Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Fuck ’em.”
Her lips twitched in laughter. Those two words did sum up Greer’s attitude.
“I take it you don’t care about those no trespassing signs the Colemans posted to get back at yours.”
“Course not.” He snorted. “Those are for kiddies; mine make them think twice.”
“Yes, they do.” Alanna couldn’t hold back her gurgle of laughter.
“There you go. You’ll be right as rain tomorrow,” he said, snapping the case closed.
Alanna stared at her newly bandaged hand. She must have zoned out while they were talking because she didn’t remember him reaching for the gauze.
“There comes the boy, right on time. One of those jugs of apple cider is riding home on my lap.” Holding on to the door, Greer started to jump down from the seat to the gravel parking lot.
“Greer!” Alanna scooted over the seat when she saw he would have fallen if he hadn’t been holding the door.
Silas and Matthew came running up.
“You okay, Greer?”
“Yes. Just came down the wrong way,” he said, limping to the passenger door. “Here, help me up in the seat, Matthew.”
Matthew lifted Greer into the front seat.
“Hand me one of those jugs of cider,” Greer demanded before Matthew could shut the door.
Silas handed him one, giving him a suspicious glance and shutting the door before Greer could ask for anything else.
Alanna leaned forward. “Are you sure you’re okay, Greer?”
“Yep,” he said, taking a drink from the gallon-sized jug.
Looking out the window, she saw Silas and Matthew unloading the two dollies.
“I didn’t know they had bags of flour.”
“Ain’t flour; it’s cornmeal. Those bags weigh a ton to lift.”
Alanna poked her head around to see Greer unconcernedly drinking his cider while watching the other men unload the cornmeal and bushels of apples and potatoes.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, seeing she was watching him.
She narrowed her gaze on him accusingly, feeling all the goodwill she had started to feel from bandaging her hand go up in smoke. Greer was deliberately not helping them. “I bet you do.”
He narrowed his back at her. “Then I guess you know what I’m saying back.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Alanna blinked to clear her blurry gaze. Yawning, she opened the freezer in the storage building to take out a package of frozen sausage before moving to the other freezer to take out pre-made waffles. After making sure she marked the items off the inventory list, she gathered them to leave the storage building.
She turned on her flashlight and started walking toward Silas’ home. The eerie silence in the morning was giving her second thoughts about being out so early. She was dreading walking back through the wooded area of the property she had to cross to reach Silas’ home. On her way to the storage building, she could have sworn she had felt eyes on her the entire way.
Her hand trembled on the flashlight as the eeriness enveloped her again. Then she froze in place when she heard a small sound. Raising the flashlight upward, she narrowed her eyes. Was a rabid squirrel about to attack her?
At a small movement between the branches of a tree, Alanna started screaming, afraid she was about to be pounced on by a fox, a racoon—
“Alanna, stop screaming,” Matthew’s frantic whisper had her pausing mid-scream.
“Matthew?” she angrily yelled, shining the flashlight higher. “What are you—”
“Shh …” he whispered.
With an open mouth, she watched Matthew climb out of some crazy chair attached to the trunk of the tree. She snapped her mouth closed when he climbed down the tree until he was standing next to her.
“What are you doing out so early?” he asked.
“I wanted to have breakfast ready for Fynn before he went to school. It’s his birthday.”
“I know. I wished you had told us.”
Alanna shined the flashlight on what was hanging from his shoulder. “What is that?”
“Nothing …” Matthew took her arm to propel her to start walking again.
“Is that a bow?” Alanna stopped moving. “Are you out here hunting?” She jerked the flashlight up to shine it on his face.
Matthew took it away from her.
“You are! What are you hunting?”
“I wasn’t hunting …”
She pursed her lips at the deceptive ring in his voice.
“I was just watching Fynn trying to get his first buck.”
“Fynn’s here?” Alanna started shining the flashlight through the trees.
“Oh my God … get her out of here!” Isaac hissed from overhead.
“Well, that’s not very polite!”
Matthew started propelling her through the woods. “Isaac gets a little irritated when he’s tired.”
“How long have you guys been out here?”
“For a couple of hours.”
“I should go back and get another roll of sausage. I can make breakfast for everyone since they’re all up.”
“Let’s not.” Matthew hastened their steps so they were moving through the wooded section fast.
When they reached Silas’ house, she started for the kitchen to get cooking as Matthew placed his bow next to the door and quickly followed on her heel.