Harvest Moon Read Online Free Page B

returned to her bedroom and changed out of the dress and into a pair of cotton eyelet pajamas. She much preferred sleeping nude, but had acquired the habit of wearing pajamas to bed because she had never known when she would be summoned to Oscar’s bedroom and she hadn’t wanted to waste time getting dressed.
    Walking over to the French doors, she opened them and stepped out onto the second-story veranda. The calming silence of the Mexican night swallowed her whole, filling her with a peace she had not felt in years. The past ten years had changed her into someone who had become a stranger—even to herself.
    She had missed a lot of milestones a woman her age should have experienced: dating, traveling with her girlfriends and attending parties. She had missed seeing her brother and sister grow into adolescence, and she felt detached from her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and her many cousins.
    She met Oscar Spencer at seventeen, married him at nineteenand he left her widowed at twenty-seven. She had given him a total of ten years of her young life, and she wondered about the next ten. For the first time in her life she was alone—alone to make decisions that would not include anyone but herself.
    A soft chiming shattered her musings. Leaving the veranda, she returned to the bedroom to answer the telephone.
“Hola,”
she said softly.
    “Cupcake.”
    A bright smile softened her delicate features. “Daddy!”
    Minutes after her husband died, she had called her parents and left a message with their housekeeper. The woman informed her that her family had gone up to West Palm Beach for a few days.
    “We just got back and heard the news. How are you, Baby?”
    “I’m fine, Daddy.”
    “Hold on a minute, Cupcake. I can’t talk to you and your mother at the same time.”
    Regina sank down to the bed and pulled her knees to her chest. Hearing her father’s voice reminded her of what was waiting for her once she tied up all of the loose ends of her life in Mexico; she never realized how much she missed her family until she heard their voices or they left after a visit. They had always come to see her in Mexico, because most times Oscar was too weak to travel more than a few miles from home.
    Martin Cole’s soft, Southern drawl came through the wire again. “Your mother says you should expect us within two days.”
    “No, Daddy, don’t. I don’t want you to come.”
    “Why not? I’m not going to let you go through this by yourself. Hasn’t Oscar Spencer taken enough from you?”
    Biting down hard on her lower lip, she chose her words carefully. Her father still hadn’t forgiven her for marrying Oscar, and whenever he came to visit her and Oscar, it had been obvious heafforded the older man a modicum of respect because of his age, not because he was her husband. Oscar had been twenty years her father’s senior.
    “I’m not alone, Daddy. Oscar’s son is here. And after we bury him and settle the estate, then I’m coming home.”
    There was a noticeable silence before Martin responded. “Are you coming home to visit?”
    Her smile returned. “No. I’m coming back to stay.”
    “I like the sound of that. Are you certain you don’t want your mother or me to come? She can come without me.”
    “I want to handle this myself. I’ll keep in touch, and let you know when to expect me.”
    “Okay, Baby. Let me put your mother on before she has a fit.”
    Regina spent the next quarter of an hour talking to her mother. She laughed, the low, seductive sound of her voice filling the room when Parris Cole confided that seventeen-year-old Tyler Cole had shown a marked interest in a girl at his school.
    “I can’t believe it,” she chuckled. “My little brother in love.”
    “I wouldn’t call it love,” Parris countered. “But I must say that he’s quite infatuated with her.”
    “Is she at least a nice girl, Mommy?”
    “She’s lovely, but as quiet and shy as he is.”
    Wincing, Regina shook her head.