Desperate Read Online Free PDF

anyway,” Ruby declared. “But I’m looking for a man to turn me into a woman, and Deke Culver looks like just the right sort of man.”
    Annabelle began to respond, but she heard a sob come from the bedroom. She listened for a moment and thought she heard it again. “Meg? Are you okay?”
    Her older sister didn’t answer.
    An icy cold shiver traveled down Annabelle’s spine, and her heart rushed up into her throat. She grabbed a dishtowel, rubbing her hands dry as she ran toward the bedroom. Time seemed to stop as she heard the sound of Meg sobbing. Meg never cried.
    Fear gripping her, she reached the bedroom door with Ruby on her heels. Meg lay on the bed weeping. Annabelle glanced over and saw her father’s eyes stared into some unknown world.
    Her heart shattered as tears filled her throat with the realization that no longer would his Irish brogue fill the house with love and laughter. Never would he approve of her future husband or walk her down the aisle. Just that quickly, he was gone.
    *
    A week later, Meg drove the buggy into the yard of the farmhouse. She’d been to the bank to visit Mr. Clark and moved all the money from her father’s account into her own. The money wasn’t hers; it was for the farm.
    She climbed out of the buggy and tied the horse to the hitching post outside the house. There were chores to do, supper to cook, and bad news to deliver.
    Walking into the house, she glanced over at Annabelle and Ruby cooking supper over the potbelly stove. Since the day of her father’s passing, as long as Deke’s name had not been mentioned, they’d been civil to one another. If Deke’s name came up in conversation, the claws were unsheathed and the fight was on. Yet, an uneasy silence permeated the house and left Meg longing to throw open the doors, open the windows, and air the place out.
    “How did it go?” Annabelle asked, a black ribbon tied around her long curls in honor of their father.
    They couldn’t afford the proper grieving material, so the thin strips of satin in their hair had to do. Meg knew they all lamented the loss of their father and feared the future, but still it couldn’t be healthy for the sad environment to continue.
    “Have the animals been fed?” Meg asked, ignoring Annabelle’s question.
    In the strained atmosphere of the house, there was no laughter, no smiles, not even loud talking. They tiptoed around, as if they were too noisy, they’d wake up the dead. Almost as if they couldn’t continue to live without being disrespectful to their father. She knew he wanted them to go on with their lives, but they had to learn how without him.
    Yet, Meg didn’t know if things would ever return to normal.
    “I fed them,” Ruby said, laying out the dishes and silverware on the table. “I even went ahead and put them up, since I thought you’d be tired when you came home.”
    “Thanks, Ruby, that was thoughtful.” Meg stood, watching her sisters work together preparing supper, weariness overwhelming her.
    She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t even stand the smell of food they were cooking.
    This new world they found themselves in was different without their father here to oversee everything. Always before they’d been waiting for his return. No longer would he walk through the door, his boisterous laugh filling the house with love.
    Now it was all up to Meg, and she didn’t know what to do.
    “We need to talk.” She sank down onto a chair at the table and let the fatigue seep from her bones. She felt like she was a hundred years old, and yet she wouldn’t be twenty for several more months.
    Quickly, her sisters joined Meg around the table where the family had gathered for years to make decisions.
    Meg took a deep breath. “Today at the bank, I moved the money out of Papa’s account and into one with my name on it. That doesn’t mean the money is mine, but ours. It was a total of one hundred and fifty dollars.”
    The girls smiled.
    “Thank God,” Ruby said, “I