The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle Read Free Book Online

just at the doorway and saw him watching her. She turned away and tipped her head, letting her hair fall to hide her smile.
    She didn’t have time to revel, though, as the phone buzzed again. Connor. “ Where the f are you? Stuck here with your fag friend. ”
    Morgan broke another school rule by running through the hallways so she could let her brothers know what a couple of immature jackasses they were for saying such a thing about Ethan, about anybody, but especially about Ethan.

7
    R ain turned away abruptly from Layla’s disappointed confusion and almost ran to the door of NYC. The new girl—lithe and young and earnest about her chakras—was under the impression everyone wanted her company every moment, and she had been trying to rope Rain into an awkward lunch in the cramped back room. Rain begged off, saying she wanted some air, and Layla had made to follow her even then. She was like a lonely puppy and in her dewy youth reminded Rain of how long ago she herself was so slender, cheerful, and fertile.
    Rain shoved open the door and stole a glance into the window of the adjacent jewelry shop as she took a right turn, marching off as if with purpose, going nowhere special. Her hair was looking thin and flat, and indeed so was the rest of her, though her stomach bumped out unattractively, due to last night’s garlicky pizza.
    Rain bypassed her blue VW Bug parked at the end of the lot and turned away from the row of businesses toward the tree-lined neighborhood nearby.
    She strode along until she found herself at the center of Arbor Valley: Richmond Park. The fanciest houses in town bordered this green, shady expanse. The founding fathers of the town had tried to echo Central Park in New York City. Known simply as “the park,” it featured a fountain in the center that in fact very much resembled the Central Park fountain.
    Rain settled on one of the green benches ringing the fountain space, facing inward. She and TJ—just like countless other Arbor Valley couples—had their wedding pictures taken here. In her very favorite, TJ was dipping her, and she was laughing, one arm around his neck, the other grabbing the top of her head because she feared her veil would slide off onto the pebbled ground. It was a spontaneous moment for TJ, an unguarded moment for her, and the photographer captured the exact apex of their joy.
    Rain’s attention was, as ever, drawn like a compass arrow to any babies or small children. Thus her gaze landed on a toddler with curlicue hair in two pigtails at the top of her head, like puppy ears. The girl was toddling in circles and giggling at her own delightful walking.
    After watching for a few moments, Rain looked up to find her watchful mother to send her a smile of isn’t she adorable?
    Odd. She did not see any such watchful parent nearby. Rain began to study the adults on the benches, looking for a mother, father, nanny, big sister. No one seemed to be paying any mind.
    It was about then that the toddler looked up in a searching kind of way, and her pudgy little face bunched up with confusion.
    Rain left the bench and approached the girl slowly, bending over as she came so by the time she reached her, she was crouched down to her level. “Are you okay, sweetie? Where’s your mommy?”
    The toddler regarded her with round, wary eyes and sniffed hard. She was angling her body slightly away, as if prepared to run screaming. “Where did your mommy go?” Rain prompted again, though she knew it might be a babysitter, grandma, or dad she was with.
    Rain looked around again. No one seemed to be noticing them. There were college-age kids with earbuds in, a few people reading on the benches, mothers absorbed with their own children. A jogger plodded by, his feet whapping heavily into the dirt. She looked around for an authority figure; a police officer, or even a park employee would do.
    No one. Rain rose to her feet but folded over so