HERE BE NEWS for Monday June 30, 2025

 Monday June 30, 2025 

Welcome to HERE BE NEWS, where each monday we bring you all the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic:

Tuesday June 24, 2025: Linda Mooney treats us to Chapter Six of her fantasy romance, The Immortal.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/mmchristmasjuly/axz26pawrn

THE IMMORTAL, a Fantasy Romance by Linda Mooney - Chapter 6, The Lesson

THE IMMORTAL

Chapter 6 – The Lesson

             Jonah stepped into the kitchen to help himself to a glass of cold milk. Sweat poured from his face and dripped from his beard, and plastered his clothes to his skin. It was a muggy spring, which meant it would be a blazing summer.

He threw several handfuls of water onto his face and was drying off with a dishtowel when he heard voices coming from the rear of the house. Going over to where the kitchen opened up to the living room, he strained his ears to try and catch what was being said.

            “—very important that you not mention Mr. Cobb staying here with us. Do you understand, Joey?”

            “Not even to let Corey know he’s been helping us on the farm?” the boy asked.

            “Not even to let your best friend know,” Clea firmly responded.

            “Why? Is Mr. Cobb wanted by the cops or something?”

            If Jonah didn’t know any better, he’d swear the child was excited about the prospect.

            “No, Joey,” Clea softly replied. “He’s not wanted by the cops. Mr. Cobb is not in trouble with anyone.”

            “Then why can’t I—”

            “When you get older, you’ll understand. But if people get wind of the fact that I have a strange man living here and working for us—”

            “He lives in the barn, Mom,” the kid dryly reminded her.

            “I know that, but everyone else doesn’t.”

            “Then we’ll tell them!”

            “No. We. Won’t.” Her tone was harder. “Joey, people will think Mr. Cobb and I are romantically involved. They’ll think we’re living here in sin. They might ostracize us when they see us in town. The kids at school might even cut you out of playing sports with them.”

            “What does ‘ostracize’ mean?”

            “It means they’ll exclude you. Have nothing to do with you. Or with me. They might even try to prevent us from doing things we need to do.”

            “Then why is he here, Mom? If those people can do that to us, why do you let him stay here?”

            Jonah straightened, every nerve alert as he waited for her answer. What she said almost destroyed him.

            “Because he needs us…as much as we need him.”

            In the following silence, he heard some rustling coming from the boy’s bedroom. Not wanting them to know he’d overheard their conversation, Jonah went over to the back door, opened it, and slammed it closed with a loud bang. Striding up to the cabinet, he withdrew a glass and made sure to shut the cabinet door with an equally loud bang. He was pouring the milk when Clea entered the kitchen. Seeing what he was doing, she refrained from saying anything and went directly into the adjacent laundry room to place the clothes from the washer into the dryer. At the same time, Joey made himself comfortable on the sofa in the living room and turned on the TV to watch cartoons. Leaning back against the countertop, he sipped his milk as he waited for Clea to reenter.

            “I finished the repairs on the fence around your garden, madam. By the way, the bugs are beginning to infest the tomato plants.”

            She gave a weary sigh. “They always do.”

            “Do you have some baking soda?”

            She paused, momentarily distracted from whatever chore she’d been contemplating. “Yes. There’s a box in the pantry. Why?”

            Draining his glass, he set it in the sink and wiped the milk moustache from his own with the back of his sleeve. “I’ll dust the tomato plants with it. That will take care of that problem.”

            Her beautiful gray eyes widened. “It will?” The next instant, her shoulders sagged. “Of course, it will. You have the wisdom of decades to support you.”

            Sensing there was something seriously bothering her, he crossed his arms over his chest and kept his voice low. “Madam, whatever is troubling you, please let me be of assistance.”

            Clea shook her head. “I wish I could, but…” Stopping herself, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you know how to drive a car?”

            She had him there. “No, madam. I don’t,” he admitted.

            She waved a dismissive hand. “Never mind.”

            “But I’m willing to learn…if you’re willing to teach me.”

            He met her intense gaze with one of his own. He knew that sooner or later he’d have to become more acquainted with those motorized monstrosities. However, until now, he’d managed just fine by paying for any transportation he needed, or from using his own two feet.

