Secrets over Sweet Tea Read Online Free PDF

considered the inflated market and the ridiculous mortgage. They’d lost more than Grace liked to think about when they sold that house. But it had been bleeding their retirement accounts dry every month, so at least this move had stopped the monthly hemorrhage.
    The new house wasn’t that bad, actually. The roof was tin, the floors were pine, and the marker outside declared it was of some historical importance. Being downtown was a plus. And then there was the hope. She always tried to hold on to that hope. Could this be the home that held their healing? Maybe.
    Yet every room in this new place still smelled and felt un-hers. It held no memories. She didn’t know how to get around it in the dark without hurting herself.
    She peeked into the bedroom again. Tyler had rolled overand started to snore. She walked back down the foreign hall of a home it would take her two years to get used to—just in time for Tyler to want to move again.
    A small section of her longer bangs fell in her face. She readjusted the clip. Back in the kitchen, she leaned over to pull a dish out of the box and realized Miss Daisy was staring at her. She couldn’t help but chuckle at the ridiculous expression on this dog’s face. It was truly a face only a mother could love.
    Miss Daisy weighed almost eighteen pounds, far more than most shih tzus. Her eyes looked at times like they might pop right out of her head, and her underbite was bad enough for braces. And ornery—oh my, was she ornery. She never came when she was called. And she made it clear that she would let you know if and when she needed you. Otherwise the world was hers, and you were simply privileged to live in it. She was named after Jessica Tandy’s wealthy character in the movie Driving Miss Daisy because she, too, pretty much had everyone doing what she told them to do.
    Grace and Tyler had bought her a week after they got back from their honeymoon. They’d needed a dog like they needed a hole in the head, and they couldn’t really afford her. But of all the money Tyler had spent in their years together, the three hundred dollars they’d spent for Miss Daisy had been the most worthwhile.
    Grace rubbed her eyes. It wasn’t even noon yet, but she’d been up for nine hours already—a full day. This was what her body had been doing for ten years. It was what she knew. But that didn’t make it easy.
    She reached for her glass and took another sip of tea. She had already consumed two glasses, one she’d bought for herselffrom McDonald’s on her way to work and another she talked an intern into getting for her during one of the morning news breaks. She had done an entire morning news program and four segments during the Today show, and now she had a mountain of boxes to unpack. Forget sunshine—she needed sugar and caffeine.
    The thought of that mountain overwhelmed her in that moment. The enormity of the task felt as if it might take her breath away. With every move, she and Tyler seemed to have accumulated more stuff—ten years’ worth of it—and not just what awaited her in those boxes. If you could put ten years’ worth of accumulated resentment and disappointment into boxes, how high would the mountain rise?
    She reminded herself of the online devotional she had read this morning, one she had e-mailed to her every day. “Faith and obedience will move mountains,” this morning’s entry had said. “Mountains of evil. Mountains of difficulty. But they must go hand in hand.” She had always tried to be obedient. But the faith part—well, that seemed to be getting harder and harder.
    She tugged at the bottom of the black zippered sweatshirt that hung loosely over the black tank top and pants that served as her pajamas. Tyler liked to keep it freezing in the house when he slept, which usually didn’t start until the wee hours of the morning.
    She was pretty sure Tyler wouldn’t be awake for at least another three hours. There was no telling when he had finally gone