Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (41 page)

She drove away and
a wave of
warmth
swept over me—at last
,
a li
nk to my grandparents. I rushed
inside, locking the front door of the bookshop behind me.

Eager as
a child at Christmas, I bound
ed
up the stairs two at a time.
What treasures waited in the leather pou
ch? I contained my excitement long enough to
change into something comfortabl
e and settle
d
on the couch
. I removed the ribbon and
started to pull the top few pages out when a
letter-sized
envelope
, yellowed by the passing years,
fell into my lap. On the front
,
the words
My Baby Girl
were
written
in blue ink
.

To My Baby G
irl:

I heard your new parents named you
Samantha
. I would’ve
named you Elizabeth
,
after my mother
. When I
looked into your eyes
,
you reminded me of your grandmother. She is kind, sweet
,
and gentle. Under the
surface
of your
beautiful
newborn
face
,
I sensed those same quali
ties in you. The hardest isolated moment
of my life was giving you up
. I did
n’t know how to fight my father—if only I’d been older.

Y
our father is a
good person. He grew up as one of the entitled elites
and wasn’t taught to take responsibility for his actions. Life will teach him different. I never told my
own
father or anyone his name, and I’m not going to say now. I can’t call anything that brought you, my
precious baby, into the world
a mistake.

I’d noticed
y
our father around school. His James Dean good looks
certainly turned a girl
’
s head.
One day
,
he happened to come to
the cove where I liked to go
write. We sat
and talked—a
s though
our heart
s were destined
to find each other
. Our passion became l
ike the forbidden fruit in the G
arden
of Eden
. After th
at day
,
I
stopped
going to the cove. Once
was all it took—God kne
w it was time for you to grace this earth
.

I held you under my heart for nine months. I’ll hold you in my heart for the rest of my life and then forever. The hope of seeing you again remains with me and gives me a reas
on to keep going.

Another note was at the end in a different color of ink.
I rec
eived a letter from your mother
today. How it breaks my hear
t to call another woman your mother
. She sent a snapshot. You are beautiful. I learne
d from the letter your middle name was
E
lizabeth. It’s odd—
I never told anyone what I would
ha
ve
named you. I love you
,
my b
aby! I pray God sends his
angels to hold you
safe in their arms.

PS. If you’re reading this
,
it probably means you’re grown. I pray it brings you comfort and p
eace knowing you
were always loved,
and
always
wanted.

Within minutes of my text,
Maggie arrived at m
y door
. I handed her the letter. After reading it,
she shared h
ow
the
intense
pain of l
o
s
ing
her mom
still
linge
red
wi
th her. Heart to heart, we
talked,
we
cr
ied, and simply
sat
surrounded by the stillness
. L
ong after
evening
shadows fell,
we grieved
for our mothers—all three of them.

T
he letter strengthened my determination
to make peace with Anne’s parents
.
There had to be a way to reach
John
—
there
had to be.

Chapter
Thirty-four

M
y
mission
to reorganize and restructure
had
officially
driven the entire
department
to the point of rebellion
. T
houghts
of Sam were a constant companion
.
My time with her
while I recuperated
had inte
nsified my feelings
for her
.
I revealed my darkest fears—
she still saw me
as a her
o. With a plan,
I sent
Sam
a text t
o let her know I was on my way
.

W
hen she opened the door, there I stood
with
a group of reinforcements. I’d
rounded up
the
three
teens
from the night of Sam’s accident
.
“We’re
here to help
.”
The look of surprise on her face as I made the introductions
and explained the role the teen
s had played in her rescue
was priceless.

She animatedly delivered a hug to each of them.
“Thank you so much—you saved my l
ife.” S
he looked at me
. “I can’t have
them here cleaning after what they did for me
.”

“Ma’am, w
e want
to help.” Gary spoke for the group as Harriso
n and Tommy joined with a nod.

“Okay
.”
Her eyes roved the
shop and back to me.

“You’re in charge.
”
Once she settled Anne’s affairs—maybe I could
persuade
her to stay in Serenity Cove
.

“The shelves all need to be
emptied and cleaned. T
he
n the
books dusted and replaced
. It’ll
be more appeali
ng to a
prospective
buyer
.”
Sam pointed at
the floor
-
to
-
ceiling book display units.

Gary pulled his hands out of his pockets.
“Where’s the vacuum? I can start on the floors while Harris
on and Tommy clean the shelves
.
”

She worked on the files while
the guys
buzzed
around with dust cloth
s
.
I relieved Gary on the vacuum and
bumped her
wit
h the
hose
a few times
. She smacked my arm and threatened my
injured
leg.

Julia and Maggie showed up.
“Getting ready to reopen?” Ma
ggie clapped
to give her jest
the full force.
Would Sam consider
keeping
the bookshop?

Julia smiled
,
giving the impression she was in cahoots with Maggie
.
“
I’
m going to go get us some
pastries.”

Sam
and I locked eyes
,
motioned with
our heads
. “Hey,
gu
ys,
break
time
.
”
I waved for them to follow us. W
e
formed a parade
,
and
Maggie joined
us as we shoved
into a
couple of
booth
s
inside Julia’s shop
.

The teens
downed pastries
,
making it seem
like they’d never
taste
d
Julia’s legendary sweets
before
.
Sam
moved and
slid int
o the booth where they were sitting
. “It’s a real honor meeting my heroes.
”
They
blushed and stammered
a bit
. After
Sam
had
finished chatting with them
,
I f
ollowed the trio outside and
handed
them a few bucks for gas.

I returned to find
Sam
with a far
away gaze
.
S
he
suddenly looked as though
she had solved an equation
.
“I’m going to drive out to
John
and Elizabeth’s. Want to go?”

“I’m in. H
eard the definition of insanity?”

“Thanks
,
Einstein. I’m hoping—not necessarily expecting different results.”
She rolled her eyes.

W
e
swung
into
John
’s drive
way
,
the truck tires spitting gravel
. Evidently, John hear
d us arrive. He called the dog
s and stood his ground, grasping a porch rail with his hand
.
Sam
gave Goldie a s
tay command
.

“
Hey
,
John
,
I brought
Samantha
to visit.
” I took
Sam
’s hand and
boldly moved to the foot of the steps.

John
glanced
at
her
. “I’ve only known one other p
erson wi
th ey
es the color of yours.” He stared at her harder
.
“I should’ve followed my instincts—can’t turn back the years.”
His
voice mu
ffled with remorse. He disappeared inside and slammed
the
door
,
as though
in doing so he could succeed
in shutting out the past
.

We rushed
to the truck
.
I had no desire to tangle with
John
’s security force
.
“H
e acknowledged you. He’ll come around, you’ll see.”

“The drape moved while you talked
to
John
. I turned
toward the window so my gr
andmother coul
d see me. I wasn’t close enough to
see her fa
ce.”

She twirled the ends of
her hair through her fingertips
, and s
adness settled in her eyes.
As much as I
w
anted
to take the hurt
away
, I felt helpless
.
“Woody’s for dinner?
”

“
Goldie loves
Woody’s
.” She glanced in the back seat.

I reached for her hand.
“I’m ready for a rib-eye
with all the t
r
im
m
ings.”

“W
e skipped lunch to
day. Unless you count the pastries we ate
at Julia’s.”
Her mouth curved and when the smile reache
d her eyes, the
hammer returned—my heart pounding
in my chest.