Oh, don’t get me wrong, I hadn’t always known what I was. People complained about having deadbeat fathers or skeletons in their family’s closets. Giddy with my reprieve, I revved up the truck and drove off. “Go home, Catherine Crawfield, and get that tail light fixed.” Finally he smiled, exposing a crooked front tooth. His large belly strained against the fabric of his shirt, but I refrained from comments about his girth or the fact that he smelled like beer. He fingered his belt as he considered me. “Could we just keep this between us, sheriff?”īack to the guileless blinking of my eyes. My humanity tended to shed like a disposable skin when I got angry. In today’s society, you wouldn’t think it mattered, but Licking Falls, Ohio had its own set of standards. Just like your mother, aren’t you? It wasn’t easy being illegitimate in a town so small, people still held that against you. An unspoken accusation hung between us, over twenty-two years in the making. The innuendo was blatant and I almost lost my cool. His gaze took in my tight top and disheveled hair. “And you’re driving around this late because you couldn’t sleep?” Relief crashed through me when he ceased his explorations and returned to my window.

That’s why I carry them in this old truck. With his flashlight he poked at a plastic lump. If my heartbeat were any louder, it would deafen him. “Bags of cherries from my grandparent’s orchard.” To my dismay, he ambled to the bed of the truck and shined his light in it. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided I’d drive around.” I could tell him the truth about my activities, except I didn’t want to sign on for hard time. Politely and blandly, as if I didn’t have a care in the world. You’re Justina Crawfield’s girl, aren’t you? From the Crawfield Cherry Orchard?”

He shined his flashlight back and forth between the identification and my face. I handed him my real license, not the fake one. Speed had been of the essence then, not daintiness. That must have happened when I was loading up the truck bed. You know what happens when you get upset. My tone was all innocence while I prayed there was nothing unusual about my eyes. I pulled over, holding my breath as the sheriff came to my window. I stiffened at the red and blue lights flashing behind me, because there was no way I could explain what was in the back of my truck. The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance, March 2009Įxcerpt of Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost Halfway to the Grave with Bonus Material:, October 2011 Comic Con 2011 Romance Sampler, October 2011

Halfway to the grave