Free The Haunting of Autumn Lake by Marcia Lynn McClure Page B

of the girl’s pretty eyes. What the hell was he talking about? He sounded like an idiot! She softened him too much, that was for dang sure. He wondered for a moment if it really were Autumn Lake that was softening him up—or was it just his weakened state of body?
    He looked away from her and back to the empty plate before him. “Well, I’m sure your mama will like the paintin’,” he said, pushing the plate across the table and leaning back in the chair as a frown furrowed his brow.
    “I-I hope so,” she mumbled.
    The sound of her voice was strange, and he glanced up to see her staring out the window. He thought she looked as if the color had drained from her face a bit.
    Following her gaze, he saw that several young men were standing just outside the window. They looked to be about his own age.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Do you know them fellas?”
    “Um…yes…of course,” she stammered. Gentry looked back to her as she quickly closed her sketchbook and cast her gaze to the floor. “I-I grew up with them. They’re local boys,” she explained.
    “Well, why do you look like you’ve just seen a…” he began.
    “A ghost?” she finished for him.
    “Mm hmm,” he confirmed.
    “Because for a moment, I saw somethin’ pass by the window…and I thought it was the Specter at first,” she said. He noticed the way her eyes lit up with an extra sparkle as the color returned to her face a bit.
    “The Specter?” he asked, voluntarily taking her bait.
     
    Autumn sighed with relief at the fact Gentry had seemed to believe her fib. She hadn’t thought she’d seen the Specter at all—but she had seen Riley Wimber peeking through the window. He and three other young men from town were standing right outside Doctor Sullivan’s house—right outside the patient room window. A cold shiver had washed over Autumn when she’d seen Riley looking in at her, but she didn’t want Gentry James to know what a fraidy-cat she was—or what secret suspicions she’d been keeping from her parents. Therefore, when he’d asked her what was the matter, she’d lied and blamed it on the Specter.
    “Gentry James!” she began, as if scolding. “Are you tellin’ me that no one has told you about the Specter yet?”
    Gentry shook his head, and Autumn sighed—dazzled by the way his hair moved across his forehead and eyes when he did.
    “Nope,” he said. “I mean…I heard somethin’ or other about a rider that the schoolteacher’s sister saw out in a cornfield or some such thing…but I didn’t realize it was supposed to have been a ghost or whatnot.”
    Autumn smiled, all her concerns and worries about Riley Wimber vanishing as quickly as a puff of smoke. “Well then, Mr. James…why don’t you sit back and let me tell you the tale?” she offered.
    He chuckled and nodded as he did indeed lean back in his chair. Proper or not, Autumn couldn’t keep from tucking her legs up to one side under her dress as she leaned toward him and began, “It was a love triangle that started it all, you know.”
    “Oh, it usually is,” Gentry mumbled.
    Autumn loved the way he mumbled—loved the way his perfect lips moved when he did.
    “You see, about thirty years ago…there was this young cowboy who rode into town one day,” she explained in a whisper. “But he wasn’t all shot up like you were, Mr. James.” She shook her head and continued, “No, sir. He was just a young cowboy lookin’ for a place to weather out the autumn and winter. Seems he’d been fired from the ranch he’d been workin’ on…because the boss’s daughter had fallen head-over-heels in love with him, and the boss didn’t approve of his daughter lovin’ a cowboy. So this cowboy rides in to town one day, lookin’ for work or somewhere he can wait out the bad weather seasons. His name was Ritter Houston…but folks just called him Ritt…and it was said he was as handsome as the summer was hot and long.” Autumn sighed and looked down to