            “I’m needing to run the fence line along the back pasture. Make sure there are no breaks or fallen posts where my cows could get out when I move them out there to graze. But I haven’t found the time to do it. Plus there’s getting to the feed store to get them another block of salt, not to mention—”

            “Clea,” he gently interrupted. “I told you. If there’s anything you need done, never hesitate to ask me.” He walked over to the back door. Opening it, he gestured for her to exit first. “Come.”

            “Now?”

            “I need to learn to drive. You need to check the fence. I do not know where this fence is you speak of. There is no time like the present for me to learn both and get that much out of the way.”

            Clea caved. “Okay. We’ll take the truck. Joey? Jonah and I are going to check out the back pasture. We’ll be back shortly.”

            “Okay, Mom,” her distracted son replied, letting her know he’d heard her.

            After first holding the passenger side door open to let her get into the cab, Jonah went to take his place behind the steering wheel. Right off the bat, the seat was too far forward to where he couldn’t get his long legs situated underneath the steering column.

            “There’s a lever on the left side of the seat,” she instructed. “Lift it to make the seat scoot back.”

            He fumbled for said lever, unsure if it would be in the front, in the middle, or at the rear, when she leaned over his lap and tried to reach it herself. Suddenly he found it and pulled, and the seat jerked backwards. Caught off-balance, Clea landed halfway across his lap.

            For several long seconds, they stared at each other, noses mere inches apart. He had always been entranced by the cloudy, slate gray color of her eyes, but he’d never been close enough to her until now to realize there was the tiniest green ring surrounding her pupils. Like hidden emeralds were still embedded within their rocky tombs.

            Before he was aware of it, his gaze dropped to her mouth. At the same time, she licked her lips. The temptation to kiss them was…

            Groaning softly, Jonah sat up and stretched his legs out, now that he had enough room. Clea resumed her seat—the moment broken, the chance missed, and more importantly, a possible calamity averted. Still, he silently cursed himself.

            Jonah, old man, you’ve known for a while now, almost from the first instance after you awoke in her son’s bed, that you were going to fall in love with her. Admit it. You’ve put up a hell of a fight, even though you know it’s a losing battle.

            “Jonah?”

            Hearing his name, he broke out of his temporary trance to find himself staring at the steering wheel patiently waiting for his guidance. He tried to cover his lapse by examining it.

            “If I recall, it requires a key that goes…”

            “Here.” Again, she leaned over the center console, key in hand, and slipped it into the slot on the column. “It’s an old truck, not one of those newer models.”

            “Madam, I wouldn’t know an old truck from a model T. Frankly, I never paid attention to them except to ask if they were willing to take on a passenger. Just show me how this one works.”

            She snorted softly at his remark. He caught the faint whiff of coffee on her breath. As much as he enjoyed the smell of fresh-perked coffee, the scent of it coming from her was even more intoxicating.

            “Now, turn the key clockwise, away from you.”

            He did so, and the engine spluttered to life.

            “Thank goodness this is an automatic,” Clea remarked. “Now, take this lever behind the wheel. It’s called the gear shift. See these letters on top of the column? Move the lever until it’s over the D. That stands for ‘drive’.”

            Jonah moved the gear shift. The truck suddenly began lurching forward.

            “Hit the brake! Hit the brake!”

            “What is a brake?” he yelled back.

            “On the floor! In the middle!”

            Slamming a boot on the middle pedal by his feet, the vehicle stopped. Clea began laughing hysterically as Jonah tried to catch his breath.

            “What did I do wrong, madam?”

            “You did nothing wrong. I failed to tell you to keep your foot on the brake until you’re ready to press the accelerator,” she apologized.

            “Press the what?”

            Collecting herself, Clea cleared her throat and took several quick breaths to calm herself. “Okay. Let’s start over. I seemed to have skipped over a few important steps.”

            Jonah winced. “Do tell.”

            She pointed to the floorboard. “The middle pedal is the brake. The one to the right of it is the accelerator. Got that so far?”

            He studied the two objects. “The horizontal pad is to stop, and the vertical pad makes it go. Got it. Now what?”

            “Now you put your foot on the gas pedal. Excuse me, the accelerator. Slowly press down on it to make the truck move forward.”

            “And if I wish to move this mechanical marvel backwards?”

            “That’s what the R in the window is for. It stands for ‘reverse’.”

            “What are all these other letters for? And what do all these dials mean? What do they represent?” he questioned, indicating what he saw on the dashboard.

            “We’ll cover those later,” Clea promised. “For the moment, let’s concentrate on going forward. Now, slowly press the gas pedal. Keep your eyes on the road and turn the steering wheel in the direction you want to go. Preferably on the road,” she added with an amused grin.

