mind. She hoped he didn't regret it. It had been her choice—her decision. From the moment she'd moved into his arms, she'd known that. They had been a fire ready to burn from the time Jordan returned to Mountain Springs, but Sarah had known the first time she'd taken him to the gazebo, that she was the one who held the match.

Yesterday she had wanted Jordan, needed him. She also knew he wanted her and the togetherness they'd shared was something she'd never believed possible for her. Was it wrong of her to have taken, to have accepted, those few moments of magic? The family would have said so. Most of them, anyway. Would Aunt Cinda?

For some reason, despite all evidence to the contrary, Sarah didn't think so. She and Aunt Cinda were different in the same way. Sarah

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.