New release sample: BRIGHTEN YOUR CORNER
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“He claims I broke his heart,” Cilla said, punctuatedby the snap of the measuring tape as it retracted back into its case. She snickeredas she wrote down the measurements of the display window.
“Grandpa should have broken his head.” Melba chuckled.“Our grandparents had that big old house the Gallery took over. We used to havesleepovers, all the cousins, maybe once a month. Ernie decided he would play Romeoand tossed rocks at the dormer windows to get Cilla’s attention. The problem is,he used really big rocks and broke Grandpa and Granny’s bedroom window. The bigbuffoon actually refused to pay to replace the window, because he claimed Grannyinsulted his family, getting her landscaping rocks from someone else. Can you believethat?”
“Ernie’s father and uncles had a landscaping business,”Cilla explained.
“Well, that’s a chunk of Cadburn history I neverheard,” Tracy said, punctuated with a chuckle. “So Miss Cilla, you’re a heartbreaker,are you?”
“There’s gotta be a heart to break,” she muttered,and stepped over to the built-in counter that divided the front room in half, lengthwise.She extended the measuring tape down the long side and paused to run her fingersover the dings and gouges and dents and what certainly looked to Melba like burnmarks in the wood.
“Some common sense would have been nice, too,”Melba added. “Remember the time he showed up to take you on a date, and he wouldn’ttake no for an answer because he had paid Boyd for the right to take you out? Hewanted exclusive access to you for the entire week.”
“Wait,” Tracy said. “Who’s Boyd?”
“Our money-grubbing cousin.”
“Makes those stereotyped ambulance-chasing lawyerson TV look like Boy Scouts,” Cilla added. Then she giggled. “Remember the time hetried to convince Aunt Myrna to join some pyramid scheme, and when she didn’t givein fast enough, he stole the old glass piggy bank where she put her egg money? Shewent chasing after him with her rolling pin and he fell going down the steps and…” Her laughter faded into a sigh and she shook her head. “Oh, my, listen to me.Gossiping.”
“It’s not gossip if you’d take Ginny’s adviceand put all those family memories into a book and sell it as humor,” Melba said.
“And get sued by three-quarters of the familyfor embarrassing them.”
“They did it to themselves!” She snickered. “Wereally should. Even if it’s just as a joke. Let’s talk to Charli Hall, since sheknows writing. Or Saundra Bailey. What do you say?”
“It might be fun,” Cilla admitted and chuckled.
