The Summer Wind Read Online Free PDF

arm, indicating the work being done at the house. “You can’t leave now.”
    Dora felt her spine stiffen at the audacity of his command. First he insulted her efforts with Nate, and now he was ordering her around? She recalled Mamaw’s admonition to channel the Muir spirit and lifted her chin.
    “You forget, Cal. I can just up and go if I want to. I no longer need to consult you, or ask your permission. You’ve changed things between us.”
    She paused, acknowledging his tightening lips and flushed face. His eyes looked as if they were about ready to explode, but he pulled himself together.
    Cal cleared his throat. “Dora, be reasonable . . .”
    “I am being reasonable,” she said with a forced smile, chafing under the implication that she was once again being emotional. She sat straighter in her chair and began to explain her decision, trying to keep her tone level.
    “I thought this through carefully. It makes sense for me to stay with Nate at Sea Breeze while the work is being done here.The men will be working round the clock. Nate wouldn’t be able to tolerate the hammering, the strange smells, the heat. He’d also be spooked by having strangers around him all day. We’re lucky to have Sea Breeze to go to! Of course, you could stay at the house during the renovations. To keep an eye on things,” she added with a sweet smile. There, not the least bit emotional , she thought with smug pleasure.
    Cal’s face tightened but he didn’t respond.
    “Plus, I want to spend time with Mamaw and my sisters again. Mamaw intends to sell Sea Breeze. It’s our last chance to be together again.”
    Cal’s gaze sharpened. “She’s selling Sea Breeze?”
    Dora wasn’t surprised that this tidbit caught his attention. Sea Breeze was worth millions on today’s market. “Yes.”
    “That should bring in a pretty penny.”
    Dora merely shrugged. She could almost see the numbers rolling in his brain.
    “I reckon I can see how you could decide to stay,” he said, considering. “You don’t have a job. Now don’t get your back up,” he added, raising his palms in an arresting gesture. “I meant a real job, at a place of business. What I don’t understand is how your sisters manage it. I mean, who can just up and leave for three months? Even for them . . .”
    Cal had never had a high opinion of her half-sisters, though he barely knew them.
    “Timing is everything, I guess. Carson’s TV series was canceled so she’s between jobs. She was all over the prospect of staying at Sea Breeze rent-free for the summer.”
    “What’s she worried about? Don’t folks working in Hollywood get paid the world?”
    “That was the big shocker. Carson doesn’t have any money. In fact, she’s flat broke.”
    He released a short laugh of surprise ringing with satisfaction. Cal had always been sensitive to the fact that he wasn’t earning nearly as much as many of his childhood friends. Promotions and increases in salary rarely came his way.
    “What about Hadley? Granted, she doesn’t have to work.”
    “Her name is Harper ,” Dora corrected him, annoyed by the error. True, they hadn’t been close with Harper all these years, but to not get her name right was flat-out ridiculous. “Don’t you remember how Daddy named each of us after a favorite Southern author?”
    “That’s right,” he said in a drawl, as though remembering a joke. “Let’s see, that’s Harper Lee, Carson McCullers, and”—he indicated Dora with a gesture of mock gallantry—“Eudora Welty.” Cal picked a single grape from the cluster, then held it a moment between two fingers. “Parker Muir, the great author. Given that your father never published a book, it’s almost pathetic, isn’t it?” He popped the grape in his mouth.
    Dora flushed at the sting of his words. “Not in the least,” she said, rising to her father’s defense. “I think it reflects his sense of culture—and a certain Southern charm.” She reached for her