Читать книгу A Second Chance For The Single Dad - Marie Ferrarella, Marie Ferrarella - Страница 8

Prologue

One moment the blond-haired, attractive woman with the kind blue eyes wasn’t there; the next moment, she was. Her very presence seemed to dominate the real estate office, an office devoted to a business that Maizie Sommers had taken such pride in building up over the years.

The only business that Maizie took even more pride in was the one that she and her two lifelong best friends, Theresa Manetti and Cecilia Parnell, conducted unofficially. A business that yielded no monetary rewards. However, the rewards that it did yield were far richer than any dollar amount.

And it was as if the woman standing before her now sensed that fact despite that they had never really talked about it.

“Maizie,” the woman said in a soft voice, “you need to help Kayley find someone. I don’t want her spending the rest of her life alone. It’s not right. She has so much love to give and no one to give it to. I’d find her someone myself, but I can’t do that now. And she is your goddaughter,” Karen Quartermain added pointedly. “Help her, Maizie. Please.”

The woman’s quietly worded request seemed to fill up every single space within the room.

Gasping, Maizie bolted upright. She wasn’t in her office—she was in her bed.

Her bedroom was dark, except for the ray of moonlight intruding like a laser through the window. It was shining on something on the rug. Something small and round.

Blowing out a long breath, Maizie ran her hand along her forehead.

A dream. It was only a dream.

Her brain should have realized that even though every detail had seemed so incredibly vivid and real. Her office had looked just like her office. And her friend had looked just like her friend. Except that Karen had looked the way she had a year ago, before she became ill.

Why in heaven’s name was she dreaming about Karen Quartermain, Maizie silently asked herself. She’d never dreamed about Karen, even when she was alive. Why now, two months after her friend had died?

With a sigh, Maizie lay back down. It was still very early. Turning on her side, she faced the window. She inhaled deeply and willed herself to get back to sleep.

Vivid or not, it was just a dream, nothing more. Nothing—

What was that on her rug?

The moonlight made her light gray rug appear pale even as it highlighted something on it.

Whatever it was looked as if it were winking at her.

Maizie sighed again. She was going to drive herself crazy guessing.

She wouldn’t have any peace until she found out what was on the rug. Throwing off her covers, Maizie got up and went to see exactly what the moonlight was shining on.

It was a penny.

What was a penny doing on her rug? The only explanation she could think of was that it must have fallen out of her pocket when she had gotten undressed for bed last night. But why had it been in her pocket in the first place? She never kept change in her pocket.

After picking it up, she sat down on the edge of her bed, staring at the coin. She was certain she hadn’t put it into her pocket. Any pennies she acquired went into a glass jar in her office and she hadn’t acquired any in a while.

“Karen?” she finally said uneasily, glancing around her bedroom. “Is this from you? Is this your way of giving me a sign?”

She knew it would have seemed silly to a great many people, thinking that the penny had just mysteriously appeared, a sign from a world that had no physical boundaries. But she and Karen Quartermain went back a long way. Karen had once jokingly said that if she died before Maizie and ever wanted to communicate, she’d drop a penny in her path so that she would know that she was trying to send a message, that Karen wanted something from her.

Karen had said the same thing to her daughter. Then she’d laughed, saying that was all pennies were good for these days—communication—since it took too many to buy anything.

Maizie closed her fingers around the penny, holding it as tightly as she had once held her friend’s hand as Karen was slipping away.

“That was you, wasn’t it?” Maizie whispered into the darkness. “That was you, asking me to find someone for Kayley.”

It was no longer a question. It was, Maizie thought, an assignment. One she felt honor bound to take on.

“Okay, Karen,” she said, completely awake now. “I’ll see what the girls and I can do.”