Easter Blessings Read Free

up to butter the French bread. “Does everyone around here listen to flowers?”
    Sadie stared hard at her granddaughter. “Why, yes, I reckon we do. It’s part of our job. Do you find that offensive?”
    “I find it rather odd,” Mariel replied as she slammed the bread tray into the oven. “I guess I don’t get it.”
    “You used to ‘get it,”’ Sadie replied, “and it’s my firmhope that one day you will remember that.” She patted Mariel on the back. “And that’s part of the reason I asked you to come for this visit.”
    Mariel turned to hug her grandmother close. “Well, I’m glad I’m here, what with you having these health problems. I’m worried about you, Granny. You have to listen to your doctors. A bad heart is serious.”
    Sadie gave Mariel a tight squeeze, then stood back to smile up at her. “My heart is just old, honey. And tired. But I’m going to behave and follow the doctor’s advice. I’ll be fine. I have to stay strong until I’ve accomplished the things I have yet to do.”
    Mariel wondered what things her grandmother meant. All afternoon, Sadie had been tight-lipped about what she expected now that Mariel was home. They’d talk at supper, was all she could get out of Sadie. That and the doctor’s warning that Sadie was headed for a heart attack if she didn’t slow down and watch her diet. The doctor wanted to do some more tests, but Sadie had refused.
    Mariel’s mission for now was to make sure Sadie followed through, whether her grandmother liked it or not.
    Sadie, however, seemed perkier than ever tonight. “Your uncles are coming, by the way. They can’t wait to see you.”
    “I’d like to see them, too,” Mariel said. “But I have to wonder why they don’t check on you more often.”
    “They’re busy with their jobs,” Sadie said with a shrug. “Family things—soccer, Little League, Junior League, PTA meetings, the usual.”
    Mariel didn’t mention that they only lived a few miles away and could easily drive to White Hill on any given day. Instead, she broached another sensitive subject. “Have you heard from Mom lately?”
    Sadie’s bright eyes seemed to fade out a bit. “Not since Christmas. Your mother does her own thing, I’m afraid.Always has, and always will.” Then she looked at Mariel. “What about you? Have you talked to her recently?”
    “I called her to tell her I was coming here for a few weeks, but I could never reach her. I wanted her to know where I’d be in case she needed me.”
    “Your mother doesn’t need people,” Sadie replied on a sad note. “Or at least that’s what she’d like us to believe.”
    Mariel had long ago given up on trying to figure out her mother, Evelyn. Her parents had divorced when Mariel was ten, and none of them had seen her wayward father since. Evelyn, once a vibrant, pretty woman, was now a bitter middle-aged shrew who blamed everyone and everything for her troubles. Mariel tried to keep in touch with her mother, but Evelyn’s tendency to criticize and whine had turned Mariel off too many times to keep them close. Her mother lived in Florida, and rarely visited the tiny town in northwest Louisiana where she’d grown up. White Hill held too many painful memories, Evelyn had told her.
    Mariel wondered now if that was why she didn’t come to White Hill too often herself. In spite of the many hours of happy times she’d spent here, it had been here that she’d found out about her parents’ divorce. Maybe her mother was right. Some memories were just too painful.
    The screen door opened with a swish, bringing Mariel out of her bittersweet memories.
    She looked up to find Heath Whitaker standing there in a clean blue shirt and fresh jeans, his eyes centered on her.
    “Hi,” he said. Then he shoved a dainty bouquet of trailing honeysuckle into her hands. “These grow along the fence behind my cottage. Thought you and Sadie might enjoy them.”
    Mariel took the flowers, savoring the sweet smell of the