Harvest Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

face.
    “Do you think they’re staying at the Mountain Lodge?”
she asked Jim.
    The Mountain Lodge was a small motel near the edge of
town. Originally built in the fifties to house hikers and tourists, the place
hadn’t seen much upkeep since it opened. Over the years, it had fallen into
disrepair, but the elderly couple who ran it refused to close up shop. By
comparison, the Mountain Lodge made Jim’s bar look like a five-star Manhattan
gastro pub.
    “Ha!” was the answer Jim offered. “You can’t be
serious.”
    “I guess not.” Dawn had to laugh at that. She was
still pretty new in town, but everyone knew about the Mountain Lodge and how
rundown it was.
    “They all probably stayed over in Chester. Their motel
is at least free of bugs,” Jim said. “Which means they’re all probably drinking
over there.”
    Jim had a good point. The bar was nearly dead, save
the few diehards that came almost every night for their beers.
    As the sun set, Courtney finally came out of the
kitchen, having calmed down enough that she could handle pouring some beers
while Dawn went to the kitchen to grab one of Gabe’s amazing cheeseburgers.
    “So what do you make of this dead hiker thing?” Gabe
asked while Dawn began to munch on the juicy, if incredibly greasy, food.
    “I dunno,” Dawn mumbled between bites. “I mean, it’s
pretty scary, but if we don’t go wandering off alone at night, we should be
fine, right?”
    “Oh, totally,” Gabe said as he grabbed one of the
fries right out of the basket and began to nibble on it. “And don’t worry, I’m
happy to walk you and Courtney home after work, just to be safe.”
    “Thanks Gabe,” Dawn said with a smile. Gabe could be a
bit of a blowhard at times, but he was genuinely a nice guy. A bit crass, but
he was the first one to step up when someone needed him.
    “What do you think about this baseball player
nonsense?” he asked while they both munched on their food.
    Dawn laughed, thinking about Courtney’s reaction to
even the idea that some famous player was in town. “That I’ll believe when I
see it. I mean, why would some baseball player move to Goosemont?”
    “Privacy,” Gabe offered. “I mean, why did you move
here?”
    That stopped Dawn mid-bite as she forced herself to
swallow. It wasn’t the first time she’d been asked that question, but she hated
answering it every time.
    “Just tired of city living, if you can call Cleveland
that,” she lied as usual. “I knew college wasn’t for me, and my parents refused
to listen. I guess I wanted to prove to them that I could make it on my own,
and what better place than Goosemont?”
    “I guess,” Gabe said. “But don’t people go to New York
City when they want to ‘make it on their own?’ ”
    Dawn immediately shot the idea down. “New York isn’t
for me. Too big, too many phonies, too much corruption. Goosemont barely even
has cellphone service. Can’t expect a town this size to be too corrupt.”
    “I guess not,” Gabe relented. “I mean, Mayor Higgins
is ninety-two years old, and there are only about three hundred folks of voting
age. Doesn’t seem like there would be much point in back alley dealing.”
    “Exactly,” Dawn agreed. “Plus, I figured the mountain
air would be good for me.”
    “No denying that,” Gabe said.
    Dawn was about to change the subject toward anything
that wasn’t about why people moved to Goosemont, or worse, where she’d lived
before, when Courtney burst through the galley door separating the kitchen from
the bar.
    “Oh my God,” she half whispered, half hissed. “Oh my God! ”
    “Courtney,” Dawn said as she pulled her away from the
door so their few customers wouldn’t hear her outburst. “What? Spit it out!”
    “He’s here,” she panted as she squeezed Dawn’s hands
in her own. “Oh my God, Dawn, he’s here!”
    “Who’s here?” Dawn asked, though she was pretty
certain of the answer.
    “Gavin Mosley. He’s here right now sitting at