The Pursuit of Jesse by Helen Brenna Read Free Book Online Page B

things about Sarah’s past she hadn’t shared with Missy. Sarah had wanted to start fresh here on Mirabelle. As time had gone on, it’d gotten easier to let the past lie.
    “What’s this all about?” Missy said softly.
    “Let’s just say that you’re not the only one with a past you’re not too proud of and leave it at that.”
    “Tough to argue with that.”
    Missy’s skeletons had rattled their bones in an effort to come out of the closet late one evening last summer when her presumed-dead husband, Jonas Abel, had shown up on her doorstep. It wasn’t long after that Missy had felt compelled to share everything with Sarah, even the fact that she’d come from an extremely wealthy family. Sarah had been angry at first, but their friendship had been too important to toss aside.
    “Does this have anything to do with Brian’s dad?” Missy asked.
    It had everything to do with him. Everything. Avoiding Missy’s gaze by fussing instead with the flower arrangement, she pulled out one stem after another only to replace each one in the same spot.
    Jesse’s smirk. His deep voice. His laugh. The look in his eyes that made her skin flare with heat. How could she explain that Jesse reminded her a little of every man she’d ever dated before coming to Mirabelle, of the recklessness with which she’d once lived?
    “Sarah, you’re my best friend.” Missy touched her hand. “There can’t possibly be anything in your past that will change our relationship today.”
    “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” If Missy knew the whole truth then she would never look at Sarah the same way again. In the back of her mind, it would be there. Always.
    “If it’s something you did, didn’t do, I don’t care. You forgave me, didn’t you?”
    Not the same thing. All Missy had been hiding is that she’d once been listed as one of the richest kids in America.
    “You’re not giving me much credit,” Missy said.
    Maybe she could share part of the truth. Only part. “It’s a long story, Missy.” She stuck one last iris stalk into the vase and called it a day. She could mess with this arrangement forever and it would never be perfect. “You sure you want to hear?”
    “Come on, Sarah.” Missy smiled gently. “Tell me what’s going on with you.”

CHAPTER SIX
    S ARAH PUT THE ARRANGEMENT in the cooler and then turned. This was it. Time to get this off her chest—at least some of it—once and for all. “You knew I grew up in Indiana,” she said, leaning back against the wall and letting her thoughts wander back in time, an indulgence she rarely allowed herself. “But I’ve never told you much about my childhood. My family.”
    “No,” Missy murmured.
    “Well, as wealthy as your family was? Is, I should say. Mine was on the other end of the spectrum.”
    “I’ve met your mom and dad,” Missy said, confusion on her face. “They seemed…middle-class.”
    “You met my stepdad,” Sarah said. A few years back, when Brian was too small to take care of himself, her mom and stepdad had driven to Mirabelle to help with Brian during a particularly busy wedding season. “My real dad died when I was ten.”
    “I’m sorry, Sarah. I didn’t know.”
    “It’s okay.” It really wasn’t, but maybe talking about him might help. Sarah’s real father had been the only bright spot in an otherwise dreary childhood, and she still missed him with a vengeance. “Before my dad died, we were dirt-poor.”
    “That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
    “It’s nothing I’m proud of, that’s for sure. Maybe if my parents had only had a couple children thingsmight’ve been different, but I’m smack-dab in the middle of seven kids. They could never afford a house, so all of us were crammed into a second-floor apartment, above a drugstore.
    “My dad worked at an orchard. Long, back-breaking hours during certain times of the year. We hardly ever saw him at harvest time, but in the winter he made up for it with all of us. Work