Purple Haze (Blue Dream Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

only cares about themselves, which takes away the stress of having to do things like pick out end tables.
     
    “Presley,” her voice drops to the overly concerned level I loathe. “Look at me.”
     
    My eyes turn away from the stiffly designed area we were just staring at.
     
    “We don't have to do all this right now. We can come back-”
     
    “No,” I cut her off quickly. “We can't. I don't have anything in that house.”
     
    “Pres-”
     
    “No,” I preemptively argue. “I don't want to wait, mom. I want to buy new furniture. I want to get settled in my life. I want to move forward and the longer it takes to do all this, the longer it's going to take for me to reach that point, so please...please...let's just go back to looking at bedroom sets.”
     
    She offers me a pained expression. “You don't have to rush to get over Xander.”
     
    With a shake of my head I start to walk away. “That's not what I'm rushing.”
     
    “Then what?”
     
    I turn around and snap, “I'm tired of my life being in chaos!”
     
    Her jaw creaks open in shock.
     
    “I want to be in control of my life again. I want the independence I somehow managed to lose track of while moving away from him. And I get it mom. Break ups are hard and yada yada, but I just need my stability back. I need to be able to focus at work. I need to be able to....whatever I'm supposed to be doing outside of work. I don't miss Xander mom. I miss the security of predictability.”
     
    To my surprise, she plants both her hands on my shoulders. “And there's the real issue, sweetie. Predictability isn't something you should crave at your age. At any age in fact. A life of passion, fun, and wonderful surprises is what you really need. It's what you should want .”
     
    Those three words are not ones that are me. Then again, ever since Katherine shook my essence like a Rubix cube, I'm not even 100 percent sure who I am any more. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
     
    “Come on.” She loops her arm through mine. “I think I see a lush, padded headboard you might like.”
     
    **
     
    After a day filled with furnishing my entire home and charging enough to make the credit card company call me not once, but twice, I'm settled in a chair next to my big brother with a much needed, well deserved cocktail in my hand.
     
    His husband, Antonio leans over and kisses his cheek. “What can I say? Gabe can't help but spoil me.”
     
    “Careful Gabe,” my father warns as he lifts up his beer. “Keep setting the bar so high and you'll never hear the end of it the one time you miss.”
     
    My mother playfully counters, “Shouldn't the lesson be to not miss it then?”
     
    “No one aims to miss something, hun. That's not how aiming works,” Dad’s words receive a shoulder bump from her.
     
    The table starts laughing and Antonio coos, “I hope Gabe and I are lucky enough to stay happily married as long as you two have been.”
     
    My brother extends his arm around the back of his lover's chair. “I think we will.”
     
    “Key is to find someone you can't live without,” Dad starts with a smile. “Then fighting like hell every day to keep them. Through the good, the bad, and the un-brushed hair.”
     
    “Harris!” my mother shrieks in a giggle.
     
    While everyone else focuses on the teasing my parents are presenting, my father's words echo through my mind. I wanna ask him, what happens if you have to live without them? What happens when your paths are so distant from each other you're not sure there is a median? How do you not lose faith? How do you fight for someone or something you're not even sure really exists outside of your imagination? What do you do when the cards you're given in life refuse to deal you a winning hand? What happens when you can't appreciate the aces and the hearts the same anymore?
     
    Gabe leans over and whispers, “So, how are you holding up?”
     
    Forcing a smile on my face I reply, “Pretty