            In all his long years, Jonah had never considered himself to be the romantic type, nor the impulsive type. But for some reason he couldn’t explain, much less restrain, seeing that smile on her face was like seeing a beacon of hope.

            No. Not a beacon. A promise. Almost like a wish needing to be fulfilled. Only it wasn’t as much her wish as it was his.

            Reaching out to her, he gently took her by the chin and leaned across the seat. She didn’t pull away. Neither did she remain steadfast. To his shock, she also tilted forward, nearly meeting him halfway.

            Their lips touched. Tentatively. Too briefly.

            As awareness cleared away the momentary fog that had enveloped his senses, Jonah withdrew, dropping his hand from her face. He gripped the wheel, focusing his eyes on the short gravel path in front of the truck, and tried to come up with an appropriate apology.

            He’d gone too far, and he feared what her next step would be. Would she demand he leave this place and her property immediately? Or would she give him the chance—

            “If we’re going to check out that fence line, we’d better get going,” she remarked in an odd tone of voice.

            His mind was still in a muddle. Not trusting what he might say in return, he simply nodded and gradually pressed the vertical pedal until the truck moved away from the house.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Linda's Website

HERE BE NEWS for Monday June 23, 2025

 Monday June 23, 2025 

Welcome to HERE BE NEWS, where each monday we bring you all the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic:

New!

RUNNER’S MOON: Neeallt

Runner’s Moon Series,

Book 6

Contemporary Sci-Fi Romance

By Linda Mooney

Word Count: 68.7K

$3.99 e / $10.99 p

Mitchel Timmons and her friends just wanted to enjoy a day at the park, regardless of the threat of the Arra hanging over the planet, and more specifically, their town. They want to be able to live their lives, despite the warnings. They figure that as long as they’re home by nightfall, they’ll be safe, or so they thought.

When the girls disappear, Mitchel’s father blames the Ruinos, for good reason. He’d heard her frantic phone call and knows it was them who ambushed his daughter and her friends in the park. How can he be expected to rely on other Ruinos to stage a rescue?

Mitchel hates the Ruinos as much as her father does. She never expects one of those aliens to latch onto her and protect her from other Ruinos as well as the Arra when she’s held captive aboard the Arran spaceship. In fact, although she doesn’t want to admit it, she feels safe when she’s around him. Which is why, when she sees the chance to escape, she takes him back down to Earth with her.

Now her heart’s divided between wanting to still hate the Ruinos and caring for Neeallt, who’s beginning to mean a lot to her. Unfortunately, the town is divided between those who support the Ruinos and those who don’t, even though the Ruinos are working hard to blend in, hoping to find their mates among the humans as they try to make an honest life for themselves. Their common enemy is the Arra, who are orbiting the planet and waiting for their chance to kidnap the human females in order to force the Ruinos to mate with them as a way to increase their numbers.

Despite the good the Ruinos have done, the townspeople want the aliens gone, and Mitchel is faced with losing Neeallt or staying with him. Maybe it’s time they both move on from Tumbril Harbor and find some place safer. A place they can call home.

No one was prepared for the Arra’s next move, despite all their precautions.

Warning! Contains Halloween eyes, a giant tin can, oatmeal with sliced cucumbers (or mango), lavender, a blockade and a diversion, that pause-y thing, and one young woman willing to fight the whole town and the Arra for the alien she's come to love.

Excerpt and Buy Links: https://lindamooney.com/RunnersMoon.htm 

New! RUNNER’S MOON: Neeallt, Runner’s Moon Series, Book 6, a Contemporary Sci-Fi Romance by Linda Mooney

New!

RUNNER’S MOON: Neeallt

Runner’s Moon Series,

Book 6

Contemporary Sci-Fi Romance

By Linda Mooney

Word Count: 68.7K

$3.99 e / $10.99 p

Mitchel Timmons and her friends just wanted to enjoy a day at the park, regardless of the threat of the Arra hanging over the planet, and more specifically, their town. They want to be able to live their lives, despite the warnings. They figure that as long as they’re home by nightfall, they’ll be safe, or so they thought.

When the girls disappear, Mitchel’s father blames the Ruinos, for good reason. He’d heard her frantic phone call and knows it was them who ambushed his daughter and her friends in the park. How can he be expected to rely on other Ruinos to stage a rescue?

