Love Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page B

want you to take a leave of absence. Take a couple of months off.”
    “What? Now? I can’t leave now.” A burning sob grabbed Sarah by the throat. Without her work, she would be nothing. Without a project to wrestle with the grief she felt every waking minute of the day, she knew beyond a doubt she would go insane. She was at Charmaine’s mercy more than she’d realized. She couldn’t imagine not coming to this office every morning and seeing the rest of the staff. The idea was ludicrous. She wanted this job. She needed her work. “You don’t understand, Charmaine.”
    “Yes, I do,” Charmaine said softly. “I’m not firing you. On the contrary. I think you have more talent than anyone I’ve ever met. Given a bit more flair, you could be me.” Charmaine tried to laugh, but Sarah’s face was stone.
    “Okay,” Charmaine continued. “Let me tell you a story. A long time ago, I was lost. Truly lost. I had no one. My family had turned their backs on me. I’d lost the one person I thought I loved, but he didn’t love me back. I lost my job in Chicago and I thought the world had come to an end. Then I spent a month—maybe more than a month—walking the beach here at Indian Lake. I stood on the shore of Lake Michigan at the beach in New Buffalo and looked across at the Chicago skyline and asked myself what I wanted. Not what my parents wanted for me, which was to live in a mansion on the North Shore and join the Yacht Club and the Sheridan Golf Club. They wanted me to marry an heir to an even bigger fortune than theirs. But I would have been miserable. That’s when I decided to pursue my design business right here in this little town. I didn’t know anyone except old Hop at the Phillips gas station, who filled my red Mustang tank every Saturday morning. I had to start over. I had to make my own life. And I’ve never regretted it.”
    “And you think that’s what I need to do? Maybe move away from here?”
    “I think you need to decide a lot of things, and that’s one of them. No one can go anywhere around here and not see your mother’s stamp. Heck, it’s her red velvet cake recipe that Maddie Strong uses at her cupcake shop, for heaven’s sake.”
    “I forgot that.”
    “See what I mean?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Sarah. These are big shoes to fill, and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. You could...”
    “Go back to Indianapolis?”
    “Well...” Charmaine shrugged. “You were well on your way to an excellent future with Harper Architectural Design when you came here. Maybe you would be happier in a big city.” Charmaine touched her gold Cross pen. “Maybe you’re only grieving right now. Maybe that’s all it is. But I want you to have the opportunity that I had, Sarah. I want to give you the time you need to discover yourself.”
    “Myself,” Sarah repeated, wondering what that meant, exactly.
    “You are your own self. Not Ann Marie. Not Paul Jensen. Not even your Aunt Emily. You are you.”
    Sarah felt a pang a grief shoot through her and it terrified her. “Can I come by and see you? I mean...just to talk?”
    “Of course, my dear. I’m not abandoning you. I promise. I just think you need this...time.”
    Sarah steadied her eyes on her boss. “But you don’t want me to work...on this?” Sarah pointed at her drawings.
    “No. I’m giving it to Susie. She’ll take over.”
    A knife whipped across the universe from some dark, wicked place and cut a deep, permanent slit in Sarah’s heart. “I see.”
    Charmaine’s eyes were intractable and purposeful.
    Sarah knew instantly that the conversation was over, so she placed a smile on her lips and rose from the chair. “Thank you, Charmaine. I appreciate your candor and...support.” Sarah held out her hand for her boss to shake.
    Charmaine did not leave her chair as she held out her hand and shook Sarah’s firmly. “You’re welcome.”
    Sarah left the room and did not realize how great her shock was until long after she