River's Escape (River's End Series, #2) by Leanne Davis Read Free Book Online

brothers. She did, however, have friends and neighbors who cared about her; but that’s how the whole valley was. She had known them and they her since she was a little girl. The old ladies who came into café were like surrogate mothers, and many of the younger women were her friends and confidantes.
    Kailynn felt like she graduated high school and her life kind of stopped. There she was, in the trailer still, with her father and obnoxious brothers. There she was, still a waitress and working for the Rydells, after four-and-a-half years, and nothing had changed.
    She wanted it to change. She wanted that more than anything. She wanted Shane too, and she was good and ready to make it happen. However, she didn’t know how to make it happen.
    So she settled for boys that she didn’t really care about particularly. They helped her pass the time and kept her Saturday nights busy. What could’ve been more depressing than her already pathetic life if she had nothing to do on Saturday nights?
    She quickly went into the kitchen and washed her hands. Still dressed in her uniform, it had flecks of grease stains and coffee spills. She was busy today at the café. There was no reason for her to change. She quickly brought down a small bowl and started mixing up batter to make biscuits. Her dad and brothers always loved her biscuits and gravy.
    She, however, longed to be making something different. Something more cultured, made from fine ingredients, which she could not afford, and truthfully, had never even heard of. She longed for so much more than her dismal, boring, drudgery, which she barely endured. Although she had no idea what she longed for, she only knew it was something unlike she had ever known. Was it… culture? She often wondered if that was what she sought. She saw in the movies where people went to dinners that cost hundreds of dollars, and afterwards, attended a play, or concert, or maybe even the symphony. Truly, she didn’t know, since she’d never been to a city. She visited Yakima once. That was probably the biggest city near River’s End. It had close to a hundred thousand people living there and a few buildings that rose up several stories high. But she’d never actually seen the giant skyscrapers that comprised big cities’ skylines.
    Someday . Someday she would see big cities and go to symphonies and plays. She’d drink wine that cost as much as her daily wage, and do something special in which a stained uniform was forbidden. Someday, she’d figure out what she truly wanted. All she really knew at this point in her short life, was what she did not want: the life around her, the people around her, and the men around her.
    Her brothers tromped in just as she began scooping the food onto plates. Being loud and boisterous, they often fought. They also made her laugh sometimes, so they weren’t all bad. She didn’t want to stop seeing them; but preferred not to live with them and continually be serving them all of their meals. Or doing their laundry. She didn’t have to, of course, except her dad and brothers left trails of dirt and disarray everywhere. They flaunted their sloppy manners, as was evidenced by all the clutter in the trailer. She couldn’t stand living that way, so she routinely washed and put their things away. At least, she tried to keep the dismal trailer from being downright disgusting. Not that they ever received any company that would have caused them to become embarrassed by the eyesore. The fanciest guests they received were Shane and Ian Rydell. Even Erin, Jack’s girlfriend, and Kailynn’s slowly developing close friend, was not allowed to come there.
    “Hey, the guys are coming over later. We got any beer?”
    “The guys” meant usually anywhere from ten to fifteen men that her brothers were hanging with at any given moment. A lot of transient workers came and went in the valley. Sometimes, it was the cowboys, who came in town for rodeos, or the migrating, seasonal workers.