Tin Moon by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2024-04-16T17:06:50+00:00

In The Light Of Day

1925-1926

"L uz needs you again when you've got time," I mentioned as we pulled the covers aside and slid into bed.

Rathe stretched out, rubbing his hands through his hair and down his face. "I've been out there a lot lately."

"Is it bothering you to go?" I rolled over, facing him, my head lying on the crook of my arm.

"I guess not. People are starting to talk, though. I don't like it."

"People always talk. If they stopped, they might forget how to be people."

He closed his eyes. "I think I'd like that for a while."

"I've been thinking..." I was worried how Rathe would react to my idea, so I just blurted it out in the open. "That cabin ain't gonna last much longer without a serious hand."

He grunted in agreement.

"What if Luz sold it, got the money while there's something workable to sell, and...moved here with us?"

"What?" Rathe sat straight up, shaking his head, waving his hands. "Holy God, Nora, people gonna think I done married twice. I can't have two grown women under one roof. She ain't family!"

"Well, neither is Jonathan, but we made him family." I sat up and grabbed his hand in mine. "Luz is no different. She and Raymond could be happy here."

"It ain't her house," he whined, pulling his hand free.

"Could be." Lying down, I rolled over, turning my back to Rathe, and added, "There was a time it weren't my house, either."

"Oh!" he moaned, falling backward until his body bounced into the bed. "I'm sure Luz can be happy right where they are. Why is this so important to you?"

"Because..." My voice choked in my throat.

When Rathe realized I was fighting back tears, he propped up on his elbow and leaned over me, whispering, "Tell me what's wrong." He rubbed his cheek in my hair slowly.

"When I'm with Luz, that part of me that I thought was gone or blackened out forever kind of sparks, like maybe there's hope that a piece of my heart didn't really die off and shrivel away."

I had cried every day for a year after losing Shailene, but this was the first tear Rathe had seen fall in her memory. It was my best-kept secret. I cried while milking the cows, and scrubbing the floors, and beating the rugs. But never when anyone was truly watching.

Rathe nodded. "Worst thing in my life is watching you grieve. You don't do it the way everyone else grieves. They're angry and they cry and spit at the world. But you... It rips a piece of you away from me every day. And it has, Nora, every day for the last four years."

I hadn't realized he was watching so close, studying me and getting to know me so well. Wanting to say something, like apologize, or tell him I could be better, I rolled onto my back, looking up at him, and started to interrupt his sweet words.

Instead, he held up his hand. "Don't. You don't need to make excuses to me.

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