1 If it had not been for my fiance’s alcoholic cousin…
2 Paige darted around to the far side of the table,…
3 I’d never seen this guy before. He certainly wasn’t from…
4 Gloria had a key to my apartment, and she never…
5 Eventually I stopped crying and went back upstairs and tried…
6 “Keeley!” Gloria exclaimed, sweeping past me.
7 In a perfect world, on what would have been my…
8 I clutched the door frame for support. “He took Nick?…
9 On Sunday I slept.
10 Daddy called at noon on Wednesday. “You’re coming tonight, aren’t…
11 I yanked the kitchen door closed behind me and then…
12 Will sipped his coffee slowly while Daddy lit into the…
13 Red clover carpeted the meadow, and fat fuzzy bumblebees hovered…
14 “Let’s get one thing straight,” I said, once we were…
15 I took a long sip of beer and considered this…
16 He calls himself Austin LeFleur, and he owns Fleur, the…
17 Thursday morning I got downstairs early, but my aunt was…
18 I heard the barking ten yards from her front door.…
19 Erwin’s nose quivered with anticipation. Stephanie’s eyelids fluttered.
20 It was getting late. I needed to get back to…
21 I stepped inside the shop and flicked on the lights,…
22 “Jeez-o Pete!” I cried, letting my weapon drop to the…
23 I was in a funny mood after Austin went home…
24 It was only ten o’clock in the morning, but by…
25 Will made a big show of locking the bathroom door.…
26 Gloria wrinkled her nose as I slathered lotion on my…
27 Austin jumped out of the Volvo before I’d even turned…
28 A faint breeze ruffled the leaves on the limb of…
29 “Next time I need help with an installation, I’ll hire…
30 I jounced the car back onto the tarmac and turned…
31 Wednesday morning I got up and brewed a pot of…
32 Supper at Daddy’s looked like it would be what it…
33 We sat in the dark at the picnic table, looking…
34 On Friday afternoon I had a pounding headache. This should…
35 Will’s face blushed so deeply it was hard to tell…
36 On Saturday morning I watched as a steady stream of…
37 Kathleen’s wasn’t one of those snooty antiques shops where you…
38 Austin waved at me from a booth tucked into the…
39 I stopped at the Minit Mart on the way out…
40 I took a deep breath of air and sank to…
41 Gloria glanced over at me from her drawing board and…
42 When I got back to the studio, I went directly…
43 It had been nearly a month since I’d seen my…
44 “Will! Stephanie!” My voice was registering just the eensiest bit…
45 In August Daddy had a surprise for me. Two surprises,…
46 Thursday morning Austin and I picked up an eighteen-foot panel…
47 At six A.M. I heard the click of the key…
48 Austin helped me wrap the console table in a mover’s…
49 “I’ll drive,” I told Austin. I needed to be in…
50 We found a motel just off the Interstate in Mobile,…
51 “A flea market in Metairie, when I could be wandering…
52 Austin and I were still arguing as we drove back…
53 Will had decided that the first big official event at…
54 I was upstairs in my apartment, finishing up the covered…
55 The kitchen was full of people. The caterers were bustling…
56 “Let me get you some aspirin,” A.J. said, looking concerned.…
57 I dreaded returning to Loving Cup on Tuesday, but there…
58 A week later, when I went back to Loving Cup…
59 Austin and I sat in my car outside Vince Bascomb’s…
60 “Your mother’s dead,” Vince Bascomb said. “So you can tell…
61 It was Wednesday night. Salmon loaf night. After I dropped…
62 I threw myself into my work. All the structural and…
63 “So far, so good,” I told myself as I drove…
64 A cold front moved in overnight. Saturday morning I woke…
65 Saturday night I threw a pity party for myself. The…
66 “All of this?” Will asked, peering into the open cargo…
67 On Wednesday Gloria came back from the post office with…
68 We held Mama’s memorial service on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.…