Read Online Love Lift Me by Synthia St. Claire - Free Book Online Page B

but I couldn’t help being a bit relieved to
get out of that depressing place. A quick shopping trip would be a nice
distraction, and I hadn’t really been out in public anyway since I left the
hospital weeks ago. Some chocolate would be especially nice, and Folson’s had
an entire counter full of freshly-made desserts. Maybe mother would be able to
stomach a few bites of something sweet, and if she couldn’t, I knew I could!
     
    Midday
meant few other shoppers, which was perfect. I browsed down the aisles, dodging
the workers as they loaded up the shelves with new items, and picked up things
I had noticed we needed at the house. At the deli counter I spent the most
time, eyeing peanut butter cookies, scratch made apple and blueberry pies, and
a triple-layer fudge cake with so much icing I had to wonder how it didn’t fall
flat under its own weight.
    While
I was enraptured by the delicious calorie bombs behind the glass, another
customer began browsing beside me. I didn’t pay her much mind until we both
turned and caught eyes, and then I instantly recognized her.
    Cindy
Reid. She was dressed in a thin, monochromatic sports vest with a matching
pleated skirt that barely covered the tops of her thighs. Her long,
near-blindingly blonde hair had been tied back into a conservative ponytail
that bounced on the back of her head and the visor she wore covered the front.
She looked every bit like she had just been out playing tennis for the day at
the country club. I thought such a proposition absurd, because breaking a sweat
was far too unfashionable for her.
    I’d
known her well during high school and she didn’t seem to have changed one bit. We’d
spent as much time getting into trouble back then as we had bickering with each
other, so I guess a stranger might think us as friends at a glance, even though
we definitely weren’t. Her family had roots in Kirkland and they owned the
largest phosphate plant in the entire region, which also made them one of the
richest families to ever set foot in eastern North Carolina.
    She
was still thin and attractive, and obviously not afraid to flaunt it. Not a
strand of hair was ever out of place on her head and the clothes she wore were
always the most expensive, something that drew the ire of many girls that walked
the halls of our school. They’d even nicknamed her ‘Cindy-rella’, and most of
them spent the entirety of high school wishing the clock would strike twelve.
    We
had what I would call a pretend friendship during those years. She
didn’t want to leave any of the pretty girls out of her clique, and I didn’t
want to be on the receiving end of her wrath. Mostly that involved being able
to avoid the more vicious rumors she spread about everyone she didn’t like or
weren’t in her little club. Our bickering was almost always related to the boys
we wanted to date, and Hale was no exception. Cindy had tried everything she
could think of to get her claws in him, even after we started dating. For
whatever reason, not being able to have him only made her want him more.
    Well , I thought. Now
she can have him .
    Cindy
looked even more surprised to see me than I was to find her in such a
low-budget type of place. Before I could say a word she let out an excitable
shout. “Kat Atwater! Hey, you!” Then, she rushed forward with a series of
skittering little steps and gave me a huge, uninvited hug. “Girl, this town
just ain’t been the same without you here! How long has it been?”
    “Almost
four years Cindy, if you can believe it.” I pointed to her outfit and tried to
smile. “Looks like you’ve been staying…active.”
    She
beamed at the backhanded compliment. “Oh, you know! Miss Kirkland has gotta
keep her figure.” Then she gave a little frown and shook her head as she looked
at me, unimpressively decked out in a pair of old Reeboks, some cutoff shorts,
and a boring print t-shirt I’d bought from Wal-Mart. “You know I hate seeing
people let themselves go,