To Be a Family (Harlequin Superromance) by Kilby Joan

Author:Kilby, Joan [Kilby, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

KATIE MADE IT through the school week somehow but by Friday afternoon she was relieved to come home and prop her sore ankle on a footstool. She booted up her laptop to do a search on Balinese spiritual beliefs. The Balinese were Hindus and believed in reincarnation she found out. Tuti would derive some comfort from believing her mother’s soul had been reborn into another life. But the girl must still be sad. She knew from her own experience a person couldn’t leapfrog over grief.

Oh, here was something. Apparently inside the family compound was a spirit house or sanggah taksu, believed to house the spirits of the family’s ancestors. When a member of the family died, the priest conducted a ritual and family members made offerings to invite the part of the deceased spirit that stayed on earth to enter the shrine.

Katie looked at the photos of tall narrow terra-cotta shrines with thick thatched roofs. Where was she going to find one of those? She tapped in a new search. A dozen links popped up. Wow. You could get anything on eBay.

A closer look revealed that the shrine was actually a garden lantern in the shape of a Balinese spirit house. But if she took out the light and made a few other modifications, it would be close enough. She tapped in her payment details then paused before she hit the buy button.

How was John going to feel when she showed up at his house with a shrine for Tuti’s dead mother? Would he accept her help or would it look like interference? She was only the girl’s teacher, after all.

But if she was going to be friends with John then she wanted a deeper relationship with Tuti, too. Plus she felt an affinity to the motherless child and couldn’t bear to think of her being unhappy. With her background she was in a good position to help John help his daughter to heal.

Over the past week she’d only seen John when he came to pick up Tuti. Was it her imagination or was he keeping those moments as brief as possible? Did he regret kissing her? Or was he feeling uncomfortable about something he or she had said? They’d covered so much ground the night of her bicycle accident that it could be either. His comment about her being unable to commit had floored her. She hadn’t even realized she’d refused to set a date for their wedding.

All she’d ever wanted was a love as deep and true as her parents had. They’d never fought, never raised their voices in angry dispute. If they didn’t agree on a point they discussed it calmly and rationally. And then her father, a military man who’d commanded a platoon, found ways to give her mother what she wanted without losing face. Because he loved her that much. And understandably so—Mary Henning had been a goddess. Beautiful, serene, wise, talented. She somehow found time to be a professional cookbook author as well as a loving wife and mother.

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