I never saw my father eat any watermelon. The women in the family would wolf watermelon slices and politely pull out the seeds. The Culp family up the...road on the hill had a family farm. They grew corn for the critters, vegetables to feed the hungry hoard, strawberries for Mrs. Culp and watermelon for the local farm boys. Mrs. Culp was cooking, yakking on the party line phone or working Dallas (father of ten kids) on her steel framed bed covered with a horsehide mattress. Dallas didn’t have a. "Hope these little guys still work." He snapped the revolver's cylinder into place with a single, skilled movement. Together, they pushed their way through the raging storm, weapons extended, until, more than an hour later, they reached the mine's snow covered parking lot.Surprisingly, the Starfire was exactly where they had left it hours earlier. They approached the car cautiously, searching for any sign of movement. Still clutching the J frame with one hand, Finn fished the keys out of his. If not holding a drink, many men clutched decorated gonlief pipes in between their ringed fingers. Moving through the crowds, Noah tried to avoid the clouds of smoke, which seemed to be having an intimate affair with the thick perfumes the women wore. Like all affairs, walking in on it was uncomfortable. For such a regal party, this was an assault on the senses.He remembered Alexis telling him how nobles would bring their accomplished children to these gatherings, and it rang true. Everyone. At least that's what I heard happened after diving for the ball. I didn't personally see it because I was lying flat on my stomach with the wind knocked out of me. Let me tell you, it's terrifying when your body needs oxygen and you can't make it breathe. I felt like I needed someone to kickstart me, get me going. I figured twenty thousand volts would do it. It seemed like forever but was probably only ten or fifteen seconds before I felt Jack's strong hands on me, carefully rolling me over on.