Ship of Dreams (Dreams Come True Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

greens, some flaky biscuits or savory cornbread, even his favorite—pecan pie—but who had time for that?
    Oh well. Soon he’d be eating like a king, if the five-star reviews of Imperial’s cuisine held true.
    Seeing nothing of interest in the mail, he moved into the living room, taking his cold, one-star meal-in-a-carton with him, and stared at the box, considering. If he didn’t open it before he left and acknowledge its receipt, his sister would pester him the whole cruise.
    Setting aside his ersatz dinner, he reached into his pocket and took out the bone-handled pocketknife his grandmother had given him for his sixteenth birthday. A gift he knew she’d splurged on. Slicing through the tape, he lifted the lid. And memories flooded his brain.
    On top was the battered copy of To Kill a Mockingbird his grandmother had made him read. He’d groused and complained, but it wasn’t long before he couldn’t put it down. And he’d read it dozens of times since then.
    He pulled an envelope written in his sister’s hand out of the book and opened it.
    Dear Nathan,
    I went through Gram’s things and enclosed the items I thought you’d want. I think she kept everything from the time we moved in with her until the day she died. Every drawing, every report card, every letter we ever wrote to her. She even had the local newspaper clippings about the 4-H ribbons I’d won. God, I miss her.
    Yeah, he did too. He rubbed a hand over the ache in his chest that never went away.
    By the way, the developer called again. He’s pushing hard. And the bank has called several times. We need to move on this soon.
    I miss you. Hope the Big Apple is everything you dreamed. I’ll be up to visit as soon as I can.
    Hugs,
    Amanda
    Yeah, right. Like she had time to visit New York.
    He hated leaving his sister to deal with an aggressive mortgage lender, and an even more aggressive developer. She had a heavy enough burden trying to keep the farm going, without dealing with a hostile mortgage lender, avaricious developers, and pushy real estate agents. The house needed a new roof to boot, but that would have to wait until they’d taken care of the mortgages.
    Both he and his sister had been shocked to learn their grandmother had mortgaged the farm to the hilt. A farm that had been in her family for generations. She’d used the money to send him and Amanda to college. Money she’d said she’d saved for just such an expense.
    He closed his eyes, the pain of her sacrifice overwhelming him. She would have known she’d never be able to repay the mortgages. Her life insurance had been barely enough to cover her medical bills and funeral costs.
    Well, he’d be damned if he’d let some greedy land developer keen to build a neighborhood of McMansions for a bunch of country wannabes put his family’s land on the chopping block.
    The bonus he’d receive upon closing the Imperial account would just cover the two mortgages. And close the Imperial account he would. He and Amanda just needed to hold the bank and the developer at bay until then.
    Setting aside his sister’s note, he reached into the box for a bundle of letters tied with string. Letters he’d written his grandmother from college.
    Seeing a large manila envelope, he opened it, and found a stack of photos. On top, a photo from his high school graduation, his grandmother beaming by his side, and beneath that his official college graduation photo, the one she’d kept on the fireplace mantel.
    His aching heart climbed to his throat when he came upon the photo of his mother. He held it under the light. She must have been eighteen at the time, right before she’d gotten pregnant with him.
    She’d been a beauty. Raven hair, warm, brown eyes, brilliant smile. So young, her life ahead filled with unlimited possibilities. But she’d made some bad choices, and ashamed by those choices, and their consequences, she’d become estranged from her own mother.
    He looked back at his graduation photos.