Mitchel hates the Ruinos as much as her father does. She never expects one of those aliens to latch onto her and protect her from other Ruinos as well as the Arra when she’s held captive aboard the Arran spaceship. In fact, although she doesn’t want to admit it, she feels safe when she’s around him. Which is why, when she sees the chance to escape, she takes him back down to Earth with her.

Now her heart’s divided between wanting to still hate the Ruinos and caring for Neeallt, who’s beginning to mean a lot to her. Unfortunately, the town is divided between those who support the Ruinos and those who don’t, even though the Ruinos are working hard to blend in, hoping to find their mates among the humans as they try to make an honest life for themselves. Their common enemy is the Arra, who are orbiting the planet and waiting for their chance to kidnap the human females in order to force the Ruinos to mate with them as a way to increase their numbers.

Despite the good the Ruinos have done, the townspeople want the aliens gone, and Mitchel is faced with losing Neeallt or staying with him. Maybe it’s time they both move on from Tumbril Harbor and find some place safer. A place they can call home.

No one was prepared for the Arra’s next move, despite all their precautions.

Warning! Contains Halloween eyes, a giant tin can, oatmeal with sliced cucumbers (or mango), lavender, a blockade and a diversion, that pause-y thing, and one young woman willing to fight the whole town and the Arra for the alien she's come to love.

Excerpt and Buy Links: https://lindamooney.com/RunnersMoon.htm 

HERE BE NEWS for Monday June 9, 2025

 Monday June 09, 2025 

Welcome to HERE BE NEWS, where each monday we bring you all the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic:

Thursday June 5, 2025: Nicole Luiken shares the results of her nautical research with us in her post, It's All About Ships

After three tours of duty, and serving the last four years overseas, Griffin Strong is looking forward to finally returning home and living out his life without bombings and bloodshed. After a 300-mile drive home, a quick trip through the car wash ends in another reality. An eerie, fog-covered reality where he is all alone…or so he thought.  

With no electricity, cars that don’t function, and guns that won’t fire, Griff has to find protection for himself, but protection against what exactly? What the hell even happened? Survival instincts kicking in, he stocks up on whatever he can carry, and sets out on his own.

Griff soon learns that he’s not completely alone, although life of any form is rare to come across, but whom can he trust?

When the subway in Manhattan dumps Natalia Westfall in a snow-covered, deserted town far from New York, she’s left alone, frozen, and desperate. Hope lies in a uniformed military man, but will he want to be weighed down by a sick, weak female like her? Griff takes a chance, and it doesn’t take him long to learn she’s anything but weak.

Facing thirst, starvation, acid rain, enemies, and extreme temps--what will get them first? The odds are stacked against them, and all they can count on is each other.

Warning! Contains a red raincoat, a handy dandy trowel, first dibs, Boom!, strained coffee, an antique car, an implausible but possible theory, a rain of sand, and two strangers finding themselves thrust into a situation where their lives depend on trusting each other.

June Box Set

The VEILS Trilogy
(blurbs and excerpts)

Now Available as a Box Set! The VEILS Trilogy by Linda Mooney

After three tours of duty, and serving the last four years overseas, Griffin Strong is looking forward to finally returning home and living out his life without bombings and bloodshed. After a 300-mile drive home, a quick trip through the car wash ends in another reality. An eerie, fog-covered reality where he is all alone…or so he thought.  

With no electricity, cars that don’t function, and guns that won’t fire, Griff has to find protection for himself, but protection against what exactly? What the hell even happened? Survival instincts kicking in, he stocks up on whatever he can carry, and sets out on his own.

Griff soon learns that he’s not completely alone, although life of any form is rare to come across, but whom can he trust?

When the subway in Manhattan dumps Natalia Westfall in a snow-covered, deserted town far from New York, she’s left alone, frozen, and desperate. Hope lies in a uniformed military man, but will he want to be weighed down by a sick, weak female like her? Griff takes a chance, and it doesn’t take him long to learn she’s anything but weak.

Facing thirst, starvation, acid rain, enemies, and extreme temps--what will get them first? The odds are stacked against them, and all they can count on is each other.

Warning! Contains a red raincoat, a handy dandy trowel, first dibs, Boom!, strained coffee, an antique car, an implausible but possible theory, a rain of sand, and two strangers finding themselves thrust into a situation where their lives depend on trusting each other.

