Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel (free ebook reader for iphone txt) 📗

shows up. It’s as though we always have what we need, in different forms, at the right time, and not the way we expected.

“Life takes people away, so cruelly at times, and then gives someone else back. And nothing happens the way we plan it. Robbie should have lived a long life, but he didn’t. My marriage to Carson seemed so solid, but it wasn’t. It collapsed like a house of cards. And then Jane came along, and seemed like such a bore, but she’s perfect for him. And you were completely unexpected in my life. You thought you were married forever, but you weren’t. I finally accepted that Hattie would be a nun forever, and now she’s not. Michaela was gone forever, and now she’s back. We actually have no idea what’s going to happen, or how it’s going to turn out.” He thought about it and agreed with her, and he liked the way she put it.

“We’re not supposed to know,” he said, thinking about it. “It would take all the fun out of living. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he said, looking nervous. “Now that you’re a respectable grandmother and a mother again, and they’ll come to visit, do we need to get married?” He was hoping she’d say yes, but didn’t know how else to put it without scaring her off.

“ ‘Need to’? No, I don’t think so. It’s not a guarantee of anything, and we’ve both learned that it won’t protect us. If one of us goes rogue, the whole thing falls apart.”

“I’m not planning to go rogue, are you?” he asked her, and she shook her head.

“I kind of like it like this,” she admitted. “A little naughty, a lot of fun. It’s very sexy. I don’t want more kids. I’m almost too old anyway, and you don’t want them either. I kind of love it the way it is.” He was a little disappointed, but didn’t want to sound weak, or “wet,” and admit it to her. “You could move in though. That would be nice.” She smiled and moved closer to him, and he liked the sound of that.

“I like that idea. It sounds manly, ‘she’s the woman I live with,’ ” he said, deepening his voice, and she laughed.

“Just sinful enough, but not too much so,” she teased him, and got the desired result. He couldn’t keep his hands off her, and didn’t want to.

“And if we live together, we can make love anytime we want,” he said happily.

“Sounds like a plan,” she said, and followed him up to bed.

—

He moved in that weekend. Hattie drove up for the day to tell Melissa about her plans for Africa, working with the UN team. They were sending her reams of information, and she was leaving in five weeks. She had just signed her papers for the Vatican and the archdiocese, requesting to be released from her vows. Her hand shook as she signed them, but she still knew it was right.

Hattie and Norm finally met, and had lunch in the kitchen. And afterward Hattie noticed Norm carrying his boxes up the stairs, and she whispered to Melissa. “Is he moving in?”

“Looks like it,” Melissa said, with a gleam in her eye.

“Are you two getting married?”

“Not that I know of. Not right now anyway.”

“Do you think you would, if he asked you?” She was curious about them. They seemed to get along so well. Hattie liked him a lot. He was someone you could count on. She had always liked Carson, but Norm and Melissa seemed like the perfect match.

“I’ve learned not to predict the future,” Melissa said wisely. “I’d be wrong every time. Like you. I never thought you’d leave the convent.”

“Neither did I,” Hattie said, looking pensive. She smiled at Norm as he headed up the stairs with a suitcase.

He had finished moving in by the time she left. She was driving back to New York. And she was going to come and spend a few days with them before she left for Africa.

Melissa and Norm talked about it over dinner that night. He made her one of his perfect cheese soufflés. “I realized today that everyone ends up in their right place,” Melissa said. “Michaela with David and her children, with me in the background. You and I. Carson with Jane and her daughters. Hattie in Africa. It’s like a kaleidoscope, all the bright pieces get shaken up and form a new design periodically. I like the way things are now. It all happens the way it’s meant to, even if we don’t like it at times. But there’s always a new chapter,” she said, looking thoughtful.

“Is there?” he asked her, raising an eyebrow, intrigued by what she said.

“I think there is. It’ll give me something to write about.” She had never said that to him before.

“Will it?”

“I think so. I have an idea for a book,” she announced. She hadn’t said that in years. But so much had happened. She looked excited when she said it, and he leaned over and kissed her. She smiled, thinking of Marla and her advice to keep writing. Maybe she was right. Her old books had been fueled by anger. But all of that had changed. Finding Michaela had changed everything. She wasn’t angry anymore. The next book would be different. About the mysteries of life.

They finished the soufflé. And Melissa was still smiling when he followed her upstairs, and she started telling him about the book.

To my Wonderful Children,

Beatie, Trevor, Todd, Nick,

Sam, Victoria, Vanessa,

Maxx, and Zara,

You are the greatest gift in my life!

I thank God for you every minute

of every day

in my life.

The greatest blessing,

the greatest joy!

I love you

with all my heart forever,

Mom / ds.

By Danielle Steel

FINDING ASHLEY • NINE LIVES • THE AFFAIR • NEIGHBORS • ALL THAT GLITTERS • ROYAL • DADDY’S GIRLS • THE WEDDING DRESS • THE NUMBERS GAME • MORAL COMPASS