Read Online Shine On by Allison J. Jewell - Free Book Online Page B

They walked on in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own mind.
    Finally Walt continued, “Well, I guess my point is I really ain’t got nobody much to sell this ’shine I been making to… much less what you found in your pantry. I am going to get that out of your house though. I don’t like you having it,” he said.
    “Sure. You can just have it. You have helped me more than enough already. Want me to help you move it to the cave?” she asked.
    “No, I don’t want you to touch it. I’ll bring my truck over to your house and pick it up tomorrow morning, okay?” he asked.
    “Sounds fine. And Walter, thanks for all your help so far. I know you don’t have to take on my troubles,” she added and meant it. If he didn’t have a way to sell the moonshine he’d made in her cave, then he was paying her to make a paste these last couple of weeks that he didn’t really even need. It must have been his way of trying to help her. She’d have to think of some way to make it up to him.
    “One more thing Emmie.” He started walking again.
    “Are you sure there is no hope of you just taking up with Mr. Thomas?” he asked. “I know it’s none of my business. He could probably just pull the money you need right out of his safe, if he thought you might be Mrs. Thomas someday. It’d keep you out of all this ’shine talk.” He kept looking straight ahead.
    “There is not a snowball’s chance in Hades that I will ever be Mrs. Thomas, I promise you that. Anyway, he’s not too keen on the idea of me going to school. He thinks it’s a waste of time.” Emmie arched a brow hoping to end this part of their conversation.
    “Well, can’t say I’m surprised to hear it. I understand.” He ran his hands over his whiskers while he thought of what to say next. “Then I’ll just say, be careful around him. Don’t bring up nothing around him that relates to ’shining or would even make him think of ’shining. He don’t think much of it.”
    Emmie waited for Walt to go on but he didn’t seem to have anything else to say.
    “I gotta head on home. I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks again for working with Max.” Walt turned and headed toward his house. Emmie hadn’t walked another twenty-five feet when she heard a car slow down next to her.
    “Headed my way?” Silas asked leaning out the window of his car.
    “Actually, yes I am,” she said.
    “Want a ride?” He opened the door.
    “That’d be nice.” She stepped into the black Model T Ford and closed the door behind her.
    “So this is why your shoes are always dirty. You don’t have a car,” he smiled, changing gears.
    “My shoes are not always dirty.” She looked down at the layers of dirt creeping up her soles. Are they?
    He smirked, never looking up from the road.
    “And even if they were. It wouldn’t be a very gentlemanly thing for you to point out.” She crossed her arms trying to decide if she was mad or teasing him.
    “Sweetheart, make no mistake—I am not a gentleman.” He shifted gears again and the car picked up speed as it took them to Ava’s house.

Chapter Thirteen
    T hey drove for a bit in silence while she thought about what Walter had said. Who in the world would burn down Cliff’s barn? She knew Cliff from Ronnie’s church. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Did Ronnie have it in him to do something like that? Emmie also wondered how Walter knew Mr. Thomas’s opinion on moonshine. What she did know was Mr. Thomas would never tell her. She leaned down and started casually brushing the dust off her black Mary Jane heels.
    “Now don’t be getting all that dust in my car.” Silas glanced over at her, a smile peaking out the corner of his lips.
    “Oh shush, you infuriating thing. I can see you smiling, you know.” She pointed at his mouth. “Right there, I see the start of the forbidden Silas grin.”
    He laughed.
    She was starting to feel more at ease around him. In the last couple weeks since his apology they’d seen