The Sweetest Love (Love Conquers All Book 5) Read Online Free

into the shopping bag. She just knew Abby would love Sasha the Bratz doll.
    Abby’s hobby and love had been collecting dolls. So every time she came to visit her friend she never came empty handed.
    “I got something for you.” Roxy posed the doll with its hand propped up against the headstone. She laughed and didn’t care if the people walking by thought she was crazy. The doll looked so sassy, just like her friend.
    Her laughter fading, she began talking to her friend. She had so much to tell her.
    Roxy let out a deep breath. “Well, Bruce dumped me. It did hurt a little because I really did like him. But I wasn’t ready to sleep with him.” Rolling her eyes and sucking her teeth as if Abby was right next to her, she huffed, “He had a nerve to give me an ultimatum. Can you believe that fool?” She hunched her shoulders nonchalantly. “So, while we were out to dinner, I ordered all this food and pretended I had to go to bathroom.” Pausing, she smiled at the elderly woman who stopped to give her a quizzical stare. As the woman eased a few feet past her, she picked up where she’d left off. “And I never went back to the table. I took a cab home. He’s gone… out of my life.”
    She giggled as she imagined Abby giving her a high five and saying, “That’s what he gets! Good for you, Foxy Roxy!”
    She reached inside the bag, this time pulling out lavender roses – Abby’s favorite color – and placed them next to Sasha. “I finally got a full time job with benefits and everything.”
    Roxy spent the next twenty minutes living in her own fantasy world where it was just she and Abby. In this world Abby was always vibrant, beautiful and healthy. And she always listened intently as Roxy poured out her heart.
    Although Roxy had made a few friends as she went on to high school and college, none had every replaced Abby. When she really needed to vent it was always to her mom or Abby. Of course she knew her friend was no longer there to give her advice, but it always made her feel better knowing and believing Abby was watching over her from heaven and somehow guiding her in the right direction.
    “I went by to see your mom and dad today. But your dad wasn’t home.” Oh God why did she have to say that? She was doing just fine. She had stopped her crying and now she was about to start up again.
    “She really misses you,” she whispered, wiping another tear away. The visit had been a rough one for both of them as they remembered their loved one. They had held each other and cried for what seemed like forever. Over the years she had remained in contact with Mr. and Mrs. West. It was her way of always feeling connected to Abby.
    Roxy’s heart ached for Brenda. She knew Brenda only went to her daughter’s grave twice a year, on her birthday and the anniversary of her death. And each time she had to work herself up to go because the pain was just so great. Roxy still could hear the wails of the woman as they lowered her child’s body into the ground.
    Struggling not to completely lose her composure, she decided to change the subject to something she knew wouldn’t make her cry. “I saw your brother today.”
    Plucking up a blade of grass, she twirled it between her fingers. She didn’t want to admit seeing him again after all these years had stirred something up in her other than the pain she felt from his cruelness to her all those years ago.
    “I hadn’t seen him since your…” she let her words drift off. She couldn’t bear to say the F word. “Well, it’s been a long time.”
    Yes, it had been a long time and he had morphed into one handsome specimen. Well handsome or not, he in her eyes was still a mean jerk and she wasn’t going to spend one more second talking about him.
    Checking her watch, she noticed it was almost four; Roxy was sure the Wests were probably on their way to the gravesite.
    “Well, I gotta go Crabby Abby,” she said as she picked up her pumps. “Your mom and dad should be