Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) Read Online Free Page B

still feel the sting of my aunt’s words before I left Stone Valley. Raising her shak y voice about what an ungrat eful daughter I turned out to be , for wanting to explore my past . Her wo rds still blistered , telling me I wasn’t a true Forrester and never would be . “M y aunt gave me the impression she had n ever approved of my birth mother.”
    “Most of the town held Anne in high esteem . O nly a fool would say otherwise .” A shadow crossed his face and quickly faded. “Y ou’re searching for answers.”
    “Exactly. I want to know about Anne . What she believed. What she e xcelled at. What she feared. ” My most puzzling question remained unspoken—why had she given me away.
    “ You’d need to ask Maggie about those things .” He stood , picked up the poker , and pushed the logs around , freeing the flames to leap higher.
    “ Don’t you understand? I n the process of find ing out ever ything possible about Anne, I’ll find pieces of myself, bits I never knew existed. ” Maybe I should have listened to my aunt and refused to come to Serenity Cove . But what if I no longer belong ed in Stone Valley—not as a Forrester ? What if I do n ’t fit in either world ?

Chapter Three
    One the oldest residents of Serenity Cove, the cigar- store Indian figure stood sentry outside Magnolia’s Antiques , greeting the customers in his colorful headdress . If only I had a silver coin for each time someone stood next to him and had a picture sna pped. The ship bell clang as I open ed the door to Maggie’s shop.
    “Well , hello, what brings you by ?”
    “What—c an’t I visit my favorite sister?”
    “Y ou ’re want ing more than a sisterly chat .” She smiled and continued arranging jewelry on a glass countertop .
    “On my way to see Sam at the bookshop .”
    “ I’m enjoying getting to know Sam better. We have coffee of the mornings before she heads to the bookshop, like Anne and I used to do. " She nodded to a tabl e with two rose-colored wing cha irs, the setting for one of her favorite things—inviting a friend for a cuppa , as she called it. “Time to sit a few minutes?”
    “Not today. I wanted to ask you about Anne’s paren ts . ”
    “ According to Anne, they do n ’ t want anything to do with Sam— wouldn’t tolerate Anne even mentioning her name.” She gazed out the window as though she might find a solution in the sun’s slanted rays. “Sam needs our prayers . ” Maggie fingered the cha in of a necklace for a moment . “Logan, take it slow . I see many of Anne’s wonderful qualities in Sam, but don’t get too involved too soon.”
    “It’s all good. We ’ re just friends.” I’d see n Sam almost daily since she’d arrived in Serenity Cove. Yet , I couldn’t argue with Maggie ’s logic . Sam wo uld be le aving soon .
    I left and wal ked the few steps to the bookshop. L i lyan Brown was leaving . I stepped aside and held the door as she exited . A look of irritation crossed her face as she brushed past me . Lilyan had moved here when we were in middle school. H er odd behavior had only worsened in high s c hool. And truthfully, not much about her has changed. Why had she visited Sam? The bookshop had remained closed since Anne’s death . It couldn’t be good.
    Even though she couldn’t hear me, I called S am’s name as I entered . The dusty wooden shelves lining the walls remained fille d with books. Odd—I still expected Anne to greet me with her cheerful hello . Goldi e barked , drawing my attention to the rear of the shop.
    “Hi. We’re in the back .” Sam waved.
    I joined he r at one of the reading tables. “Before the to wn built a library, Anne allowed us to sit at these tables and do our homework. She kept a se t of encyclopedias and a few dictionaries so we could do research or look up spelling words.”
    Sam nibbled her bottom lip . “The more you and Maggie tell me about Anne, the more extraordinary she sounds.”
    I nodded. “S he was . ” Sam’s