Silver Linings Read Online Free PDF Page A

surface her hopes, and in equal measure her fears. Just because she’d learned how to forgive, that didn’t mean that James had the will or the desire to lay the past to rest when it came to her.
    “Do you feel it’s in you to forgive?” she asked, hoping to turn the questions around on Coco.
    “What makes you ask that?”
    “You know why…”
    “Well, I guess all of us have fallen short now and then…”
    “Amen,” Katie said with a halfhearted chuckle. “And just as easily we might have inadvertently hurt someone without even knowing what we’ve done.”
    “That’s not true,” Coco darted back. “We know.”
    Although she disagreed, Katie wasn’t going to argue.
    This reunion would certainly prove to be interesting. Coco was outgoing and friendly, whereas Katie was much quieter, intense, and shy. Their differences were one reason why they were such good friends. They balanced each other.
    Katie remembered the first day of school and how dreadful it’d been to start yet another high school, especially in her senior year. She’d been moved to the third foster home in twelve months. It wasn’t that she was a problem case or difficult to place—she’d never been in trouble in her other foster homes. Each move had been plain old bad luck. One set of foster parents had gotten a job transfer to another state. Then, with the second family, the wife had been diagnosed with cancer. Two major moves within a short amount of time. Her next family, the Flemmingses, were wonderful, as far as foster parents went.
    “It looks like we’re almost to Bremerton,” Coco said, as if eager to change the subject.
    The ferry docked near the Bremerton shipyard, which could be seen in the distance. Several mothballed battleships and carriers lined the waterfront, along with a number of nuclear-powered submarines. The shipyard and navy base were a large part of the local economy, both in Bremerton and Cedar Cove.
    Ralph Flemmings, her foster father, had worked as a nuclear engineer at the shipyard until his recent retirement. Soon afterward the Flemmingses had sold their home in Cedar Cove, purchased a motor home, and traveled around the country. Every few weeks Katie got a postcard from a different part of the country. Ralph and Sue had taken to their new lives like a helium balloon to the sky, drifting in whatever direction the air took them. They were good people, and Katie would be forever grateful for their generosity toward her, especially that last year of high school.

I stood for a long time staring at the Realtor’s FOR SALE sign in front of Mark’s house. It shouldn’t have been this much of a surprise. Mark hadn’t misled me. He was doing exactly what he’d said he intended to do. He was moving away. And yet I was shocked.
    I don’t know how long I stood in front of the house as a gnawing sensation attacked my gut. Like the liquid in a cauldron, it churned and brewed and swelled, and then all at once I was so angry I could barely contain myself. And at the same time I was unbearably sad. A profound sense of loss settled over me, that familiar pain I experienced in the first weeks after I’d gotten word that Paul was missing in action and presumed dead.
    Rover sat on his haunches watching me as if he expected some sort of response on my end. I had none to give. The Realtor’s sign blurred before my eyes.
    It went without saying that any further attempt to talk Mark out of leaving would be pointless. I’d already tried that, but my words appeared to have no impact on him. It was as if he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. Well, so be it.
    The return trip to the inn was taken at a much slower pace than when I left, as my head and my heart assimilated what I’d found. As I drew closer to the inn, my thoughts whirled around inside my head. I was saddened and angry in equal measure.
    When I walked up the driveway, Rover strained against the leash in his eagerness to get to Mark. I held on tightly, but