Cry Baby Hollow Read Online Free PDF

left the putting in to me. I told you we had it set up for ya.”
    “It’s amazing,” she said again. “I don’t know what to say.”
    “Say you’ll keep the fridge stocked with beer and we’ll call it even,” he smiled and at the mention of the word seemed to realize that he didn’t have one in his hand. He looked around, confused.
    Aubrey reached over, pulled the beer out of his pocket, and handed it to him.
    He flashed her a smile.
    “Oh hey, you haven’t seen the best part!”
    “I thought you said this was the best part,” she told him, waving at the bathroom.
    “That’s the best part inside,” he told her, “but the best, best part is out here.”
    He walked over to the back wall and opened one of the sliding glass doors. The entire cabin was surrounded by a deck, but it was considerably wider on the back where it stretched out toward the lake. It had been expanded considerably, and the railing along the lake side had been removed and replaced with steps leading down to a whole new level of deck and a boardwalk leading out to a new dock. Joe pranced down to the lower level and held out his arms to frame the small sunken hot tub that had been added.
    “And then there’s the even better, best part,” he told her and he pointed out into the lake. The cabin was built on a small inlet so that it was screened from view from all of the other houses, but where before there had been only trees, now there was another small dock. Joe’s RV could be seen clearly.
    “Howdy neighbor,” he told her and slapped his knee.
    “Oh hell,” he yelped. “I’ll be right back. Wait here.”
    She watched him run around the deck and out to his truck where it was parked in the drive behind her car. He came trotting back with a bulky package wrapped in Sunday comics tucked under his arm and a fresh beer in his hand.
    He handed her the package.
    “Housewarming present,” he explained.
    She ripped it open. Inside was a shiny new black mailbox with the name “Guinn” printed neatly on both sides in bold white letters. On the front was the number thirteen.
    “Welcome to Red Bank Road,” he told her. “I’ll put that up for you after I finish my beer. I’ve got the post and cement in the back of my truck, but I didn’t bring those out here ‘cause they aren’t wrapped and they’re pretty heavy.”
    “It’s very nice,” she said seriously, unsure how to react to so many good things at once. “Thank you.”
    “Vina said you never did change your name when you got married,” he told her.
    “I was in the military at the time,” she explained. “Everyone calls you by your last name and it would have meant changing all my uniforms. It just seemed silly to go to the trouble.”
    “Bet you were glad when you got divorced,” he observed.
    She stared at him.
    “Well, not glad about the divorce, you know… Glad that you didn’t have to change your name back and all.”
    Aubrey nodded and walked out onto the dock,  turning to look back at the cabin. Since the walls were all glass, Joe would be commanding an impressive view straight into her life. She was suddenly very glad that she had spent the night in her car. Drapes, she decided, would be the very first thing she shopped for.

CHAPTER FOUR

    Joe insisted on carrying in her bags before getting started on the mailbox. As soon as they were piled on the sofa, he left and Aubrey pulled out her laptop to check in at work. She set it up at the desk, set her cell phone to act as a hot spot, and got online. Two days worth of orders were waiting for her, and after she’d logged them, checked their payments, and sent them to the company that did her warehousing, she spent an hour emptying her customer service email inbox. Most were requests from her customers for things she didn’t carry, and she spent another hour online emailing her suppliers, trying to track the items down. She didn’t want to think about the dent she was making in her data plan.
    When Aubrey