Hand-Me-Down Love by Jennifer Ransom Read Free Book Online

eat.”
    So, Marla
really had nothing to do to help Sean move. He brought three
suitcases to the kitchen door and said he was ready to go. Marla said
she would follow him to the new place. She kept close behind his BMW
as they crossed the bay bridge and drove into Mobile. She followed
Sean as he drove to the condo complex. Catherine had left the key
under the welcome mat. “This isn’t how we usually do things,”
she told Marla. “But I’m making an exception for you.”
    Marla and Sean
walked into the condo. It seemed sparse and empty, even though it was
furnished. It was empty of the spark of life, Marla realized. Sean
put his bags on the bed and started unpacking.
    “ Sean, you’re
going to need some towels and at least some glasses,” Marla said.
“I’m going to go get those things, okay?”
    He turned to
her, a shirt in his hands. “Okay. Thanks. I guess I left in kind of
a hurry. I didn’t think about all that.”
    Marla drove a
few streets over to Wal-Mart. She got a shopping cart and went up and
down the aisles. She put a set of dishes in the cart along with
drinking glasses and a set of eating utensils. She got a set of green
plush towels and two sets of bed linens. Even though Sean said he
didn’t want them, she got a skillet and a couple of cooking pots.
Sean would need laundry detergent and cleaning supplies for the
kitchen. She got those things and threw them in the cart. As she was
about to check out, she realized that Sean had not brought a
television to the condo. He was going to want that, she thought. He
would need a distraction. She went to the electronics section and got
a flat screen TV.
    A couple of
hours later, Marla returned to the condo. Sean was still sitting on
the couch. It didn’t look like he had moved an inch in the entire
time that Marla had been gone.
    “ Can you help
me get the TV in here?” she asked Sean.
    “ I’m
sorry,” he said. “I’ll get it. Thanks for doing that.” He
sounded hollow.
    Sean and Marla
walked outside and Marla popped the trunk. Sean lifted the TV easily
and carried it inside. He busied himself with taking it out of the
box and hooking everything up. Marla brought the rest of the bags in.
She took the sheets out of the plastic wrapper and threw them into
the washer along with the towels. Marla put the dishes, glasses, and
utensils in the dishwasher and rinsed the pots and pans and set them
on a towel by the stove to dry. When the sheets and towels were dry,
she made the bed and hung the towels in the bathroom.
    She walked back
into the living room. “I’m okay,” Sean said, looking away from
the television and up at Marla. “You don’t have to worry. I know
you’ve got your shop and a lot to do.”
    Marla didn’t
want to leave Sean in that impersonal condo, but she felt the vibes
from him that he wanted to be alone.
    “ Will you
call me if you need anything?” she asked Sean as she picked up her
purse.
    “ Yes. But I
don’t think I will. Thanks for everything you’ve done to help me
today.”
    “ What about
the house?” Marla asked.
    “ I can’t
think about that right now,” Sean answered. “I just need to let
that alone.”
    Marla hugged
him goodbye and got in her car. She headed back to the bridge, and
then home to Bay Point. How was she supposed to keep an eye on Sean
like Meredith wanted if he wasn’t even living in Bay Point anymore?
She didn’t know how to do that. Sean was gone, and Marla felt like
an intrusion on his life.
    As Marla slept
that night she had a dream about Meredith. “What are you doing
here?” Marla asked her sister in the dream. “You’re dead.”
    Meredith looked
at Marla and laughed. “Dead but not forgotten,” she said
impishly. That’s when Marla realized they were sitting in the tree
house they had built as children. She looked around the cozy place
and it was just as it had always been. The plywood sides were painted
lavender with leftover paint from Marla’s bedroom. Marla saw the
one spot