The Haunting of Autumn Lake Read Online Free

was certain the dessert she’d made for Ransom would be divine, but it was to distract herself from Autumn’s maturing—that was the true reason she was determined to have Autumn inspect the dessert. Though she wanted nothing more than to hold her daughter in her mother’s embrace forever, she knew it was not God’s plan. Vaden did not doubt that her own mother had been heartbroken to let Vaden and her sister Yvonne leave to spend a year helping their Uncle Dan and Aunt Myra in the general store in town. Yet how grateful Vaden was that her mother had let them go—else she might not have met the man of her every sleeping and waking dream, Ransom Lake.
    At the very thought of Ransom, Vaden’s arms and legs rippled with goose bumps—the wild goose bumps of delightful anticipation. Her mouth began to water with desire as well—and not from the delicious scent of the apple dessert she’d made.
    Vaden glanced up to the kitchen door, hoping Ransom would walk in at any moment. But she knew it took time to care for the team. She would have to be patient.
     
    “Oooo! They’re pink!” Autumn exclaimed upon seeing the dessert her mother had made. And it was true. There, lying in a large baking dish, were twelve wonderful-looking and ambrosial-smelling cinnamon roll–type desserts. Autumn’s mouth watered as she bent and inhaled deeply of the cinnamon-nutmeg scent of the rolls.
    “Apple fruit rolls, they’re called,” Vaden explained. “It’s the recipe Yvonne wrote to me about. Don’t they look simply delectable? And it’s the cinnamon candy that makes them pink. It’s part of the recipe…a sweet syrup made from the cinnamon candy, sugar, water—”
    “Oh, Mama!” Autumn sighed as she inhaled once more. “They smell scrumptious! Daddy will love them!”
    Autumn watched her mother’s eyes twinkle with overpowering admiration and love for her husband. “I hope so.”
    Autumn grinned. She could not resist the temptation to tease her mother—for Vaden Lake owned a young heart, even for the few gray hairs on her head and the soft wrinkles at the corners of her mouth.
    “Oooo! Maybe Daddy will sweep you away on the wings of temptation’s seductive bliss over these apple fruit rolls,” Autumn giggled.
    She smiled as her mother blushed and placed one hand on a hip. “Autumn Lake! Where ever did you hear such talk?”
    Autumn shrugged. “I read it somewhere…in that poetry book Daddy gave you last Christmas, I think.” And as her mother opened her mouth to lovingly scold her, Autumn added, “And don’t pretend you’re astonished, Mama. I’ve seen the way you and Daddy carry on.”
    Vaden smiled. Autumn knew her mother wasn’t insipid. Vaden Lake was too smart to pretend she didn’t know what her daughter was talking about.
    “I’m a lucky woman, Autumn,” Vaden said. “It’s not every woman who enjoys a passionate love affair through the course of her entire life. Your father and I…we—”
    “Kiss the way no one else in this town ever does. Of that I’m certain,” Autumn interrupted as she tentatively dipped a finger in the sticky fuchsia syrup surrounding the fruit rolls.
    “I’m certain of it too,” Vaden agreed, plunging her own index finger into the syrup.
    “Mmmmm!” both women exclaimed in unison.
    “You’ll have Daddy entirely bewitched tonight with these in his tummy, Mama,” Autumn giggled.
    Her mother winked at her. “I certainly hope so, baby girl. I certainly hope so.”
    Autumn glanced to the kitchen door then as her father entered through it. Instantly her mother’s face lit up as brightly as any electricity bulb Mr. Edison had invented.
    “It smells so good in here, Mrs. Lake,” Ransom said, kissing Autumn on the cheek and then moving to Vaden. “Good enough to eat somethin’ up.”
    Vaden giggled as Ransom took her in his arms, kissing her squarely on the mouth. “Well, I hope so, Mr. Lake,” Vaden said. “I’ve worked all day just to—”
    But her words