Sweet Hearts Read Online Free PDF

couldn’t be too hard to rummage around for a knife and cake
server without bothering the hostess. She could see to it that the cake was
ready to serve and then make a quiet exit out the back.
    “. . . only a matter of weeks.
You know how doctors are about telling you anything, really.”
    Two women in very similar dark
dresses stood at the far side of the room, near a doorway that probably led to
a small pantry. Sam sent a little smile their direction but pretended to be so
busy that she wasn’t noticing their conversation.
    “Jolie doesn’t know yet,” the
shorter woman said in a low voice.
    Sam spotted a wooden block with
knife handles sprouting from it. She pulled a couple of them before finding the
one that would work best for the cake.
    “When is Marla going to tell her?
She can’t wait until the last minute.”
    Doctors? A matter of weeks?
Was Marla critically ill?

Chapter
4
    Someone else walked into the
kitchen just then and the women headed toward the rest of the party. With a
cake server and the knife in hand, Sam followed.
    “Sam, thank you,” Marla said,
intercepting her. “I was just on my way—”
    Sam set the utensils on the
table, unsure what to say.
    “Oh, here’s my granddaughter.”
Marla reached toward a girl of about twelve, circling her shoulders with a
loving arm. “Jolie, this is Ms Sweet from the bakery, Sweet’s Sweets. She made
this beautiful cake for us.”
    At an age when a lot of girls
began testing their boundaries, dressing goth or piercing their body parts,
Jolie seemed like a grandmother’s dream. She wore a perky little dress of
something blue-swirled and silky that kept her slim, budding body childlike.
Her long, dark hair was drawn back at the crown with a little cluster of silk
flowers. She smiled shyly at Sam, her teeth white and straight in her caramel
complexion.
    “Hi, Jolie, nice to meet you.”
    “You made this?” the girl said,
looking at the cake.
    “Yeah. Maybe you’d like to learn
how sometime?”
    Jolie sent another of her
hesitant smiles toward Sam, then she spotted two other girls across the room.
    “Go ahead,” Marla said. “You can
take Jenny and Sarah to your room.”
    “She seems like a good kid,” Sam
said.
    “She is. I’ve been really lucky.”
Marla’s eyes misted over and she blinked to clear them. “Her dad went missing
when she was only two. Then her mom died when she was five. They lived in
Albuquerque, and I hadn’t gotten much time with Jolie until then. Suddenly, she
had no one else, so I brought her here.” She cleared her throat. “She’s such a
sweet girl.”
    Sam thought of the conversation
in the kitchen but it didn’t seem like her place to ask.
    “You can stay awhile, can’t you?”
Marla asked. “Father Joe already gave us a private blessing. Now we’re ready to
start serving the food. I’d love to introduce you to everyone, along with the
cake.”
    Intruding on someone’s family
time didn’t feel right, but Marla seemed to sincerely want her there. Her
hostess took hold of Sam’s arm and pulled her into the living room where she
proceeded with a flurry of names. Sam would do well to remember half of them,
but she tried. The couple who had helped bring the cake inside were Joy and
Bill; neighbors from the houses on either side were the two women she’d
overheard talking in the kitchen, Diane and Deborah; another couple introduced
themselves as Jorge and Camille. The priest, Father Joe, gave her a warm
handshake. Someone offered her a glass of wine and then Marla’s voice rose
above the conversation for a moment to announce that the meal was ready. Jolie
and her friends had come back, eager to be first in line for the food.
    Platters and bowls crowded the
table, except for the end where the cake sat, filled with homemade
dishes—tacos, posole, enchiladas plus beans and salads and more. Sam stood
aside, feeling like an extra, letting the others fill their plates first.
    “Go, Sam, eat,” Marla