June Box Set

The VEILS Trilogy
(blurbs and excerpts)

It's All About the Ships

 I've been doing a lot of research into ships lately. Both early sailing ships (the cog and the caravel) for my fantasy novel The Bastard Prince and spaceships for an SF novel. 

It's tough going. 

So look, I live in Alberta (Canada) which is basically land-locked. I've probably only been on a boat less than a dozen times in my life--five ferry rides, a harbor taxi, a canoe, a rowboat and two speedboats (once whale-watching, the other trying and failing to learn to waterski.) Not a lot of experience there. I've never been out on the open ocean out of sight of land, always just protected straits and harbors and lakes. I've only experienced gentle waves and sunny skies, no storms.

 A lot of my ship scenes are written from the point-of-view of my heroine, who knows nothing of ships, which helps, but some of the scenes have to be from my reformed-pirate-captain hero.

 Things I've researched: How did the caravel revolutionize sailing? What were gunwales called before the invention of cannons meant the sides of ships had to be reinforced? How many masts and what dimensions did the early caravels have? When were grapples invented? Did Vikings have sea battles? I'm sure there will be lots more before I'm done.

Writing about spaceships is both worse and better. Better, because the novel is set a hundred years in the future and so I can hand-wave some of it as something that will be invented later. Worse, because I do need to wrap my brain around some of the science and orbital mechanics. My characters don't have to navigate but I need to ground my space travel in enough reality that readers who do know some science won't be wincing.

(I once stopped reading an SFR book because I could not accept the huge coincidence of their spaceship having a breakdown close to a prison planet. Um, space is LARGE. The chances of this happening inside a solar system much less right beside a planet is probably a million to one.) 

So  ships. So many ships. So much research. Wish me luck! 

 

HERE BE NEWS for Monday June 2, 2025

 

 Monday June 02, 2025 

Welcome to HERE BE NEWS, where each monday we bring you all the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic:

New Release From PG Forte

Que Será, Syrah

Pour Decisions: Book Three

​

They may be keeping secrets and telling lies, but a little white wine never hurt anyone.​

 

Allegra

 

It’s not every day that you inherit one-third of a winery. I should be on top of the world, floating on Cloud Wine, as they say. Instead, don’t you just know it? I’m about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. And that’s saying something. My family has always viewed me as something of a screw-up, not always fairly. But in this case? They’re not only dead right about me messing things up; they don’t even know the half of it. Yet.

​

Complicating my quest to redeem myself, earn my sisters’ respect, and help them turn our winery into a straight fire success, is my low-key relationship with Sheriff’s Deputy Clay Romero. Sure, there are risks involved in sleeping with the enemy, but ‘what’s meant to be will find a way,’ right? And whether Clay believes it or not, I know we’re fated. With a capital F.

 

Clay

 

We’re Capital F somethin’ all right; but I don’t think it’s fate. Ever since Legs (AKA Allegra Martinelli) blew back into town, I’ve been flirting with disaster. Literally. I doubt that woman’s ever met a rule that she didn’t want to at least bend. And, as luck would have it, it’s my job to try and stop her. I love my job, and I think I love her. But there’s not enough wine in Napa to convince me that I’ll be able to hang on to them both. 

​

Legs keeps likening us to Romeo and Juliet.  And as I keep trying to remind her; that kind of story tends not to end well. I’m sure there are exceptions, but are we gonna be one of them? I guess we’ll find out.

​

Releases Tomorrow: May 27, 2025

Pre-Order Now: https://books2read.com/Que-Sera-Syrah

New Release from PG Forte: Que Será, Syrah (Pour Decisions, Book 3)

Que Será, Syrah

By PG Forte

https://books2read.com/Que-Sera-Syrah

They may be keeping secrets and telling lies, but a little white wine never hurt anyone.​

Allegra

It’s not every day that you inherit one-third of a winery. I should be on top of the world, floating on Cloud Wine, as they say. Instead, don’t you just know it? I’m about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. And that’s saying something. My family has always viewed me as something of a screw-up, not always fairly. But in this case? They’re not only dead right about me messing things up; they don’t even know the half of it. Yet.

Complicating my quest to redeem myself, earn my sisters’ respect, and help them turn our winery into a straight fire success, is my low-key relationship with Sheriff’s Deputy Clay Romero. Sure, there are risks involved in sleeping with the enemy, but ‘what’s meant to be will find a way,’ right? And whether Clay believes it or not, I know we’re fated. With a capital F.

