July Thunder Read Online Free Page A

thank goodness Sam’s patrol car pulled up across the street just then. Escape was at hand. But then she noticed that Sam didn’t get out and come join them. Why not, if he knew this preacher?
    â€œThere’s nothing apocryphal about the Bible,” Elijah said sternly.
    â€œNot about its message, no,” she agreed, clinging to her smile. “However, I’m sure some of the stories are more illustrative than factual. But I have to go now, Reverend, so I’ll leave the Bible in your capable hands. Let me know if I can help with anything.”
    Except banning books in my school, she thought irritably as she crossed the street and climbed into the patrol car beside Sam. Then it struck her as odd that Sam hadn’t even climbed out to open the car door for her. That didn’t seem like him. What was going on here?
    â€œThat man,” she said as Sam pulled away from the curb, “is going to be a major thorn in my side, I know it.”
    â€œHe enjoys being a thorn,” Sam said levelly.“It’s his stock-in-trade. Don’t get into it with him, Mary. You’ll regret it.”
    â€œI have a feeling he’s going to want to ban books.”
    â€œProbably. He has everywhere else he’s been, as far as I know.”
    She turned in her seat and looked at him. “Sam, what’s going on? Who is he? Do you know him?”
    â€œI used to know him,” Sam said after a moment.
    â€œFriends? Relatives?”
    They were almost at the store before he responded. “He’s my father.”
    Â 
    A million questions occurred to Mary, but she didn’t voice them. The store simply wasn’t the place to have such a discussion.
    Sam pushed the cart for her while she selected items and dropped them into it. He seemed preoccupied, which gave her the opportunity to look his way frequently without being detected. He was a strong man in his mid-thirties, with a face attractively lined by exposure to the harsh mountain elements. His gray eyes, so unlike the icy-blue of his father’s, were warm, even now when he seemed low. And never, not once, had she ever found him to be anything but kind.
    A remarkable man. A handsome man. One who would give women little heart flutters simply by smiling. As well she knew.
    She remembered his late wife only slightly, a petite dark-haired woman with a thousand-watt smile who always seemed to be laughing. Sam must sorely miss her. Which, she told herself sternly, was one of the best reasons to ignore those little flutters.
    Besides, marriage wasn’t for her. She didn’t deserve such happiness.
    But she owed Sam something for going out of his way, so she picked up extra for dinner, determined that he was going to eat with her tonight. No matter what he said. No reason for him to go back to his empty house, and no reason for her to spend the evening alone, worrying about that preacher across the street. Besides, it would give her an opportunity to ask one or two of those millions of questions that kept popping up in her mind.
    At the very least, learning about Sam Canfield would keep her mind off her own problems.
    Which, she told herself, was a very selfish way to think. Okay, so she was selfish. Maybe it would be good for both of them to talk a little.
    But nothing more than that. Not ever.

3
    S am helped carry Mary’s groceries in for her. From across the street, where the moving activity had ended, leaving only a locked-up trailer in the driveway and a battered Oldsmobile parked out front, he could almost feel his father’s eyes boring into his back.
    Elijah wasn’t in sight and might not even have been there, but Sam could still feel his presence and had to steel himself not to dart any looks in that direction. For all he knew, the old man was staring out a window at him.
    Although why Elijah would do that, he couldn’t imagine. He hadn’t cared to look on Sam’s face in fifteen years, and he