Lilies and Lies Read Online Free

side. The room whirled and she closed her eyes tight for a moment, before allowing them to slip open once more. Gunnar studied her as if she was a fish that had flopped up onto the shore. His breath, minty with gum, warmed her cheek. “I don’t see any blood though, no cuts, so that’s good, at least. But you’re really pale.”
    A kid loped up to join them. He seemed vaguely familiar, but Maddie couldn’t quite place where she’d seen him before. He looked a lot like Gunnar, only blond where Gunnar was dark, and brown-eyed to Gunnar’s grey. But they shared the same slope of a nose and chiseled edges along either side of their jaw that met at a deep cleft nestled squarely in the center of their chin. He surveyed the damage as a chocolate lab panted at his side. Both tilted their heads in the same manner, as if viewing the rude arrival of an alien spacecraft. The kid covered his mouth with one hand and his voice was muffled as he exclaimed, “Wow, look at Mrs. Johnson’s car. She’s gonna freak.”
    As the kid’s words washed over her, Maddie had an odd thought that he and Gunnar were cut from the same mold but colored with different crayons. Unbridled laughter suddenly bubbled up from the pit of her stomach. That was funny, wasn’t it…thinking of Gunnar colored with a crayon? The room began to whirl once again as the kid’s voice floated by once more.
    “Is she OK, Uncle Gunnar? She looks kind of wild-eyed. And that bruise…”
    “Get one of the ice packs from the first-aid kit. I don’t think we need to call 911. I assume they’re already on the way. I hear sirens. Someone must have seen the wreck and placed the call.”
    Sirens wailed, all right, and as they closed it, the shriek pierced like an ice pick. A quick, shaky glance toward the street told Maddie that cars had begun to pile up as people rubber-necked to get a glimpse of what had happened. Great, just great. Was that Mr. Robertson from the convenience store crossing the street? And Mrs. Tilson from the bakery?
    “I’m OK.” Maddie struggled from Gunnar’s grasp even as the ground swam beneath her feet. Suddenly, nausea made her feel as if she were being tossed along a storm-crazed sea. The room morphed to a walk-in freezer, though sunshine streamed through the gaping hole the truck had made when it crashed through the brick facade. What had once been two separate work bays was now crudely transformed to one…a beast with a gaping, toothless mouth. “Let me go. I should call my mom before she hears about this on the street. I don’t want her to worry.”
    “Sit down, first. I’ll phone Hattie.” Gunnar’s hand was warm in hers.
    Maddie breathed a sigh of relief as he settled her into a chair and then eased in beside her. The carousel she was on slowed a bit, but a chill continued to surge through her, gaining strength. Gunnar wrapped an arm around her shoulders as her teeth began to chatter, drawing her close to ease chills that coursed from her neck to her knee caps. “There, that’s better.”
    Maddie closed her eyes, praying for the room to stop spinning. Her throat tightened as flashbacks of the crash played like a slow-motion news reel through her mind. Bile burned through her belly as she choked, “I demolished your shop.”
    “You sure did.” Gunnar’s voice held steady, calm, with a slow, southern drawl. “But I have insurance. It can be fixed…eventually.”
    “But, your business, that blue car…”
    “Yeah, I’ll have to phone Mrs. Johnson, too. Kyle’s right—she probably will freak out when she hears the news.”
    “Mrs. Johnson— Vera Johnson?”
    “That’s right. We’ll break it to her gently…if that’s possible.”
    “Great.” Maddie groaned. She thought the car looked familiar, and now she knew why. Old Blue, as the car had long-ago been nicknamed, was ancient—most likely as old as Vera Johnson herself. The woman was a pillar of their church and had also been Maddie’s fifth grade teacher.