Clay

We’re Capital F somethin’ all right; but I don’t think it’s fate. Ever since Legs (AKA Allegra Martinelli) blew back into town, I’ve been flirting with disaster. Literally. I doubt that woman’s ever met a rule that she didn’t want to at least bend. And, as luck would have it, it’s my job to try and stop her. I love my job, and I think I love her. But there’s not enough wine in Napa to convince me that I’ll be able to hang on to them both. 

Legs keeps likening us to Romeo and Juliet.  And as I keep trying to remind her; that kind of story tends not to end well. I’m sure there are exceptions, but are we gonna be one of them? I guess we’ll find out.

OR BUY THE SERIES:

POUR DECISIONS

https://books2read.com/Pour-Decisions

Meet the Martinelli sisters: Rosa, Bianca and Allegra. These partners in wine have just inherited a once-storied winery in the heart of Napa Valley. They’re living the dream, right?

Not so fast! Because, as it turns out, not everybody is happy for them. And that includes their Uncle Geno who’d assumed the property would come to him.

There are hoops to jump through, barrels to get over, and a mountain of regulations they'll have to scale. But these sisters are crushing it—and we don’t just mean the grapes. They’re making wine, falling in love, and working together to restore their inheritance to its former glory, one pour decision at a time.

HERE BE NEWS for Monday May 26, 2025

 

 Monday May 26, 2025 

Welcome to HERE BE NEWS, where each monday we bring you all the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic:

Tuesday May 20, 2025: Linda Mooney treats us to chapter five of her fantasy romance, The Immortal.

New Release From PG Forte

Que Será, Syrah

Pour Decisions: Book Three

​

They may be keeping secrets and telling lies, but a little white wine never hurt anyone.​

 

Allegra

 

It’s not every day that you inherit one-third of a winery. I should be on top of the world, floating on Cloud Wine, as they say. Instead, don’t you just know it? I’m about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. And that’s saying something. My family has always viewed me as something of a screw-up, not always fairly. But in this case? They’re not only dead right about me messing things up; they don’t even know the half of it. Yet.

​

Complicating my quest to redeem myself, earn my sisters’ respect, and help them turn our winery into a straight fire success, is my low-key relationship with Sheriff’s Deputy Clay Romero. Sure, there are risks involved in sleeping with the enemy, but ‘what’s meant to be will find a way,’ right? And whether Clay believes it or not, I know we’re fated. With a capital F.

 

Clay

 

We’re Capital F somethin’ all right; but I don’t think it’s fate. Ever since Legs (AKA Allegra Martinelli) blew back into town, I’ve been flirting with disaster. Literally. I doubt that woman’s ever met a rule that she didn’t want to at least bend. And, as luck would have it, it’s my job to try and stop her. I love my job, and I think I love her. But there’s not enough wine in Napa to convince me that I’ll be able to hang on to them both. 

​

Legs keeps likening us to Romeo and Juliet.  And as I keep trying to remind her; that kind of story tends not to end well. I’m sure there are exceptions, but are we gonna be one of them? I guess we’ll find out.

​

Releases Tomorrow: May 27, 2025

Pre-Order Now: https://books2read.com/Que-Sera-Syrah

THE IMMORTAL, a Fantasy Romance by Linda Mooney - Chapter 5, The Deal

THE IMMORTAL

Chapter 5 - The Deal

            The next morning, Clea saw Jonah walking out of Joseph’s bedroom. He was bundled against the cold, with his backpack slung over one shoulder. He said nothing as he passed her. Not even to glance her way as he continued toward the kitchen and the back door.

Dropping the t-shirt she’d been folding from the basket of laundry sitting on the sofa, she followed him outside. “Where do you think you’re going?” she managed to ask. It promised to be a bright, sunny day with a hint of spring in the warming air.

            He paused and turned around to look at her with those amazing blue eyes. “It has come to the point where I can no longer take up room in your home.”

            She fought to hide her sudden disappointment. “You’re leaving?”

            “I have no choice, madam.”

            “That’s bull hockey and you know it!” she suddenly blurted out, and immediately reined herself back in. “I mean, you haven’t overstayed your welcome.” She gave him a weak smile. “You know the old saying about fish and visitors.”

