Unbroken by Donna K. Ford

Author:Donna K. Ford [Ford, Donna K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626399228
Published: 2017-04-23T22:00:00+00:00

*

Jackie was on her best behavior, as promised. She found Kayla easy to talk to and was surprised by how much she enjoyed getting to know her without the goal of sex. It was as if a light was being shined on the empty space in her soul.

Kayla looked relaxed sitting in the deck chair with her drink resting on her thigh. Her hair was windblown and her skin glowed from the kiss of the sun. Jackie watched Kayla, listening to the rise and fall of her voice as she spoke. She liked the way Kayla gestured with her hands when she talked and the curve of her lips when she smiled. The best was when Kayla laughed. It was like listening to a songbird after a long cold winter.

“What were you like growing up?” Kayla asked.

Jackie frowned. She hadn’t expected the change in topic. “There’s not really much to tell. I was a bit of a jock and a closet bookworm.”

Kayla smiled. “Hmm, not much has changed then.”

Jackie wanted to change the subject. She didn’t like to talk about her family or her childhood. “What about you?”

Kayla laughed. “I was a pleaser. My parents died when I was a baby. I don’t remember them. But I resented their absence and didn’t want to be anything like them. My grandmother was my world and I tried my best to make her happy. She died last year.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jackie said. She heard the pain in Kayla’s voice but there was reverence there too. “Your grandmother sounds very special.”

Kayla smiled. “She was.”

“Why didn’t you want to be like your parents?”

Kayla took a sip of her beer. “They were big on adventure, always seeking the next thrill, until eventually they made a deadly mistake.”

“What happened?”

Kayla peeled the label off her beer bottle as she talked. “They were hang gliding. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but they crashed into the side of a mountain.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry.” Jackie could relate to the distance between Kayla and her parents, but she’d never had anyone step up for her the way Kayla’s grandmother had. She didn’t even know her grandparents.

“I think it would be worse if I could remember them. I grew up with stories about people I didn’t know. My grandmother didn’t approve of their lifestyle, so anytime I got out of line she would say things like, You don’t want to end up like your parents, do you? She was everything to me and I never wanted to disappoint her. I miss her every day.”

Jackie was quiet. Her thoughts turned to her mother and her own dysfunctional family.

“I’m sorry,” Kayla said. “I didn’t mean to ramble on about all that.”

Jackie shook her head. “It’s okay.”

Kayla brushed her fingers along Jackie’s arm. “What about you? I know you said there were problems between you and your dad, but what about your mother?”

Jackie looked out over the river. “We were close, but she disappeared when I was twelve. I have no idea where she is or what happened to her.

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