Blue Heart Blessed by Susan Meissner Read Free Book Online

caught on during the months leading up to our chosen date that I was running the show entirely by myself. And that that was why Daniel wasn’t giving me any fuss about my planning every little detail and not insisting he do anything. It wasn’t because he’s such a compliant, genial guy but because he was only halfway into the engagement from the get-go.
    But I honestly didn’t see it coming. Mom said it floored her. L’Raine told me—after she finished sobbing—that she never would’ve guessed Daniel was the kind of man to back out of a promise. Shelby told me didn’t see it coming either, but sometimes I think that maybe she did. I’ve been too afraid to ask her.
    I wonder what Mom and L’Raine would’ve said if I had remembered how that conversation in the hammock really went. I wonder if they still would’ve thought that news of life on Mars would’ve surprised them less than Daniel’s calling off our wedding.
    You think?
    I am a complete idiot.

    Shelby hands me a plastic container of gelato and a tiny, paddle-like spoon.
    “It’s coconut.” She is wearing a faded T-shirt and denim cut-offs that are unraveling in every direction. Her hair is pulled back with a blue bandana, haphazardly, so that her short ponytail looks like a spill of Schilling ground nutmeg at the back of her neck. June for Shelby is like one long Saturday. So is July and most of August. She teaches junior high science at a middle school in Eden Prairie, on the west side of the metro. We are sitting on the roof of my building, in Adirondack chairs atop a sea of pea gravel.
    The ice cream, smooth and creamy, melts away on my tongue like edible silk. “Why can’t all ice cream be like gelato?” I murmur.
    Shelby slides her own spoon out of her mouth. “Because it would cost $20 a half-gallon and we’d all become destitute buying it.”
    “I suppose.”
    “Besides, if you had it all the time it wouldn’t be special.”
    I squint my eyes against the late afternoon sun. “You been around my mother?”
    Shelby grins. “You can’t have extraordinary every day. Whatever it is would become ordinary. It would cease to be extraordinary.”
    I close my eyes and swallow another heavenly spoonful. “Who says something ordinary can’t be appreciated as much as something extraordinary.”
    “No one has to say it. That’s just how we are. Give me a taste of yours.”
    I hold out my cup and Shelby plunges her little spoon into it.
    “Mmmm. That’s good.” Shelby’s words are thick with coconut gelato. “Want to try mine? It’s orange cappuccino.”
    “No, thanks.”
    I sense that Shelby is studying me. She knows me perhaps better than anyone. She’s been my best friend since ninth grade and has shared every monumental moment of mine since then. Shelby is one of the very few people who knows about Harriet and she’s never chided me once for having her. In fact, sometimes when Shelby wants my advice she will say, “Ask Harriet about such-and-such and tell her to make it snappy. I need to decide what to do here.” Shelby is also one of the few single friends I have left. Everyone else is married and popping out babies.
    “So. You having an okay week?” Her tone is light, but I can sense the concern in her voice.
    I scoop out the last of my ice cream. “On a scale of what?” I don’t have to pretend anything with Shelby. So I don’t.
    “Well, let’s say one is ‘managing quite well, thank you very much,’ and ten is ‘my life is a total mess.’”
    I toss the container on the pea gravel at my feet. “A four oughta do it.”
    Shelby leans back in her chair and scrapes up the remnants of her orange cappuccino gelato. “Well. That’s not too bad. If you’d said eight or nine, I was going to tell you I know this great guy…”
    “Please, please!” I sputter while I try to laugh. “No more blind dates.”
    “Ah, but this one’s not blind! He’s mute.”
    We burst into giggles. Shelby is not the one who sets me up