Read Online Hidden Memories by Robin Allen - Free Book Online

flowers.”
    “I’m sorry about Aaron showing up like that. I told him not to come but he wouldn’t listen. I wasn’t trying to trick you. I just wanted you and…”
    “Mama, I’m really busy right now.”
    “Did you hear me, Sage? I wasn’t trying to trick you.”
    “It really doesn’t matter. I have to go. Thanks for the flowers,” Sage said and hung up the phone.
    * * * * *
    Ramion turned into his parents’ subdivision, where all the streets were named after women—Mary Ellen Terrace, Susan Drive, Elizabeth Street, Anna Maria Way. It was an older development, built in the late 1960s, when carports and porches were the architectural rage. Most of the homes were ranches or split-levels, featuring long driveways, wide picturesque windows and lots of trees and shrubbery.
    It was a picture-perfect Thanksgiving Day—the leaves were orange and yellow, and the sun was bright and glowing.
    “I can’t believe I’m finally meeting your family,” Sage said.
    “You should have met them sooner, but…”
    “I know,” Sage said. “My schedule can be erratic. I was just thinking if I hadn’t run into you at the mall, we might not be doing this.”
    “We were always running into each other,” Ramion said, remembering the weekend that changed his life.
    * * * * *
    It happened like a summer shower, unexpectedly and unplanned. They ran into each other at Lenox Mall on a Saturday afternoon. Sage was riding the escalator up to the main level of the mall, and Ramion was riding down to the food court. Passing each other, they spoke, and Ramion impulsively asked her to wait for him at the top of the escalator.
    While riding back up, Ramion knew his life was about to change. He felt a magnetic pull every time he saw her and imagined touching her skin, tasting her lips. He wanted her and knew, from some voice within, that he needed her.
    “You’re not going to call me, are you?” Ramion asked when he met her at the top of the escalator.
    “I was waiting for you to call me,” Sage said with a teasing smile.
    Over café au lait and beignets, talking and laughing, their long-simmering attraction began to bud. Saturday turned into Sunday and, before the weekend was over, their relationship was in full bloom.
    * * * * *
    Ramion pulled his black 750 BMW into his parents’ driveway. “Eventually we were going to stop running from each other,” he said.
    “Oh, they’re beautiful,” Sage said, indicating the rows of flowers decorating the yard.
    “Mama probably spends three to four hours a day in the yard.”
    “It shows,” Sage said. She paused before continuing, “I’m a little nervous.”
    “My parents are going to love you. I promise you.” Hearing the familiar squeak of the screen door opening, Ramion looked up to see his mother standing in the doorway, waving at them. “There’s Mama,” Ramion said. “See? They can’t wait to meet you.”
    Ramion stepped out of the car and walked around to the passenger side to open the door for Sage. After climbing out, she reached back inside to retrieve the rum cake she had baked for dessert.
    They walked up the steps of the tidy red-brick ranch house with black shutters around the windows. “Hello, hello!” Linnell called, clapping her hands together in excited welcome.
    “Hey, Mama!” Ramion said, as he hugged and kissed his mother on the cheek. Short and a bit stout, Linnell had to reach up to put her arms around her son’s waist. Her nose was flat and broad, her black eyes deep-set, and her lips full and wide. Her hair was completely grey and softly fluffed around her chestnut-brown face. She never missed her weekly appointment with her beautician, who roller-set her hair. Linnell had been wearing the same hairstyle for more than twenty years.
    Ramion introduced the two women.
    “So good to meet you, Sage,” Linnell said. She took one of Sage’s hands, and then changed her mind and impulsively hugged her.
    “I’m happy to meet you too,” Sage said.