by Lyn Gardner
“While I was reading your words, it was like your arms were around me again. You had me wrapped up in one of those big, never-ending hugs you always used to give me. You know the ones? Where I’d tried to get away and you’d pull me closer and laugh? I could smell your perfume, Mom, and I could almost…I could almost feel your cheek pressed up against mine as you told me how much you loved me or…or how much you missed me. And I can’t tell you how many times I smiled as I read what you wrote. Defiant and sometimes funny, sarcastic and sometimes…well, let’s just say flirtatious and leave it at that, I saw the woman I knew, and I saw the woman you were with Adele, and that’s a privilege I never thought I’d have.”
Robin bowed her head, allowing her tears to fall freely for a few moments before raising her head again. “Okay, so I think I need to stop talking now. I hope you don’t mind what I’m doing tonight. I wanted you and Adele to be together, but I couldn’t fathom losing either of you totally. Yeah, I know I didn’t know her that well, but from what I read in her letters, she loved you to the moon and back, and that’s good enough for me. So…I love you, Mom. Be happy and take care of that woman of yours. By what you wrote, it sounds like she was really special…just like you.”
Judy held out her hand as Robin crawled from under the shed, and helping to her feet, Judy saw the tears in Robin’s eyes. “Are you all right?”
Robin wiped the tears from her cheeks and then gave Judy a kiss. “Yes, I’m fine,” Robin whispered before filling her lungs with the frigid air. “Let’s get back to the car before we freeze to death.”
They walked across the parking lot in silence, and Judy grinned when she saw Robin heading for the passenger side. Climbing inside, Judy started the engine, and turning on the defroster and heater, she waited as the windshield cleared.
“Okay, I think we’re ready,” Judy said, placing her hand on the gearshift.
“Not yet,” Robin said, covering Judy’s hand with hers.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
Robin looked at Judy and smiled softly. “I know I said I didn’t want this connected to any other day, but in that cabin over there, my mother and Adele started a love affair that I’d like to think is still going on, and that’s what I want. I want to be with you for this lifetime and the next and the next after that. I want us to be together until we’re ghosts, until we’re ashes floating in the wind, forever swirling and dancing in the currents.” Robin paused and stretched, lifting her bottom off the car seat to get her hand deep into her jean’s pocket. A moment later, she turned to face Judy, holding a radiant solitaire diamond ring between her fingers.
“Oh, Robin,” Judy said in a breath.
“I’m an author,” Robin whispered, gazing into Judy’s eyes. “I’m supposed to be able to write words that make sense, but there are no words to describe how I feel about you that do it justice. You have redefined everything I thought I knew about beauty and grace, about the intensity in a look, about the power of a touch, and about the absoluteness of love because what I feel for you, Judy, is absolute. It’s unconditional and infinite, expanding every minute of every day we have together, and the most amazing thing is, looking back, I was never given an option when it came to loving you. From the moment you walked into that classroom, my heart belonged to you and only you.” Pausing long enough to hold up the ring, Robin said, “Judy, I love you. I always have. I always will, so…would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Judy’s chin began to tremble, and her eyes welled with tears as she held out her hand. Watching as Robin slipped the ring on her finger, Judy moved in for a kiss, and a hairsbreadth before her lips touched Robin’s, she whispered, “Like I have a choice.”
The End
Thank you for reading Choices.
As an Independent author, I have no publicity department or publishing company to depend on to spread the word about my books, so if you liked Choices, I hope you can find a few minutes to return to where you purchased it and leave a comment or a review.
It took me over a year to write this book, and as you know, it contains a few surprises. If you’re kind enough to leave a review, please don’t include spoilers. Don’t ruin it for the next reader – or for the writer who spent countless hours trying to make this book worth the ride.
If you want to contact me personally, please drop me a line at [email protected] or catch me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lyn.gardner.587
Lyn
Acknowledgments
As always, I would like to say something to those who spent their days, nights, and weekend reading my words. They are my editors, they are my proofreaders, but more importantly –they are my friends.
To Susan, Marian, Mike, Marion, Ro, and Bron, thank you more than words can ever say. I couldn’t do this without you. You speak your minds. You keep me in line (not an easy task), and you keep me sane. You are the best!
Other Titles by Lyn Gardner
Born Out of Wedlock
** WINNER – 2017 International Book Awards – LGBTQ Fiction
** SILVER MEDAL – 2017 Global Ebook Awards – Gay/Lesbian/LGBT Fiction
** SILVER MEDAL – 2017 eLit Book Awards – LGBTQ Fiction
** FINALIST – 2017 National Indie Excellence Award – LGBTQ Fiction
** DISTINGUISHED FAVORITE – 2017 Independent Press Award – LGBTQ Fiction
** FINALIST – 2017 International Author Network Book of the Year – Romance
** DISTINGUISHED FAVORITE – 2017 NYC Big Book Awards – LGBTQ Fiction
** RUNNER-UP – 2017 Rainbow Book Awards – Best Lesbian Contemporary Romance
Two women. Two worlds. Two problems...and two attitudes.
