Sunshine Walkingstick Omnibus by Celia Roman

Author:Celia Roman [Roman, Celia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781943465460
Publisher: Bone Diggers Press
Published: 2019-10-11T06:00:00+00:00

The rest of the week passed much the same. I spent the bulk of my forced vacation either reading up on Cherokee history and lore or fairies and other critters.

If the runt’d just talk to us, it’d be so much easier to figure out what it was, but no. The dadgum thing sulled up when Riley weren’t around and wouldn’t so much as blink at me.

‘Course, that mighta been ‘cause Riley treated it about like a new pup, trying different foods on it, refilling its water bottle, and talking to it in a singsong voice like it was a newborn babe.

Come to think on it, it mighta been. It was kindly a runty little critter.

Riley claimed the fairy book for himself. Said he’d be the one to finish it, thank you very much, and I should stick to the other books on the subject, which I had in plenty. Not a one shed an inch of light on what the critter might be, but that didn’t stop me nor him from trying.

Meantime, the downtime was driving me batty. Well, battier anyhow. Three days after Doc told me to take it easy, I sat down and writ a long letter to Mama, describing ever blasted thing what’d happened since my last visit in September.

Woulda gone to visit, but Riley hid my car keys, dang his ever loving hide.

I ended the letter with a plea for information on Daddy’s side of the family, stuck it in the mailbox down the drive in a rare moment when nobody was hovering over me, and snuck back into the trailer feeling guiltier than a cat burglar climbing out a window with a sack of loot thrown over his shoulder.

And weren’t that a fine how-de-do?

That night, Riley dropped by right after he got off work, still dressed in his DNR polo and trousers, minus the ball cap usually covering his noggin. He come in, carry bag in hand, and plopped down beside me on the couch. “Hey, baby. How was your day?”

The question rankled, not least because he knowed I was stuck here doing not a blasted thing. “Why you got that bag?”

“Change of clothes.” He slumped lower on the couch and rested his head against the back, eyes closed. “Thought we’d go to the movies in Franklin.”

“You ever think on asking me before you go making plans?”

He sighed and rubbed both hands over his face. “Christ, Sunny. Give me a minute before you light into me.”

I sucked in my restless anger, spilt it out on a long exhale. He was right. Weren’t his fault Old Mother’d knocked me out cold, and he deserved better’n receiving the blunt end of my frustration, ‘specially after a hard day drudging in the coal mines.

So to speak.

I mustered up a contrite tone. “Long day?”

“Long enough.”

“Want me to rub your shoulders or something?”

A sly grin stretched his mouth wide and he peeked at me outta the corners of his eyes. “Or something.”

I snickered and smacked the backs of my fingers against his arm, playful like.

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