“Cher, wake up,” Frank whispered, shaking her gently. “It’s late.” She opened her eyes and the bedroom filled with bright morning sunlight. At first she saw only the empty room, her clothes on the floor, the sheet she’d thrown over Frank the night before bunched at the bottom of the bed. Her back ached from […]
Novellas: The Old Home Place – Chapter 10
Frank was in bed in a white silk Old Home Place Inn robe reading a John Grisham novel. He began to dog ear the page, then stopped, frozen by the fury in Cheryl’s eyes. “I’m pregnant,” she announced. “I’m sorry? What?” “I’m pregnant,” she said again. “As in, knocked up. As in, with child. In […]
Novellas: The Old Home Place – Chapter 9
It was strange how she felt then, sitting alone in the dark in the crotch of an old oak tree deep in the backwoods of Virginia holding a dead cell phone in her hand. Free was part of it. But also unmoored. Untethered. It was her father who had insisted she buy a cell phone […]
Novellas: The Old Home Place – Chapter 8
Cheryl was still on the sea-green chaise with the Let’s Go book open on her lap when Frank knocked lightly on the door. He’d had a few glasses of champagne after she left and was full of stories about his grandfather and how the other guests had reacted to his speech. Cheryl tried to listen, […]