Allie's Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

give a damn. As for Miss Althea, she only needs your
labor. That’ll be enough.”
    “ Why don’t you just release me? Then I
can go about my business and you won’t have to trouble yourself
with keeping me busy.”
    “ You know that if I decide to, I have
the legal authority to hold you for thirty days for what you did.
You can help out here or you can go back to the cell in town and
think some more.”
    Jeff frowned. That wasn’t much of an
alternative. Yeah, he knew Will could keep him. He just couldn’t
figure out why he bothered. He didn’t remember the sheriff’s job
being so boring that he needed to hunt around for diversions. He
hadn’t lied when he said he didn’t care. Nothing much mattered to
him anymore, and what once had mattered was fainter in his mind
than winter shadows now. But he supposed that spending the day
outdoors in the clean May air beat the hell out of being trapped in
the jailhouse with his thoughts and memories for company.
    “ Since when is it the sheriff’s job to
provide a handyman for the local spinsters?” he asked.
    Will held the reins loosely in his hands,
letting the horses pull them along at a slow pace. “Miss Althea
came to the office looking for Cooper Matthews. He promised to be
here this morning and he didn’t show up. So you’re taking his
place.”
    Jeff stiffened at the name. “Matthews—how did
he get involved?”
    “ She was desperate.” He gestured at the
surrounding landscape. “You can see why.”
    Yes, he could. Nearing the house, Jeff took
note of the silver-gray barn that had waist-high grass and weeds
growing in front of its doors. Maybe someone really did live here,
but he’d bet a dollar that neither of those sisters had set foot in
that barn for years. On the house, some of the shutters hung
slightly askew and the whole thing needed painting. An ancient farm
wagon stood disintegrating in the tall grass, its iron wheel rims
rusted and some of the spokes broken. Everywhere he looked—the
land, the outbuildings—something needed fixing. Jeff was no
stranger to hard work. He’d done his share at the ranch and house
when Sally still— But, damn, there was enough here to keep a man
busy for months.
    “ God, I wouldn’t even know where to
begin,” he said, feeling overwhelmed and more than little put
upon.
    “ Don’t worry, Althea Ford will tell you
exactly what to do,” Will replied with a slight smile as he
maneuvered the wagon around to the back porch.
    Jeff eyed him suspiciously; he thought he
heard the hint of satisfied laughter behind his words. He could
picture her now, Miss Althea. A dry, creaking old maid wrapped up
in the depths of a big black shawl, and her white hair nailed to
her head in a tight bun. She was probably a little dotty, too,
living here with her equally dry and dotty sister.
    Will set the wagon brake and wound the reins
around the handle. “Looks like you might need the tools we brought.
It’s hard to say what they have here.”
    Jeff jumped down from the seat and looked
around, feeling like a prisoner being put to work on a chain gang.
He reached into the back of the wagon and lifted out the shovel,
hammer, hoe, and other gear Will had collected for him. If only
that one stringy chicken hadn’t started squalling the other
morning, he would have slipped out of Farley’s henhouse undetected,
and he wouldn’t be faced with the chore before him now.
    Will led the way to the back door on the one
clear path Jeff could see near the house. When Will knocked, Jeff,
keeping his eyes on the worn porch flooring, again pictured a
hunched woman as dried up as last year’s corn husks.
    He heard the door open.
    “ Miss Althea, I hope we’re not late.”
Will’s tone was as pinched and respectful as a
schoolboy’s.
    Oh, brother, Jeff thought, short of rolling
his eyes.
    “ I can certainly overlook fifteen
minutes, Sheriff.”
    The feminine voice was young and clear, Jeff
realized, and he let his eyes venture as far as the