Heart Echoes Read Free Page A

She was nothing at all like an Amazon. The woman was everything he didn’t know he needed. Life radiated from her face and in the touch of her hand in his. Dried-up corners of his heart soaked it in and longed for more.
    â€œHi.” She smiled. Those luminous, pale-gray eyes rimmed in a bluish slate never wavered.
    â€œHi. Uh, nice to meet you, Ms. Morgan. I hope you don’t mind a big brother butting in?”
    â€œNot at all. And it’s Teal. Like the duck.”
    He grinned. “I’m River. Like the river.”
    She giggled.
    Later, much later, she swore their future was sealed in that moment. She had laughed, tickled with a sudden understanding: ducks could not survive without water.
    Yes, a good ending to helplessness.
    The shallow breathing was making him light-headed. There was no hope of crawling into his truck; it was parked out on the street. He doubted he could get to his feet. Someone would find him, though. Eventually. Teal or Maiya would come home. Maybe they would feel so bad for him they wouldn’t mention the shelves he had promised to build to hold those stacked tubs now fallen on him.
    At least Jen was not a concern. Husband Number Two, less of a jerk than Number One, had taken her to Paris for her birthday last week.
    Sirens wailed—fire engines, ambulances, police. They grew loud. They faded. More split the air. Far and near. Far and near.
    River groaned, dumbfounded at how slow he could be. He was not helpless nor hopeless nor unable to set things in motion.
    â€œLord, in Your mercy, hear my prayer.” He slipped into a cadence that always moved him easily into the presence of God. “Surround my loved ones. For Teal and Maiya, I ask for protection. For our neighbors, I ask for protection. For San Sebastian Academy, I ask for protection. For John, Lynn, Delia, Olie, Mac . . .” He listed his coworkers and then he went on to list every boy who lived at the school, all fifty of them. “And for Jen, I pray she would not hear the news just yet.”

Chapter 5

    â€œShe looks a lot like you,” Mr. Smarty-Pants Encyclopedia commented on a family photo Teal had pulled from her wallet as they stood near her car. “He looks like a hippie.”
    â€œAnd what would you know about hippies, Nick?” By now they were all on a first-name basis.
    â€œWe have hippies in Iowa.” He grinned. The freckles on his nose bunched together. Cute, pesky kid.
    â€œMy husband’s ponytail does not mean he is a hippie. He’s earthy.”
    â€œIs River his real name?”
    The question no longer bothered her. It came as frequently as the one about how to spell Maiya’s name. “His parents were professors at Berkeley in the sixties.”
    â€œThat explains that.”
    She shook her head. “You’re only ten.”
    â€œEleven next week. What’s your point?”
    â€œThat you’re precocious and annoying.”
    â€œI get that a lot. Would your daughter like me?”
    â€œShe’s too old for you.”
    â€œBut I’m precocious, and she’s a hottie.”
    Teal slid her sunglasses onto the top of her head and gave him her best glare. “I won’t charge you for this piece of advice. ‘She’s a hottie’ is not something you want to say to a mother if you hope to spend any time with her daughter.”
    He blinked a few times.
    She bit her lip, holding back a smile at his sudden speechlessness.
    He said, “Seriously?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œBut it’s a compliment.”
    â€œOnly to hormone-laden adolescents. I thought you wanted to see inside Joe’s semi over there.”
    He smiled and handed her the photo. “I can take a hint. Don’t leave without us.”
    She murmured to his retreating back. “Maiya would eat you up.”
    Teal retrieved her handbag from the front seat and sat down, her sneakered feet on the asphalt. She shut out the