Awakening by Olivia Hayes Read Free Book Online

surface. "I hadn't even realized it was missing, I just assumed she was buried with it."
    "What's inside it?"
    My mother opened the locket and revealed two pictures.
    "That's me," she said pointing to a petite blonde girl. "When I was about fifteen. And, that's your father when he was about nineteen or twenty," she finished, showing me the other photo.
    I handed her the newspaper s.
    "She kept the se?" My mother asked.
    "I guess so, Mom. They were here with everything else."
    Putting the locket back in the box she held it close to her heart.
    "I suppose my mother did care about us after all. She did have a strange way of showing it though."
    "Mom, what happened between you two?"
    I waited with baited breath, hoping she would answer. She sighed and looked up at me.
    "It's silly really, especially now. Jillian and I both felt like she never wanted to be a mother, and only had children to please our father. When he died, she started taking out her anger on us. Not physically, but mentally and emotionally. She was always yelling and crying, never wanted to talk to us or spend time with us. That's part of the reason Jillian and I were so close.
    "Anyway, that last summer you and I visited her, I finally realized that my mother suffered from a broken heart. All those years, she just couldn't let go of my father, and she resented Jillian and me for being a reminder of him. On top of it all she had become jealous of how close you, Carson and I are, and of how much your father and I love each other. I tried to comfort her and help her heal. I packed up my father's belongings finally, and put them in the attic, I took her to his gravesite, I showed her pictures of how happy they were before his death. I tried to convince her to move on and just remember the good times, but she wouldn't hear of it. She had become a bitter, lonely old woman, and at the end of the visit, she asked me not to come back anymore... So I didn't."
    My grandmother died of a broken heart. I understood exactly how she felt. Would I too live my life alone, feeling numb from love lost? In my mind I knew that wasn't healthy. The way I was living now wasn't healthy. I needed to try to let go of Mark, let go of the guilt, and heal. Saying it and doing it were two entirely different matters though. Not that I had met many men in my life, but Mark, and even Luke with all his issues, were really special to me, for more reasons than I could count, and I wasn't sure if anyone would ever stack up to them.
    ~~~~
    We spent a good part of the afternoon digging through drawers and piling trash bags by the back door. We were sweating in the late afternoon heat, trying to finish up in the living room and dining room so we could tackle the kitchen and the sun room in the morning. As I tossed a full bag of trash into the pile, I glanced out into the backyard as something moved through the kitchen.
    "What was that?" I said a loud, looking around. Just then, a gray striped cat jumped up onto the island.
    "Hey there little guy. Is it you that's been sneaking around?" I said to the cat. He meowed and rubbed his tail over my arm. I absently stroked my hand down his back as I stared out at the dock, my thoughts turning to Luke. It had been a long time since I'd thought of him as the boy who taught me to fish and hook worms. The young Luke and the witty, fun and innocent girl I used to be felt more like a dream than a distant memory.
    T he doorbell rang, bringing me out of my daze, and the cat jumped off the island, running out of the room. As I walked into the foyer, Anne Marie opened the door to a tall and imposing male figure.
    "Excuse me," he said in a deep voice, taking a step back from the door and relaxing his stance. "I'm looking for Allison Foster."
    "That's me," my mother said, walking around Anne Marie with her hand outstretched. "You must be from Johnson & Underwood."
    As he stood there I looked at him. He was ruggedly good looking. Sandy hair under his hat, a little longer than