Paisley's Pattern Read Online Free PDF Page B

for your fixer-upper projects. The second drawer is where I found the pictures.”
    “Thanks again for calling me. Tomorrow will be soon enough to take a look. Remember my internal clock is two hours earlier. I have a feeling I’ll soon be ready for an early night.”
    “It is a whole lot of news to take in. Want me to stop by in the morning and pick you up for church service?”
    “Thanks, I’ll pass. I have a lot of thinking to do.”
    “Next week then, if you’re still here. Oakdale Bible is a great place to worship.”
    “For now, I’m taking things a day at a time. Trying to figure out why my mom kept her Nebraska history and Mark Waverly a secret.”
    “I would imagine all families have secrets, Rob.”
     
    ~*~
     
    He searched his memory bank. “Like what, your mom?”
    She smoothed a cool hand over his forehead. “Always so serious. Lighten up and you might live longer. Anyway, you’re partially right. My mom did go a little batty. I left childhood behind and truly had to do everything due to her fragile mental condition. It didn’t hurt me to take care of Mom and myself until she died.”
    “What’s the Robbins’ real secret, then?”
    Paisley looked at him, stepped back waving her arms to a silent melody, and twirled. He imagined her draped in a filmy shawl and wearing a floaty dress. For some unknown reason, she made his scowl disappear.
    She landed in a heap at his feet and he gave her a hand up.
    “The secret?”
    “I was eight, I think. Daddy was still alive. Something woke me up and I went to the window. A light glowed in the corner of the backyard where we had campfires. So I sneaked downstairs and out to investigate.” She snorted and did another dip and sway.
    “Come on, out with it. Was someone burying a body?”
    “No, silly. Woo, woo, woo, woo, mysterious rites. My mother and three other women were dancing naked. I guess you’d call it a ceremony of sorts. I never told my dad and didn’t have the chance to ask Mom what it was all about. But I remember thinking they were so abandoned, those friends of my mom’s. They had no inhibitions and indulged in whatever gave them pleasure.”
    “My mother was of the carefree bent and shared uninhibitory pleasure with Mark Waverly.”
    Paisley giggled and it pierced his chest with longing. “Did you make up that word? Good one. No matter. If I’ve taken anything away from that free love, nonconformist lifestyle, it’s how important it is to live for today.”
    “Kind of hard to do when a guy has to make a living. Speaking of income, are you finished here for the day? If not, I’ve interrupted your work.”
    “I was about to knock off. The days will soon be getting noticeably shorter, according to Aunt Rainbow’s kitchen calendar.”
    “Let me help by locking the front and porch doors.”
    He returned to the kitchen to find her rinsing out a rag. She looked so different. In California she had been mostly outdoors, face shaded by one of her crazy hats. In front of him now, she swung her wild curls over her shoulder, and their gazes collided.
    She grabbed a towel, and then faced him. “I just thought about something, Rob. Will you have to go to a lawyer with Oren for an order to have DNA checked, and all that?”
    That pulled him back to the reason he was here. “Slow down your head, lady. I don’t need anything except a drive to clear my mind, and maybe grab a snack. Then I hope to sleep as long as possible.”
    “But once you find proof that satisfies you, it will mean Mark is your father, too. You’ll want to be part of your brother’s family. Won’t you?”
     
     
     
     

4
     
    Monday morning, Paisley’s head and one shoulder were underneath the kitchen sink.
    Rob rustled through the drawer contents, causing an occasional metal clink or swish when he tossed something in the trash. A few items dotted the shower curtain still covering the table.
    Oren walked in bringing the fragrance of coffee. “Mornin’ all.”
    With a