Never Forgotten (Never Forgotten Series) by Kelly Risser Read Free Book Online

was just going to tell you that I didn’t make anything anyway. There are some leftovers in the fridge, if you do get hungry. Your mom already ate.”
    “Thanks, Grandma Mary,” I said. She hurried toward the movers. Mom shivered a little, so I took her hand. It was ice cold. “C’mon, Mom. Let’s head inside. The movers have this under control.”
    A little while later, I carried two mugs of hot chocolate into the living room and handed one to my mom, who was curled up on the couch. I sat down and snuggled up next to her, resting my head on her shoulder. She smelled like shampoo and her favorite perfume. The familiar scents relaxed me. “Can you tell me more about David?” I asked, closing my eyes and listening to the soft buzz of the television in the background.
    She was quiet for so long that I didn’t think she was going to answer. In fact, I wondered if she even heard me. Another minute passed, and then Mom kissed the top of my head and started talking. “I’ll tell you about the first time I met him. I remember it was a Thursday morning. When I showed up for work at the Cove Inn, Lydia was positively glowing. She told me about a guest who had arrived the night before. She insisted that I had to meet him. I was curious, but I didn’t think too much about it. Lydia was the beautiful one. If he were interested in either of us, it would definitely be her. It didn’t even seem to matter that she was married. Guys hit on her all the time.”
    I could relate. Kim was flirty and outgoing. Whenever guys were around, she was the one who always got the attention. I never really minded though. It took the pressure off me. Mom took a sip of hot chocolate and then continued. “A few hours later, I was vacuuming the hallway when I met David for the first time. He smiled and told me good morning, but I was too stunned to speak. He chuckled then, amused at my awkwardness, and asked me if I had plans for dinner. He asked me on a date, just like that. I finally managed to shake my head no, that I didn’t have plans. He smiled then, and said he would meet me out front at five.”
    “You had your first date that same night?”
    She nodded. “Yes, and we were together the rest of the summer. In my wildest dreams, I never thought someone as beautiful as David would be interested in me, especially over Lydia. But, he was. To Lydia, he was cordial, but he only had eyes for me.”
    As my mom talked, I absentmindedly fingered the necklace that lightly rested on my collarbone. It was a gold sand dollar, and I never took it off. My mom gave it to me on my tenth birthday. She noticed and touched it with her finger, saying, “David gave that to me, you know. Besides you, it was the one thing I had to remember him by.”
    That was the first time I heard that, so I asked, “Why did you give it to me?”
    She looked at the necklace again before responding. “I always knew that he meant it to be yours.”
    I thought maybe that was all she was going to say about David for the evening, but she seemed to have made up her mind that it was time for me to know more. She settled more comfortably into the couch. I got comfortable, too, and then she began to talk again.
    “Even that first night, I knew there was something special about David. He consumed my thoughts. I wondered when I would see him next and where we could escape to be together. He didn’t seem to have a real purpose for being in Peggy’s Cove. Sure, he helped at the docks, but he would also disappear for days at a time. Whenever I asked him about it, he carefully evaded my questions. He never lied to me, but I knew there were things he wasn’t telling me.”
    “Like what?” I asked.
    “Well, he said he couldn’t stay forever, and he was careful not to make any promises. It didn’t concern me at the time. From the moment I met him, he was everything to me.”
    I wondered where she was heading with this story. When she first started talking, it sounded like your typical