Family Law by Gin Phillips (phonics reading books .txt) 📕

was drawing everything closer, and that was a good thing. She was surrounded. Evan’s hands on her shoulders. The quick slap of his dress shoes—a car door opening and the jangle of keys ripped from the ignition. Headlights gone dark. Marlon threading his fingers through hers. Rachel, wine bottle in hand, edging into the bright circle. Lucia had missed all the pieces of her: falling-down hair and flip-flops and sharp jaw. Her head thrown back as if she found something funny in the tree above. A skinned knee—from broken glass or something else? Blood oozing slick and dark, and there was no telling what had marked her, but Lucia would ask. She would ask and Rachel would tell and Lucia would have all the time in the world to listen.

The burn on her thumb pulsed.

Rachel took another step, swinging the bottle in a slow rhythm. A metronome. Lucia could almost feel the sloshing weight of the wine. When the bottle hit the asphalt, she felt the shattering, and it occurred to her that maybe this was not her story.

Acknowledgments

This book draws from my own childhood in Alabama, as well as from plenty of other women’s experiences. I’m forever grateful to Lisa and Jeff Woodard, who were always willing to open the door. You showed me many things, including what a great marriage looks like.

I couldn’t have written this book without Judy Crittenden, who made Lucia’s world come to life with incredible intelligence, charm, and wit. I deeply appreciate all the hours, all the stories, and all the notes in the margins!

Thank you to the smart, funny, kind, all-powerful women who had a hand in shaping my younger self (and who had no obligation to do so since they weren’t even related to me). Mary George Jester, you showed me—you showed all of us—what wonderful things happen when a woman is in charge. Diann Frucci, you made me love John Donne, and I can never hear the words “Truman Capote” or “The Three Witches” without hearing your voice. I’d give a great deal to sit in your classroom one more time and listen to you work your magic. Karen Etheridge, you taught me to love Shakespeare and Dickens, and you showed me that there’s such a thing as a healthy level of intimidation.

I appreciate Phillip Harris for sharing his time and expertise and for repeatedly steering me away from stupid mistakes about police procedure in the 1980s. Thanks to Rev. Sarah Shelton, one of my favorite prophets, for talks about rocks through windows and feminism. Any and all uses of “murmuring” are for you. Thanks to Audreyalice Kubesch Warner for the epigraph, as well as to Polly Dobbs, Alistaire Tallent, and Tina Noyes for lines that stuck in my head enough for me to write them down. Lucia Watson, I’ve always loved your name!

Thanks to Anne Collins for her elegant edits and for, in general, sharpening and deepening every page of this book. Thanks to Kim Witherspoon for perpetual competence and force of nature-ness—you were on my mind in the early stages of imagining Lucia. Jane Cavolina, you did a beautiful job with the copyedits. And, Laura Tisdel, work never feels like work when I’m doing it with you. Every conversation is a joy.

Thanks, as always, to Fred. You leave no part of me floating.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gin Phillips is the award-winning author of Fierce Kingdom and The Well and the Mine. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her family.

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