by Reese Ryan
This is an incredibly happy time for all of us. My mother has a wonderful new husband. Jamie found an amazing man and she’s matured so much in the past year. She works at a gallery part-time and spends the rest of her time focused on creating art. Mimi rediscovered her passion. Her interior design and home staging business keeps expanding. Marcus’s graphic design business is doing quite well, too. And me, I finally found a man I love who also makes me very happy. I’ve stopped chasing my father’s dreams and started living my own life. I resigned my position with J&G. My new job in personnel at the museum starts next month. Lita Jeffries is the new manager of the Great Lakes branch. I spent the past month helping her and her new assistant transition into their new positions. Leslie resigned two months ago. She’s the office manager of the Cleveland branch of Focused for Life, and she couldn’t be happier.
There’s only one thing that makes me sad about today. Mom’s selling the house and an anonymous party purchased it a little over a week ago. I understand why she needed to sell. It’s too big for her and Walter, and it’s filled with memories of her old life. Walter shouldn’t have to live in the shadow of those memories.
A small piece of me hoped the house would stay in our family forever. Or at least long enough for my children to run up and down the stairs and build a fort in the backyard.
Raine squeezes my hand. “Worried about your mom? You know she’s in good hands with Walter, right?”
“I’m not worried about her. I’m happy for her. I’m just a little sad about the house. I’m not angry that she sold the house. It’s her right, and the upkeep has become too much for her. But there are so many great memories here.”
“Memories don’t live in the house, honey. They’re here.” He lightly touches two fingers to my temple. “No one can take those from you.”
“I know. I’m being silly.”
“You’re not being silly. This house is special to you. Feelings of loss are normal.” He kisses my forehead.
“I hope the new owners enjoy this house as much as we did.”
Raine rubs my back and smiles at me reassuringly. “I’m sure they will.”
Mom and Walter are about to leave for their new adult-living condo, where they’ll spend the night before he whisks her off on a fourteen-day tour of Europe. Something she’s always dreamed of doing.
After toasts from Walter’s best friend, George, and my aunt Hattie, Mom announces that she has something to say.
“I’m an incredibly lucky woman. Today I married my best friend.” My mother waits until the fervent “ahhs” from the crowd subside. “I’m lucky to have three beautiful daughters. And through them, I’ve come to know and love three outstanding young men I consider the sons I never had.
“I have two handsome grandsons who I predict will go on to do very great things. And I look forward to having a granddaughter in just a few weeks.” She kisses her fingers and then holds them out toward Jamie, who’s slightly embarrassed by the attention, but returns the gesture with a contented smile.
“Tonight I’m leaving the home that’s been the center of our family life for nearly thirty-five years. Selling it was something I needed to do, but I made the decision with a very heavy heart. I know it weighed heavily on the hearts of my girls, too. Especially my Melanie.” My mother points in my direction. I’m surprised by her comment. I tried to be nonchalant about it. I should have known I couldn’t put anything past her.
“But today, I just got the best news. This house, our family home, was purchased as a gift to my daughter for her thirty-third birthday tomorrow.”
I look at Raine. A wide grin spreads across his face. “Is she serious?” I whisper loudly as my mother continues to wax poetic about her family. “You bought the house?”
“It meant so much to you. I wanted it to stay in your family.” He squeezes my hand. “One day our kids will play in this backyard.”
I lean in and kiss him. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“I know. I wanted to.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I picture my dad’s face. His warm eyes and generous smile. He would’ve liked Raine. I wonder if he can see me now. If he knows how happy we all are. If he’s smiling down on us.
“Thank you,” I finally manage. “For everything.”
Raine pulls me in closer and kisses the side of my face.
“It’s gonna be hard to top this when your birthday rolls around,” I say.
He squeezes my hand. “You’re the only gift I need.”
* * * * *
About the Author
Reese Ryan is a hopeless romantic who writes sizzling contemporary fiction featuring deliciously flawed, multicultural characters. Reese has a passion for writing stories about women on journeys of self-discovery and the men who love them. She is fascinated by the secrets we keep from each other, and ourselves, and how the revelation of those secrets changes everything. Her fiction often explores the lives of characters struggling between living authentically and meeting expectations.
In addition to being a novelist, Reese is a freelance journalist, social media manager and managing editor of a popular, long-running women’s e-zine. She’s an avid reader with a to-be-read stack that resembles a small skyscraper and a fan of a wide range of musical genres with a thing for brilliant singer-songwriters, and an addiction to musical soundtracks and film scores.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Reese now lives in central North Carolina. She is settling into her role as a Bohemian Southern belle nicely, but will never forget her Midwestern roots. Cleveland remains the setting for much of her fiction. Her stories are a love letter to her hometown that is as passionate and complex as the relationships between her characters.
Visit her online at www.ReeseRyan.com.
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ISBN: 9781426895876
Copyright © 2013 by Roxanne Ravenel
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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