I learned as a little girl to keep secrets. Telling only brought me hurt. My secrets were my comfort. Now, on this day, I was ready to leave my old life and old hurts behind. I’d heard people say they felt as if they were walking on air. On this day, I understood just what they meant.
I closed the front door and walked away, knowing I will never see the house on Maple Street, the house I grew up in, again.
I unlocked the door to the law office where I worked, knowing I will never use that key again.
Everything I did that day—answer the phone, talk to my boss, type up contracts, welcome a client with “can I get you a cup of coffee?”—everything was for the last time.
It was important that I behave normally so no one—not my mother at breakfast, not the neighbor I waved to, not my clueless boss, not the mail carrier who like to chat, not Marie who did my hair that afternoon—no one else would suspect they will never see me again.
When I walked (floated) out of the beauty salon and saw Cubby and his white Cadillac waiting at the curb, all of my dreams came true. He knew my secrets, and I knew his. Our first night together, Cubby told me I set his world on fire and then proved it. Now we have one more fire to light, and it will be someone else’s life that goes up in flames. Revenge, served hot.
Then we will turn the Cadillac westward and head for California, where I will throw away my pink lipstick and wear only red.
LAMMIE LOVES CUBBY
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Release: April 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Our Town meets Bonnie and Clyde.
When Lammie Timmons and Quinn (Cubby) Tatum reunite after twenty years, sparks fly–literally. The story has been described as slow-burn Southern literary suspense. Can the fire that is Lammie and Cubby be extinguished?
Meet the author
Nora Gaskin is a writer, editor, and founder of Lystra Books. She lives in Chatham County, North Carolina with her husband and at least one dog. The hills, forests, and rocky rivers of the Piedmont region are the perfect landscape for a suspense writer.