If This Is Love by Jewel E. Ann EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Author: Jewel E. Ann
- Genre: Western Romances
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Series: None
- Price: Free
- File Size: 2 MB
A WHITE CASKET AND GRILLED
CHEESE
FLETCHER ELLINGTON PURCHASED me for the bargain price of
one million dollars. A gift for his wife, Ruthie.
I was four years old.
Ruthie sewed floral sun dresses and ran a boar-bristle
brush through my hair every morning. She taught me to read
Magic Tree House books, paint pictures to express my
feelings, and question everything. We spent hours in her
gardens, where I learned a tiny seed can turn into a “shit-ton”
of zucchini. Fletcher’s word, not mine.
Now, she’s dead.
“Indie will be so lost,” Faye, Ruthie’s older sister, whispers
to Grandma Hill while Ruthie’s casket disappears into the
ground. It’s a polished white casket, shinier than Greg’s
casket.
He died last year in an ATV accident. I was sad he died,
and his wife and daughter didn’t. I know that’s bad, but
Pauline (Fletcher’s sister) and my so-called cousin, Jolene, are
terrible people. Everyone on Fletcher’s side of the family is
terrible. Jolene is seven years older than me, and I hate her.
Ruthie told me never to hate anyone, but I can’t help it. Jolene
never misses an opportunity to remind me that I’m an
“impostor.” Children purchased like racing horses and
livestock are not “blood” family.
Someday, I’m going to get back at her. I’m going to take
something that she wants. And I’ll stick my tongue out, even
though Ruthie always told me nice girls don’t have to stick
their tongues out. But I’ll do it anyway just to see Jolene’s
freckled face turn red and steam shoot from her big nostrils.
For now, I can’t think about stupid Jolene. Instead, I focus
on birds chirping while the breeze carries the slight smell of
manure up the hill to our gathering around Ruthie’s grave.
Fletcher falls to his knees next to the grave. I can’t imagine
feeling worse if he were my real father grieving my real
mother. Greg used to say that blood is thicker than water, but
Ruthie said he wasn’t using the saying correctly. “The blood of
the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” Ruthie
said it meant the opposite. “The bonds we make by choice are
stronger than the bonds of family (the water of the womb).”
And the only reason Uncle Greg and my mom had this
argument was because Greg thought Jolene was more
deserving than I was because she was his biological daughter.
I am the purchased livestock.
Ruthie wasn’t Fletcher’s family by blood. Still, while his
body shakes with sobs, hands clenching his white button-down
shirt over his heart, I think back to Uncle Greg’s death.
Fletcher didn’t cry. Not once.
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