Evidence of Life by Barbara Taylor Sissel

Author:Barbara Taylor Sissel
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Thrillers, Suspense, Family Life, Fiction
ISBN: 9780778315162
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2013-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Late in the afternoon, they started dinner. Kate washed a chicken, patted it dry and seasoned the cavity. Abby cut limes into quarters and stuffed them inside. They tied the legs with twine, covered the dish with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Kate went outside to clean and light the grill, and Abby snapped the fresh green beans Kate had bought that morning.

“There’s enough here for an army,” Abby said when Kate returned to the kitchen.

“We can make green bean sandwiches for breakfast,” Kate said.

“Layer them with a fried egg.” Abby grinned.

Kate put her hands together. “Add grated Swiss cheese, slap it all between two pieces of wheat toast and voilà.”

Abby laughed. They’d used to do it on purpose, see who could come up with the most outlandish breakfast sandwich combination. Pulled pork barbeque on day-old waffles layered with coleslaw, meatloaf and bacon on a croissant. Peanut butter and sweet pickles sandwiched between pancakes. The air was thick with their silly memories.

Abby said, “Sometimes everything feels so ordinary, you know? As if they’ll walk in the door and everything will be the way it always was when we came for a visit. Jake will be hunting through the pantry—”

“Foraging.” Kate had no trouble following Abby’s train of thought.

“Lindsey will have straw in her hair from playing with the cats in the barn.”

“That kid would live in the barn if we let her,” Kate said.

Abby pressed the backs of her wrists to her eyes, and Kate came and circled her shoulders. She bent her head until it touched Abby’s.

“Sometimes I let myself drift—” Abby resumed breaking the beans, stem end, blossom end “—way up. I go higher and higher until the earth is just a tiny glowing speck, and it’s as if it never happened.”

Kate brought a small mesh sack filled with new potatoes to the sink and started washing them.

Abby leaned her hip against the counter, giving her room. “What was Nick really doing in Bandera?”

“I told you.”

“I want to know what you think, what exactly you saw.”

“Him. I saw him on the courthouse sidewalk. That’s all.”

“I don’t believe you. I know you think you’re protecting me, but you aren’t.”

Kate scrubbed a potato vigorously, flushing away bits of peeling under the running tap, and then, abruptly, she shut the water off so hard, the pipe knocked in the wall. “He was never the man you wanted to believe he was, Abby.”

“He was too experienced for me, right? Little sheltered Abby Carter and Big Bad Nick Bennett. Miss Mouse and the Wolf.”

Kate groaned. “Let’s drop it, okay? It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Why? Because you think he’s dead?”

Kate jerked on the water taps and again shut them off. “You have to accept it,” she pleaded. “You’re killing yourself and I can’t stand it.”

“Well, it isn’t about you, is it? For once. This isn’t some college romance, Kate.”

“You think I don’t know that? God, Abby, can you give me no credit?”

Abby didn’t answer. She waited for Kate to finish scouring the potatoes, and taking Kate’s place at the sink, she rinsed the beans and put them in a pan.

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