Read Online Second Chance by Audra North - Free Book Online Page B

him, but inside she was relieved. At least he wasn’t so dejected anymore.
    She bent down and picked up the box, then set it back on the desk before opening the lid.
    Nothing jumped out at her. Just a slightly musty odor from the stack of paper and pictures inside. The box was full of them.
    She pulled the top photo of the stack and studied it. A handsome young man, somewhere in his early twenties, laughed at the camera. He was wearing rough work pants and a knit shirt with short, tight sleeves that showed off heavy arm muscles and a wide, strong chest.
    “This is you.” She gave a little wolf whistle. “You were pretty hot.”
    He glided over, peering over the shoulder at the photo before she flipped it over. “1922. How old were you then?”
    “Almost twenty years old in that picture.”
    She set the photo down and took the next thing off the stack in the box. This time, it was a small piece of folded paper with the name Etta scrawled on it in small cursive letters. She unwrapped the little packet carefully and found a lock of dark hair, straight and fine.
    “Etta,” whispered Bill, and that ghostly hand moved forward, phantom fingers stroking over the strands of hair. Marnie could feel the energy of his spirit, pushing through her. Sad. Full of regrets.
    She made a sharp sound of dismay.
    “I loved her. I loved her, and I let her go. Like an idiot.”
    His voice was low and quiet. Marnie sank into the chair next to the desk and looked at Bill expectantly. He’d just yelled at her for letting Collin go. He’d been upset that she hadn’t been more forward and taken a chance. It was starting to make sense why, but she wanted the whole story.
    And Bill obliged. “Her name was Henrietta Mary Cole. This was her house. Well, her father’s, anyway. John Cole. He was the son-in-law of Theodore Wilford and owned Cole Textiles. The two most powerful families in town united when he married Theodore’s daughter, Ruth. They had eight children. Henrietta was the youngest and the most beautiful, intelligent, cultured girl you could imagine, while I…”
    He trailed off, staring down at the photo of himself.
    After a minute, he spoke again. “I came from the wrong side of the tracks. My parents were never married, which back then was reason enough for a kid to be shunned, as though I had some kind of sickness that would rub off on the better kids. My mom took in washing and she cleaned some of the bigger houses, like this one, just to survive.”
    He gestured toward the stacks, near the section that now held books about gardening. “The first time I kissed Etta was there. It was the music room back then. My mom was here, cleaning, and I tagged along. I had been doing that for a while, supposedly to help my mom with some of the heavier lifting, but every time I ended up just talking to Etta. Spending time with Etta.” He closed his eyes, as though he were really flesh and blood, trying to get lost in a hazy memory. “I was listening to her play something on the piano. I don’t even remember what it was, but I remember thinking that she was the most amazing woman I’d ever known. And when she was finished playing, I leaned down over the bench and kissed her.”
    Marnie sighed. That sounded pretty romantic. Not quite what she’d expected of the sarcastic prankster. “So what happened? Did her parents object because you weren’t rich?”
    He shook his head. “We didn’t even get that far. I was the one who kept us apart. I wanted more out of life than to grow old in a small town where everyone thought I was destined for failure. I wanted to prove them wrong so badly, it hurt. When my cousin sent a letter that said he was looking for young men who could work hard and take on responsibility to build up a manufacturing plant in Georgia, I took it. Etta asked me not to go. She said she loved me and that she wanted to marry me, and that we’d find a way to get her parents to understand. But I ignored her. I went, anyway.