The Cold Breakfast Bride novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Hill Trucks

I drove back up the pass at midnight with the walk-in half full and no truck coming Monday.

Saturday morning I did the math on the back of a ticket.

Eggs for three days.

Flour for a week, if nobody wanted pie.

Everybody wanted pie.

At six-forty the bell rang, and Abel came in alone.

"Ruthie's at her grandma's," he said. "How's Hatty?"

"Mad. They won't let her have coffee."

"Then she's fine."

He sat at the end stool.

I put two eggs over medium on the grill before he ordered.

"You remembered."

"It's been two days. I'm not senile."

"Most people don't remember what I eat."

"Most people don't watch you let it die."

His phone buzzed on the counter.

He turned it face-down without answering.

That was the first time I saw him do that.

"The waitress says your supplier dropped you," he said.

"The waitress talks too much."

I slid his plate across.

"Iron Ridge bought the distributor. No trucks up the pass."

He didn't say anything.

He ate half the eggs and put his fork down.

"How many trucks do you need?"

"I need a supplier, not a truck."

"The Wilder pack has six trucks and nine farms on the hill road. Beef. Eggs. Potatoes."

"A guy with more honey than he knows what to do with. Huckleberries in a month."

"I can't pay for all that."

"I didn't ask you to pay."

I folded my arms.

"Nobody gives anybody anything for free up here."

"No," he agreed. "Here's the deal."

He wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"We're raising a den on Labor Day. A new house for a young pair who just mated."

"Forty wolves swinging hammers all day, and forty more watching. You feed the raising."

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