Love's Silver Bullet by Julie Lessman

Author:Julie Lessman [Lessman, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“Table is set. What now?” Overalls splattered with mud, Shaylee dipped a finger in Maggie’s bowl of icing and licked it with eyes closed, emitting a loud, long moan of satisfaction that made Sheridan shake her head with a smile.

“Great day in the morning, Shaylee Ann”—Maggie snatched the bowl out of Shaylee’s reach with an off-center smile—“only God knows where that finger has been, sweetheart.”

“And me.” Shaylee wiggled auburn brows with a pixie smile, her fair, creamy skin dusted with a light spray of freckles that seemed right at home with the speckles of dirt on her face.

Aunt Libby froze midway through peeling a potato, a curl of skin dangling along with her mouth. “Shaylee Ann Donovan, please tell me you haven’t been in the pen with that piglet.”

Shaylee’s chin nudged up, her love of animals evident in the sympathetic slope of her brows. “Her name is Clarabelle, Aunt Libby, and of course I have because who else is going to play with her? She’s an only child, for heaven’s sake, and in mourning to boot since her twin brother didn’t make it, so I would think you’d be more sympathetic to her plight.”

A smile flickered at the edge of Aunt Libby’s mouth despite her obvious attempt to remain stern. “No one questions your regard for all creatures great and small, sweetheart, and we all find it most commendable. But even more so when you wash your hands after, so thank you for setting the table.” She paused with a start, part of the peel plopping into a bowl. “You did wash your hands prior to, right?”

“Whoops.” Teeth tugging her lip, Shaylee quickly bounded to the sink to wash her hands, drawing a groan from every woman in the room.

Shaking her head, Libby picked up with her peeling once again, the edge of her lip tipping up. “And I am sympathetic to Clarabelle’s plight, young lady. It’s when it comes in contact with my dinner that I find myself less inclined.” She motioned her head toward the door. “Dinner will be in thirty minutes, so you best clean up.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Shaylee trudged from the room, a noisy sigh trailing her through the door while all three women exchanged glances that broke into chuckles.

“I know she’s a late-blooming fourteen,” Libby said as she sliced chunks of potato into a boiling pot on the stove, “but she’ll be fifteen soon, and I honestly worry about her transition into womanhood the way she fights me on wearing a dress and curling her hair.”

“I know.” Sheridan finished turning the fried chicken in the skillet and put the lid back on. “Goodness, I was ready to become a woman at age eleven as I recall, wearing nothing but dresses and bows from that moment on, just to try and turn a boy’s head.”

“For all the good it did,” Maggie said with a wry smile while she frosted the cake for dessert, “with prison wardens for brothers.”

“And an uncle who won’t listen to reason.” Libby sat down at the kitchen table to shell the peas.

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