Cake Read Online Free PDF Page B

see the wetness she tries to conceal as she looks away telling her story.
     
    “My father allowed me to travel after my mother told him of my broken heart. So I spent the next three years living in Paris studying fashion. Once my mother became sick, with what I now believe to be breast cancer also, I traveled back home to be with her. One of the reasons I refuse to let you or your mother be with me every second is because I know what it’s like to sit, day after day, watching someone you love whittle away. At the funeral, I glanced up from her eulogy to see my love standing across from me. This time, he pursued me,” she says staring off, caught in a different time. “I was lost and let a married man chase me. I refuse to detail the gory history, but to be honest, we both acted like hedonists when we shouldn’t. Forbidden fruit and all that.”
     
    Smiling, she shrugs at me, and I reach to squeeze her hand.
     
    “One day, I woke up realizing that this was no life. A love that I couldn’t tell anyone about, nor was it going anywhere. So one morning, I packed my bags and without a single goodbye, moved with some friends to New York. My heart ached because I never allowed myself to give any other man a chance, and believe me, there could have been others. Several years later, I opened my door to once again see my lover standing on my doorstep. He was devastated after his wife had died in a car accident along with his infant daughter, and ironically, with her own lover as she was evidently leaving him. Within a year, we were married, and I loved him more than life itself. I never knew if his death was my punishment because I loved him more than God almighty, but a year to the date that we said our vows, he died of a heart attack. The greatest tragedy for me is that I allowed my heart to die with him that day, never realizing that life is too short and, at the same time, so long, to think your love is limited.”
     
    Tears gather in the corners of my own eyes as I listen to her story. I never knew.
     
    Gripping my hand tighter, she pulls me closer to her, saying, “The biggest tragedy would be never knowing for sure how Trent feels or denying someone else of having their own happily ever after because their soul-mate is hung up on the wrong one.”
     
    “What if I can’t stop loving him, and he doesn’t feel the same way about me?”
     
    “What if he does, Kylie? You will never know until you lay it on the table. While you wait, you are just spending your time, precious minutes that you will never get back.” Groaning, she pulls back her hand and reaches for her back. “Enough gabbing with an old lady for today. Go live your life. Live it until Trent comes home, and then, you can decide what you need to do. Don’t waste a second.”
     
    I help her as she struggles to stand, hugging her closely until she finally does. “I love you so much, Aunt Leigh.” She has lost so much weight that I take extra care not to squeeze too tight. My soul hurts with the knowledge that her time on this earth is limited.
     
    “I know you do, dear. Just remember that the heart is capable of many loves. It took me way too long to figure that out. By then, it was too late.”
     
    Kissing my cheek, she calls out for her nurse to help her back inside. Turning to look back over the lake, I release the tears I’ve been holding back and digest all that I’ve learned today. Can I begin to give other men a chance when I know that my heart is elsewhere? To me that is just cruel. But what if Trent isn’t the one?

    Later on that day, sitting at my desk while working at Decadent Darling, I look up as Madison breezes in on a cloud of her signature True Religion perfume.
     
    “Who loves ya, Babe?” she says, holding two tickets in her hand. Plopping down in the chair across from me, she waves them saying, “Two fifty yard line tickets to the opening preseason football game. Who is with me?”
     
    “I’m sorry, Mads. I can’t. Leo