Into the Garden (Wildflowers 5)

glow of pink and yellow over the otherwise dull

brown walls. Star and Jade sat on the sofa while Misty

and I chose the easy chairs. It was when we had

stopped and relaxed that we all began to feel the

fatigue settle in. We sat there quietly for a few

moments, sipping the drinks. I didn't taste the vodka,

but I knew from my previous bad experience of

drinking rum and Cokes that it can sneak up on you. "Did you read any more of your real mother's

letters to you?" Jade asked me.

"No. I was too tired last night."

"What did she tell you in the first letter besides

the stuff about your trust fund?"

"Not that much," I said. "She made it sound like

she wasn't in love with her husband, Grandpa Franklin. She said she arranged for Geraldine to adopt me so that I would be close to her always, to keep me

in the family."

"Some family," Star muttered.

"She found another letter in Geraldine's

pocketbook today, too," Jade told Star and Misty, who

sipped their drinks and looked at me with interest.

"An apology or something, right?"

"Yes," I said. I reached into my pocket and

produced the letter. "She doesn't say exactly who my

real father is, but she suggests Geraldine loved him

and maybe wanted him to be her husband?'

"So it was probably someone younger than your

real mother if Geraldine was interested in him too,"

Jade conjectured.

"Maybe?' Star said. "Though Geraldine could

have been in love with someone's grandfather, too, the

way she thought."