Beyond the Spring Breeze novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Overlook

Ellis picked me up at the end of the lane at ten to six, with his uncle's green pickup running rough.

The sky over the bay was pink and pale blue.

I wore my good navy skirt, a white blouse, and my braid pinned up.

I carried my mother's brooch inside a handkerchief in my pocket.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good morning."

He opened the passenger door for me.

I got in and he shut it, and neither of us said anything for the first ten miles.

The road ran inland through flat green fields.

Red-winged blackbirds balanced on the fence wire, and the windows were rolled down, and the air smelled of cut grass and diesel.

I had not felt a morning like it in fifty years.

Not because it was beautiful.

Because I was going somewhere on purpose.

"You're quiet," Ellis said.

"I'm thinking."

"About him?"

"About you."

He glanced over.

I looked straight ahead.

"What about me?"

"Why you're driving me."

"I wanted to."

"That's not an answer."

He laughed.

"All right. Because I don't want you walking in alone. Because I don't trust him as far as I can throw him." He paused. "Because I'd like to see you do it."

"Do what?"

"Walk through the front door."

I turned and looked at him.

He had one wrist draped over the wheel and the morning sun on his jaw.

I had known him for two days.

I had known the shape of his whole life for fifty years, from a distance, as a name in a newspaper.

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