Wishful Kisses: A Fountain of Love Novella Read Online Free PDF

his eyes, seeing the love and heartache. They were warm like a summer's day. I could live in those eyes.
    "I love you. I think I always will." I kissed him then, letting my lips show him because words didn't seem adequate. I loved him with my whole heart, with every fiber of my being. We had a connection that I had never thought possible, especially after such a short amount of time.
    He had written me every day after that. The letters had arrived at my new LA address without incident. I had looked forward to them like a child at Christmas. They had been sent to a base in Texas for some additional training before being sent away. I had thought about buying a plane ticket to visit him, but I didn't have the funds or available vacation time.
    When Iraq invaded Kuwait and triggered the start of the Gulf War, the letters had slowed. Tony, Dean, and Matt had all been sent on a mission and the letters became less frequent as the danger to them increased. One night in January, I woke up screaming for him. My poor roommate was scared half to death. Then the letters stopped arriving. I called military bases and media outlets, desperately checking casualty lists. I had collapsed when I found his name on one of them. Sgt. Anthony Frontera: Killed In Action.
    I was in shock for days. When I finally stopped crying, I picked up the phone to call Rachel and Jenny, to see if they new anything. Jenny told me she hadn't spoken to Matt since the airport. Rachel, on the other hand...
    "Rachel," I asked into the phone. I could hear what sounded like a busy office in the background. "Do you ever talk to Dean at all?"
    She sighed. "No. He never wrote me. Not even once. He broke my heart, Kimberly," she said bitterly. "I don't want to talk about him, okay? Just pretend like we never met those boys."
    I didn't have the heart to tell her after that. I knew Dean and Matt were injured in whatever had killed Tony, but if she didn't want to know, I wasn't going to be the one to tell her. We never really talked much after that. We exchanged the regular happy Christmas card updates, and became friends on myFace as the years went on, but we were no longer a part of each other's lives.
    I wasn't sure how Rachel and Dean had come back to each other after being apart for so long, but the wedding invitation was proof enough that they had. I was happy for them. It was a love story that should have warmed my heart, but my loss of Tony made it bittersweet. My love story didn't have a happy ending. It never would.
    I wiped a tear from my cheek. That had been over twenty years ago. I had often wondered what my life would have been like if Tony hadn't died. I liked to think we would have ended up happily married with kids and a dog. I had never found anyone that made me feel the way he did.
    "It would be better than this," I said softly. My life wasn't bad , but it was lonely. I had friends and a job that I enjoyed, did yoga on weekends and was part of a book club, but it wasn't enough. My own family was gone and I didn't have a husband or children. I was very much alone in the world.
    "How do you find another love of your life?" I asked the fountain. It just gurgled and splashed in response.
    I stood, examining the fountain. I didn't remember it being here before. The courtyard wasn't one of my usual walking spots, but I seemed to remember a small retaining pond here before. Now there was a beautiful marble fountain with three tiers growing in size as they descended. Water poured down the levels until it splashed into a basin at the bottom. I loved it.
    I reached my hand out to catch a stream of water, enjoying the cool splash on my skin. I held the water in my palm for a moment before dropping it into the collecting basin at the bottom. Copper and silver coins speckled the bottom, reflecting the light of the water in pretty arcs and shimmers.
    I pulled a penny from my pocket. It was shiny and caught the morning sunlight. I held it in my hand, squeezing my fingers