Love Shadows Read Online Free PDF

sticking her finger in the air with a bit of anticipation, landing the client myself would be a huge feather in my cap.
    With one last glance heavenward, Sarah picked up her portfolio and left her office.
    * * *
    C HARMAINE C HALMERS WORE a spring-green, silk sweater set with light beige crepe slacks and low-heeled, leopard-print designer pumps. Today, her jewelry was simple, for Charmaine— a pure gold, diamond-studded chain around her neck and chocolate diamond hoop earrings. She wore no wedding rings, having never been married, and had a man’s alligator-banded antique Hamilton watch on her wrist.
    No one knew where the watch came from, but Sarah guessed it had belonged to Charmaine’s wealthy Miracle Mile entrepreneur father who disinherited his daughter over thirty years ago when she moved to Indian Lake to strike out on her own.
    Sarah’s eyes squinted together as she watched her boss peer over her drawings for far too long before sharing her assessment.
    Charmaine was the kind of person who, if she liked something, would be instantaneously effusive.
    There was nothing coming out of Charmaine’s mouth this morning that remotely resembled pleasure—or even mild acceptance.
    “You don’t like it,” Sarah said. If she stated the obvious, maybe the rejection wouldn’t cut so deeply.
    She was wrong.
    “I don’t,” Charmaine said too bluntly and too quickly. “The reception area is the focal point of all our commercial designs. This is the first impression customers or patients receive. Look here. The counter is much too angular. We have always prided ourselves on our Feng Shui design, and I see none of that here. The client expressly requested that this back wall be a lighted glass block, not this bank of file cabinets and shelves. Also, your color boards don’t have the spark I’ve come to expect from you. Where’s your inventiveness?”
    Sarah looked at her color boards with their earth tones of tan, brown, camel and brick. Charmaine picked up a swatch of Aztec sun-gold brocade with turquoise and jet beads and tossed it over the color board. The other colors instantly came to life and radiated energy.
    Sarah smiled. Then sighed. “I see what you mean.”
    Charmaine’s expertly made-up eyes glistened with a sheen that Sarah suddenly realized were tears. “I don’t know how to say this, Sarah.”
    Sarah thought she’d quick-frozen her emotions when her mother died two months ago. She was wrong.
    Loss and grief had no boundaries.
    They just kept rolling on with a vengeance, unmindful of the human hearts in their path.
    “Say...what?”
    Charmaine exhaled a long, yogalike breath. She folded her hands in front of her, on top of Sarah’s drawings. “I want you to know that I hold you and your talent in deep regard. I couldn’t love you more if you were my own daughter. Nevertheless, we have to face something here, Sarah...”
    “Which is?” Sarah could barely swallow. She looked down at her drawings and for the first time saw them for what they were. Mediocre. She cringed. She felt as small as the tiniest spec in the universe.
    “These past months have been difficult for you. No, its more than that. They have been hell. First your father died two years ago, then your mother got sick. You’ve been her support all this time. I don’t know how you’ve managed to do it, quite frankly.”
    Sarah couldn’t take her eyes off her drawings. “Apparently, I haven’t done it.”
    Charmaine reached out and touched Sarah’s hand. “Yes. You have. You do so much. But this—” she swept her hand over the papers “—this just isn’t your best work.”
    “It isn’t,” Sarah said flatly. She supposed despair would set in later, but for now, she looked up at Charmaine. “You’re absolutely right. It’s not coming together for me.”
    Charmaine moved a bit closer to Sarah. “I want you to listen to me. Don’t say anything until I’m finished.”
    “Okay,” Sarah replied, her mouth going dry.
    “I