Chapter 10: Snow in September

Audra's POV

It started to snow on the twentieth of September.

My grandfather used to say that was the mountain clearing its throat.

By noon the lane had vanished.

By two, the barn was a gray shape in a white field.

Jed was in my kitchen stamping his boots, with snow in his hair and a sack of coffee under his arm.

"I came to check your stove," he said.

"You came to check the cows."

"The cows are fine. I fed them at six."

"So you came to check my stove."

"The stove's important."

I made him sit down.

I made soup from a can and bread from nothing.

We ate at my grandfather's table while the window went from white to dark blue.

The lawyer had called that morning.

She said the county's website could be stale, so she would pull the certified record herself.

It would take a few days.

I told Jed that.

He listened, and then he said, "I don't like waiting."

"Neither do I. I've done nothing else for twelve years."

He set his spoon down.

"Audra."

"What?"

"I'm out of things I know how to say."

My heart did something strange.

"Then say it badly," I said.

He looked at the stove, and at the snow on the glass, and at me.

"I've wanted to put my hands on you since you hit your thumb."

I laughed out loud.

"That's the worst thing anyone has ever said to me."

"I told you it would be bad."

"You also told me married women shouldn't look at you."

"They shouldn't."

"I haven't been married in any way that matters since the day he handed me a folder."

I stood and walked around the table.

"The paper says you are," Jed said.

"Is that a law or a hobby?"

He stared at me.

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