Whispers of Truth: A Christian Romance (River Falls Book 4)
Chapter 1
Summer peeled her fingers off the steering wheel, then swiped her palms over her cheeks, wiping the moisture they came away with on her t-shirt. She pulled down the sun visor and flipped up the mirror to assess the damage. Fortunately, she hadn’t done her makeup yet, or her face would be a disaster. But she looked bad enough the way it was. A full night of crying had left her with puffy eyes and a red nose, and this fresh round of tears had created great pink splotches on her cheeks. She’d have to tell Mama it was a cold. Or allergies.
She supposed other women might turn to their mothers for comfort after a breakup. But she wasn’t other girls. And Mama wasn’t other mamas. If she knew Nick had dumped Summer, it would be just one more weapon in the arsenal of insults she could hurl at her daughter.
Taking a shaky breath and letting it out slowly, Summer opened the car door and made herself get out. Instantly, the July humidity pasted itself to her already sticky face. She let herself gaze into the distance for a moment, her eyes roving hungrily over the lush green mountain slopes that ringed the town of River Falls. They always looked so inviting, and more than once as a kid, she had dreamed of running away from Mama and living out there on her own. If it hadn’t been for her brother TJ, maybe she would have.
She let out a long breath and moved resolutely to the trunk to unload the groceries, then hurried to the door. She might as well get this over with. She only had a couple of hours before she needed to be in costume and ready to entertain a roomful of giggling girls.
She probably should have saved the shopping for tomorrow and gone to church this morning, but the thought of showing up there all red-faced and puffy-eyed had been less than appealing. Especially knowing that Benjamin would be there, and he would be all sweet and concerned and wonderful—and she couldn’t take that right now.
Besides, this way she wouldn’t have to do Mama’s shopping after the party, when she’d be completely worn out.
She tromped to the stoop and set one of the bags down to fish out her keys, then took another breath and forced herself to unlock the door and step through.
“Good morning, Mama.” She didn’t bother to try to sound cheerful—that would have made Mama suspicious—but she managed to keep the tears out of her voice.
From her chair in front of the TV, Mama grunted something in Summer’s direction. Summer kept going until she reached the kitchen and deposited the packages. She made two more trips to the car, relieved that Mama never once glanced in her direction.
Summer made quick work of unpacking the groceries, then emptied the dishwasher and sorted through the refrigerator for leftovers that had gone bad. She held her breath as she opened the garbage can, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t find—
She let the breath out. Sure enough, an empty bottle of whiskey nestled on a bed of beer bottles. Summer tossed the rotten food on top of the pile, her stomach churning. She never bought alcohol for Mama, but somehow it always found its way into the house. Summer suspected that Mama paid a neighbor to pick it up for her.
She did a quick search of the cupboards but didn’t find any more. And even if she did find it, she wasn’t sure what she would do. The last time she had dumped Mama’s stash, her mother’s wrath had been intense. Summer had learned to face the fact that if end-stage liver disease wasn’t enough to stop Mama’s drinking, there was nothing she could do to stop it either.
“Bring me a sandwich,” Mama called from the living room.
Summer bit back a reply of, What’s the magic word? and started putting together a ham and cheese sandwich.
TJ was constantly asking her why she still came over here, why she took care of Mama when Mama had never worried about taking care of them. It was a question Summer had asked herself more than once. And she still didn’t have a good answer.
She finished making the sandwich and poured Mama a glass of milk, then carried them both to the living room. “Here you are, Mama.”
Mama’s eyes flicked from her soap opera to Summer. She took the sandwich but waved the milk away. Summer sighed and set it on the TV tray that lived next to Mama’s chair. “It’s good for you.”
Mama grunted. “I’m not thirsty. What’s the matter with you, anyway?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why’s your face all splotchy and your eyes all puffy?”
Summer wished she could believe that was concern in Mama’s voice.
“It must be allergies.” She sniffed to make the statement convincing.
Mama snorted. “Yeah, and I have a touch of the flu.” She turned toward Summer, her yellowed skin gaunt on her cheeks. “Your boyfriend dump you?”
Summer winced even though the comment was exactly what she’d been expecting. She sniffed back the fresh burst of tears that threatened. “He got a job offer in California.”
A wave of humiliation rolled over her as she recalled her reaction to his announcement: “I can’t move to California.”
And his response: “I wasn’t asking you to.”
But that was nothing Mama needed to know.
“Yeah, well.” Mama glanced at her, and Summer couldn’t tell if it was her imagination or wishful thinking, but she could have sworn she saw a flash of sympathy in Mama’s eyes. Before she could analyze it, it was gone, replaced by Mama’s signature cynical expression. “It’s like I always told you. A man will amuse himself with you until something better comes along and he realizes he doesn’t really want you.” Her eyes swung back to the TV.
Summer wondered for the eight-millionth time if Mama would have been like this even if Summer and TJ’s father hadn’t left the day Summer was born. “Took one look at you and that’s the last I ever saw of him,” was the way Mama told it, making it abundantly clear that it was some undesirable quality in the newborn baby that had chased him away.
Maybe that was why Summer was so driven to take care of Mama—she felt like she had to make it up to her.
