Enchanting Lily by Anjali Banerjee

Author:Anjali Banerjee [Banerjee, Anjali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101581254
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 2012-08-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

Lily

After Drew and Dillon left, Lily felt light-headed, her mind racing. She’d thought she could escape the past by leaving San Francisco, but Drew had found her anyway, and unwanted reminders had blown in with her. Once, Lily had caught Drew leaning across the lunch table at the design studio, flirting with Josh. He’d been smiling as if the two of them shared some secret joke. Had he ever actually had an affair with Drew? Or at the very least, had he ever liked Drew the way she had obviously liked him?

Lily had brought up the subject over dinner, and Josh had bristled. What else did he have to do, he’d said, to show her that he loved her? He already demonstrated his devotion every moment of every day. She had trusted him, believed him. She still did. But Drew’s beauty had planted unwelcome seeds of insecurity, and when she had taken a design job at another firm, Lily had been relieved. But Drew kept popping up at trade shows and dinner parties, and once Lily had caught Drew looking at Josh across the table with a studied kind of hunger. He’d been the one to leave the party early, to tell Lily that he felt uncomfortable.

She had been sure of her marriage, and yet she’d resented having anyone even threaten her happiness one iota. How dare this woman come up here now, to stir up trouble all over again. Why couldn’t she leave Lily to focus on the happiest memories? Did she resent Lily that much? Did she really want Lily to work for her, or did she only want to flaunt her new life?

Either way, Lily felt newly galvanized. By what, exactly, she didn’t know. Anger or resentment—did it really matter? She felt a new sense of purpose.

She picked up the cat and kissed her furry head. How could anyone call her a “thing” or merely an “animal”? An insult to this cat was an insult to Lily’s shop. In a short time, this little fluffy creature had become integral to Lily’s business. Many people had come in looking for the cat, drawn by her mystical qualities, or perhaps by her unusual eyes. Perhaps they sought comfort, commiseration, or hope in an unpredictable world.

Lily had sought the same when she arrived on the island, and by buying the cottage on a whim, she had actually been making a calculated decision. She had always wanted to change her life, to leave the city. Had Josh’s death merely freed her to follow her dream? Had it been a plan they had shared, or had the dream belonged to her alone?

Either way, she needed to consciously commit to her future. She had to accept the cat or leave her at the shelter, make the shop work or let it sink, move forward or stay forever stuck, as her mother had tried to warn her. Her poor mother, who still called every few days to make sure her daughter was still alive and well.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.