Cocoon Read Online Free

all, had not been romantically interested in a man since Zoe’s father had died.
    Tim, her son, was polite and characteristically friendly – yet Seana sensed his reservation. A wait-and-see one. His wife, Sherry, remained non-committal but polite. Granddaughter Ashley, now thirteen and shy, clammed up at first but – with Barth’s winsome coaxing – then opened up and chattered like a magpie, endearing herself to him.
    And to Seana. How she loved that little sandy-haired girl, a composite of Sherry’s delicate features with Tim’s soft brown eyes – Ansel’s legacy – and gentle manner.
    Barth was the perfect prescription for the loneliness that had beset her in recent years, since the children married and started their own families.
    Their own lives.
    â€¢ • •
    Barth.
    Brutus’s bark of delight snapped Seana back to the present. The Lab lumbered up the deck steps to her side, panting and plopping down beneath her chair to cool down. She heard Billie Jean’s door close downstairs. And she was alone again with her memories.
    Barth.
    Warmth trickled like warm summer rain through her as she remembered their time together last night. She’d invited him home with her after Paradise Springs Summer Festival. How had she ever not seen his beauty?
    Today, five months later, Seana gazed mistily at the blue mountain range from her deck, took a deep breath, blew it out and grinned, resisting the urge to fan her face.
    My oh my . She rolled her eyes. Who would have thought it? After all these years, she was in love again.
    Never would’ve believed she could love again after Ansel. How she’d loved that man. And to lose him had been excruciating. He would forever occupy a part of her heart. In retrospect, she admitted the dark odyssey had taught her lots of good things. It taught her to treasure each day as her last. And she learned that when one door closed, another one, divinely opened, would offer up equally wonderful opportunities.
    At the time of Ansel’s slide into eternity, however, she’d felt that no good could ever trail such loss.
    But time and the help of the good Lord had brought her through.
    She shook her head to clear out the sad memories, arose, and gathered her dishes from the patio table. In the kitchen she rinsed and loaded them into the nearly empty dishwasher. With her being the lone diner there, dishes didn’t collect quickly. At one time, that little observation had decimated her.
    Not any more. It would not be so for much longer.
    She tucked that knowledge inside her cozy, little heart niche reserved for Barth.
    Brutus’s clicking stride took him to his water bowl where he lapped for a full two minutes, quenching his thirst from the long run. He came to her and nuzzled her until she gave him an affectionate rub between his shoulders before trotting away to settle onto his den pillow.
    Her cell phone, lying on the nearby granite counter, vibrated into a lively patriotic rendition of “God Bless the USA.”
    She looked at the ID. Barth.
    â€œGood morning,” she trilled like a school girl as joy, like helium, filled and lifted her.
    â€œGood mornin’ yourself,” drawled a Canadian Clark Gable voice, raising goose flesh on Seana’s arms and neck. The scrumptious kind.
    â€œHi,” she murmured, suddenly breathless. The huskiness in his voice curled her insides. She rolled her eyes on that thought. Lordy. She had it bad. “So you’re fully recuperated from last night’s festive excitement, are you?”
    â€œAbsolutely, except that ice cream vendor who decided to have his own version of Hooters waitresses to serve folks. Some citizens didn’t particularly take to that, did they?”
    Seana burst into laughter. “That was too, too much for Sadie Tate. I can still hear her telling that man in no uncertain terms that his helper had better put on more clothes or