Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(9)

Her bed was already made. No longer was there a long line of stuffed animals arrayed across the pillows; his daughter had boxed them up a few years ago, declaring that she was too old for them. All but one: a mangy, spotted dog. She’d had it her whole life. Its name was Dog. Johnny closed the door and continued down the hall.

He heard the sounds of breakfast. Somehow, he’d managed to be the last one up. He was impressed. His mother, who had moved in with them shortly after Lilli’s mother’s suicide, was pulling hard rolls off a baking sheet. Breakfast in this Italian home had almost always been coffee or hot chocolate and hard rolls with jam. Sometimes polenta in the winter. Neither Mena nor his mother had been able to adapt to the American way of cold cereal or eggs and meat. Johnny knew that one of the reasons Lilli enjoyed occasional sleepovers at her friends’ houses was the chance to have brightly-colored, sugared cereal for breakfast.

When he came into the kitchen to pour himself some coffee, he saw Lilli packing up their lunch. She’d already filled their two big thermoses, too. She was dressed and ready. His girl. “Morning, Papa.”

“Morning, cara. I think you’re going to bag your first today. What do you think?”

She shrugged. “You always say that. I’ll try, Papa.”

“I know you will.”

His mother pushed him to the table. “Siediti, Gianni, avere qualcosa da mangiare.”

“Dirlo in inglese, Mamma. In English.” Natalia and Giovanni Accardo had immigrated to the United States with Johnny when he was three. They all became naturalized citizens, but she’d never assimilated well, and his father, enjoying the little piece of home in his home, had accommodated her refusal to learn English or any understanding of American culture. But his father had died ten years ago, and now his mother was Lilli’s primary caregiver. Lilli was old beyond her fifteen years, but he needed his mother to be able to handle crises on her own. Without the language, she could not. Sometimes, he thought that he’d only made things harder for Lilli by bringing her grandmother in to live with them. But he traveled a lot for work, and he could not leave his daughter alone. Her mother had already done that.

Besides, Lilli and her nonna had bonded tightly. They adored each other. And Lilli spoke fluent Italian and, under the tutelage of his mother, could cook and bake like a pro. Between the two of them, they’d packed fifteen pounds on him.

His mother sighed, and, in heavily accented but intelligible English, said, “Sit. Eat. I bake you bread.”

“Good, Mamma.” He sat with his daughter and mother and ate breakfast. Then he and Lilli went off on their hunting adventure.

oOo

Johnny was impressed by Lilli’s patience, her ability to be still for long periods. She took his instruction seriously, too. Though they enjoyed each other’s company very much, spent the long drive into the woods engaged in lively debates, and chatted easily during their lunch break, they could sit side by side in perfect quiet for hours.

He was watching her, feeling mesmerized with love for her, when she shifted slightly and brought her Remington rifle to her shoulder. He turned his head slowly and saw that she was sighted on a pretty nice buck. Looked like an eight-pointer. This was the second season he’d been taking her out. She’d sighted deer twice before, but had missed both times. He resisted the urge to talk her through this chance. He’d taught her what she needed to know. Right now, she was still and focused and seemed to be waiting for her shot.

She fired just as the buck heard something from another direction, and his position shifted. Her bullet hit him in the shoulder, and he went down. But it wasn’t a mortal hit. The buck was flailing and screaming, trying to get back on its feet. Lilli had to take the kill shot. He turned to her. She looked stricken, and he was afraid she’d lost her heart for this.

He started to raise his own rifle so that he could end the animal’s suffering, when in his periphery he saw her sight her rifle again. The buck was down and flailing. Not an easy shot. When she took her stilling breath, he felt it rather than saw or heard it. She fired, and the buck’s head dropped to the forest floor.

“Good, cara. Good.” He put his hand on her back. She looked pale and upset.

They walked over to the buck. The kill shot had gone through his eye. A perfect shot. He watched as she dropped to her knees and stroked the buck’s side. She was crying but trying not to.

He squatted at her side. “Good, Lilli. It’s good to feel your kill. You have taken a life. Remember that.

Guns are never toys. Never. When you point a gun at another living thing, you do it with purpose, and you do it to kill.”





CHAPTER THREE


Lilli woke from the dream on full alert, on her feet and on the defensive before she was fully conscious.

After a tense second, she realized where she was and concentrated on pushing the adrenaline surge down.

She woke like this three or four mornings a week, sometimes in the middle of the night, too, so the process was routine.

Better than coffee, she supposed, for getting the day started quickly.

By the ambient light in the room, she guessed it wasn’t long past dawn. She went to the dresser and fished her phone out of her pocket to check the time: 5:52am. Good morning, Signal Bend. She went into the shitty little bathroom.

Her stomach growled. She’d never had much of the burger she’d shared with Isaac last night, and it was pushing 24 hours since she’d eaten anything else. Plus, she might not strictly need coffee, but it was a nice start to the day nonetheless. Sadly, she had nothing in the house yet. Fuck.