Wolf Creek Father (Wolf Creek, Arkansas Book 3) Read Online Free

children at the mercantile earlier, and I wanted to come and tell you the straight of it before you hear something that isn’t true.”
    “I see,” he said with a frown. “Have a seat.”
    * * *
    Half an hour later, she stepped inside Ellie’s open door and let her gaze move around the café. Without her glasses, everything looked soft and fuzzy, as if she were peering through a fog. She squinted in an effort to bring things into focus, but even without her glasses it wasn’t hard to spot familiar faces. Mousy Grace, plain and tall and all angles with a smile to rival an angel’s, and Ellie, exquisitely proportioned and with a face to match, were engaged in a serious conversation at the back of the dining room. Almost as one, they looked up and saw her in the doorway.
    “You’ve already heard.”
    “Sarah VanSickle was here,” Ellie said, moving toward her with open arms and an expression of sympathy.
    Allison’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “So much for Sarah’s vow not to indulge in any more hurtful gossip.”
    “Oh, she wasn’t really gossiping,” Gracie clarified, her pale blue eyes serious. Gracie never said a harsh word about anyone. “It’s just that she saw the whole thing and she said that those children needed a woman to take them in hand and one to take the sheriff to task, since it appears he has little control of them. She said it’s a wonder you weren’t really hurt.”
    “
Are
you all right?” Ellie asked, holding Allison at arm’s length.
    “I’m not sure.” Sudden weariness washed over her. The emotion that had carried her through the past hour had drained her and she wanted nothing more than to go back to her little three-room house across the railroad tracks and crawl into bed. Maybe the whole messy ordeal would turn out to be nothing but a bad dream.
    Drawing a fortifying breath, she pulled off her other glove and shoved both into her reticule. “I think I just sabotaged my future here.”
    “What?”
    “How?”
    Both Ellie and Grace spoke at once. Ellie pushed Allison toward a table and called for her daughter, Bethany, to bring her aunt a cup of coffee.
    The fortifying beverage delivered, Ellie said, “Tell us everything.”
    “I went to speak to the sheriff about what happened.”
    “What did he say?” Gracie asked, a frown furrowing her high forehead. She was the worrier of the group.
    “He said a lot of things, among them that I was in a snit and that maybe I didn’t like his children.” Recalling the menace he’d radiated as he glared at her across his desk, Allison gave a little shudder. “He’d already accused me of picking on Brady.”
    “What? When?” Gracie asked.
    “At the end of the year when I suggested that he and Brady work on his reading throughout the summer.”
    “Tell us what happened,” Ellie commanded in a gentle tone.
    They listened as Allison related her encounter with the sheriff. As she talked, Ellie’s smile grew broader.
    “It isn’t funny,” Allison said after she wrapped up the tale. “I’ve already talked to Homer, who was none too pleased.”
    “What on earth did you tell him?” Ellie asked.
    “Well, he already knew I’d spoken with the school board about the children on numerous occasions. I’d assured him I’d discussed things many times with the sheriff but that nothing changed.
    “Then I told him what happened at the store. He seemed shocked, and when I told him I’d confronted the sheriff, and that he and I had...words, Homer was not happy. I may lose my job over this.” She groaned and shook her head. “I can’t believe I lost control that way. I
never
fly off the handle like that.”
    “No one is perfect,” Gracie said. “And maybe if the mayor talks to Colt, he’ll be forced to do something about Cilla and Brady’s behavior.”
    “I pray you’re right.”
    “Well, I’m glad you told Colt just how dreadful his kids can be,” Ellie said. “I told him as much, too. And having been a victim