Winter White by Calonita Jen

Author:Calonita, Jen [Calonita, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Hachette Book Group

Fourteen

When Izzie left Grams’s nursing home Sunday afternoon, she had green feathers stuck to her T-shirt, dried glue under her nails, and Magic Marker all over her hands.

She’d spent the last two hours helping the residents make paper turkey crafts using their handprints, feathers, glue, and crayons. When they were done, she displayed them in the center’s windows for the residents’ families to see when they came to take them home Thanksgiving weekend. Grams’s turkey was the only one not on display. She held it tightly as she walked down the path to the bus stop. She stopped short when she saw Brayden sitting on one of the garden benches. “Let me guess: You’re here because you missed being a bingo caller?”

“How’d you know?” Brayden stood up and pretended to grab a mic. “B19! B19! That’s a bingo right there,” he called in a deep voice, pointing to a nearby bush. “Next card will be four corners. That is four corners, everyone.”

Izzie tried not to laugh. “They might have to hire you full time.” Sometimes Brayden could be so cute. Okay, make that all the time. But she tried not to think about that when he was wearing semi-intimidating attire like his Ralph Lauren dress shirt and navy pants with a quilted jacket. She, on the other hand, was tarred in glue and feathers and wearing ripped jeans and a fleece.

“I don’t think this place could afford me,” Brayden joked, “although I probably would do it for free just to spend more time with one resident’s granddaughter.”

Izzie blushed. Sometimes she still wasn’t sure what to say when he made comments like that. She knew he liked her, but they still weren’t technically a couple, and she knew that was partly her fault. Just when Brayden got close enough, she pushed him away. He had hurt her twice before, and part of her was afraid he would do it again. Plus, Dylan’s words of caution were still very much in her head. Would Brayden toss her aside when he decided he was done rebelling against his parents?

“Is that a turkey?” he asked, pointing to her hand.

Izzie held up the craft proudly. The glue from the feathers was still wet. “This is the craft I did with the residents today. Cute, right? I got the idea from Connor’s kindergarten class. I displayed the residents’ in the front windows.” She pointed them out. “This one’s Grams’s.”

“Why isn’t Grams’s up there, too?”

“She’s not coming home for Thanksgiving,” Izzie said, her arm suddenly feeling heavy. She dropped her hand to her side, the turkey stuck to her fingers by glue. “This will be the first time we aren’t together on Thanksgiving since I was born.” Izzie hesitated. “She’s having a lot of health issues, and her nurse doesn’t feel she should leave the center.”

Aunt Maureen had spoken to Grams’s nurse about bringing her to the Monroes’ on Thanksgiving, and the nurse had advised against it. She could handle Izzie’s visits, but Grams had started to get paranoid and confused lately, especially about her surroundings.

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.