Sweet Tea at Sunrise Read Online Free PDF Page A

couldn’t get enough of each other.
    As much as this new side of their relationship thrilled her, it was seriously cutting into her career as a real estate agent. She’d realized she was well and truly hooked on her new husband when she chose running home for a mid-afternoon quickie over showing houses or closing a deal. Her schedule, once packed with appointments she refused to change, was now subject to her husband’s timetable and the sudden impulses that might strike either one of them.
    Which is why she was at home and breathless when she had a call from Travis McDonald inquiring about real estate downtown. Though she had no intention of stopping what she was doing, she couldn’t keep herself from listening to his message. Since moving a property on Main Street or anywhere in the vicinity was rare, she yanked the sheet up to her chin, pushed away Sonny’s roving hand and took notice, grabbing the phone out of its cradle before he could hang up.
    “I have a few properties that might suit your needs,” she immediately told the man on the other end of the line. “When would you like to look?”
    “How’s this afternoon?” he said, sounding eager. “I could meet you in a half hour.”
    “A half hour will be perfect,” she said at once, ignoring Sonny’s resigned expression. She settled the details, hung up the phone and turned to her husband. “Five minutes to dress, another five to get there. That leaves us twenty minutes. You up to the challenge?”
    Sonny grinned. “You ever know me not to be?” he said, already reaching for her.
    A half hour later, Mary Vaughn’s hair was a bit more tousled than usual, her cheeks a little pinker, as she pulled her Mercedes to the curb. Even so, a glance at her watch told her she was right on time. Just one more incidence in her life when Sonny hadn’t let her down.
     
    At the end of May there was a frenzy of speculation in Wharton’s when a SOLD sign appeared on the window of an empty space on Azalea Drive, just across the street from Town Hall and on the other side of the square from Wharton’s.
    Once occupied by a small newsstand that had sold magazines, cigarettes and Coca-Cola in bottles out of an old-fashioned red cooler, it had been empty for several years. The dingy front window had been covered over with curling brown paper, the once-green door was now faded and the rolled up awning was so dry-rotted it would probably crumble if anyone dared to open it.
    For once, no one seemed to be able to pry even a tidbit of information from Mary Vaughn, who was usually only too eager to tell the world about the local real estate sales, especially those she’d made herself.
    “Sorry, I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” she told Sarah and Grace when they ganged up on her one morning when she stopped in to pick up a cup of coffee to go.
    “Since when has that ever stopped you?” Grace grumbled with a huff.
    Mary Vaughn didn’t take offense. “The buyer paid full price to keep my mouth shut. What can I say? Money talks.”
    “Well, you’d think whoever it is would want to set off some free word-of-mouth,” Grace said. “Must not have much business sense.”
    Mary Vaughn grinned at Sarah. “Maybe we should talk about something else. I’m hoping Rory Sue’s going to move back home. Maybe she could get together with you, Annie and Raylene sometime. I think once she sees there are some young people still around, she’ll feel more positive about settling in Serenity, instead of heading over to Charleston. Sonny and I are just sick, thinking about her so far away. And you should hear her granddaddy going on and on about it. Howard’s beside himself.”
    As if Charleston were at the other end of the earth, Sarah thought. In her opinion, it wasn’t quite far enough. Still, she fibbed, “We’d love to see her.”
    The truth was, Rory Sue had always thought she was better than any of them, Raylene included. It didn’t seem to impress Rory Sue in the least that Raylene