The Alpha Crowned the Orphan, So Both His Betas Followed Me Out novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Quilt Circle

Shyla's POV

Jubal drank one cup of coffee in my father's cabin that morning, standing up, with his cuffs buttoned and his hat in his hand.

He kept looking from me to Tobe and back, and for once he did not say a word.

"I've got somewhere to be at nine," he said at the door. "In Jasper."

"Where?" I said.

"I'll tell you when I'm back. Don't be mad before then."

"I'm already mad."

"Then you're ahead of me," said Jubal, and went down the steps.

At noon three pickup trucks came up the Sinking Creek lane in a line, and Tobe stood up from the porch step.

Nine women got out of them, in barn coats and church shoes, with Pyrex dishes wrapped in dish towels.

I knew every one.

They had taught me to quilt at nine and to put up beans at ten.

The oldest of them came first, a tiny woman with a cane, the one who had pressed her lips together in the barn.

"Shyla Cantrell," she said. "We have brought you dinner, and we have brought you the truth, and you can take either one first."

I looked at the casseroles, and at the nine faces, and at Tobe, who did not move.

"Truth first," I said.

They sat on my porch, the steps and the rail and the chopping block, and the oldest woman took the single rocker.

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