Love and Rumors: A Summer Sisters Beach Reads Contemporary Romance (The Summer Sisters Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

old for such things.
    “You should talk to Mom,” Melanie said.
    “Yeah,” Hailey agreed, wondering how much her sister suspected.
    Clutching the forms, she headed for her car. She had time to zip over to the nursing home where their mother lived, and see how much wiggle room she had in her promises. If they could sell the cottage quickly, Hailey could at least save her house, her livelihood.
    As she started her car, a familiar anxiety grew until it was gnawing at her stomach. It had been several days since she’d last visited their mother, and, sometimes, when she hadn’t seen her in a few days, the worry and anxiety got so bad she’d become edgy and distracted, until she had to drop what she was doing and go to make sure her mom was okay.
    Hailey let herself into the nursing home, finding the familiar soap smell strangely comforting. When she spotted her mother, Catherine, in the sunny atrium, she let out a long breath, her shoulders relaxing. She plunked herself down beside her and enjoyed the July sunshine streaming through the windows.
    “The rain stopped,” Catherine said.
    “I brought you a Twix.” Hailey placed the chocolate bar on the table beside her wheelchair.
    “I think this will be a fine spot to watch the fireworks, don’t you think?”
    “That won’t be for another…” Hailey paused to check her watch “…seven hours, Mom.”
    “I’m reserving my spot.”
    “What about supper?”
    “Supper here sucks,” muttered Agnes Krowski as she hitched by with her walker. “Eat the chocolate bar and call yourself done.” She gave them a wise look and continued on.
    “I guess that settles it then?” Hailey asked.
    “Life is uncertain, eat your dessert first,” Catherine replied with a small smile. She resumed staring out the rounded windows that stretched above them. “I noticed you lost your hairbrush again.”
    “I was out in the boat. And rain.” Hailey smoothed her hair with her fingers. “I could take you to see the fireworks if you want.” Finian would probably be out being a celebrity-gone-wild somewhere, and she’d miss it, but the idea of her mother sitting in front of this window for seven hours so she could watch ten minutes of fireworks broke Hailey’s heart.
    “No, that’s fine. I’m comfortable here.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes.”
    They sat in silence, watching a blue jay work peanuts out of a feeder.
    “What’s bothering you, Hailey?”
    Puffing out a big breath, she thought about how much time she and her sisters spent opening the cottage every May long weekend. Cleaning, turning things like the water pump back on, restocking the kitchen, opening shutters, putting on screens, making the beds, removing three seasons’ worth of dust and dead bugs and mice, cleaning off the path and dock. Getting the boat back in the water. Paint, fix, repair. Try to keep up with nature, which was unrelenting in its quest to reclaim the 110-year-old structure. And then in October, doing it all in reverse.
    The first few years had been fun. It had felt as though they were all finally playing grown-up, and getting to do all the jobs on the list tacked to the back door that their mother or father had always done. But now the thrill of being an adult was wearing off, and the place was starting to feel like a heavy burden. Even though the sisters made cottage maintenance into a party, enjoying margaritas or hot toddies when the day’s work was done, it was a lot of responsibility, and the jobs and expenses were never-ending and slightly overwhelming.
    “I’m fine,” Hailey said finally, patting Catherine’s hand. The cottage meant everything to her mother. It was where she’d fallen in love with their dad. Where she’d spent summers teaching the girls to swim. So many memories.
    “You’re doing an awful lot of sighing.”
    “Sorry.”
    “So?”
    “So what?”
    Her mother arched a gray eyebrow and adjusted her bright orange button-up shirt.
    Hailey sighed again. “You know