Read Online A Love of Her Own by Bettye Griffin - Free Book Online Page B

I’m ready for you.”
    Ava smiled at her friend ’s directness. It was just like Vanessa not to miss a beat.
    Outside, she saw exhaustion on the faces of the shoppers on Main Street. They moved slowly, and few held more than one or two small bags. Every year it was the same scenario; the stress of last-minute shopping had become a heavy burden detracting from the joy of the holiday.
    Main Street had become a chic boulevard of upscale specialty shops, many of which had awnings in the council-approved colors of solid brown, green, yellow or either color with white stripes . Ava still remembered the uproar when the exotic pet shop put up an awning in orange and pink. When the owners ignored notices from the town hall to remove it, their business license was promptly revoked. The owners quickly replaced the offending awning with one of solid yellow. Palmdale leaders declared victory, adding that Main Street would not become a hodgepodge of multicolored awnings. No one since had tried to break the rules.
    Ava scanned both sides of the street as she walked. Many shoppers had children with them. No doubt the little ones ’ gifts were safely hidden away at home and they were out shopping for Grandma or another family member. Many of the boys wore baseball caps, so she found herself doing repeated double-takes as she searched for Marcus. It was frustrating.
    She glanced across the street as she approached the next corner. Marcus stood slightly behind a bench marking a bus stop, looking dead at her.
    There was no need to wave; obvious ly he’d seen her. Instead Ava stepped tentatively into the street, but oncoming traffic prevented her from crossing.
    Impatient, she walked toward the curb. A bus pulled into the stop where Marcus waited, blocking her view of him.
    She tapped the back of her fingers against her thigh in a frantic rhythm. She now stood at the corner, but the traffic had not let up. She wanted to take Marcus out of downtown, where he didn’t have to worry about police or that shady-looking man she suspected he was working for. Somehow she had to make him understand that his entire life was at stake by his reckless behavior, and try and convince him to cut it out.
    Finally the light changed and the traffic stopped. The bus began to move forward when the light turned yellow, and Ava nearly tripped over her own feet when her view was clear.
    Marcus was gone.
    After a moment ’s hesitation, she hurried across the street. He had to be around somewhere. She knew he’d seen her. Surely he knew he had nothing to fear from her, that she only wanted to help him…
    She checked the side street and the stores by the bus stop and in the first part of the next block. She saw no sign of Marcus. “Shoot,” she muttered under her breath. She couldn’t imagine why he’d run off.
    As she walked toward the corner, the man she had seen Marcus with on Saturday appeared from the side street. He stood at the curb, and even though he still wore dark glasses she knew his gaze was fixed on her. With courage she didn’t know she had, she refused to alter her course. She continued to cross the street, and as she approached the man she stared right back at him.
    Still, the prospect of standing with her back toward him while waiting to cross back to the other side of the street made her uncomfortable, so she continued walking until she was in the middle of the block, directly across from Vanessa’s salon. When she looked both ways to check the traffic, the man was still standing in place, his head turned to her direction.
    S he was shaking when she got back to Vanessa’s. Instinctively she knew Marcus had hidden from her so the man would not see them together. She had to find him, before he was caught for stealing and sent away. If that happened he’d be lost forever.
    “ That was quick,” Vanessa remarked from the sink, where she was rinsing her client’s hair.
    She managed to speak evenly in spite of the uneasiness she felt. “Yeah,