Free Everlong by Hailey Edwards Page A

This was not good. Impatiently, I crammed everything back into place. The hooked closure on the backpack snagged my sleeve, tumbling the bag onto the road and tipping its contents when I yanked my arm away. Items skittered across the pavement to lie still beneath the truck.
    I had parked on an incline designed to guide rainwater into the ditches off to either side of the road. Bending down to retrieve my bits and not-so-valuable pieces, I lost my balance and braced my weight on the running board. Hinges groaned as the door swung closed, hitting my back in the gap where jeans and jacket didn’t meet. I felt a searing stripe of pain where a deep line was scored across my spine.
    “Un-freaking-believable.” I stretched upwards to relieve the ache, taking the partially closed door in hand. Tensing my arm, I slammed it shut and rocked the truck with my irritation.
    Suddenly, dread niggled at my senses. I pulled up on the door handle, but it refused to budge. I knew what I would see as I cupped my hands against the glass to peer inside. Yep. There they were. My keys dangled blatantly in the ignition.
    Thump, thump, thump . My forehead hit on the glass several times. I spun around and collapsed against the truck, staring down the empty road. Bleak old-growth oak trees strung with moss lined both sides of the pavement. Flickering shadows prowled beneath the canopy of leaves. Automatically, I rubbed my arms to quell those prickles riding my skin in the rising chill. There was no way I wanted to be trapped out here alone. So much death, even peaceful death, was eerie.
    I felt insane for driving out to pay homage to a blank marker and the barren grave. Emma had insisted this empty symbol would give me a sense of closure. Harper’s funeral rites had been performed there too, but I’d forbidden the colony to add his name to the marble. To see it etched in stone would have broken me in the early days. Even now, I wasn’t too keen on the idea.
    Screened behind the grove of trees, a black wrought-iron fence ran the length of the road and towered over the sloped banks dropping into the deeper of the two drainage ditches. The guard shack sat at the edge of my vision, welcoming visitors to the cemetery.
    Scooping the last of my belongings off the pavement under the truck, I slung the bag over my shoulder. Taking a deep breath of cold air, I moved towards the lights. Soggy gravel crunched at every step of my tennis shoes. I had only covered half the distance down the lane when the bottom of the threatening storm fell out.
    Wind whipped at my skin as it drove solid pellets of rain in stinging slaps on my neck and face. Thunder crashed as lightning brushed veined fingers across the sky. The dim glow of light called to me from a few hundred yards ahead. I ran, slipping and sliding over ground undecided whether it wanted to refreeze or melt.
    The toe of my right sneaker touched on a patch of ice and sent me skating the last few feet until my outstretched hands smacked into the thin metal wall of the guard shack. Through the window centered in the door, I saw Jacob Mathews sitting at his desk, newspaper in hand, staring back at me. I gave a weak wiggle of my stinging fingers as he came over to investigate.
    “Madelyn.” He greeted me warmly, stepping aside to allow me to enter. “Nasty day for paying visits.”
    “Hey, Jacob.” I skirted around his body while he partially blocked the door. “It’s just tradition, I guess. I always drive up the day after.” My shoulder brushed against his chest, and he sucked in a harsh breath. “Are you okay?”
    He rubbed the spot and grinned. “I’m about to be.”
    I returned the smile, uncomfortable, but uncertain how much to blame on my lack of social graces versus any intentions he might have had for making me feel that way.
    Jacob’s khaki uniform strained over a thickly muscled chest, leading to a tapered waist that put mine to shame. I tried not to stare, but the proportions weren’t quite