Falling for Hope by Natalie Vivien Read Free Book Online

“Everyone grieves in their own time, in their own way.   And love can be funny.”
    Amy folded her arms and leaned back
in her seat, gazing out the window at the rocky terrain.  
    The nearest “town” was comprised of
a gas station/convenience store, a post office, and a very rundown mobile home
park.   Few people lived on the mountain,
since most of it was a national forest park with campgrounds and campsites
sprinkled over the acreage.   Lindsey
parked under a sprawling oak tree that stretched out behind the convenience
store and turned the truck off.   As Amy
got out, she held onto the truck door and glanced back up at the mountain.   The summit was shrouded mostly in clouds,
and—from here—it looked menacing.   Amy
exhaled a long sigh.   She was just upset
about Chris.   There was nothing ominous
about the mountain.
    But her stomach was still unsettled
as she shut the truck door, dug her hands into her jean pockets, and followed
Lindsey into the convenience store.
    The fluorescent lights overhead
made the cans, bottles and boxes on the beat-up metal shelves look like they
were from the seventies—which, depending upon how many customers this little hole-in-the-wall
store got, might actually be true.   The
older woman behind the counter (who’d owned the place as long as they’d been
coming there), Doris, had drawn her graying hair back with a bandana, and her
face—the sort of face that looked as if it never stopped smiling—brightened
even more at the sight of Amy and Lindsey.   Doris placed her plaid-covered elbows on the counter and grinned at her
customers.  
    “Hey, ladies!   We’re having a special on pop today—buy one,
get one fifty percent off!” she regaled them cheerfully.
    “Thanks, Doris,” said Lindsey with
a smile, heading down the aisle toward the back coolers.   But Amy stopped in the middle of the aisle,
surprised, and cocked her head to the side.
    There, poised on one of the shelves
at about nose height, was a bedraggled kitten.
    The kitten sat still as a statue,
blinking large, wet eyes slowly at Amy.   It was a calico, which meant it was a female, Amy knew.   And though the kitten was tiny , she
had an air of dignified importance about her.  
    Again, she blinked at Amy, and then
she let out the smallest, most adorable mew .   As a veterinarian, Amy had heard a few trillion adorable mews throughout her career.   But this mew in
particular touched her heart.
    “Oh, drat.   The kittens got back in,” Doris muttered,
moving away from the counter and down the aisle.   The kitten rose quickly, back arched.   “Hey, do you want a kitten?   I’m giving away the whole litter,” Doris told Amy, then, scooping up the
kitten in her big hand and holding her before Amy’s eyes.
    Amy stared at the tiny ball of fur,
and the tiny ball of fur stared at Amy solemnly.  
    Amy had never been a cat
person.   She’d grown up with dogs, and
it was her love for them that had inspired her to get into veterinary medicine
in the first place.   Obviously, she
loved all animals, but cats were on about the same level as horses for
her.   Nice, lovely creatures, but not
main characters in her personal life.
    The last dog she’d had, Beau, had
passed away about two years ago.   The
golden retriever had died of extreme old age, and she still missed him on a
daily basis.   And Amy had been waiting
ever since he died for that perfect moment when the pet she was meant to have
next showed up.  
    And now, here was this kitten.
    There were a million reasons not to
adopt her.   Amy was not a cat
person.   She was going to be spending a
few more days at the cabin, and imagining this kitten in that large, rambling
place, most definitely getting herself lost, made Amy frown and shake her
head.   What would she feed her?   How would she take care of her until she got
back to her apartment?  
    The tiny kitten continued to stare,
serious and still, blinking slowly at Amy.
    “Sure,” said