If You Believe in Me Read Online Free PDF Page A

everything gives us a solid finish.” Satisfied that she didn’t have any other squares to mark, Rose raised her head. “Do I need to spell it out for you, dear?”
    Amber forced herself to laugh even though she’d rather snap at her. “He’s not dead, Rose. I won’t believe it. I can’t. That choice is doing much more good than harm, trust me.”
    Something caught Rose’s attention behind Amber, and her wrinkles rearranged themselves into that crafty expression women of her age had perfected when they decided to become matchmakers. “ Some people would beg to differ.”
    Amber didn’t have to look to know who had walked into the room. The other night, after the shock at the Rikers’ house, she’d called her cousin Rina for commiseration. Rina had been Amber’s best friend for two and a half decades and formed her one-woman family support team since Kale left. But she’d almost seemed to be on the Rikers’ side when she said Danny, a guy Amber had known since kindergarten, was waiting for her as patiently as she’d been waiting for Kale.
    Danny owned the hardware store next to Amber’s consignment shop. They saw each other every day, shared coffee, took turns bringing each other lunch, and volunteered on a few of the same committees. Rina thought Danny did some of those things for other reasons, not because he liked to do them. But he knew as well as anyone that Amber’s heart belonged to Kale.
    Okay, not everyone seemed convinced. Rose made eyes at Amber, then at whoever approached behind her.
    “Hello, beautiful.” Danny braced his hand on the back of Amber’s chair to bend and give Rose a hug. “You win yet?”
    “Of course.” She showed him her rabbit.
    Danny’s big hands stroked over the soft fur. Amber sat back in her chair, tuning out Danny’s rumbling voice as he chatted with Rose. He was an attractive guy. His strong, capable hands were connected to powerful arms and a gracefully carved torso. Quick to smile, quicker to laugh, Danny was more compassionate than half the people Amber knew who pretended to be do-gooders because it elevated their own social standing. He was a great guy, and he deserved a great woman.
    Someone who wasn’t her.
    He examined her bingo cards. “Aren’t you paying attention? He called three numbers.” He picked up her pencil and quickly marked off the ones she’d missed.
    “Thanks. Just thinking.”
    He circled behind her to claim an empty chair and ripped off a playing strip for himself. “Let’s see if I can catch up here.”
    Rose cast proud glances between the two of them for the rest of the session, but despite her split attention, she still managed to win two more times.
    After the games were over, Amber helped clean up and then made the rounds to say goodbye to Rose and the rest of her friends at the Holly. By the time she left, it had gotten dark outside, and colder than the night before. She zipped her parka all the way up and paused on the building’s front porch to pull on her gloves. Her breath misted in front of her, pale in the glow from the overhead lamp. The street was quiet, with most guests exiting to the rear parking lot. After the excess heat and noise of the activities room, Amber savored the silence and chill.
    Her thoughts drifted again to the pile of gifts under the Christmas tree at home. Some had football wrapping paper, some pumpkin. One, her favorite, wasn’t wrapped. It commemorated the day Kale told her he loved her. They’d been walking around the lake after a dinner date. It had been warmer than it was now, and the park’s pair of swans was out. They did the thing where they curved their necks and touched beaks so they looked like a heart. Kale had just blurted it out— I love you —no preliminaries, no warning. Amber, already on an emotional precipice, had tumbled hard. Since then, swans had been her touchstone, symbolized by a necklace from Kale that she never took off. Last year at a yard sale, she found a