Stone Cold Read Free Page A

was even m ore subdued than this morning. It was dusk; the sky was purple with just a hint of sunlight as the sun slipped below the horizon. She could see the exhausted faces trying hard to stay awake but the fading light coupled with the motion of the bus cradled the best of them. 
    Looking out the bus window as they left the city, she could see her reflection. Her hair was a mess. She suddenly remembered the feeling of Conall’s hand around her ponytail and the tug as he’d pulled her away from the water. 
    She reached up to remove the ribbon she’d placed in her hair that morning but it wasn’t there.
    Several t houghts went through her mind.
    “Is it on the floor? Did I ask someone to hold it for me? It must’ve come loose and slipped out of my hair sometime during the day.”
    She frantically looked around for it on her seat, the floor, in the aisle. 
    Without thinking, she stood up and blurted out, “Did anyone find a hair ribbon?” 
    The blank stares of those who ’d heard her desperate plea confirmed what she already knew. The ribbon with her name on it, the one her grandparents had given her, was gone forever. Her heart sank as she thought about the significance of that ribbon in her life. 
    Hannah’s grandfather Grayson had bought it for her the day she was born. She was his first grandchild and they had a special bond that was different from the ones he had with the other grandchildren who came along after her. It wasn’t that he loved her any more than the others.  It was just on a different level. They understood each other – they knew what the other was thinking without a word being said. She shared his humor and love of reading.  They were both avid history buffs and craved knowledge for knowledge sake. She knew in her heart that she always wanted to meet and marry a man just like him.  
    Before he r grandfather passed, each grandchild received something he treasured that he knew they loved too. He gave her sister Morgan his coin collection – a passion they’d both shared ever since she began watching him peruse the coins before she could even talk. To her cousin and his only grandson, Riley Scott, he gave his Marine Corp ring and the sword he’d used during the Korean War. Riley’s sister Sophie was given his record album collection. Cassandra Clay, the youngest grandchild, received his massive Hess Truck collection given to him over the years by her very own mother. 
    Her grandfather had given Hannah a beautiful tapestry he’d bought in Japan while in the service. She’d always admired its beauty and the history behind it. It now hung in her room, a reminder of days gone by. And then there was the ribbon.  
    Her grandmother told her that her grandfather had intended on giving it to her on her tenth birthday. She’d guessed he’d figured her hair would be long enough to wear a ribbon in it by then. It was pale pink with her first name repeatedly embossed across its full length in a darker shade of pink. Her grandmother said he’d told her of a dream he’d had shortly before Hannah was born.
    Sh e recalled his words, “I dreamt Sara’s baby is a girl and she loves pink. She looks like an angel, a princess, with a pink ribbon in her hair, so dainty with a name to fit. Her name is Hannah.”
    Her grandfather bought that ribbon to commemorate the dream so that Hannah would always know what she’d meant to him. No one was allowed to tell her this story but him on the day of his choosing. 
    Two months before her tenth birthday, her grandfather passed quietly in the night. He never had the chance to give her the ribbon and to tell her the story behind it.  Instead, her grandmother honored his wish and gave Hannah the ribbon as she told the story. It turned out he’d also told her mother about the dream and that’s how her name came to be. It was and will always be the best birthday gift she’d ever received.  Now it was gone forever – like him.
    That night lying in bed,