            His warm smile caught her by surprise. “I know what you meant to say. Let me ask you this instead. How long were you expecting me to stay? Longer than those three days? How long were you going to allow me to take advantage of your generosity? To eat your food without payment or compensation? How long were you willing to put up with me until you grew tired of my company and wished there was a way to politely ask me to leave?”

            She stared at him. Although the thought had occurred to her more than once these past couple of days, she’d never actually entertained the notion of telling him to leave. Not yet, anyway. Clea opened her mouth to respond, but her mind seemed to freeze.

            Jonah sighed. “That is why I’ve taken the first step to alleviate you of that duty. I will be on my way. However…” He gave a humorless chuckle. “Do not be alarmed if at some point I unexpectedly reappear.”

            “Mr. Cobb…Jonah…” She reached out to him, caught herself, and quickly drew her hand back. “You don’t need to go…just yet.” She pointed to the house. “Let me fix you some breakfast first. Please. No sense heading out on an empty stomach. And you’ll feel better, too.”

            He glanced down at the stretch of road at the end of the gravel drive leading up to the house. After a few moments, he nodded. “Very well. You make a very convincing argument.”

            Clea let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding as she reentered the house. He hurriedly cut in front of her to hold the screen door open before following her inside.

            “Take off that coat and have a seat,” she instructed, realizing she was using the same tone of voice she used whenever she was giving her son directions. She pulled the bowl of eggs from the fridge, setting it on the counter as she retrieved the skillet from the oven where it was stored. “How would you like your eggs?”

            “It matters not. I’ve had them raw when there was no other choice. As long as you don’t serve them to me that way, I shall be happy.”

            She looked back at him. He was teasing her, yet at the same time he was serious as he gave her another glimpse into his mysterious past.

            As the eggs cooked, she dropped two slices of bread into the toaster. “I’d offer you a choice of bacon or sausage, but we’re out, and I haven’t been able to get to the store.”

            “I will not miss them, madam,” he assured her.

            When the eggs were done, she shoveled them onto a plate, added the toast, and went over to the table to set his meal in front of him. Jonah raised an eyebrow at her.

            “Are you not joining me?”

            “I’ve already eaten. I had breakfast with Joey before he left for school.”

            The man nodded. “I recall hearing faint conversation earlier.”

            Clea returned to the stove where the kettle was heating. Pulling a tea bag from the box in the pantry, she placed it in a mug and added hot water. She then poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot sitting on the other burner, then took both mugs over to the table where she sat in a chair across from him.

            “The eggs are perfect. So is the toast,” he praised her, reaching for the jar of honey to sweeten his tea. The gesture reminded her she’d forgotten to put the butter and jam on the table and got to her feet but he stopped her. “Please sit back down, Clea.”

            “I was going to get you some butter and jam for the toast.”

            “I have no need of it. We have more important matters to discuss.”

            She took her seat again and lifted her mug of coffee to her lips, blowing on the surface before taking a sip. She winced. “Butter and jam aren’t the only things I forgot.”

            Her remark elicited another chuckle from him. “You forgot the sugar,” he commented. At her surprised expression, he smiled. “I’ve learned to be very observant. It’s a skill that has saved my hide several times in the past.”

            He waited until she’d taken a couple of spoonsful from the bowl in front of her, stirred them into her drink, then tasted it again to be sure it was to her liking before he continued.

            “Madam…Clea…you and I both know I cannot remain here for any long period of time. Eventually your neighbors will learn of my presence, and the thought of me besmirching your name and reputation is what helped me to decide I must leave.”

            Sitting her mug on the table, she kept her head bowed until she was able to come to grips with her emotions. She knew he couldn’t stay, but another part of her kept demanding, “Why not?” This day was inevitable, yet did it have to come so soon?

“You don’t know me, Jonah. You don’t know anything about me, so how can you assume I give a damn about what my neighbors would think if they learned about you staying here? Which, by the way, they probably already do, since Joey may have already let the cat out of the bag.”

            She lifted her face to meet his direct gaze. “There’s something about you I can’t put my finger on. But from the moment we first spoke, I knew I could trust you. I don’t know why or how, but if I hadn’t, I would have left you out in the cold in a heartbeat and never regretted my decision.”

            Jonah plucked a napkin from the holder on the table and wiped his mouth and beard. “Of that I have no doubt,” he admitted.

            “And now…” Clea took a deep breath. “I don’t want you to go. At least, not now.”

            “Madam...”

