Read Online Yesterday's Embers by Deborah Raney - Free Book Online Page A

stupid credit card offers and what looked like bills. There was a card in a lavender envelope, too. Probably another sympathy card. The cards had come in an avalanche at first, mixed in with Christmas cards that were sometimes addressed to Mom, too. Some people—the ones who lived far away—hadn’t heard about Mom and Rachel yet. Those always made Dad sad. She could tell because he would read them, then sit there for a long time, staring at nothing.
    But the cards had pretty much quit coming after New Year’s. She glanced over at the mile-high stack of opened envelopes and cards on the highboy. Dad kept saying he needed to answer them, but he never did. She’d heard him hint at Grandma to do it. But Grandma said she had her own stack to answer.
    “Can I open this sympathy card, Grandma?”
    Her grandmother appeared in the doorway, dishtowel in hand. “I don’t know…who’s it addressed to?”
    Kayeleigh read the front of the envelope. “Doug DeVore. It’s probably a sympathy card.”
    “Let me see it.” Grandma took the card. “Hmmm…no return address. It doesn’t look like a sympathy card. Looks more like an invitation.”
    “Can I open it?”
    “It’s not addressed to you, is it?”
    “No, but Dad lets me open the cards,” she said hopefully. She could tell Grandma was dying of curiosity. She was, too, now that it might be an invitation.
    “Well, I guess…if your dad lets you open the cards. But don’t you tell him I let you.”
    “I won’t.” She ripped into the envelope with her grandmother’s hot breath on her neck.
    Inside the envelope was another smaller envelope. This one simply said Doug DeVore and Guest .
    “And guest?” Grandma huffed. “That’s hardly appropriate.”
    Kayeleigh didn’t know what she meant by that. She slid a glossy cream-colored card from the second envelope. “It’s a wedding invitation.”
    Grandma peered over her shoulder. “Who is it from?”
    Kayeleigh read the fancy printing. “Oh, it’s Vienne—from the coffee shop. She’s marrying that artist guy Dad took lessons from.”
    “Jackson Linder. That’s right. I remember seeing their engagement in the Courier .”
    “Mom said Dad probably saved Jack’s life when he fell off the roof of the coffee shop.”
    Grandma nodded. “I was in Florida when it happened, but your mom told me. Your dad has saved a lot of lives.”
    Except Mom’s and Rachel’s . Kayeleigh ignored the accusing voice in her head and turned the inner envelope over to read the address. “Why does it say ‘and guest’ on it?”
    Grandma sniffed again, like she was disgusted. “It just means your dad can bring whoever he wants to the wedding.”
    Kayeleigh gave a little gasp. “Me?”
    Grandma’s frown turned into a chuckle. “Or me.”
    “Grandma…” For a second Kayeleigh thought she was serious. She let herself breathe again when she saw the twinkle in her grandmother’s eyes.
    But Grandma quickly turned serious again. “You let your dad decide about going, Kaye. He might not be ready for…something like that.”
    Kayeleigh didn’t bother to point out that Grandma had called her by Mom’s name…again. Dad did that, too, sometimes. Instead she let herself daydream about going to the wedding with Dad. She could wear her pink satin dress. The one Mom had sewed for her for the Christmas Eve program at church. She’d never gotten to wear that dress. The program was only three weeks after Mom and Rachel died, and Dad didn’t think it would be right for them to go. She still wasn’t sure why.
    It didn’t matter. She probably wouldn’t have been able to sing without crying anyway. But she’d tried the pretty dress on half a dozen times since then, dancing around her room in it after the twins were asleep, pretending everything was the way it was before the accident. Pretending Mom and Dad had come to the Christmas program to hear her sing “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” She could picture them side by side in the