The Thirteenth Cabin by Brenda Lyne

Author:Brenda Lyne
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Jennifer DeVries
Published: 2022-03-25T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Overton chuckled. “All right,” he said. “This is difficult for me to talk about, is all.”

“Understandable,” I said and took a sip of coffee. This was no crappy store-bought coffee; it was rich and strong and tasted like happiness in a cup.

Overton set his cup on the table and stroked his magnificent lumberjack beard. Then he said, “My story with Livvie actually starts in spring of 1988, when Rocky and Faith bought Wanderer’s Resort and moved up from the Cities. Livvie and Owen were nine years old, and finished out the fourth grade with us at Pine Grove School. With their arrival, the size of the fourth grade class grew from eighteen to twenty.”

“Wow,” I said, unable to relate at all. My suburban elementary school had four fourth grade classes, all of them with more students than that. “Was it hard for them to fit in so late in the school year?”

Overton nodded. “They came into a situation where everyone in the class had known each other basically since birth. They were the new kids, and they were from the Cities, so they had two strikes against them before they even set foot in the building. Plus they were the only set of twins in the entire school, so they were a bit of a novelty at first. Livvie told me later that for a long time she felt like a freak on display.”

“But they found their groove,” I said, sipping again from my cup of brewed deliciousness.

“Yeah,” Overton said. “By the time us kids started the fifth grade, the whole Lambert family had settled in. I guess the community needed to see that they could swing a summer season. And they did. It was almost like running a resort was what Rocky, Faith and Rod were meant to do. Small town people at heart.”

“I met Rod the other day,” I said. “He looks like he should be driving a sleigh being pulled by eight tiny reindeer instead of a golf cart.”

This made Overton laugh, long and loud. His deep, throaty baritone filled the room. The slight din in the restaurant quieted for a moment, as if the other patrons around us were absorbing his good humor. I couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah,” he said, wiping laugh-tears from his eyes with his napkin. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” He chuckled again.

“Everything all right here?” Beth appeared with a plate in each hand; she set the hugest blueberry muffin I’d ever seen on the table in front of me, and a giant omelet piled high with ham, onions, tomatoes and cheese in front of Overton.

The sheriff looked at his food greedily as he spread a paper napkin across his lap. “Oh, everything’s fine,” he said. “Raegan here made an astute observation about Rod Cartwright and I guess it struck my funnybone.”

Beth shooed Overton to the inside of his booth bench and slid in next to him. He brought his plate along with him and immediately started eating.

“That he looks like Santa Claus?” Beth asked, grinning.

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