AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
Anna
“There you are, Anna! Let me introduce you to someone,” my mom’s voice bellowed from behind me. I turned around with drink in hand and nearly choked on the vodka tonic as I stared at the man standing beside my mother. “This nice young man–”
Young, I thought to myself. If he’s young, I’m an infant.
“Edward Schmidt, correct?” I asked, interrupting my mom.
Edward smiled warmly at me, running a hand through his terrible comb over. He hadn’t had hair since I was a little girl.
“You remember me, Anna. I’m pretty surprised, to be honest.”
“You volunteer at Vacation Bible School, correct?”
My mom smiled, clearly pleased at herself.
“I do, yes.”
“I thought so. I attended with your daughter, if you remember correctly.”
Edward’s smile faltered. “Well, um, now that you mention it… I do remember that.”
“Mmhmm,” I sucked down some of my vodka tonic, a hand on my hip. “You had a little more hair back then, but not much.”
“Anna!”
“Sorry, Mom, but I think this–” I gestured wildly at her and Edward “—is just a little too creepy.”
“I didn’t realize she was that young, Rose. I forgot she and Chelsea were the same age… I swear. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Edward walked away shaking his head while my mom shot me a look of death. I shrugged and chugged more of my drink. “What?” I asked.
“You didn’t have to insinuate he was old.”
“He’s too old for me, Mom,” I replied. “And he’s right, it’s creepy. He could be my dad.”
“He’s not your dad’s age.”
“Close enough, Mom. Close enough.”
“He seemed nice, though, and his wife passed away a few years ago. I just thought…”
My mom pursed her lips and for a second, she looked just like my sisters and me, only older. Her hair was still honey blonde, either from good genes or a very good colorist, a secret she would never spill, not even to us. Her blue eyes were fierce and as stubborn as ever as she looked over the crowd at my sister’s engagement party.
“I’m not interested.”
“You’ve only been here twenty minutes; you can’t be sure of that.”
“I can, because I’m not interested.”
“Don’t you think the next few months, with all the events, would be more interesting with a date?”
“How do you know I don’t already have one?” I asked, finishing my drink and placing it on the bar. I waved the bartender over and requested another.
My mother looked incredulous. “Well, do you?”
“Anna!” my sister Grace called from somewhere in the crowd of people behind my mom. I stood on my tiptoes to see her, and on her arm was a dark-haired man I knew from high school.
