Sierra Falls (Sierra Falls 1)

“It’s true. ” Sorrow sat in the window seat, balancing her plate on her knees. “He’s practically memorized this one. ”

“Well, I just think it’s the strangest thing,” Ruby said, trundling over to the buffet.

Pearl was right behind her. “If he misses the boy so much, he certainly has a strange way of showing it. ”

Judgment was thick in the women’s voices, but nobody took issue. Disapproval was a downright hobby for the Kidd sisters, and everyone was used to it.

Marlene eyed her aunts as they assembled their food, wondering how different their lives might’ve been if they’d married, had children, and gotten a taste of how difficult the whole business was. She wagered they wouldn’t have so much spare time in which to pass judgment.

Edith sighed. “Bear Senior is just…frustrated. He wishes he could do more—we all do. He hates that we’re not in more contact with our boy. ”

“Nah,” Sorrow said with a shake of her head. “Dad just wishes he could put on a uniform and go fight with him. ”

Edith gave a doting smile. “My husband is a man of action. ”

“Action?” Laura blew on her tea, stirring in three packets of Sweet’N Low. “A man of temper is more like it. ”

“Well, he should just say a little prayer when he feels his temper coming on,” Ruby said definitively, though she was mostly focused on assembling her selection of goodies.

Laura eyed the older woman’s plate. “How on earth do you stay so thin?” She caught Sorrow’s eye and muttered, “Maybe I should start praying more. ”

“It’s genes, dear. ” Pearl settled herself in the armchair and upped her voice a notch to address her ailing sister. “Isn’t that right, Emerald? We Kidd girls have good genes. ”

Marlene went to the table to make a plate of food for her mother. She saw that Laura still had only a cup of tea. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

Laura pulled an apple from her bag. “I’m eating. I’m good. ”

“An apple’s not eating,” Sorrow said. “Though it does look good. ” She picked at her cucumber sandwich. “I cannot wait till winter’s over—produce has really been sucking lately. ”

“Berries will be in season soon,” Ruby said cheerfully.

Marlene pulled a table over to her mother’s chair and put a plate of sandwiches and cookies before her. Patting her shoulder, she prompted in a clear voice, “Time to eat, Ma. I’ve got your favorites. ”

Emerald looked at the plate, and Marlene peered hard, anxious to see something flicker in the woman’s eyes. But still, there was just that horrible, devastating blankness.

Laura glanced at the clock on her cell phone, looking impatient. “We should get this show on the road. ” She pulled a manila folder from her bag. “So, for the festival, I went ahead and created a marketing plan. Nothing major, just some milestones that we’ll need to meet in the next few weeks, a tentative schedule of events, and a list of tasks and who they should be delegated to. ”

Everyone looked at her, shell-shocked expressions all around.

Laura shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep last night. ”

Sorrow held up a finger as she finished chewing, and the room seemed to hold its breath. “We need to learn more about her relationship with Buck Larsen before we finish planning. Like, did he ever return to Sierra Falls? That sort of thing. ”

Laura crunched her apple. “I still think we need a list of tasks and owners. There’s so much more to do than just arranging the annual bake sale. Like, we should compile a program. We could pull together some good Sorrow Crabtree quotes, add some old-timey photos. It’s easy to get a book like that printed up these days, and then we could sell it at the festival. ”

Sorrow gaped at her sister, and Marlene braced. Laura was taking charge, and it was only a matter of time before the tension ignited between the two. But Sorrow surprised the room when she said, “Laura, that is an awesome idea. ”

“It is,” Marlene agreed quickly. Anxious to keep the meeting so pleasantly civil, she steered them in a safe direction—one that didn’t involve words like publicity or strategies. “But Edith tells me you haven’t finished reading the letters yet. ”

“That’s the thing. ” Sorrow flipped through them thoughtfully. “I’ve tried. But there are a bunch of passages I can’t make sense of. ”

“That old-timey handwriting is a…”—Laura cut herself off, seeing Sorrow’s glance that silently warned language—“it’s a real pain in the tuckus. ”

“That’s where you ladies come in,” Edith said, addressing the older women.

Ruby pulled a lap blanket from the arm of her chair and draped it over her legs. “We’re not that old-timey, dear. ”

Pearl poo-pooed her. “You know what they mean. ” She turned to Sorrow. “Why don’t you read them, dear, then we can help make out the handwriting when you get stuck. ”