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Back The Key to Everything Save as PDF
Contents ( 66)
  1. Cover
  2. Books by Valerie Fraser Luesse
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Map of Florida
  8. one
  9. two
  10. three
  11. four
  12. five
  13. six
  14. seven
  15. eight
  16. nine
  17. ten
  18. eleven
  19. twelve
  20. thirteen
  21. fourteen
  22. fifteen
  23. sixteen
  24. seventeen
  25. eighteen
  26. nineteen
  27. twenty
  28. twenty-one
  29. twenty-two
  30. twenty-three
  31. twenty-four
  32. twenty-five
  33. twenty-six
  34. twenty-seven
  35. twenty-eight
  36. twenty-nine
  37. thirty
  38. thirty-one
  39. thirty-two
  40. thirty-three
  41. thirty-four
  42. thirty-five
  43. thirty-six
  44. thirty-seven
  45. thirty-eight
  46. thirty-nine
  47. forty
  48. forty-one
  49. forty-two
  50. forty-three
  51. forty-four
  52. forty-five
  53. forty-six
  54. forty-seven
  55. forty-eight
  56. forty-nine
  57. fifty
  58. fifty-one
  59. Epilogue
  60. Keep Reading for a Preview of Valerie Luesse’s Next Book!
  61. Prologue
  62. one
  63. Acknowledgments
  64. About the Author
  65. Back Ads
  66. Back Cover

“I take it that doesn’t suit you?” Aunt Gert asked her.

“I don’t like lying. But more than that, it’s just so unfair to Peyton. He rescued me from my horrible cousin. He kept me safe. He risked so much for Bonnie and Jasper and found work so he could feed us all. It’s not right for my parents to treat him like every other boy in high school.” She reached over to hold Peyton’s hand under the table. “He’s not like them at all.”

“Here we go again.” Aunt Gert covered her face with her hands as if she just couldn’t face young love in her house again.

“Peyton, I don’t want to take the bus home,” Lisa said. “I want you to get your license and drive me. And when we get there, I want to tell my parents everything you did to protect me and get me home. I’ll figure out a way to keep Bobbie Ann out of it, but I want them to know what you did.”

Peyton leaned over and gave Lisa a kiss without a thought to his mother or his aunt or anything else.

“Oh, dear heaven!” Aunt Gert said.

“Anybody home?” Finn was at the kitchen door. Peyton jumped up from his place and hurried to open the door for him. “I hear you did yourself a little boatin’!” Finn said as he shook Peyton’s hand and clapped him on the back.

“You saved my life, Finn. You saved a bunch o’ lives with what you taught me. I sure do thank you.”

Finn shrugged it off. “Weren’t nothin’. ’Course, if you was to spread it around at the VFW, why, I wouldn’t object.”

“Pull up a chair,” Aunt Gert said. She fixed him a plate and a steaming cup of coffee as Peyton introduced him to Lisa and the children.

“I can’t believe I’m sitting at the table with you!” Lisa said with a big smile. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“All true, if it was good,” Finn said with a grin.

“Well then, it’s all true.”

“Oh!” Peyton’s mother got up from the table. “I almost forgot something. I’ll be right back.” She hurried out of the kitchen and came back with a small square box wrapped in navy-blue paper and tied with a white satin bow. “Happy belated birthday,” she said as she handed it to Peyton.

“Thanks, Mama.” He untied the bow and unwrapped the box, which held a key nestled on a bed of cotton. Peyton turned it over and over in his hand, then looked up at his mother.

“What is it, Peyton?” Bonnie asked as she chewed on her third strip of bacon.

“It’s a key,” he said.

“To what?”

Again, Peyton looked at his mother, who said, “A 1947 Chevy Fleetwood convertible. The color’s called Freedom Blue. Cream interior.”

Peyton and Lisa both squealed and jumped up from the table. He lifted his mother and twirled her around the kitchen. “But—where is it?” he asked.