A Shiver of Wonder Read Online Free

was pruning his trees, and
that was it for the independence. One knee went out, and then the
other, and everything else in his body apparently decided to follow
suit.”
    Genevieve’s eyes hadn’t left his. “That’s
sad.”
    “I know. I try to make him happier, but it’s
tough. I’ve even brought him some of that Bourbon Chocolate Tipsy
Cake of yours, which is his absolute favorite, but then he just
starts going on about all the things he can’t eat
anymore.”
    “Oh! That’s really sad.”
    David couldn’t help but grin. “We tried
playing cards today. When I was a kid, he always used to let me win
at Uno and War. It made me happy, even though I hadn’t known at the
time he was doing it. Today, I let him win – bottom dealing
and such – but nothing will make him happy. He’s just… He
just wants it to be over, I think.”
    Genevieve glanced away from him, toward a
picture window that overlooked the town, and David found himself
doing the same. It was an incredible view, for The Restful Nook sat
atop a low hill, cattycorner from the amphitheater in the public
square. The multitude of trees appeared as a rolling carpet; a
slight haze above the distant farmland induced a mystical aura; the
square itself was humming with Saturday activities.
    “May I ask who you’re here to visit?” David
said without turning toward her.
    “Abby Lowell,” she replied, also still
gazing outside. “I call her my angel. She taught me art once, and
when I opened Gâteaupia, she became one of my first customers. She
told all of her friends that they had to come in and try my cakes,
so they did. And then she told them to tell all of their friends. She’s bought cakes for schools, for her clubs, for her
church, for everything, really. I’ve never had such a booster. I
adore her, and I try to come every week to see her.”
    “She doesn’t sound that old.”
    “She’s not! She’s our age or younger, just
stuck in a 76-year-old’s body.”
    David turned to look at her, struck suddenly
with a surge of admiration for this successful businesswoman who
still made time for those people in her life who had helped her become successful. She was definitely a bit forbidding, but
yet at the same time he wished he could have been more like her.
Her confidence in herself, her obvious ability to choose a path and
stride down it, remembering the steps she’d taken and not
second-guessing each move, not making wrong moves that she
would then spend years ruing.
    Genevieve’s head tilted toward him. “Lydia’s
going to be jealous. She thinks you’re cute.”
    “Lydia?”
    Again, she laughed. “The girl with the
purple streak in her hair and a hummingbird tattooed on her
shoulder.”
    David couldn’t help but look delighted.
Lydia was his favorite server at Gâteaupia. Bright eyes, a raunchy
wit, a penchant for making every type of cake sound like the best
type of cake.
    “I think you’re cute, too,” Genevieve added.
“And maybe I’ll see you in the store again sometime soon.”
    She tapped his shoulder as she passed by,
but her eyes lingered on his until she was a few feet away.
    David decided that he could walk back to the
Rainbow Arms instead of taking the trolley. He could think, and
then perhaps he and Johnson could meander back into town for a
piece of cake.

Chapter Five
    Thirty-three hours after Detective Ormsby
had so rudely awakened him with his barrage of knocks and brusque
queries, David was enjoying the mid-afternoon sun in the courtyard.
Johnson lay dozing by his feet; the fountain was murmuring
pleasantly; his newspaper lay on the bench at his side, its
contents perused, mulled over, and digested. Obviously, the story
of Heck Vance’s killing hadn’t made the Thursday papers, but
Friday’s edition was practically about nothing else.
    David had worked at home on Thursday –
Ormsby’s warning aside, it had been his original plan – but this
morning, he’d spent several hours at the Culpepper Mills