Only Mine Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Hi, honey. Was I expecting you?”
    â€œNo. I just stopped by.”
    â€œGood.” Her mom stood and stretched. “I don’t get it. I cleaned up the garden last fall. Why do I have to clean it again in the spring? What exactly are my plants doing all winter? How can everything get so messy, so quickly?”
    Dakota crossed to her mother and hugged her, then kissed her cheek. “You’re talking to the wrong person. I don’t do the garden thing.”
    â€œNone of you do. I obviously failed as a parent.” She sighed theatrically.
    Denise had been a young bride to Ralph Hendrix. Theirs had been a case of love at first sight, followed by a very quick wedding. She’d had three boys in five years, followed by triplet girls. Dakota remembered a crowded house with plenty of laughter. They’d always been close, drawn more so by the death of their father nearly eleven years before.
    Ralph’s unexpected passing had crushed Denise but not destroyed her. She’d pulled herself together—most likely for the sake of her children—and gone on with her life. She was pretty, vibrant and could pass for a woman in her early forties.
    Now she led the way through the backdoor, into the kitchen. It had been remodeled a few years ago, but no matter how it looked, the bright open space wasalways the center of the home. Denise was nothing if not traditional.
    â€œMaybe you should get a gardener,” Dakota said as she collected two glasses from the cupboard.
    While her mother pulled out a pitcher of iced tea, Dakota filled the glasses with ice cubes, then checked the cookie jar. The smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies drifted to her. She tucked the ceramic ladybug container under one arm and made her way to the kitchen table.
    â€œI would never trust a gardener,” Denise said, sitting across from her daughter. “I should plow the whole thing under and pour cement. That would be easy.”
    â€œYou’ve never been into easy. You love your flowers.”
    â€œMost days.” She poured iced tea. “How’s the show going?”
    â€œThey announce the contestants tomorrow.”
    Humor brightened her mother’s dark eyes. “Will we see you on the list?”
    â€œHardly. I wouldn’t have anything to do with them if Mayor Marsha hadn’t guilted me into agreeing.”
    â€œWe all have a civic responsibility.”
    â€œI know. That’s why I’m doing the right thing. Couldn’t you have raised us not to care about others? That would have been better for me.”
    â€œIt’s ten weeks, Dakota. You’ll live.”
    â€œMaybe, but I won’t like it.”
    Her mother’s mouth twitched. “Ah, that maturity that always makes me so proud.”
    The teasing was good, Dakota thought. Things were about to get a lot more serious.
    She’d put off this conversation for several months now, but knew it was time to come clean. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep things a secret, it’s that she knew the truth would hurt her mother. And Denise had already been through enough.
    Dakota took a cookie and put it on a napkin in front of her but didn’t taste it. “Mom, I have to tell you something.”
    Nothing about Denise’s expression changed, yet Dakota felt her stiffen. “What?”
    â€œI’m not sick or dying or going to be arrested.”
    Dakota drew in a breath. She studied the placement of the chocolate chips, the rough edges of the cookie, because it was easier than looking at the one person who loved her best.
    â€œYou know at Christmas I talked about wanting to adopt?”
    Her mother sighed. “Yes, and while I think it’s wonderful, it’s a little premature. How do you know you won’t find a wonderful man and get married and want to have kids the old-fashioned way?”
    Material they’d been over a dozen times before, Dakota thought, knowing she only had