Susanna's Dream: The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley, Book Two Read Online Free PDF Page A

relatives.
    Chloe carried the glasses out on the deck. Seth leaned back in the chair, gazing at the rippling brook, the lines in his lean face relaxing. Did he realize how tense he looked each time he returned from a business trip that took him back to the world he’d thought he wanted? She wasn’t sure.
    He turned toward her when she sat down, his face easing into that smile again. “So, how is your project going?”
    “You mean the paper on Amish folk art part of the project or the getting-to-know-Susanna part?”
    “Either or both,” he said.
    She lifted up her glass, ice cubes clinking, and then set it down again. “I think we’ve waited long enough. We should tell Susanna that she’s our sister now.”
    Keen blue eyes studied her face. “What does Lydia think?”
    “I haven’t talked to her about it in the past few days, but—”
    “Susanna is Lydia’s sister, too.” His tone was one of patient reminder, and it annoyed her. “You can’t make the decision without her.”
    “Lydia never thinks the time is right.” She tapped her fingers on her glass. “First we had to wait because Susanna’s adoptive mother was so ill. Now she thinks we should wait because Susanna is still grieving her.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “I take it
wait
is a dirty word in your vocabulary?”
    “I’m not Amish,” she reminded him tartly. “In my world, things move along, and if they don’t, you push them.”
    “As I recall, you weren’t exactly pleased when I broke this news to you.” His lips twitched, which probably meant he was remembering her threat to have him thrown out of her office.
    “I thought you were trying to con me.” Because that sort of caution had been drummed into her by the grandmother who’d raised her.
    People are always after the Wentworth money or influence. You can never assume people like you for who you are. Everyone wants something.
Gran’s mantra had been pervasive, and sometimes Chloe had almost believed it.
    “I don’t suppose Susanna would think that about you,” Seth said. “But she might not believe you.”
    He let it rest there, but his silence was more powerful than any argument would be. If she told Susanna the truth—that she’d been adopted after the accident that killed both her parents, that she’d never been told about her sisters—and Susanna refused to believe it, their tentative friendship would be at an end.
    Seth let her think, and he seemed to be following the progression of her thoughts fairly well.
    “You’d lose what you have now,” he said finally. “What’s the rush? I thought you and Lydia agreed that it was best to get to know Susanna gradually before hitting her with the truth.”
    “I know that’s what we talked about doing.” She turned her glass on the table, absently watching the rings of condensation it made, intersecting and overlapping, like the circles of people in her life. “But she was upset about something today, and she probably told me more than she meant to.”
    Seth leaned toward her, face intent. “What?”
    “Apparently, from what she said, her partner’s son is trying to get Dora to retire. If she did, Susanna doesn’t know what would happen to the business.”
    “She’s a partner, isn’t she?” He frowned. “But being Amish, they probably don’t have a formal partnership agreement that would spell out her rights in that situation.”
    “She didn’t say. But I have the impression she can’t afford to buy Dora out, and the shop means so much to her.” She could still see the pain in Susanna’s face at the prospect of losing her store. “Maybe, if she knew she had family, she’d let us help her.”
    “Financially, you mean?” Seth considered it. “Could you actually do that, if she agreed?”
    Chloe shrugged. “Depends on how much it is, I guess. I do have some money that my grandfather left me directly. Everything else is controlled by my grandmother.” She hesitated, lips tightening. “She’s Lydia and