Willow Spring by Toni Blake Read Free Book Online Page A

still that same stern guy, but he was making efforts to change.
    And the most important thing he supposed he’d achieved was . . . well, beginning to accept the idea that Anna would never come home, and they would probably never find out what happened to her. For him, that was a hard pill to swallow, but after all these years, he had to face the facts. He had to begin to let it go. And he was still working on that—but he was slowly taking steps in that direction.
    He’d finally started putting away some of the pictures of Anna that had filled the house he now shared with Rachel. Not all of them, but some. And he still carried one in his wallet, but he didn’t look at it as much anymore. Not that he needed to look in order to see it—he could see every single detail in his mind. But . . . baby steps. They were all baby steps. Which were a hell of a lot better than nothing.
    As he drove out of the dead zone near his home where there was no cell reception, he saw he’d just missed a call—from Logan. Hmm, hearing from him again already? Seemed like a good sign. He punched the button to redial his best friend, still relieved to know he was finally coming out of the funk he’d been in since that house fire.
    “Mike,” Logan said pointedly as he answered. He sounded agitated.
    “What is it? What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing’s wrong. But something’s right.”
    “What are you talking about?” And why do you sound so intense? But Mike decided to keep that part to himself until he found out what was going on here.
    “Listen, are you sitting down?”
    “Driving,” Mike replied. “Why?”
    “Pull over,” Logan instructed him. “Anywhere.”
    “Why?” Mike asked again. Damn it, what was Logan’s deal here?
    “Just do it,” Logan said sharply. So sharply that normally it might have pissed Mike off, but given what Logan had been going through, he let it slide. After easing into a gravel pull-off in front of an old red barn, he put the cruiser in park and said, “Okay, I stopped. What the hell is going on?”
    And now Logan hesitated. And Mike felt himself getting more aggravated by the second, until Logan finally said, “Okay, here’s the thing, buddy. You won’t believe this—I mean you really won’t fucking believe it—but . . . are you ready for this?”
    “For Christ’s sake, I’m ready already. Spit it out, dude, before I blow a gasket.”
    “Okay. I’m standing in front of town hall right now . . . with Anna. Your sister. Your sister, Anna.”
    Mike stayed silent as he tried to process what Logan had just said. Was this some kind of cruel joke? Had Logan completely lost his mind? He couldn’t quite make sense of it, but he knew it couldn’t be true. After a long pause, his stomach churning painfully at the very notion, he eventually replied with, “What the fuck?”
    “I know it sounds crazy,” Logan said. “I know it sounds impossible. But she’s here. I don’t know yet where she’s been or what the story is or what brought her back, but she’s here with me, looking for her family. Looking for you.”
    “You’re serious,” Mike said, feeling a little numb inside, afraid to believe.
    “As a heart attack,” Logan said.
    “Are . . . are you sure? I mean, really sure? Because . . .”
    “I’m sure, Mike,” he said. “I wouldn’t lay this on you if I wasn’t sure.”
    Again, Mike just sat there, stunned into silence. And truthfully, he still wasn’t quite certain he believed it. This was the moment he’d been waiting for all his life, but suddenly, the reality of it didn’t make sense. Suddenly, he saw for the first time, with real clarity, how nonsensical it was to believe she’d come back.
    And yet Logan was telling him the impossible had finally happened.
    “I’m . . . on my way,” he said after he managed to catch his breath and stop feeling like the twelve-year-old boy who’d lost her that day so long ago.
    And then Mike did something he never did—he