A Shadow on the Ground by Rebecca Lee Smith Page B

hand. “You just sleep now. Everything will be okay.”
    Morgan left quietly and joined Ethan in the living room. “You’re right,” she said. “He’s hammered. Where'd you find him? Bad Moon?”
    “In the back booth with the Wheeler twins, toasting Dad with Jaeger shots. Peach got Ralph to close for her. She insisted on coming with us. From the looks of things, Sean is her latest target. God help him.”
    “What were you doing at Bad Moon? I didn’t think you liked bars.”
    Ethan sat on the wide ottoman. He blinked his pale white-blue eyes. “I...I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. I sublet my apartment above the feed store to stay with Dad, and I was going crazy in his house. I kept walking from room to room.”
    “You should have called me.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “No, I should have called you. I was going to, but I—”
    “I keep seeing him lying in all that blood.” Ethan shook his head. “I can't stop thinking about it.”
    She sat next to him. “I know. It doesn't seem real, does it? What happened to him, Ethan? He was walking toward the barn this morning after breakfast, and he looked fine.”
    Ethan raked a lock of brown hair back from his face. “I don’t know. You know he's been taking a blood thinner since he had the clot in his leg last summer. The coroner said if the dosage had been too high, he could have died of hemorrhagic shock due to excessive bleeding. Maybe he screwed up and took too many pills. You know how distracted he's been. They're gonna—” He stopped and sucked in air. “They're gonna do an autopsy. Christ, Morgan, they're slicing him up like a slab of meat.”
    She couldn’t help thinking what an ironic turn of events that was, since Harlan had spent most of his life doing the same thing to cows and pigs.
    “I don’t think I can stand it,” he said.
    Morgan put her arms around him. “They have to find out what happened. You want to know what happened, don't you?”
    “Yes, but—”
    He pulled back and looked at her. In the soft amber glow of the Tiffany lamp, he looked almost handsome. Especially when he smiled. He had his father’s smile, so wide and appealing, it lit up his whole face. His lips were a little puffy, and slightly out of proportion with his thin, narrow jaw. But nice. She had kissed those lips. More than once. But over the years, the memory had faded until it seemed as if it had happened to someone else. Even now, gazing into his eyes, she could barely believe the two fumbling teenagers in the cab of his father’s Ford Ranger pickup had been them.
    “Hey, girl,” he murmured. “How come you're always around when I need you?”
    “Because we're friends. Good friends.”
    “Best friends.”
    They hugged again, and this time he held her longer. His hands radiated a soothing warmth through her thin cotton shirt. Wouldn't life be simpler if she could fall in love with Ethan Spannagel, the sweet, mild-mannered owner of the local feed store? She could live out her days in the mountains, happy and content, the wife of a man who sold goat chow and fertilizer for a living. If he kept her picture in a drawer beside his bed, he might still feel something for her.
    Sometimes she caught him looking at her shyly, longingly, as if he thought they could pick up where they'd left off the summer before her junior year at UT. They'd dated most of June and July, hanging out together, even parking on the south side of Chestnut Ridge for a few clumsy make out sessions. But the attraction had cooled quickly. At least for Morgan. Any budding romantic notions she might have felt for Ethan Spannagel evaporated the night they ran over a rabbit on Barkerstown Road, and he cleaned and served it for lunch the next day.
    Peach tiptoed out of the sunroom and dropped onto the sofa. “I’m worn out.”
    “How is he?” Morgan asked.
    “Fine.” Peach leaned back and sighed. “God, I love that man. I'd do anything for him. Even if he is snoring like a