The Silent Waters Read Online Free Page A

even more at the mess and pulled each other closer. Mama’s head rested against Daddy’s chest as he whispered into her ear, and they danced so slow.
    That’s what true love meant to me.
    True love meant you could laugh at mistakes.
    True love meant you could whisper secrets.
    True love meant you never had to dance alone.
     

     
    The next morning, I woke ready for the day ahead of me. “Today is the rehearsal for my wedding day!” I shouted, stretching my arms out and jumping up and down on my bed. “It’s my rehearsal! It’s my rehearsal day!”
    Calvin stumbled into my bedroom, rubbing his hands over his sleepy eyes. “Gosh, Maggie, can you shut it? It’s three in the morning,” he griped, yawning.
    I smirked. “It doesn’t matter, because it’s my rehearsal day, Calvin!”
    He grumbled some more and called me a name, but I didn’t care.
    Daddy stumbled into my room almost exactly how my brother had, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He walked over to my bed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, forcing him to hold me up in the air.
    “Daddy, guess what? Guess what?” I shrieked with excitement.
    “Let me guess, you’re having your wedding rehearsal today?”
    I nodded quickly and laughed as he tiredly spun me around in a circle. “How did you know?”
    He smirked. “Lucky guess.”
    “Can you make her stop yelling so we can go back to bed?” Calvin groaned. “It’s not even a real wedding!”
    I gasped and went to sass him for his lies, but Daddy stopped me, whispering, “Someone’s not a morning person. How about we all go back to bed for a few hours, and then I’ll cook you a day-before-wedding-day breakfast?”
    “Waffles with strawberries and whipped cream?”
    “And sprinkles!” He smiled.
    Calvin stomped his grumpy butt back to his room, and Daddy laid me back down on my bed, giving me Eskimo kisses. “Try to get a few more hours of sleep, okay, honey? You have a big day ahead of you.” He tucked me in, the same way he did each and every night.
    “Okay.”
    “And, Maggie May?”
    “Yes?”
    “The world keeps spinning because your heartbeats exist.” He’d said those words to me every single day, as long as I could remember.
    When he left the room, he shut the light off, and I lay in bed, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark star stickers on my ceiling, smiling wide with my hands over my chest, where I felt each and every one of my heartbeats that kept the world spinning.
    I knew I was supposed to be sleeping, but I couldn’t, because it was the day before my wedding day, and I was about to marry a boy who didn’t know it yet, but was going to be my best friend once we made it to our ten-year anniversary.
    He’d probably need those ten years to realize he did indeed want to be my husband.
    And we’d obviously live happily ever after.
     

     
    When morning came, I was the first one up, waiting downstairs for my waffles. Daddy and Mama were still sleeping when I creeped into their bedroom.
    “Hey, you guys awake?” I whispered. Nothing. Poking Daddy in the cheek, I repeated myself. “Hey, you awake, Daddy?”
    “Maggie May, it’s not time to get up yet,” he murmured.
    “But, you said you’d make waffles!” I whined.
    “In the morning.”
    “It is morning,” I groaned and walked over to their windows, pulling back the drapes. “See? The sun is out.”
    “The sun is a liar, that’s why God created curtains,” Mama yawned, rolling on her side. She opened her eyes and glanced at the clock on her nightstand. “Five-thirty a.m. on a Saturday is not the morning, Maggie May. Now get back to bed, and we’ll come wake you up.”
    They didn’t wake me until eight in the morning—but surprisingly I was already up. The day went slower than I wanted it to, and my parents made me go watch Cheryl’s dance recital, which lasted longer than it should’ve, but once we got home, I was ready to head out to Brooks.
    Mama told me I could only go off to play if I took Cheryl with