Veiled Gems (Diamond Knot Dreams Book 1) by Manners Mary

Author:Manners, Mary [Manners, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Sweet Dreams Publications
Published: 2017-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

5

“It was so cold that night.” Morgan sat with Lila on the back porch of the Victorian half-an-hour later. Sunlight warmed his back through his navy T-shirt, in stark contrast to the chill he’d felt that long-ago night—the last time he’d seen Gunnar.

Until yesterday, when his brother had walked into the halo of a streetlight outside the pizzeria like a long-awaited apparition.

“Go on.” Lila pressed a cup of coffee into his hands. He took it, sipped, and his senses came alive.

“It was the week before Christmas and we had this huge snowstorm that came out of the blue. Everything was blanketed in snow and ice and the roads had been treacherous for days. We’d been stuck inside the house—everyone but my stepfather Carl, that is—and we were crawling with cabin fever. It was late, nearly midnight, and I had fallen asleep reading a book I was behind on for a report that was due in English class. Gunnar’s voice woke me. He sounded upset. I stumbled from my bed and out to the living room. Mom was all worked up and pacing the floor. My brother was trying to calm her. Gunnar had a knack for that…the ability to take the edge off things. He kept an even keel even when everyone else was going stir-crazy.”

“Yes, I’ve seen that in him,” Lila murmured. “Level-headed. Calm. A go-to guy when the chips are down.”

“Exactly. Anyway, Mom was freaked out because it was way past quitting time at the factory where Carl worked as a machinist, and he wasn’t home yet. I suppose her imagination got the best of her, as it often did. Where Gunnar had a tendency to calm things, Carl had a knack for stirring them up. Mom worried he’d lost control on the icy roads and was lying in a ditch somewhere. I’m ashamed to say I hoped she was right. I knew the score, and chances were that any given night Carl was still out past ten, it was a sure bet he was knee-deep into a fifth of bourbon with his buddies at the bar across town. The thought gave me chills. He was mean when he drank—which was quickly becoming most of the time. His temper was…” He hesitated, shook his head. “Well, fierce. Fierce and unpredictable. He’d lost his cool and ripped into Mom on more than a couple occasions.”

Morgan stopped, closed his eyes, trying to process it all as the memories returned. He remembered Mom’s black eye, her bruised arms. His gut roiled, and temper seethed within him.

Lila placed a hand over his and his pulse calmed. She waited quietly beside him, her long, slender legs dangling from the edge of the porch. She was a breath of summer in her pretty floral sundress.

Morgan marveled that he’d opened up to her. He’d never shared the darkest event of his life. He hadn’t told anyone the details of that gut-wrenching night—not the police officers who plied him with cookies and soda in the station

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