“Yes,” she said. “Yes to everything.”
Chapter 31
The camping chair Ida was using was deeper than she would’ve imagined, and she suspected she’d have to have a hand getting out of it when the evening was over.
With Halloween a week away, the backyard was decorated with happy ghosts, fuzzy spiderwebs, purple-black lights in the bushes, and white rope lighting circling the expansive tree trunks around the yard. Three pumpkins, the last straggling survivors of her sister’s old garden, each one more imperfect than the other, lined the steps along the back porch. Pots of steaming chili and an assortment of fixings sat atop the porch table along with hot dogs and s’mores for roasting over the fire. Mr. Longtail was posed once again at the edge of the table, licking his paw indignantly after having been shooed away twice before.
The yard was filled with the rise and fall of laughter from people her sister would have enjoyed meeting. A crackling fire filled the yard with the pleasant smell of woodsmoke, reminding Ida of camping trips in Connecticut when her children were young, and of the circle of life.
Kurt returned from the house and passed Ida the blanket he’d gone inside to find. She thanked him and watched as he settled back down on the bench next to Kelsey on the opposite side of the fire and closed a hand affectionately atop her knee. The young couple exchanged a private smile before returning their attention to the lighthearted ghost story being told by one of the shelter volunteers.
Several kids sat on the ground on blankets in front of the benches and camping chairs, listening attentively. A few of them roasted marshmallows, while others were content to watch the dancing flames.
Having abandoned the table on his own, Mr. Longtail worked his way into the group through an opening in the edge. He walked over to a small girl with bouncy, angelic curls and sniffed noses with her. She giggled and pulled him onto her lap, which he tolerated surprisingly well, even though there was far more of him than her small, pretzeled legs could accommodate.
The girl buried her small hands deep in his long fur and babbled a string of adorations at him. From where Ida sat not far away, she’d almost swear the cat met her gaze. And if she knew anything at all, it was that the sparkle in his eyes was from more than the flickering light of the fire.
Order Debbie Burns’s next book
in the Rescue Me series
My Forever Home
On sale December 2018
Ida Greene’s Homemade Apple Pie
Ingredients
Pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie (Ida’s crust recipe is a family secret, so you’ll have to find your own)
½ cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup white sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
8 to 9 seasonal apples (Ida used Pink Lady and McIntosh), peeled, cored, and sliced
Directions
Prepare and ready pie crust, cutting lattice strips for the top. Store in fridge until needed.
Preheat oven to 425°F. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Gradually stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar, water, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
Place the bottom crust in the pie pan. Fill and mound with apple slices. Cover with a latticework crust. Gently and slowly pour the sugar-and-butter liquid over the crust so that it does not run off.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350°F. Continue baking for 30 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. Cover the top loosely with aluminum foil if pie begins to over-brown.
Enjoy, or share with your neighbor.
Author’s Note
While the High Grove Animal Shelter and the Sabrina Raven estate are fictional, St. Louis is full of diverse and charismatic neighborhoods, and some are highlighted in this story. A few of the South City shops and restaurants mentioned, like Gus’, a pretzel shop, and Hodak’s, one of the most popular fried chicken stops in the city, are real and worth a visit if you find yourself in St. Louis. The underground caves, old breweries, and empty lot believed to be an Underground Railroad site also mentioned are part of the town’s rich history. The characters in this book, human and otherwise, are fictional, though Mr. Longtail bears an uncanny resemblance to my family’s tetchy Maine coon–tabby mix.
Read on for a sneak peek at book 3 in Debbie Burns’s Rescue Me series
My Forever Home
Coming soon from Sourcebooks Casablanca
Chapter 1
After sixteen months backpacking and taking on seasonal jobs across Europe, Tess Grasso had racked up a healthy list of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Especially, she thought, for a twenty-six-year-old who, before then, had never been out of her home state. She’d been back in her hometown of St. Louis for a month, and even though she was no longer seeing famous works of architecture or artwork or meeting people from all corners of the planet every day, the list was still growing.
For instance, before this morning, she’d never traveled alongside a 103-pound Saint Bernard while crammed into the confining back seat of a 1969 Mustang. An oversize, invasive, drooly Saint Bernard.
Not that Tess minded. She’d been a die-hard dog lover ever since she could remember. She wasn’t much for classic cars or confining back seats, but snuggling with Fannie, the senior-aged Saint Bernard who belonged to the High Grove Animal Shelter until she was adopted, was almost fun. Tess had yet to renew her driver’s license, so it was that or her old Schwinn ten speed.
Today was Halloween, and the last half of Tess’s day was jam-packed. It was either miss seeing the High Grove Animal Shelter’s Halloween Pet-A-Palooza or catch a ride. She’d been hearing about the event nonstop for the past week and was excited to get