            “Shut up and let me have my say. Then you can decide what you want to do. Don’t think that I haven’t tried to think this through before now. I’ve spent hours lying in bed at night, wondering what the next day would bring. Whether you’d still be here come sunup, or if I’d find Joey’s bed empty because you’d popped out somewhere, voluntarily or involuntarily.” She tried to smile but was only able to offer a lopsided grin. Taking another sip of coffee, she continued as he silently watched her. No doubt studying her as he weighed every word she said.

            “Like I said, there’s something about you that makes me feel, I don’t know. I guess what I’m trying to say is ‘safe.’ I feel safe around you. More importantly, I feel safe when Joey’s around you. It’s like he finally has some sort of older male figure, almost like a father figure, that he can relate to. That he can…talk to…about man things. About things I can’t understand or help him with. Am I making any sense at all?”

            “Indeed, madam. You’re making perfect sense.” Pushing aside his plate, Jonah leaned over the table and crossed his arms in front of him. “Feel free at any time to tell me to mind my own business, but I have to ask. How long ago did your husband leave you? Or is he deceased?”

            She felt her face grow warm and knew she was blushing. Not because she was embarrassed, but because of shame. She couldn’t guess how he knew Eddie was no longer in the picture, but right now it wasn’t important.

            “He left me. Us. I don’t know if he’s still alive or dead.”

            “How long?” Jonah gently pressed.

            “Eight years ago. Right after Joey’s first birthday. Eddie worked at Randolph’s Mercantile. He was their head cashier. One evening, he never came home. I called the store, but it was already closed, so I called the sheriff’s department. They went to check and found the car still parked in the parking lot, but Eddie was gone. The store was empty.” She bit her lips, then added, “They said there was also a little over fifteen hundred dollars missing from the safe. After some more investigating, Mr. Randolph learned that approximately two hundred thousand dollars was unaccounted for at the bank.”

            “Money which Mr. Hatch had access to?”

            “Yes.”

            “And you’ve not heard from him since?”

            “No.” She shook her head. “And, trust me, if I had, I wouldn’t take two seconds to turn him over the authorities for what he put me and Joey through.” She took another couple sips of coffee. “I don’t know why he did it. I don’t even know if he acted alone. I just know he betrayed me and his son, and that alone is why… Is why I…”

            “You no longer love him,” Jonah finished for her.

            Clea grabbed a napkin to blot her eyes and sniffed. “Yes. Jonah, you being here is the first time in a very, very long time I’ve felt…I guess the best way to describe it is ‘secure.’ It’s like I can finally get a handle on things and focus on what’s important without having to constantly watch my back.”

            “Like your son.”

            “Yes. Oh, yes. So, I’m asking you to stay, even though I know I can’t stop you if you’re determined to go. No more than I can stop you from blinking out of sight.” She gave him that lopsided grin again.

            Leaning back in his chair, he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and stared at her for what seemed like eternity. She was about to get up to clear the table when he spoke.

“I will stay on two conditions.”

            A weird thought flashed through her head, and for a second she wondered if one of those conditions might be of a very intimate nature. Silently scolding herself, she inquired, “What are the conditions?”

            “The first one is that I need to arrange for my own quarters. I cannot keep depriving the boy of his own bedroom.”

            “Wh-where would you sleep?”

            Jonah pointed outside. “In the barn. I can build me a small room in the back that would give me ample space to live, and also give us all our individual privacy.”

            Hope fluttered in her chest, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. “And the second one?”

            “That I pull my own weight around here. Help with the chores. Help with the farm.” He pointed overhead. “Help with repairing those tiles I noticed were about to slide off the roof.”

            “You can do stuff like that?”

            He gave a bark of laughter. “Madam, if I were to make a list of every job I ever held during my lifetime, it would take you a year to read it. Just let me know what you need done. If I can’t accommodate you, I can find out from someone else how to do it.” Tilting his head, he smiled in that way she longed to see. “What is your decision, Clea? Do you agree to my terms or not?”

            She held a hand out over the table. “It’s a deal.”

            He took it, but instead of shaking it, he placed his other hand over hers and held it there. “You do know that at some point I’m going to have to leave, don’t you?” he gently reminded her.

            Clea nodded. “Yes, I do. But until that has to happen…” Her voice trailed off without finishing the sentence because there was no need.

            At that moment, a ray of sunshine came through the kitchen window to shine across the table and their clasped hands. Happy and relieved, Clea took it as an omen of better days to come.

            However long those may be.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

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