Read Online Georgia On My Mind by Marie Force - Free Book Online

in the hallway staring at the door for a long time. One of these days, she had to get busy cleaning out her mother’s clothes and belongings. Not today, though.
    With her hand resting on the doorknob, she finally took a deep breath and turned it. Here, more than anywhere else in the big house, she found her mother. Her scent, her clothes, the framed photos on her dresser, her jewelry box, her bathrobe. The memories and the pain hit Georgie like fists to the stomach, and she had to pause to absorb them before she could step into the room.
    On an impulse, she took her mother’s burgundy chenille robe with her into the bathroom to turn on the Jacuzzi tub her mother had installed a few years ago when she renovated and updated the bathroom.
    Georgie soaked in the tub for close to an hour, and only when she began to doze did she rinse off the bubbles and snuggle into her mother’s robe. With her hair wrapped in a towel, Georgie emerged from the bathroom and eyed the big four-poster bed.
    So many nights as a child she had taken refuge there after bad dreams or thunderstorms. Before her mother had founded the center when Georgie was in first grade, they had whiled away many an afternoon in that bed reading Nancy Drew and Bobbsey Twins books that had cemented Georgie’s life-long love of a good mystery.
    Wondering if the bed would provide the same comfort without her mother, Georgie slid under the covers and pressed her face to the pillow where her mother’s fragrance still lingered. Georgie could almost feel her mother’s strong arms around her.
    Despite her best efforts to relax, her mind raced with worries about the center, her job and apartment in Atlanta , what would become of the seniors if she left them, and what to do about the big house that needed constant care. She needed to get in touch with the attorney about the probate hearing next week, needed to pack up her mother’s things, needed to do so much she was exhausted just thinking about it.
    Not wanting to think about any of that right now, she allowed her thoughts to drift to Nathan. All her worries seemed to disappear as she relived her night with him—his tender touch and gentle kisses, how he had seemed to know just what she needed without being told. As she finally drifted off to sleep, she hoped he would bring those earrings to her soon. Then she would tell him it was over, really over.

    Her ringing cell phone interrupted Georgie’s nap. The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere far away, and for a moment, Georgie couldn’t remember where she was. Then it came back to her in a rush of pain—her mother’s death, her mother’s room, her mother’s bed. In the days since her mother’s death, waking up and remembering it all over again had been some of the most painful moments.
    Clearing the sleep from her throat, she reached for her phone. “Hello.”
    “Georgie.”
    “Al?” At the sound of her sister Alison’s voice, Georgie sat up in bed. After what they’d been through together in the last few months, Georgie could tell with one word that something wasn’t right with her sister. “What’s wrong?”
    “Georgie…”
    “Are you crying ? What? What is it? Is it Mom?”
    “The blood test.”
    Georgie’s entire body went cold, and she began to tremble. “No… No, I can’t hear this.”
    Ali’s sobs echoed through the phone from upstate New York to Newport . “I’m having the surgery. Next week.”
    “You need a second opinion! Maybe they made a mistake!”
    “It’s no mistake. Two labs have confirmed it.”
    “You didn’t tell me about the second test—or the results of the first one.”
    “You’ve had so much to deal with there with the house and the center. I couldn’t add to that.” Ali sniffled. “You have to have the test, Georgie. You have to .”
    “No.” She said the word softly even though she wanted to shriek. Since their mother’s diagnosis, the sisters had learned their family was cursed with faulty genes that