Addison Kane does not want for much. With a touch equaling that of Midas and a confidence overstepping the borders of arrogance, Addison’s ability is vast, yet her focus is narrow. Her vision tunneled by haunting memories of her youth, she is blinded to the peripheral. She doesn’t care that life is passing her by. She doesn’t notice as friends fall to the wayside, and the finery that comes from wealth holds no importance for Addison is single-minded. Her goal is the ultimate of paybacks. She needs to succeed like no other before her and prove someone wrong.
Joanna Sheppard lives a simple life because she can afford no other. At the age of seventeen, her father falls ill, and for the next eleven years, Joanna’s sole focus is providing for the only parent she has ever known. For the man she loves with all her heart, she gives up her dreams and doesn’t look back. She goes about her days with no complaints, working three jobs so she can pay off her father’s creditors, but there is no light at the end of Joanna’s tunnel...or so she thinks.
When an edict from the grave threatens all Addison holds dear, two women from two different worlds are brought together, and a deal is struck. In exchange for uttering a few words, both get what they need...but not what they bargained for.
There is a thin line, as they say, but when it is crossed, can love survive when more family secrets are revealed?
***
Give Me A Reason
** WINNER – 2015 National Indie Excellence Awards – LGBT Fiction
** SILVER MEDAL – 2014 Global Ebook Awards – Gay/Lesbian/LGBT Fiction
** SILVER MEDAL – 2014 eLit Book Awards – Lesbian Fiction
** FINALIST – 2017 – International Network Book of the Year – Romance
** FINALIST – 2015 International Book Awards – Fiction: Gay & Lesbian
** FINALIST – 2014 GCLS Ann Bannon Popular Choice Awards
** FINALIST – 2014 GCLS Awards for Contemporary Lesbian Fiction
Intelligent, confident and beautiful, Antoinette Vaughn had it all until one night she went to help a friend and paid for it...with a life sentence in hell.
Four years later, Toni’s judgment is overturned, but the damage is already done. She walks from the prison a free woman, but she’s hardly free. Actually, she’s hardly alive. A prison without rules can do that to a person.
She was raised amidst garden parties, stables and tennis courts, but now a dingy flat in a decrepit building is what Toni calls home. It’s cold, dark and barren just like her heart, but it suits her. She doesn’t want to leave much behind when she’s gone, but the simplicity of her sheltered existence begins to unravel when a beautiful stranger comes into her life.
How does anyone survive in a world that terrifies them? How do you learn to trust again when everyone is your enemy? How do you take your next breath and not wish it were your last? And if your past returned...what would you do
***
Ice
** GOLD MEDAL – 2014 Global Ebook Awards – Gay/Lesbian/LGBT Fiction
** WINNER – Indie Book of the Day – April 19, 2013
** FINALIST – 2015 National Indie Excellence Book Awards – LGBT Fiction
Ice begins when a boy is kidnapped from a London park and Detective Inspectors Alex Blake and Maggie Campbell are brought together to work on the case. While their goal is the same, their work ethics are not. Intelligent, perceptive and at times disobedient, Alex Blake does what she believes it takes to do her job. Maggie Campbell has a slightly different approach. She believes that rule books were written for a reason.
Unexpectedly, their dynamics mesh, but when her feelings for Alex become stronger than she wants to admit, Maggie provokes the worst in Alex to ensure that they will never be partners again.
Three years later, fate brings them together again. Their assignment is simple, but a plane crash gets in their way. Now, in the middle of a blizzard, they have to try to survive...and fight the feelings that refuse to die.
***
Mistletoe
** WINNER – Indie Book of the Day – December 28, 2013
Four-year-old Diana Clarke sends her wish to Santa Claus, but lost in the lining of a sack, it isn't discovered for thirty years. Now, Santa has a problem. No child's wish has ever gone unanswered, but the child isn't a child anymore.
Believing there is nothing in Santa's Village to satisfy the little girl's wish now that she's an adult, he calls on a Higher Power and is given a suggestion. Although most of Santa's workshops contain only toys for boys and girls, there is one that holds a possible solution to his problem. Learning that Diana will be attending three upcoming Christmas parties, Santa calls on his lead elf to deliver three sprigs of mistletoe, hoping that under one, Diana Clarke will find what she asked for thirty years before.