Read Online Wish 01 - A Secret Wish by Barbara Freethy - Free Book Online

acknowledged.
    She blew out a breath. “I have no idea why I’m here.”
    “Maybe you missed me,” her mother suggested.
    That idea would have seemed unthinkable only a few hours ago, but now in her mother’s presence, surrounded by her past, she felt the ache in her heart go deeper. “Maybe,” she conceded.
    “Well,” her mother said, surprise in her eyes, “that’s something.” Her gaze narrowed. “What did he do?”
    “Who?”
    “Your husband. Blake hurt you, didn’t he?”
    She twisted her wedding ring around her finger. “Not physically. Blake would never hit me the way Daddy–”
    “I wasn’t suggesting he hit you,” Nora interrupted. “Only that he hurt you.”
    “I saw him with a woman. There was something between them. She was really young and very confident.”
    “They usually are.”
    “She gave me a smirking, pitying smile, as if she had something up on me. It was disgusting.”
    “So he’s cheating on you?”
    “No. Maybe. I hope not. I don’t know.” The words tumbled out of her, and she got up and walked restlessly around the small room. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
    “Why not run to one of your friends?”
    “I wouldn’t want to suggest to any of my friends that Blake was cheating on me. That’s the last thing I would say.”
    “No one gets to see anything you don’t want them to see,” her mother said cynically. “Don’t you get tired of the pretense, Carly?”
    “Don’t call me that. My name is Carole.”
    “Not in this house. You’ll always be Carly to me no matter how expensive a dress you’re wearing, or how much you spend to highlight your hair or do your nails. Underneath it all, you’re still the girl who dipped Oreos into milk and played hopscotch on the sidewalk and snuggled with me in bed on Sunday mornings.”
    “My childhood was not all Oreos and hopscotch,” she retorted. “It was also worrying about whether or not we’d have money for food, or if dad would come home high or drunk and want to beat the crap out of you.”
    A flush covered her mother’s cheeks. “I can’t change what happened with your dad. I kicked him out as soon as I could manage on my own.”
    “I was ten by then.”
    “I know exactly how old you were,” Nora said fiercely. “If I could have found the strength when you were born or when you were two or five, I would have gotten away from him, but I was young and stupid, and I made mistakes. But through it all, I loved you with every ounce of my being. I have a lot to feel bad about, but I know in my heart I gave you a lot of love. And for a long time, you loved me back.”
    Now she was the one feeling guilty.
    “I don’t think you came here just to yell at me,” Nora added. “But I could be wrong. You’ve changed a lot over the years. Maybe you just needed to get rid of the hatred in your heart. Is that it?”
    “No, that’s not it. I’m just – confused. And I haven’t changed all that much. I just grew up, that’s all,” she said defensively.
    “You didn’t just grow up, you grew cold.”
    How could a woman she hadn’t seen in more than a decade still know her better than anyone else?
    Nora stood up. “I wish I could stay and talk to you. Lord knows I have a lot I’d like to say, questions to ask. I want to know about my grandbabies. I want to know about you, but I have to go to work, Carly.”
    “It’s almost ten o’clock. The diner isn’t open this late.”
    “I’m also helping your Aunt Eileen with her cleaning service. She does the law building on Evans Street at night.”
    “You’re working two jobs? But I send you money.” It was the one thing she did to allay some of the guilt she felt over their broken relationship.
    “And I have it all in a bank account with your children’s names on it. They’ll get it back when I die.”
    “What are you talking about? That money is for you. My kids have what they need.”
    “And I don’t need your money. I never wanted your charity, Carly.