Read Online What She'd Do for Love by Cindi Myers - Free Book Online Page A

with us.” She smiled at the memory. “She was my favorite person in the whole world. She was half-Vietnamese, a tiny woman who still spoke with a lovely accent.”
    “How did she end up on a ranch in North Texas?”
    Christa smiled. She loved this story. “She and my grandfather met when he was stationed in Vietnam. She was only fifteen, but he thought she was older. She worked doing laundry for the soldiers and he would give her food and treats like chocolate and peanut butter. When it came time for him to ship back to the United States, they were in love. He swore he wouldn’t leave her behind.”
    “The war must have still been going on. How did he ever get her into the United States?”
    “That’s the wonderful thing about this story. It was almost impossible for adult Vietnamese to immigrate at that time, but some groups were able to bring in children—orphans. Somehow my grandfather convinced a group into taking her in and sponsoring her. By that time he knew how old she really was, but I think he lied and told them she was even younger. He broke all kinds of rules, spent all his savings and risked his career, his reputation, everything—all because he loved her so much.” She had never tired of her grandmother telling this tale—how her grandfather had worked so tirelessly so the two of them could be together. “His parents objected to the marriage, and it wasn’t as if anyone else was accepting. It was the height of the war and my grandmother was afraid to go out alone. People would say horrible things to her. But my grandfather didn’t care about any of that. He loved her so much.”
    “That’s an incredible story,” he said.
    “It’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.” She sighed. “He wanted to start over in a new place, so they came here right after they married. He bought this land from another rancher and lived in the old house that was already here until he could build a new house—the one my parents live in now.”
    “Were the people in Cedar Grove more accepting of your grandmother?”
    “By the time I was old enough to notice, people had accepted her,” Christa said. “Though she still wasn’t overly social. She preferred to spend most of her time on the ranch. She helped my mother with cooking and cleaning and gardening, and she looked after me. I never tired of hearing her talk, especially about the past.”
    “How long has she been gone?” he asked, his voice gentle.
    “She died when I was a freshman in high school. I’d never lost anyone I loved before. I was devastated. I still miss her.” She shook her head. “You asked for a tour of the ranch, not a family history. Sorry.”
    “No. I enjoy listening to you.”
    He was a good listener, and easy to talk to. “I told you about the hay sheds and the original house and the current house. To see anything else we’d have to take a drive, or saddle some horses.”
    “Maybe some other time.” He rested one arm on the wooden fence that bordered the drive and studied her. He had a way of looking at her, as if he was seeing below the surface, to secrets she kept inside.
    She tucked her hair behind one ear. “What are you looking at?” she asked.
    “You seem so at home here. I’m wondering what you were like in the city. What did you do for this marketing firm?”
    “A lot of different things. I worked with companies to design ad campaigns—everything from tech companies to nonprofits. I was part of a team. We did everything from idea generation to actually buying the ad space.”
    “What did you like best about the work?”
    “I liked learning new things. The companies we worked with did so many things, and I had to learn about their products and services in order to design marketing campaigns for them. Every day was interesting and different. And I liked the people I worked with, too. Because the company was privately owned and still fairly small, we were like a family almost. I’m going to miss