Shine On Read Free

Emmie said.
    “Yes, but my napkin isn’t see-through when wet,” Ava countered.
    “Point taken. From now on, swimsuit it is.” She nodded in agreement.
    “So who is that down there?” Emmie didn’t think there was anyone in Ava’s family she hadn’t met over the years.
    “The first fool that talked to you was Patrick or Trick, ignore him. The guy that gave you the jacket is Silas. They’re my cousins. Mom’s brother’s boys,” Ava answered.
    “Girls, dinner’s ready,” Molly called from downstairs.
    “Are you going to be okay? No permanent damage?” Ava asked half kidding.
    Emmie shrugged, “Not the worst thing that’s happened in the last few months.”
    She grabbed Silas’s jacket and headed down the stairs. The boys were already seated at the table when the girls walked in the dining room. Everyone’s plates were already full and an easy conversation filled the air by the time they made it downstairs. Emmie nonchalantly dropped Silas’s coat on the back of the chair and took her seat next to Ava.
    Al’s eyebrow arched in question. He opened his mouth to say something. Molly smiled and put her hand on his, silencing him with a look. He frowned, glancing at Silas but he said nothing. Molly formally introduced her nephews to Emmie, as if nothing had happened. Silas nodded hello playing along with the introduction but Trick was not so polite. Emmie swore his face may actually split open, he had such a wide smile. She felt shades of embarrassment coloring her cheeks again. Thankfully the phone at that moment started to ring.
    The guys at the table visibly tensed as Al walked over to answer the call. His voice was clipped and quiet. She couldn’t make out what he was saying. Vince and Silas moved nearer to him. When he put the receiver down he spoke to them quietly. They nodded. Silas motioned for Trick and Gabe to join him. Vince headed for the door.
    “Excuse us, Aunt Molly. Dinner was great but we’ve got to head back to the office,” Silas said.
    “Oh Al, surely they don’t need to go right this second. We just sat down,” Molly sighed, annoyed with her husband.
    Al put a hand up to silence her. Molly sighed and sat back down, “They’ll be back soon.”
    Then he walked the guys outside, returning a few minutes later alone. Emmie looked over at Ava with an unspoken question. She shrugged. Dinner passed in forced conversation.
    After the meal the girls relaxed on the upstairs sleeping porch. It felt so normal. Talking, laughing, and listening as the birds’ songs turned into the hums of nighttime bugs. They relaxed in a comfortable silence for a while before Ava began to speak. Emmie expected her to turn the conversation to the pool shenanigans this afternoon but she didn’t. Instead she focused on the topic that Emmie had spent the last few months avoiding.
    “Emmie,” Ava started, “what happened to Ronnie? We heard there was some kind of accident.”
    She took a long breath. “I don’t really know, Ava. Sheriff Drake found him in his car. It hit a tree and caught on fire, I guess.”
    “Do you think he’d been into his ’shine again?” One of Ava’s red pin curls came loose and fell into her eye. She brushed it back and looked at her friend intently.
    “He was always in the moonshine. It was late at night. I was already in bed.” She picked at a thread on the quilt she was wrapped in.
    “You think he may have been up to something?” Ava arched an eyebrow. When Emmie didn’t say anything, she continued.
    “Remember that time we found those jars in your cellar? I’m sure they were moonshine,” Ava said.
    “Yeah, well. We know he drank. No surprise there, Ava,” she said.
    “I suppose you’re right. I’m trying to think why he was driving around those fields after midnight.” She pondered for a moment. Then she immediately changed subjects—as her brain was often inclined to do. But Emmie’s mind didn’t leave the topic so easily. Why was he in those fields so