Driftwood Summer Read Online Free PDF

. . . busy.”
    “Where are you?”
    “I’m at my boyfriend Chad’s house. A party. Is this important?”
    “Yes. I’m hoping you can come home a little earlier than you planned because—”
    “No way,” Adalee interrupted.
    “Let me finish,” Riley said.
    “Well, then let me go outside.” Adalee hollered something to Chad, and Riley heard the slam of a door. “Go ahead. What is it?”
    Riley repeated everything she’d told Maisy about Mama, and then took a deep breath. “Adalee, can you come home as soon as you finish your last exam? Isn’t that tomorrow?”
    “I was gonna go to Florida with some friends to celebrate the end of the semester. But if Mama is hurt, I’ll come now.”
    “What about your exam tomorrow?”
    “I sorta already failed the class. And a couple others.”
    “Oh, God, Adalee. Does Mama know?”
    “Yes. She’s already lectured me. Yelled at me. Told me the implications of laziness. I don’t need a lecture from you, too.”
    “None planned. Just come home tomorrow. We’ll work together—me, you and Maisy.”
    “Maisy’s coming?”
    Riley fought a rising jealousy—Adalee had always looked at Maisy with awe, the cool sister who lived in California. “Yes.”
    “I’ll leave first thing in the morning, but I’m not working at the store, right? I mean, this is my summer, my time off.”
    “Yes, Adalee, you’ll be working at the store.”
    “Ah, no, I won’t.”
    “Yes.” Riley slumped into her desk chair.
    “We’ll see. . . .” Adalee’s voice faded into laughter, and then the click of disconnection.
    Riley sat in her dark office and fought tears of frustration. This she would not do: give in and cry. She stood and stretched, walked through the dim bookstore toward the back staircase leading to her apartment. Her thoughts were scattered and unquiet; she wasn’t prepared, in any way, to deal with the possibility of giving up the store while taking care of Mama and now working with her sisters, too. Yet through the years, she had learned that life never waited until she was ready before it threw the next change at her.
     
    Riley watched the sunrise from the Driftwood Cottage observation tower, just as she did every morning. Before the cottage was moved from its original location on a river plantation, this same tower had overseen a cotton field. Riley’s quiet soul belonged to the dawn of each day. Her flashlight was in one hand, a copy of The Screwtape Letters in the other. She sat in the sole wicker chair and opened to where the leather bookmark indicated; she was almost finished. She stared out over the dark void of sea and turned the flashlight onto her page. She did her best to read all the books the book clubs had chosen, but today instead of reading, she recalled the conversations she’d had with Maisy and Adalee. How had her relationship with her sisters, especially Maisy, turned so wrong, so inside out for so long?
    Often in these moments before the sun climbed into view, and with a book in her hand, a deep longing would rise inside Riley’s heart. Normally the practical realities of life consumed her. Taking care of Brayden and the bookstore, her mama, and when she thought of it, herself, filled her days. Her to-do list was a fortress against loneliness; busy-ness was a balm.
    When she thought of losing Driftwood Cottage Bookstore, of possibly having to walk away from the slanted floors and crooked bookshelves, of leaving behind the back porch or inviting café, her insides dropped in a rapid freefall. She shook her head—she would not think about that. Not now. But ignoring the possible loss was like trying to ignore a shrill siren. She climbed down from the observation deck, the sun now fully risen, and stood in the middle of the kitchen, unsure of which task to attend to first. Her thoughts and emotions were as scattered as though someone had blown them like dandelion seed on a windy day.
    Mama was sick . . . and for all her idiosyncrasies, Kitsy