Just Lucky that Way Read Online Free Page B

up."
    "Okay, let's start hauling this stuff out." Alex pulled on his gloves. "Not sure what most of it is."
    "Phil can figure that out." Zed grabbed a pile of the planks -- checking them closely for spiders -- and dragged them from the stall. Once he got them outside, he dropped them on the grass in the sun to see if they were worth saving or whether they'd be good for the July Fourth bonfire. He was sure that Alex, with his asthma, wouldn't last five minutes cleaning this up.
    "This is going to take forever, all these individual trips." Alex dropped a large board onto the ground.
    "Pfft. I'm going to steal the wheelbarrow. Stay here, I'll be back in a flash."
    Zed wandered over to where the girls were busy weeding and chatting -- gossiping, and he thought he heard Alex's name mentioned. They had the wheelbarrow, full of weeds and left totally unattended. Imagine leaving a wheelbarrow unattended around here, where anybody could walk up and...
    "Zed! Don't you dare!" one of the girls yelled.
    Zed didn't hang around to see who had yelled at him. "Damn it," he muttered and ran with the wheelbarrow rather than keep up the nonchalant, and hopefully unnoticeable, walk he'd started. He didn't need those girls to catch him. They had shovels and pointy things.
    He emptied the weeds on a compost pile and hid behind Alex, wheelbarrow still firmly in his grasp. "You deal with them; you know how their evil minds work."
    "Not the best hiding spot." Alex laughed. "But I'll do what I can to protect you from the girls."
    Zed peered over his shoulder at Tania and Becca. "Possession is nine tenths of the law," he shouted.
    "C'mon, we need it more than you do." Hands on her hips, scowl in place, Becca looked anything but demure.
    "Is there another one?" Alex asked. "It would speed up the cleaning -- less trips."
    "If there was another, we wouldn't be chasing you for that one." Becca looked accusingly at Zed and he took a step back.
    "You're just clearing weeds and branches and stuff right?" Alex smiled.
    Zed knew that particular smile well -- it was the one Alex used to charm and get his way.
    "Yes." Tania mimicked Becca's stance and scowl. "And what? You think because we're only doing yard work we can make several trips?"
    "That's not what I was thinking." Alex entered the barn.
    Without Alex for cover -- and moderation -- Zed was certain the girls would make a play for the wheelbarrow. He could see them eying it. He backed up a couple of steps.
    "You stay right there, Zdenek Roxbury." Becca had used his full name and sounded so much like Alex's mom right then that Zed did exactly as she said. Just as he always had when Alex's mom had used that tone on them when they were ten.
    Alex returned holding an old blue folded tarp. "You can lay this out and fill it. Then all you -- or Zed and I -- have to do is drag it. There might even be another one that you could fill with branches for the bonfire."
    "Why don't you use it then?"
    "With the stuff we have to haul, the tarp will be shredded in no time."
    "That's not new, is it?" Becca asked, backing away from Alex and the tarp.
    Alex shook his head. "At least it won't matter if you do wreck it."
    Mel and Kitty had ambled up while Alex had been talking. "Right, but what's nesting in it?" Mel asked.
    Alex rolled his eyes. "Nothing nests in plastic; it's cold, hard and inedible." He unfolded the tarp, his hand just missing a huge, black sleepy spider.
    The girls and Zed, who'd actually moved closer again, all took one step back.
    "Zed, take the opposite corners of this and give it a shake, will ya?" Alex asked, letting go of all but two corners and unfurling the tarp in Zed's direction.
    The speed with which Zed -- finally relinquishing his death grip on the wheelbarrow -- jumped backwards that time surprised even him. He bumped into Travis, who fell against Jon. Alex was clearly insane.
    "Sorry, guys." Zed pulled Jon to his feet. He now hid behind Jon and Travis, the spider more of a threat than the