Читать книгу A Temporary Arrangement - Roxanne Rustand - Страница 13

ETHAN SPUN AROUND, expecting to find a ten-foot bear looming over him or an angry moose, ready to charge.

“Dad!” Keifer started to run for him, then faltered to a stop. His face looked worried as he stared at the heavy white bandaging that covered Ethan’s arm from elbow to fingers. “Holy cow.”

Ethan gave his arm a rueful glance, then welcomed Keifer into a one-armed hug. “I’ll be good as new before long.”

He looked over the boy’s head at Abby. “W-we weren’t expecting you,” she said, her voice faint. Splattered with mud from head to toe, she gripped a length of chain until her knuckles turned white.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you two, either, since I didn’t see my truck in the drive. Where’d you park it?”

“About your truck…”

There were dark circles under her eyes and she was clearly exhausted. He felt a pang of guilt. Though much of yesterday was foggy, he dimly remembered handing her his truck keys and mumbling something about chores. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come out here. Especially not in this wea—”

Lightning struck somewhere close with an earsplitting crack followed by a long, ominous roll of thunder. Raindrops rippled the puddles of standing water at their feet, and then it began to fall in earnest.

“The goats are in,” Abby said over the rising wind. “But I didn’t…get…”

The goats? He shook his head, unable to hear her clearly. “Get back to the house!” he shouted. Keifer took off like a jackrabbit. Abby tried to yell something else, but he gestured and started down the hill, shielding his arm with the tail of his shirt. If the damned thing soaked through, he’d probably need to go back to the hospital again. A long drive. A waste of time.