Page 58 of Into the Garden (Wildflowers 5)
glow of pink and yellow over the otherwise dull
brown walls. Star and Jade sat on the sofa while Misty
and I chose the easy chairs. It was when we had
stopped and relaxed that we all began to feel the
fatigue settle in. We sat there quietly for a few
moments, sipping the drinks. I didn't taste the vodka,
but I knew from my previous bad experience of
drinking rum and Cokes that it can sneak up on you. "Did you read any more of your real mother's
letters to you?" Jade asked me.
"No. I was too tired last night."
"What did she tell you in the first letter besides
the stuff about your trust fund?"
"Not that much," I said. "She made it sound like
she wasn't in love with her husband, Grandpa Franklin. She said she arranged for Geraldine to adopt me so that I would be close to her always, to keep me
in the family."
"Some family," Star muttered.
"She found another letter in Geraldine's
pocketbook today, too," Jade told Star and Misty, who
sipped their drinks and looked at me with interest.
"An apology or something, right?"
"Yes," I said. I reached into my pocket and
produced the letter. "She doesn't say exactly who my
real father is, but she suggests Geraldine loved him
and maybe wanted him to be her husband?'
"So it was probably someone younger than your
real mother if Geraldine was interested in him too,"
Jade conjectured.
"Maybe?' Star said. "Though Geraldine could
have been in love with someone's grandfather, too, the
way she thought."
