Read September Rain for Free Online Page B

Honey and whiskey too?”
    He didn’t react, but his eyes drifted closed in agreement, or resignation.
    “Okay,” she said hesitantly. “Then, I’ll fix you a bowl of soup. It’ll sit easy on your stomach.” She fetched him another cup of tea. After some searching, she found a second cup for herself on the back of a shelf, covered with dust. She washed it and made herself a cup of tea, adding honey, then with a wry smile tipped in a small splash of whiskey. She could use some relaxation, too.
    “Here you go. I can make more if you want it. Or coffee. I can make coffee. You stocked up well.” She glanced around the cabin. “How can you stand to stay up here alone all winter?”
    He took the cup from her hands and stared at her a moment, his eyes more violet than blue in the lantern light. Then, he glanced over at the bins and tins and sacks she’d lugged in from outside. His gaze touched her again, an assessing, considering look. His lips thinned for an instant and an odd light flickered in his eyes before he began sipping the tea.
    “I put your supplies away. I found where most everything goes. It was pretty easy. You’re fairly neat, for a man.” She allowed her voice to sound amused, but he didn’t react. “My father was not very tidy. I was always tripping over something of his.”
    Vaguely irritated at him for ignoring her efforts at friendly conversation, she swallowed the last of her tea and got up to tend the soup. It was ready, thick and redolent of onions.
    She dipped a generous serving into a bowl. There was one big spoon lying on the counter, so she picked it up and handed bowl and spoon to Jacob.
    He sniffed at it.
    “You don’t have to turn your nose up at it. It’s good soup. Nourishing too. It would have been better with some bacon, but I didn’t find any. I’d have made biscuits, but I didn’t know where the lard was.” She sat down and folded her arms. “Now eat it.”
    He glanced at her, then glanced toward the water bucket. Hallie followed his gaze to a tin beside it she hadn’t noticed before. “Oh. That’s the lard? Well fine. We’ll have biscuits tomorrow.”
    Surprise crossed his face and he turned his head gingerly to look out the window at the dark sky. His eyes closed briefly and he drew in a long breath. Then he started in on the soup.
    By the time he'd finished, his face was pale again and his eyes kept drifting closed.
    “You’re so tired,” she said, watching. “My daddy used to get tired doing the simplest things. Of course, you’re only bruised and sore. You’ll get better soon. After his first stroke, my father lost the use of his whole left side. He was like you, didn’t like being helpless.” Hallie took the empty bowl from Jacob and replaced it with a cup full of cool water.
    “Now you drink every bit of that water,” she admonished, and leaned over without thinking to put her palm against his forehead. It was something she’d done all the time for her father. The action brought her face into close proximity to his and when she touched his head he opened his eyes.
    For an instant, his half-lidded gaze froze her in place. His eyes, normally as hard and sharp as blue sky reflected in a knife blade, were softer. His expression could have been amused, or merely curious.
    Hallie licked her lips and his glance flickered downward. When it did she caught her lower lip between her teeth like a schoolgirl, then immediately realized what she was doing and stopped. What was the matter with her, acting like a girl with her first crush? She covered her self-consciousness with talk, like she always did.
    “You’re cooler now. See, I knew you needed liquids and some nourishment. You may not believe me, but I was a good nurse to my father those last months before he died.” Hallie felt a twinge of loneliness and regret. She’d lost her father two years ago when he’d had the stroke. The invalid she’d tended since then had borne very little resemblance to her