Forgotten Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page B

point, but I think I need a change of scenery. Aunt Sara has been after me for months to visit her. It's been over three years since I last saw her. Now seems the perfect time to make my favorite relative happy and take a vacation."
     
    "But Natchez, Mississippi, is such a long way from Richmond," Connie said with a frown. "Will you drive or fly?"
    "Drive ... I think," Toni told her, then changed the subject by asking Connie if she would look after her plants while she was away.
    Forty-five minutes later, as she placed her purse and the box containing her belongings from her desk on the front seat of her small compact car, Toni looked back toward the building where she'd worked for over two years. She'd made some good friends, and she
    woulid miss them, but she knew it was time to move on, to new faces . . . new places.
    ""I can't beleve it!" Susie cried excitedly. "You're really coming?"
    "Of course I am, silly." Toni laughed at her dizzy cousin. "I plan on leaving Richmond around noon to-morrow. I should see you sometime late Friday eve-
    ing.
    "Oh, Toni, this is fantastic. Aunt Sara hasn't been feeling well lately, and I'm sure this will be just the thing to perk her up."
    "Aunt Sara's ill? What's wrong?" Toni asked.
    ""Nothing so bad that she would cancel her weekly dicsucon of tea with Miss Louella Rutherford."
    ""You're kidding."
    "Not in the least. Aunt Sara considers Miss Louella a merre child, since she's only eighty and our dear aunt is a very spry ninety-six. But enough about your relatives- . . Is Steven going to join you during your vist?"
    "I doubt it, Susie. He's very . . ." She hesitated, then decided to go on and get it over with. "Steven and I have broken up. As a matter of fact, I handed in my resignation this morning."
     
    "Well, I hope you made the right decision," Susie said after a slight pause, concern evident in her voice.
    " Would you like me to fly to Richmond and keep you company on the drive?"
     
    " No "' Toni smiled. "You stay put and get all your little projects out of the way so that when I arrive, we can gossip for days and days."
    After the conversation ended, Toni sat back and stared thoughtfully into space, a slow, gentle warmth stealing over her. She needed her cousin Susie and Susie's fun-loving husband, Brent. She also needed and wanted to be near Aunt Sara, wanted to hear the acid comments from her aged relative that always kept her laughing.
    Yes, Toni decided as she roused herself and began to think of the plants she'd need to take over to Connie's, going to Natchez was probably the wisest decision she'd made in months.
    Toni parked her car as close as possible to the entrance to Connie's apartment. She got out of the car, then reached for the two ferns nearest her. By the time she got to the door, her arms seemed ready to snap. By shifting her burden so that her view was blocked, she managed to get a finger free and pressed it against the doorbell.
    Almost immediately the door opened. "Thank heaven," she muttered as she attempted to juggle the luxurious fronds tickling her nose. "These things weigh—"
    Toni stared, speechless. It wasn't Connie who was reaching out and relieving her of the two potted plants, but Christian Barr. He was still wearing the same dark pants and matching knit shirt she'd noticed while he'd been lounging on her desk. But what on earth was he doing at Connie's apartment?
    "Why don't you come in?" Christian asked as he stood with a flowing fern balanced in each large hand like some huge landmark, a grin of amusement on his face.
     
    "Oh, no. I ... that is . . ." Lord! What had she stumbled upon?
    "Connie's in the bedroom changing into something
    more comfortable." He turned and looked helplessly around the room, then back at Toni. "Where am I supposed to put these things?"
    Now that her initial surprise was fading, Toni stepped inside the living room, her eye immediately going to the glass doors that led to the minuscule patio, "Just set them over there."