Lightning shot across the sky and the clap of thunder that followed fast on its heels was strong enough, loud enough to make the house shake. Laine rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and counted. One, two, three-and there it was, the baby’s displeased and frightened howl. So much for getting the wash folded ( Read more... )

December, 2030“Mam ( Read more... )

The monitor lit up and crackled just a moment before the angry wail of a displeased infant flooded the room and woke Laine. Anrai was already getting out of bed, those keen púca ears of his not needing an electronic gadget to alert him to the baby down the hall. Irritating to Laine at moments like these. Still, she sat up and scrubbed a hand over ( Read more... )

She hated this part of being the boss. Laine treated her ranch hands like close friends, the ones who had worked for her for years (and for her brother before that) like family. And now, with the way things were going with the economy and Flint Creek’s change of business, she had to cut one of them loose. Sure, she could pawn the thankless task off ( Read more... )

I’m simple, y’all. I want to be laid to rest on the land that I love. Flint Creek. I said on, not in. Sure I could take the time now to draw up a map of the property to include a family burial ground but let’s be real here…it’d be a party of one. I ain’t under any delusions about that. My brother is at the church cemetery and that’s where Mama and ( Read more... )

What am I wearin’? I’m wearin' an extra damned twenty-three pounds and it’s all stuck on the front end of me makin’ my life miserable. I can’t see my feet. I can’t walk without waddlin’ and I can’t goddamn walk around the kitchen counter without misjudgin’ things and banging my belly against the corner ( Read more... )

1967...“…and this is a dump truck, Lainy. See? This part, you lift it up and WOOSH all the dirt pours out into a big pile and then you drive over it. See?” Five year old Wesley Jansen was balanced on the arm of a chair, leaning over the side of his sister’s bassinet excitedly talking to her about little boy nonsense and make believe ( Read more... )

Early May 2008“I guess this is good-bye then ain’t it?” She was standing a few feet away from the truck and empty trailer with the New Mexico plates, a few feet away from him. Laine was certain that if she took a single step closer she’d not be able to stop herself from closing that gap completely and would wind up making a scene ( Read more... )

Pen and ink, pulpy paper and a smudge from his thumb there in the bottom left corner. She could see the fine lines where he’d sketched everything out in pencil first, but only if she angled the framed picture as she held it to the flickering light of the fire place. Cross-hatching to shade her dark fall of hair, add shadows and depth. It was so ( Read more... )

Five minutes of him on top of her, heavy and panting. Working up a sweat and grabbing tender places with rough hands, making Laine’s eyes close not in ecstasy but out of irritated discomfort. It didn’t hurt, exactly. Awkward, foreign and strange-it felt good and then it didn’t. Pressure. The sensation of Jack’s hard-on forced into not-quite-wet ( Read more... )