“I’d say the ice cream is going to be perfect by the time we’re all ready for desert,” Kay said, returning to the table. She took her place next to Ed and he patted her on the thigh.
Ting, ting, ting. Ed tapped his water glass with the end of his butter knife.
“I know you didn’t come here to listen to me give a speech. But I want to thank you all for allowing me to express my appreciation for all your dedication and hard work. It was always my grandfather’s dream to keep Salinger’s a family business. 70 years later, I’m the only Salinger left at the mortuary, but because of you, it still remains a family business.”
He blinked back tears and cleared his throat a couple of times before he continued. “I’d like to make a toast,” he said, raising his can of beer.
Everyone at the table followed suit.
“To….”
Briiiing
The ringer on Ed’s phone went off. It was the mortuary line forwarded to his cell.
“Salinger’s Mortuary. Ed Salinger speaking.” He walked away from the table to provide the caller professional privacy.
“I’ll take some of your chicken casserole, Mr. McNab,” Kay said.
“Please call me George,” he said, smiling and taking Kay’s plate.
“Thank you…George.”
That’s definitely going to take some getting used to.
“Death call,” Ed announced, coming back to the table. “It’s at Memorial so I should be back in an hour or so. Everyone, please stay and enjoy yourselves.”
Leo jumped up from his half-eaten plate. “I’ll go with you Ed. It’ll go faster with two of us.”
“Thanks, Leo. I appreciate that.” Ed started to leave, but changed his mind and came back to the table. “I want to finish my toast.”
Once again everyone raised their glasses.
“To family!” he said.
“To family,” everyone heartily replied.
Ed threw back the last of his beer, crushed the can with his hand, leaned over and planted a long, unabashed kiss on Kay’s lips.
To My Mom,
Who Always Said I Should Write a Book
Other Works by Delora Dennis
Code for Karma
Copyright © 2013 by Delora Dennis
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.
Cover art by BookCoverMasterClass.com Copyright © 2013
SAME OLD TRUTHS
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Code for Karma
The first story in the Reluctant Avenger series is Delora Dennis’ short story, Code for Karma. Delora wrote this as a sequel to Same Old Truths and it finds Kay’s girls, Cory and Mariah, all grown up, but still dealing with their less-than-decent dad, Dave. Enter Kay and her old ally, karma. Together they make sure Dave isn’t able to get away with his old tricks.
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Indie stories like this one rely on good word of mouth to find readers. If you enjoyed Same Old Truths please consider letting others know by leaving a review on the book’s Amazon page, or Goodreads, or wherever you discovered the book. (Even a sentence or two would be greatly appreciated.)
Acknowledgments
This book could have never been completed without the love, support and generosity of the patient, loving, insightful individuals whom I’m blessed to have in my life.
To Juliane Romero for reading and critiquing each and every chapter as they came off the assembly line, and for so graciously allowing me to use her “fainting cop” story.
To Angela Dumas for allowing me to read aloud to her and laughing at all the right parts.
To Dicky Romero for enthusiastically reading the book and being my expert consultant on all matters mortuary.
To Sam Moya for allowing me to interrupt his busy day with all my questions.
To Barbara Romero, my biggest cheerleader and supporter who made it possible for me to devote thirteen months to writing this book.
And last and foremost, to my “Cory” and “Mariah” for being so gracious to have me as their mother.
About the Author
Delora Dennis launched her writing career in 1965, at the tender age of nine, with the production of her play (with a long-since forgotten title) by her school’s Home and School Association. Of course, the trajectory of said launch didn’t exactly follow a straight path. Detours along the way included stints as a human resources manager, assistant funeral director, legislative analyst, speech writer, state fair exhibit manager, and independent video producer.
Delora returned to the path in 1993 and since then has been writing in one form or another - video scripts, website content, how-to books, product reviews, informative articles, blog posts, press releases, etc. Looking back now it's clear all of this was preparation for the type of writing she knew she had to try, but resisted like crazy.
“I’ve discovered writing fiction is like playing with a new toy. Once you've mastered the basics, the real fun comes from finding new ways to play with it. I'm having a ball.”
Learn more about Delora and her books at http://deloradennis.com
Like her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/deloradennisbooks
and follow her on Twitter @deloradennis and https://plus.google.com/+DeloraDennis/posts
Same Old Truths (The Reluctant Avenger) Page 26
