AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hate that I notice.
She continues, pressing her forehead to mine. “I picked it up at a bath and body shop years ago, and the bottle is still practically full. I only use it once a year. It’s called Sweet Desserts.” Her thumbs massage just below my ears, and her breath kisses my mouth as she speaks. “I bought it because you used to tell me that your mom smelled like desserts. I know my birthday is the same day she…” She swallows, glances up at me. “Well, you know. I wanted to give you a reminder of her every June first—a happy reminder. A sweet memory hidden in the sadness.”
A sound falls out of me that I can’t take back.
A choking, painful sound.
And if she’d listened close enough, if she’d just strained her ear, she would have heard exactly what that sound said.
I’m hopelessly, irrevocably in love with you, June Bailey.
The desperate, aching kind of love.
The kind there’s no coming back from.
The kind there’s no way out of.
The kind that’s going to be the death of me one day.
I fall more in love with June than I ever thought possible as we clutch each other in a moonlit graveyard on her eighteenth birthday, with my mother on my mind and the scent of sweet desserts dancing in the air.
That night still stands out in my mind all these years later.
Maybe it was because of the closure I felt with my mother’s memory, or the way June held me while I purged my ghosts. Maybe it was the vanilla breeze and singing cicadas, or maybe it was the profound knowledge that my heart would never come back from loving June.
But…maybe it was something else.
It was an end. A final chapter.
A swan song, of sorts.
You see, everything changed shortly after that night. Everything fell apart. Life as we knew it was forever altered.
I’m going to tell you about the second time Samantha Bailey ever cried.
It started with a kiss…
20
FIRST TIME’S THE CHARM
JUNE, AGE 18
“Oh, June, honey. Look at you!”
My mother gasps in awe, pulling a pen from her silvery hair then jotting something onto a note card. Dad strolls up behind her with tears in his copper eyes. He’s always been the sappy one. Mom is steely and strong, while Dad turns to mush at the slightest sentiment.
“Look at my June,” he singsongs, sniffling through his words. “Going to make the boys swoon.”
“Dad, come on,” I tease. My cheeks heat as I duck my head, landing at the bottom of the staircase. “You like my dress?”
I twirl the skirt, feeling like a true princess. Mom picked it out with me when we had our girls’ day of boutique shopping and sugary treats at the pastry café. It’s a pale crystal blue, and it reminded me of a radiant sky. In the sunshine, the tulle lights up like a prism, like a rainbow.
It’s my “Over the Rainbow” dress… Where skies are blue.
Where dreams come true.
Dad swipes at his leaky eyes. “I love it. I love it, sweetheart.” He paces forward, scooping me into his big bear arms. “You’ll be the most beautiful belle at the ball.”
