She slid her chair back and went to find Earl Eland. If he failed the Breathalyzer test, it was three strikes. She couldn’t afford to look the other way, but if Charlie hadn’t been watching to see how she handled this, she would have quietly discarded the bottle and pretended she never saw it.
She didn’t think Earl would give her any trouble if she asked him to leave—especially if he was drunk. But on the off-chance that he refused, she did not want to have to call the police. The Courier would love nothing more than a juicy story about trouble at the shelter.
Earl was in the dayroom, glued to a sitcom with the other zombies. Being careful not to make eye contact with Charlie, Susan cleared her throat. “Earl? Could you come here for a minute.”
He pointed at himself and gave her a questioning look, like he hadn’t heard her.
She nodded and motioned for him to follow her. He eased out of the shabby recliner and shuffled to the office.
She closed the door and looked him in the eye. He didn’t look drunk, but then she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him completely sober. Going around behind her desk, she picked up the whiskey bottle and held it up.
His face gave nothing away.
She unlocked a desk drawer and retrieved a Breathalyzer kit. “I’m sorry, Earl, but I need to have you take this.”
He looked away. “Rather not.”
“Earl, you’re putting me in a tough spot here. You know the rules.”
“I know … I know.”
“Is this yours?”
He looked directly into her eyes. “I can truthfully tell you that it’s not.” His impish half-grin gave him away.
She almost laughed. He probably was telling the truth—because he’d stolen the bottle. Or “borrowed” it from one of the lowlifes he hung out with. She replaced the Breathalyzer kit in the desk, closed the drawer, and locked it. She’d probably be sorry, but she didn’t have it in her tonight to kick him out and deal with the fallout.
“Okay, Earl, here’s the deal …” She looked at him hard, hating how often this job made her sound condescending and snobbish. “I’m going to trust that you’re technically telling me the truth. This bottle is going into a random Dumpster in an unidentified town on an undisclosed date”—that earned her another grin—“and you are going to recognize that you’ve been given a chance you probably didn’t deserve, and you’re going to appreciate it and not blow it because unlike God, I do not have an unlimited amount of grace to offer. Is that understood?”
“Understood.” He grinned big enough to reveal the gaps where important teeth were missing. “I think I’m gonna hit the hay, if that’s okay with you, Blondie.”
“I think that’s a very good idea.” Before I punch your lights out. She’d let him get away with calling her “Blondie” before, so she couldn’t very well say anything about it now. It hadn’t sounded disrespectful before.
Earl reached for the door just as the night shift volunteers came through.
Susan glanced at her watch. “You guys are early.”
“And you’re still here,” Garrett Edmonds said. “When do you ever sleep?”
Garrett and his wife, Bryn, were newlyweds of less than a year and often volunteered for the night shift. Bryn had served many hours of community service for claiming responsibility for the Grove Street fire. She accidentally left a candle burning in the upstairs office. That unintentional act of negligence had started the fire that killed Susan’s husband and Bryn’s first husband, Adam, along with three others, including Garrett’s first wife, who was also a firefighter.
“The early shift didn’t show,” Susan explained.
“Susan! You should have called,” Bryn said. “We would have been glad to come earlier.”
“I know, but that’s not what you signed up for.”
“Well, you can go home now.” Bryn put her purse in a drawer of the file cabinet and shrugged out of her jacket. “Everything calm tonight?”
“Mostly.” She told them about Charlie finding the whiskey bottle, and Earl’s transparent denial. “I haven’t searched the rest of the place, but I’m guessing that was the extent of his stash. The bottle is over there. You guys can take it home if you trust it.”
Garrett hooked a thumb toward Bryn, laughing. “I don’t trust her with it.”
“Garrett!” Bryn feigned a glare. “That’s how rumors get started!”
“Just kidding, babe.” He winked, then turned to Susan, serious again. “I’ll dispose of it if you want me to.”
“I’d appreciate it. And I do think I’ll go home now, if you guys don’t mind.”
“Go,” said Bryn. “I’ll do a quick walk-through. And you—” she poked a finger at her husband—“go get some sleep. He’s on Saturday school duty tomorrow,” she explained.
Susan made a face. “Too bad. Well, there are fresh sheets on the bed in the nap room. Sweet dreams.”
Garrett shot her a boyish grin. “I bet I can get her to let me stay up another hour,” he said in a stage whisper.
Bryn pointed toward the nap room like a drill sergeant. “I’m going, I’m going …”
“I’m going, too,” Susan said, reaching for her jacket and purse.
Seeing the young couple together touched her deeply—such obvious love between them, and oh, the depth of forgiveness they’d had to find …
It had caused quite a stir in the community when Bryn and Garrett ended up getting married. But like Susan, most of the town sympathized deeply with Bryn. Which one of them hadn’t walked off and left a candle burning at least once? But Bryn bore deep scars from the tragic consequences of her carelessness.
Seeing the easy, affectionate way Bryn and Garrett had with each other made Susan ache for David in a way she hadn’t in a long time. She pushed the thoughts from her mind and filled the couple in on the rest of the evening’s events. “I don’t think Earl will give you any trouble, but don’t hesitate to call me if you have any problems.”
She pulled the lanyard heavy with keys from around her neck and handed it to Bryn, wishing she could hand off the weight of her worries so easily.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Content
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Reading Group Questions
About the Author
Back Cover
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HF02 - Forever After Page 30
