Broken Read Online Free Page A

she cute?” The older lady elbowed Ciera and winked. “And the daddy isn’t bad either, huh?”
    “Um…”
    “Kathy is hoping one day he’ll look at her, but I don’t think that will ever happen.”
    Ciera should have stopped her but didn’t. She was too curious.
    “She’s ex-military like him. They weren’t in the same unit though, but she’s known the family for years. Kathy was there for him after his wife died and helped out a lot with Melly.”
    “Oh, well it seems natural that—”
    The woman scoffed. “Kathy’s too disciplined. She thinks he’s too soft on Melly, and she’s not afraid to say so. I think that’s why he’ll never choose her. Maybe he should be tougher. I can see Melly being a wild thing as a teenager, but right now. No. It’s hard on both of them, and all they have is each other. Kathy should just let them be for now, but she thinks it’s her job to fix them.”
    “Fix them?” Ciera couldn’t help commenting, even though she didn’t want to appear interested in Nathan.
    The older woman nodded. “Just look for yourself. Melly’s little voice is broken, but so is her daddy’s heart. From the time it happened, I thought to myself, Sadie, the only thing that will fix that family is lots of love from someone who knows what it’s like to be broken, too. That, my dear, ain’t Kathy, whether she likes it or not.”
    Sadie drifted away toward the cake table, and Ciera remained at the back of the group, letting the noise rise and the colors swirl around her, out of focus. She bided her time until she could escape and go home alone.
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    Ciera let herself into her apartment and walked down the hall toward her bedroom. She passed the second bedroom and paused. Boxes crammed the space, treasures and junk she had yet to go through. Even after two years, all she had done up to now was to pull the door shut and tell herself another day. That morning, she had opened the door again but failed to step across the threshold. She and Tony had owned a house together. When he filed for divorce before she could, he had demanded they sell the house that had been listed in both their names. What did she need it for, he’d said, and she had agreed in order to keep the fighting to a minimum until he was out of her life for good. With her dreams shattered, she had hardly sorted through the items Tony left and just had them hauled here to her apartment.
    The first six boxes were emptied and sorted through within three hours. Ciera had cried throughout, and her nose was stopped up. Tissue hanging from one nostril, she stood to go to the kitchen to find something to eat. Her cell phone rang, and she groaned. Most likely it was her dad calling to harass her into coming over to dinner. Ciera thought about ignoring it but thought better. He would just call again until she answered.
    The display read Nathan McAvoy, and she dropped the phone on the kitchen floor. The case broke apart, one piece skittering several feet away, the other landing beside her. “Just great.”
    She gathered the cheap case and set it on the table, then dropped into a chair. Her throat was dry when she answered.
    “So Melly wanted to know if you’d like to go to lunch with us tomorrow,” he said in greeting.
    Her stomach knotted. “Melly would?”
    “I would like to know, too.”
    She spun a piece of the case with shaky fingers. “I have to meet a client.” She lied. All of her clients were online. The children’s author had been local, an exception.
    “How about Tuesday?”
    “This week is really busy, Nathan. I—” She couldn’t think up an excuse. True, she had managed to gain a couple new clients, but what they needed wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. Three covers and a boxed set design from one, a redesign of a bad author attempt for the other. Anything would be better than what the woman had created herself.
    “Tell me the truth, Ciera.”
    Damn, she liked how he said her name. She