Read Safely Home for Free Online Page A

there.” Gran read her like a book. Always did.
    Pressure added to Cress’s already tight shoulders. “Happy enough.”
    Gran snorted. “That’s no answer, and you know it. In any case,” her gaze dropped to Cress’s leg, “until you’re healed proper, it’s nice to have you here.”
    Cress acknowledged that with a lift of her eyebrows. “Dad’s upset that I didn’t move back there, with him and Stacey.” She liked her stepmother well enough, but Cress hadn’t reconciled those years of loss and pain, when everything fell apart following her mother’s death. Was she wrong to expect her father to be the strong one, in light of the circumstances? Probably. But falling apart and neglecting four motherless kids hadn’t made her short list.
    “ He’ll get over it.” noted Gran. The lack of respect in her voice said she had a hard time forgetting, too. “I’m glad you’re with me. In spite of the reasons why.” This time she swept her own body a look.
    Cress changed the subject. “The tomatoes are ripe.”
    “Ready to pick.”
    “Are we canning them?”
    “What’s the point?”
    “Gran.”
    The old woman bristled. “Spend all that time and effort, then not be around long enough to eat them?”
    “Whatever happened to sharing?” Cress jerked her head toward the window. “Helping your neighbors?”
    Gran eyed the designer houses lining the curving trail along what had been the back field not too long ago. Her expression made Cress laugh. “Not them. How about Mary? The Dumereses? Your friends. Or someone down on their luck.”
    “And Alex.” Gran nodded. “He likes homemade things. Has a real appreciation for them.”
    Seeing the perfect opportunity for botulism poisoning, Cress brightened. “I’ll bet.”
    Gran moved toward the shelf-lined pantry. “His mama had plenty to do, keeping food on the table once his daddy died. Not much time for home cooking, raising two boys on your own, working night and day. But she done good.”
    “What’s his brother doing?”
    “Trooper.”
    “Really? A Westmore that’s not cheating people out of their life savings?”
    Gran leveled her a stern look. “Alex did nothing of the sort.”
    “Mm hmm.” Cress moved sideways. Gran hated the idea that anyone second-guessed her judgment despite the obvious, and Cress wasn’t about to get into it. “Shall I pick?”
    Gran nodded toward the back shed. “There’s boxes inside the door, to the left. They’re better than baskets for tomatoes. Don’t want ‘em bruised. And don’t go more than three layers high, though if we’re doin’ ‘em right up, it probably don’t matter.”
    “Boxes. Three layers. Got it.” Cress headed for the stairs, her leg more cooperative than it had been when she climbed out of the car. “I’m going to change first.”
    “You looked real nice goin’ into town,” Gran approved. “Except for them shoes.”
    Cress kicked off the scuffed flats. “They’re the only ones I feel sure on right now. Well, except for my running shoes.”
    “When do you go for therapy?”
    “Same day you get your first chemo. What a pair.”
    Gran tipped her chin down. “We are that. Always have been.”
    No argument there. Cress knew where her tough nature sprang from, which meant living together might have interesting consequences. Mountain-leveling natural disasters came to mind.
    She shoved those thoughts aside. She could get along just fine with her maternal grandmother, about the only one in the family who could. She just had to stand firm, not get bossed about.
    “Time’s wastin’. Them tomatoes ain’t pickin’ themselves.”
    Fine, huh ? Stand firm? Cress climbed the stairs, choking down what she wanted to say and substituting, “I’m on it, Gran.”
    “And take a sweater,” Gran barked. “There’s a chill in the air.”
    The thermometer read seventy-three degrees. Cress tried to decide which of her sisters should meet their demise first, then decided Audra would be more