Read Online Artist's Dream by Gerri Hill - Free Book Online

confiding in Luke. Her relationship with her father was something only Kim knew about, and even then, Kim knew only what Cassie wanted her to know.
    “I’ve never admitted this to anyone before,” she said quietly. “I think the main reason I knocked out the bedroom wall was so that my father wouldn’t come stay with me.” She looked up and met Luke’s gentle gaze. “Is that terrible?”
    “I don’t think that’s terrible. I guess that was easier than just telling him you didn’t want to see him?”
    Cassie sighed. “How do you tell your father that you don’t like him and you don’t want to see him? He’s the only family I have,” she said. “And I’m all he has.”
    “But?” Luke prompted.
    “But it’s very hard for me not to hate him. I don’t have any pleasant memories of my childhood. None. I can’t recall a time of just being a kid and laughing and playing. Everything was always so serious. It was like I was being punished for something I had yet to do.”
    “Did you have friends in your neighborhood? At church?”
    “Not really. He wouldn’t allow me to play with the neighbors and the few kids at church, well, I think they were too afraid of my father. He sent more than one off crying.”
    “I’m sorry,” Luke said quietly.
    A ghost of a smile appeared on Cassie’s face, then it was gone just as quickly. Something she had never told Kim now surfaced. Something she thought was better kept buried, but the memory emerged now.
    “Every night before dinner, we would read a chapter from the Bible. Sometimes short ones, sometimes not. But I had to memoŹrize it, word for word, before I could eat. Some nights, it would be hours before I could do it. Some nights, I couldn’t do it at all. So instead of dinner, he would lock me in his office and tell me not to ask to come out until I had it memorized.”
    “Cassie, I’m so sorry,” Luke whispered.
    “I never could do it,” Cassie said. “I would sleep on the floor,
     
    crying for my mother, wondering why she had left me there with him.” Cassie brushed at an errant tear, unable to stop the pain and loneliness that suddenly enveloped her.
    Luke reached out and captured her hand, squeezing lightly.
    “And you ask me if I think it’s terrible that you don’t want him
    to visit?”
    “Do you think he even remembers doing that to me?”
    “Why don’t you ask him?”
    Cassie pulled her hand away from Luke’s warm one and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I told you all that. Kinda ruins a good cup of coffee,” she said lightly. “Except yours. It was already ruined.”
    Cassie stood, intending to refill their cups, but Luke stopped her with a firm grip on her arm.
    “If you need to talk, I’m a good listener,” she offered.
    Cassie met her eyes and attempted to smile. “Why on earth would you volunteer for that?”
    “Because talking about past pains is the only way to heal,” Luke said gently. “And I’m guessing you’ve not talked with anyone. Maybe your friend Kim?”
    “Kim knows a lot but she doesn’t know about that. I’ve never told anyone about that. I was too ashamed. I don’t know why I told you now,” she said.
    “You can talk to me anytime, Cass ie. ”
    Their eyes held, and Cassie knew that Luke was being comŹpletely sincere. And it would be so easy to unburden herself, to dump it all on Luke and have her sort through it. But right now, she didn’t want to think about it anymore, much less talk about it.
    “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
    “Okay. Well, thanks for the coffee, but I need to get going. I’m meeting a new client this afternoon in Sacramento.”
    They both looked up at the same time as thunder rolled outŹside.
    “Thanks again for your help,” Cassie said. “For rescuing me and all.”
     
    “No problem.” Then Luke grinned. “It was my pleasure.” Cassie watched her drive away, arms wrapped securely around herself as the rain fell softly. Luke was so very