Michaela Thompson - Florida Panhandle 01 - Hurricane Season Read Online Free PDF

supposedly fishermen, owners of one boat that left the dock only often enough to keep up an impression of activity. While Diana picked her way through the sandspurs in the Calhouns’ yard, Sue Nell put down her shuttle and gauge board and watched without getting up.
    Sue Nell had long red hair that frizzed in the damp. She wore it pulled to the back of her neck with a rubber band. She was freckled and almost as tall as her husband, Bo. Their resemblance to one another was natural, since they were third cousins. In the Calhoun family, Sue Nell had a reputation for being sharp-tongued and standoffish, and even Old Man Calhoun, the family patriarch, kept clear of her if he could. When Diana, standing at the foot of the steps, shading her eyes, said, “Hello,” Sue Nell just nodded.
    Diana swallowed. “I came to tell you that Bo and I are in love,” she said. “We want to be together, but we can’t because he’s afraid to tell you. So I’m telling you.”
    Diana waited. She swatted at a mosquito on her arm. When Sue Nell said nothing, she continued. “I’ve been seeing him for six months. We’re in love. I think you should let him go.”
    Sue Nell blinked. She took a breath. She said, “You just had to come tell me.”
    “Bo wouldn’t do it,” said Diana.
    “I reckon he wouldn’t.” Sue Nell’s voice took on acidity. “You didn’t stop to think why he wouldn’t, did you? That maybe he wouldn’t because he didn’t want to?”
    “He wants to be with me,” said Diana.
    “He said that?”
    “Lots and lots of times.”
    “Why isn’t he with you then?”
    “He will be.”
    Sue Nell folded her arms. “We’ll see about that.”
    Into the silence that lengthened between them came the sound of a motor. Bo Calhoun’s Oldsmobile pulled up under the chinaberry tree in the front yard, and he stepped out of it. When he saw the women, he began to run.
    He grabbed Diana’s arm and shook her. “What the hell are you doing?”
    “Don’t be so rough,” Diana began.
    Sue Nell stood up. “She’s been telling me you two are engaged.”
    “Oh my God,” said Bo.
    “Why not?” said Diana. “It’s practically what you said. And you wouldn’t tell her, and I need you now.”
    “Get out of here,” said Bo. “Just get moving right this minute. Do you hear me?”
    Diana stood rubbing her arm, her eyes wide.
    “Didn’t you hear me? Get along,” said Bo.
    Diana turned blindly and walked across the yard to her car. In a few moments, she was gone.
    Bo turned to Sue Nell. “In a lot of ways, she was right,” he said.

Josh Goes Fishing
    Josh winced as he swallowed the bitter, lukewarm coffee and made a mental note never again to reheat the leftovers from the previous evening. It was five-thirty, he’d had only three hours’ sleep, and he’d needed something. Warmed-over coffee wasn’t it. He emptied the tin cup on the ground and hung it on its peg next to the camp stove. His rod and reel was propped against the shed, the bait can beside it. He picked them up and started through the woods.
    A slight haze lingered under the pines. Anyone glancing at Josh would have said he was maintaining a relaxed pace, and only a careful observer would note how swiftly he made his way through the undergrowth that caught at his khaki work pants as he passed. He was walking away from the channel, maintaining a course roughly parallel with the coast.
    He jumped a ditch barely deep enough to support minnows, crossed a ridge, wiped his brow, and looked around. He was at the edge of a marshy meadow of thigh-high grass divided by turgid streams. Dispersed clumps of pine and palmetto loomed against the horizon like oases in a desert. “Shoot,” Josh whispered. Getting straight across would be impossible. He’d have to go around one way or the other. Moving toward the coast, the ground would get more marshy. Clutching his bait can and rod, he began dodging along the inland edge. Water seeped into his shoes and drenched his pants