Page 34 of Mountain Grump
Taking two steps to the side, I lean over the row of boxes I still have to unpack and look out the window into the front yard.
Movement draws my attention, and I spot a duck waddling across the gravel driveway, away from the house and toward the forbidden state park property.
His little brown tail wiggles back and forth with each step.
“Wait,” I whisper, placing my fingers against the glass.
Rushing, I move back to the front door and pull it open.
“Hi!”
It’s been one night, and I’ve already lost what’s left of my sanity.
Then the duck lets out one of his air horn quacks again.
And I grin.
I grin all the way to Uncle Jack’s truck.
My truck.
“Can’t believe you left me with a truck.” I roll my eyes as I climb into it.
Climbin the literal sense of the word.
This old beast of a truck isn’t one of those cute ones you see in Christmas ads with a tree strapped down in the back. No, this is the one you’d see parked in front of a house in a horror movie. Where the cast is stranded in the forest and they come across a house with a light on…
Nope. Not going there.
Seated, I pull the driver’s door shut and buckle my seat belt.
I drop my purse on the bench seat next to me, then remember I need the key that I put in there.
Because this truck isthat old.
I stick the key in the ignition and turn it, and just like yesterday—when I took the truck on a five-foot test drive—the engine turns over smoothly.
Like so many other things, I wonder how far out Uncle Jack planned his departure from this world.
How did he leave last fall without his truck?
After shifting into drive, I turn the wheel and work my way out of the narrow garage.
Chapter 19
Ethan
Leavingmy work truck in front of my closed garage door, I turn off the engine. But I stay where I am.
My thoughts are on Tilda.
Stillon Tilda.
And even though I have absolutely no reason to go back to her house, I want to.
It’s only a few miles from here as the crow flies. Except the park is between us.
I drum my fingers against the steering wheel, wondering if there’s a reasonable excuse I could use for driving over there right now.
