Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (6 page)

He
n
odded as
Maggie touch
ed my hand to get
my attention
.
“I own
Magnolia’s Antiques
,
two doors down from th
e bookshop
. In a day or two, you might want to
ride into town with me and see Anne’s shop
—
if you have the keys.”

“
I do. Anne’s
attorney sen
t them
.
Originally
,
I planned
to stay in
the
apa
rtment
above her s
hop.” Why had Anne chosen to own
a bookshop?
“Did Anne love books,
or did she open a b
ookshop for…
for
some other reason?
”

M
aggie pushed
her plate forward
and rested
her arms on the table
. “Bo
oks were her passion. Maybe it was the writer in her—she dreamed of being an author someday
.”

The more Maggie talked about Anne
, the more
I realized
the
strong
bond of friendship they’d shared
.
“Anne mentioned you in her emails, but I didn’t realize
you were so close.
”

“
Anne and I were great
friends
.
I
wish you could have gotten
t
o know her.”
Sadness replaced the sparkle in her eyes as she patted a stray tear. “I miss her.”

For a brief
second
,
a flash of jealousy
clouded my thoughts.
I should have been the one to know Anne—she was my birth mother.

Logan rose
abruptly
, as though reading my emotions
.
“
I’ll
take Sam into the front
room where she’ll be more comfortable
.
”

With my
arm locked in his for support
, again
.
I hope
d he would
n’t notice the way my breathing
reacted to his touch
as he led the way
to a
n antique velvet-tufted sofa
.

A fire crackled in the fireplace
,
lighting
the room with a gentle glow.
My words
took
on
a will all
their own.
“My father’s sister,
my
Aunt Gwen, considered
Anne
a less t
han desirable person
.” I could still feel the sting
of my aunt’s words before I left Stone Valley. Raising her shak
y voice about what an
ungrat
eful daughter I turned out to be
,
for wanting to explore my past
. Her wo
rds still blistered
, telling me I wasn’t a true Forrester and
never
would
be
.
“M
y aunt
gave me the impression she
had
n
ever approved of my birth mother.”

“Most of the town held Anne in high esteem
. O
nly a fool would say otherwise
.” A shadow
crossed his face and quickly
faded. “Y
ou’re
searching
for
answers.”

“Exactly. I want to know
about Anne
. What she believed. What she e
xcelled at. What she feared.
” My most puzzling question
remained unspoken—why had she
given me away.

“
You’d need to ask Maggie about those things
.”
He stood
, picked up the poker
,
and pushed
the logs
around
, freeing the flames to leap higher.

“
Don’t you understand? I
n the process of
find
ing
out ever
ything possible about Anne, I’ll
find pieces of myself, bits
I never knew existed.
”
Maybe
I should have listened to my aunt
and refused to come to Serenity Cove
.
But what if I no longer
belong
ed
in Stone Valley—not as a Forrester
?
What if I do
n
’t fit in either world
?

Chapter Three

One
the oldest residents of Serenity Cove, the
cigar-
store Indian
figure
stood sentry outside Magnolia’s
Antiques
,
greeting
the customers in his colorful headdress
.
If only I had
a silver coin for each time someone stood next to him and had a picture sna
pped. The ship bell clang
as I
open
ed
the door to Maggie’s shop.

“Well
,
hello,
what brings you by
?”

“What—c
an’t
I
visit my favorite
sister?”

“Y
ou
’re
want
ing
more than a sisterly
chat
.”
She
smiled and
continued arranging jewelry
on a glass
countertop
.

“On my way
to see Sam
at the bookshop
.”

“
I’m enjoying getting to know Sam better.
We have coffee of the mornings before she heads to the bookshop, like Anne and I used to do.
"
She nodded
to a tabl
e with two rose-colored
wing cha
irs, the setting for one of her
favorite things—inviting a
friend for a
cuppa
,
as she called
it.
“Time to sit a few minutes?”

“Not today.
I
wanted to ask you
about
Anne’s paren
ts
.
”

“
According to Anne, they do
n
’
t want anything to do with Sam—
wouldn’t tolerate Anne even mentioning her name.” She gazed out
the window as though
she might find a solution in the
sun’s
slanted rays.
“Sam
needs our prayers
.
”
Maggie
fingered the cha
in of a necklace for a moment
.
“Logan, take it slow
.
I see many of Anne’s
wonderful qualities in Sam, but
don’t get too involved too soon.”

“It’s all good. We
’
re
just
friends.”
I’d
see
n Sam almost daily since she’d arrived in
Serenity
Cove.
Yet
,
I couldn’t argue with Maggie
’s logic
.
Sam wo
uld be le
aving soon
.

I
left and
wal
ked the few steps
to the bookshop.
L
i
lyan Brown was leaving
.
I stepped
aside and held the door
as she exited
. A look of irritation crossed her face as she brushed past me
. Lilyan had moved here
when we were in middle school.
H
er
odd behavior
had
only worsened in
high s
c
hool.
And truthfully, not much
about her has
changed.
Why had
she visited Sam? The bookshop had remained closed since Anne’s death
.
It couldn’t be good.

Even though she couldn’t hear me,
I called S
am’s name as I entered
.
The dusty wooden shelves
lining
the walls
remained
fille
d with
books. Odd—I
still expected Anne to greet
me with her
cheerful hello
.
Goldi
e barked
,
drawing my attention to the rear of the shop.

“Hi. We’re
in the back
.”
Sam waved.

I joined he
r at one of the reading tables.
“Before the to
wn built
a library, Anne allowed us
to
sit at these tables and do our homework. She kept a se
t of
encyclopedias
and a few dictionaries so we could do research or look up spelling words.”

Sam nibbled
her bottom lip
. “The more you and Maggie tell me about Anne, the more extraordinary she sounds.”

I nodded.
“S
he was
.
”
Sam’s
eyes
reflected confusion
. I
wanted to help
,
b
ut
people
generally
had to work through
this kind of stuff
on their own
.
“How’s your morning
?”

“Eventful. Received an email from Anne
’s attorney, Taylor Jones.
T
here’s somet
hing he’s not telling me, I’m sure of it.
”

“Mos
t of the locals use Jones
. Anne’s will should be pretty straightforward
, u
nless
she left a codicil with
unusual stipulations in it. H
e
didn’t elaborate?”

“Not reall
y.
”

“
Anne
must’ve
left instructions for Taylor to
sen
d you the keys to the shop.
”

“Yes, and he also mentioned the apartment upstairs.
Seems Anne thought of e
verything
.”
She
tilted her head
to the side.
“I had a visitor this morning, a woman by the name of Lilyan—didn’t catch her last name.”

“What did she want?” I rubbed the back of my neck
. Lilyan’s
histrionics
not only
worked overtime—they never stopped.

“To say hello
. And
drew a couple of invisible bounda
ry
lines.”

“B
oundary lines?” M
y jaw tighten
ed
.

“
Bizarre. L
ike your hers, so
hands off.
”

I t
hought I
had
settled this
the last time
Lilyan
pulled this stunt
.
B
efore I had a chance to explain,
Goldie’s
ears popped up and Sam looked toward the front of the shop
. Her alert system made her
aware someone had came in
,
before I even knew the door had opened
.

Maggie t
ook a seat next to me and glanced
at Sam
. “Doing
okay?”

“I am. The pain is better
.
”

Maggie leaned
on t
he table. “My assistant
came in for
the afternoon
. W
e can go home when
you’re ready.”