Read Love's Embers (Canon City Series) for Free Online

dad.
    The one thing she’d always be grateful for was the way he defended her. For a while a couple of boys in their classes at school picked on her about being an orphan. No matter how they approached Lark, she’d always ended up in tears.
    One Saturday, she’d gotten up and eaten breakfast really fast. She and Charlie planned to meet on the riverbank and come up with a new adventure. She raced out of the house and headed for the incline. She grabbed her stick, which she pretended was her light saber, and ran up the riverbank.
    She found Charlie sweating up a storm and working on a new project. “Hey Ducky, what are you doing?” she asked and walked to where he did his work.
    “I’m building a catapult.” He smiled.
    Lark swung her tree branch. “So, we’re going to save the world from alien invaders in medieval times? Can I be a knight?”
    “Lou, girls can’t be knights. You’ll have to be a princess,” he said and shoved a big rock toward his construction.
    “If I were like Princess Leia, I could use my light saber.”
    “No, you’ll have a sword. They didn’t have light sabers back then.”
    “What if the light sabers somehow got to medieval times by time travel, like when we watched the Time Machine?”
    “Lou, now you’re just being silly.”
    “Do you get to be a knight?”
    “No, I’m the king.” He stood up and grinned. “I need your help moving a big log.”
    Lark set her stick on the ground and followed him into the woods. He stopped and pointed at a medium-sized tree branch about twenty-five feet long.
    “Ducky, that’s really long. How are you going to get it to work?” She walked to the far end and figured out how to get it lifted into her arms.
    “I’ve got an idea. It will be sort of like a teeter-totter.”
    They struggled to get the log out of the woods and brought it to the work site. Lark and Charlie worked side by side to get a pile of rocks stable enough to hold the log.
    She stood with her hands on her hips and watched him shove a rock into place. She suddenly realized she was being pelted with a bunch of pebbles. She turned around and saw three boys walk toward them.
    “Ducky, we’ve got trouble,” she said.
    Bobbie Reynolds and his two buddies, Dexter and Jamie, were walking down the incline. They’d picked on her since she first arrived in Canon City.
    “Look guys, it’s the Orphan Metcalfe. Where are your parents? Did they dump you off with your granny?” Bobbie whined.
    Charlie stood up and walked in front of Lark. “You assholes need to think of something different. You’ve had the same shit spill from your mouths for so long, it doesn’t bother us anymore.”
    “Look guys, it’s the orphan’s shitty boyfriend. Do you think she sucks his dick?” The three boys all started to laugh and Bobbie grabbed his crotch. “Here’s a hot one for you, Orphan.”
    This was a new phrase to Lark and she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t have any idea what they were talking about. “Let’s just leave, Ducky. They’re not worth it,” she whispered.
    Lark saw Charlie close his hands into fists.
    Bobbie walked up to him and stood inches from his nose.
    “Hey asshole, I heard from your friends that your mamma and sisters suck you off all the time. Maybe they’d like something a little bigger than your puny cock,” Charlie said in a really low voice.
    Lark was surprised. She’d heard Charlie cuss before, but nothing like this. Bobbie swung at Charlie and hit him in the nose. It was just hard enough to start a trickle of blood. Charlie didn’t move and laughed.
    “That was a nice little love pat there, Bobbie. Maybe you’re queer and want to suck me off, too.” He tackled Bobbie around the stomach and landed on the ground on top of him. He grabbed the aggressor’s shirt and pulled him up. “Apologize, asshole!” Charlie shouted in the kids face.
    Bobbie looked up at Charlie and grinned. “Yeah, I’ll apologize after I fuck her.”
    Lark saw one of