The Way to a Soldier's Heart by Gina Wilkins

Author:Gina Wilkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

THE TORTE WAS as good as advertised. Elle told Parker she would love to have the recipe for her shop, which seemed to please the younger woman.

Conversation flowed smoothly during the hour they spent around the table, which was also little surprise to Elle. Her mother was a master of sparkling dialogue, keeping the others laughing with her funny stories about Charlotte and their quirky small town. Both Elle and her mother had, of course, taken many photos of Charlotte from the day she’d joined their family and they passed their phones around to share some of the best ones. Dottie sent Shane to collect a photo album with pictures of Charlie at the same age, and after glancing through it, Elle had to admit the resemblance was striking.

“Oh, we need to show them the framed photo on my dresser,” Dottie pronounced. “Shane, dear, run and get it for me, will you?”

“Yes, Dottie.”

For the second time, Elle watched Shane leave the room on an errand for his grandmother, who seemed quite accustomed to giving him instructions. He was obviously crazy about Dottie—the fact that Elle, her mother and Charlotte were here was a testament to that devotion. He’d said his grandmother had helped raise him and his brother after they’d lost their mother. He probably thought of Dottie as much as a mother as a grandmother. He certainly didn’t seem to mind jumping to wait on her when she asked.

He returned minutes later with the photograph, which he handed to Elle. Her fingers tightened around the gold filigree frame as she studied the picture. She’d already seen pictures of Shane as a child with his brother in the album she’d leafed through. Yet this photo affected her more than the others had, for some reason.

It was a professional portrait of their family. Shane’s father stood in the background, wearing his dress blues and bearing a striking resemblance to his brother, Raymond. Shane’s mother sat in a chair, pretty and smiling in a pink dress. Perhaps three years old, Charlie leaned against the arm of her chair. Shane couldn’t have been more than a year old and sat in his mother’s lap, grinning at the camera, his dark curls tousled, his dimples on full display.

Such a sweet photo of a happy-looking family. And yet only a couple years later, this lovely woman would be gone. And now Shane was the only one left. It made Elle’s heart ache.

She didn’t have to feel sorry for him, she reminded herself. He seemed to have a fulfilling, successful life, helping to run a growing company. The family he had left were obviously close. The sadness she’d occasionally seen in him had probably been because seeing Charlotte had reminded him so much of his brother, and maybe because he had wondered how to approach Elle with this request.

“It’s a beautiful photograph,” she said, handing the frame to her mother.

Dottie smiled wistfully. “Yes, it is. They would have loved Charlotte so much.”

“Dottie,” Shane murmured, as if in reminder of an earlier warning.

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.