“Do you need anything else before I go?” Summer picked up a throw pillow off the floor and tossed it on the worn couch Mama never used.
“What about the laundry?”
Summer checked the time. If she didn’t get going, she wouldn’t have enough time to get ready for the party. “I can start it. Do you think you can put it in the dryer later?”
“Yeah, sure. Maybe I’ll have a dizzy spell and fall down the basement steps and then you won’t have to worry about my laundry ever again.” Mama’s eyes remained glued to the TV the entire time she spoke.
“Don’t talk like that.” Summer grimaced. “I’ll put the laundry in now and then I’ll come back after my party to finish it.”
“Isn’t twenty-two a little old to still believe in fairy tales?” Mama rolled her eyes. “Aren’t your tears plenty proof that there’s no such thing as a happy ending?”
Summer ignored the questions—Mama was still absorbed in her TV show anyway—and marched to the bedroom to grab the laundry. But just because she hadn’t answered out loud, didn’t mean the thoughts weren’t bouncing around in her head.
Did she believe in fairy tales and happy endings?
Yes, absolutely.
Just because she was unlikely to ever experience one didn’t mean she should keep other girls from that dream.
She carried Mama’s clothes down to the basement and dumped them into the washer, thinking, as she poured in the detergent, that at least it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for her to play Cinderella today. Even if her Prince Charming was some high school kid she’d found through an online ad. He had only one qualification that had gotten him the job: he was the only one who applied.
There was another, a little voice reminded her. But she pushed it away. Benjamin Calvano had only been joking—that man didn’t know how to be serious.
And anyway, if there was anyone she didn’t need to play her Prince Charming right now, it was Benjamin. She could only imagine the havoc that would wreak on her heart. Aside from Nick, he was the only other guy she’d dated—and it had turned out that he hadn’t wanted her either.
She closed the washer harder than she meant to and pulled her phone out of her pocket as she walked up the stairs. If she left right now, she should be—
She stopped in the middle of the steps, as her eyes fell on the text that had popped onto her screen.
Can’t make it today. Sorry.
She didn’t recognize the number, but a sick feeling in her stomach told her she already knew who it was from. She clicked over to the string of earlier texts to check. Sure enough, it was her Prince Charming.
She groaned.
She never should have agreed to Mrs. Feldman’s request that she provide not only a princess but also a prince for this party. She was a solo act. She’d told Mrs. Feldman that. But the influential woman had insisted, and Summer knew this party had the potential to bring her a bunch more clients looking for princess parties. It seemed like her last chance to finally get her fledgling little business off the ground.
Which was why she couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong.
She scanned the dingy stairway, as if a Prince Charming might suddenly materialize.
When none did, she fired back a quick text. The party starts in two hours. I don’t have time to find someone else. She sent it, even though she already knew it would do no good. The kid hadn’t exactly struck her as the reliable type.
She marched up the stairs, calling, “I’ll be back in a few hours, Mama,” on her way through the living room. Mercifully, Mama’s only answer was a light snore.
When Summer got to her car, she checked her phone again, but her text remained unopened. She let out a breath, wracking her brain for a solution. She couldn’t show up without a prince, not when she’d promised Mrs. Feldman. It would be the end of her business, for sure.
With a resigned sigh, she tapped her brother’s name. TJ had taken his four-year-old son Max fishing after church, but Summer knew her nephew well enough to know he wouldn’t last long before getting antsy anyway, and if they left right now, they could get back in time for the party.
Still, she hated to ask TJ to rescue her yet again. He already let her live with him and Max rent-free so that she wouldn’t have to live with mama. Sure, she babysat Max while TJ was at work and covered as many other expenses as she could, but that came nowhere near to making it even.
But she didn’t see what other choice she had right now. She sent a quick text asking him, then started the car and backed out of the driveway. If she didn’t get going, there wouldn’t be a princess party at all. Fortunately, the drive through downtown River Falls—where families mingled on the streets in front of the bookstore and the art shop and Daisy’s pie shop, and where couples strolled the riverfront walkway, and where everyone’s smile seemed to mock Summer’s loneliness—took less than ten minutes. The instant she pulled into the driveway, she grabbed her phone and found a reply from TJ.
You know Benjamin offered to do it.
Summer made an annoyed sound. Her brother’s obsession with getting the two of them back together was wearing on her. The first thing he’d said when she’d come home crying last night was, “Nick is an idiot. And so are you if you don’t know who you should call now.”
I’m sure he has to work, she texted back. And I’d rather go princeless than ask him.
Ouch, TJ replied. You better hope I don’t tell him that.
TJ, was her only reply.
Yeah, I’m on it, his text came back a moment later. Bring the Prince Charming costume with you and send me the address.
Summer heaved a sigh of relief and sent a Thank you, thank you, thank you message.
Then she headed inside, stubbing her toe on one of Max’s dinosaur toys. She hobbled toward her bedroom and opened the door of her small closet, smiling as she always did at the gem-colored ball gowns hanging there. It was her five-year-old self’s dream come true. Her heart suddenly lighter at the thought of making another little girl’s dreams come true, she grabbed the blue dress and prepared to transform into a princess.