Hold on My Heart Read Online Free Page A

“Daddy’s not a businessman. And the economy right now is terrible.” She turned to her father. “Do you mean that old dump on Arbor Drive? There’s nothing down there but empty buildings. No one will go down there for ice cream.”
    “Ah, that’s where you’re wrong, Virginia.” Her father pointed at her with one hand while gripping the arm of his chair with the other. “The city council wants to renovate the entire area. They’re adding a bike path and a new boat launch. That whole stretch along the lake will become just like the old Atlantic City boardwalk.”
    Like the fish that got away, every time her father told this story, it grew in size. There was just no telling where actual fact stopped and his optimistic vision began.
    “The first businesses in, like mine, will anchor the whole development. There is even talk of bringing back the old merry-go-round that was there in the forties.”
    Yep, that was a new twist.
    Her father smiled more broadly now. “Isn’t it exciting, Bev?”
    A thin white line had appeared around the edge of her mother’s lips. Her eyes were like a doll’s, round and unseeing. “Exciting? Peter, what do you mean you bought it?”
    He rolled his shoulders. “I used some of our savings, and I bought it.”
    Her fingers fluttered around her throat again, and Libby felt real sympathy for her mother.
    “How much of our savings?” Her voice was as thin as smoke.
    “Not all of it. Just a little, and well… Libby’s wedding fund.”
    A sizable boulder fell off a cliff and landed smack on the top of Libby’s head. “My wedding fund? That’s what you used?”
    She hadn’t even known her parents had a “Libby’s wedding fund,” but the fact that her father just spent it on that fossil of a building showed a distinct lack of his confidence in her ability to find a husband. She was only twenty-eight. There was still time.
    “Her wedding fund?” Marti gasped. “What about my wedding fund? Is there still one for me?”
    Libby’s father waved his hand in her sister’s direction. “You’re only twenty-two years old, Marti. We’ll have plenty of time later to save up for your wedding fund.”
    “Um, not really.”
    Everyone’s gaze swung to Marti, and that
whoosh
of silence came back for another pass.
    Marti flushed a shiny pink and glanced at Dante. He nodded and smiled, still eating his salad as if this were normal dinner conversation.
    With a girlish giggle, she held up her left hand, showing off a chunky, green stone set on a thick, tarnished band. Somewhere a Cracker Jack box was missing its prize. “Dante and I are getting married.”
    “Your family is losing it,” Ben murmured to Ginny.
    “That’s not funny, Martha,” Beverly said. “We’re discussing your father and this building he bought.”
    “It’s not supposed to be funny,” Marti said. “It’s supposed to be awesome.”
    Dante leaned in and hugged her to his side. “It
is
awesome, babe.”
    Libby’s father drew in a long, labored breath and pointed his finger at the interloper at his table. “This Dante? This college dropout with the ink all over his arms? I don’t think so. No offense, kid.”
    Ginny reached over and grabbed Marti’s hand, tugging it closer for examination. “That’s not an engagement ring. Engagement rings are diamonds. I don’t know what that is.”
    Marti snatched her hand back. “Geez, Ginny. It’s an engagement ring if we say it is. Does everything have to be your way?”
    “What do you mean you’re getting married?” Libby’s mother’s voice cracked. The mottled splotches on her face went from red to purple. This was just not her night.
    “Just like what it sounds like. We’re getting married in two months, and we are going to live happily ever after. That is so awesome about the ice-cream parlor, by the way, Daddy. I am totally with you on this one.”
    Libby hiccupped. Two months? Marti and this derelict had known each other for three weeks and were