Free Don't Cry for Me by Sharon Sala Page B

when we did,” she said.
    “And how are you doing?” Dolly asked.
    “‘Slowly but surely’ is a good way to put it,” Mariah said, and glanced at Meg, who was banging cupboard doors and opening drawers with confidence.
    Dolly caught the look. “Don’t worry about her. She’s been here enough times in the past year that she knows where things are.”
    Mariah nodded, but she still felt useless. She was scrambling for something to talk about and then remembered Quinn telling her that his mother had grown up on this property.
    “Mrs. Walker, Quinn said—”
    “No ‘Mrs. Walker’ business. Call me Dolly.”
    “Okay. So, Dolly, Quinn told me you grew up on this property.”
    Dolly’s eyes widened as memories washed over her. “Oh, yes. There were six of us kids, plus Mama and Papa. The old house wasn’t much, but it was home. All the girls slept in one bed. All the boys slept in another, and Mama and Papa were in the loft upstairs. Papa worked the mines, and Mama grew a big garden. The boys learned to hunt almost before they went to school, and all of us girls learned how to manage a house and feed a family with little to nothing to start on. We were dirt-poor and wore hand-me-downs until they were thin as tissue paper, but we always had each other and a whole lot of love.”
    The words painted a picture that warmed Mariah all the way to her bones. What a gift it would have been to grow up like that.
    “You were very lucky.”
    Dolly shrugged. “There are plenty of people who would argue that with you. Living on the mountain can be a hard life.”
    “Now, Mom, you know good and well money isn’t everything,” Meg said, and then winked at Mariah.
    Meg’s wink made Mariah think of Quinn. “You and Quinn look alike,” she said.
    Meg nodded. “I know. All of us Walkers look enough alike that you can definitely tell we’re kin.”
    “I think I remember Quinn mentioning nieces and nephews. Are any of the kids yours?” Mariah asked. The smile on Meg’s face shifted just enough for Mariah to know she’d asked the wrong question. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten personal. You don’t have to answer that,” she said quickly.
    Meg shrugged. “It’s old news, sugar. Besides, if you’re here, you’re considered part of the family and can ask anything you want. To answer your question, I do not have children. I would like to, but I’m minus a man in my life, so it’s not likely to happen.”
    Dolly frowned. “Finish the story, Meg, or I’ll do it for you. It’s time you stopped being ashamed of something you didn’t do.”
    Meg’s shoulders slumped, but she managed to put a smile on her face.
    “What Mom’s trying to say is, I had a husband, but he’s now in the state penitentiary. I divorced him after he murdered a man down in Louisville over drugs.”
    Mariah rolled her eyes. “That’s probably where a good portion of the kids I was in foster care with wound up. It’s also why I joined the army. The first eighteen years of my life pretty much sucked. I was looking for a place to belong, and in a lot of ways the army served me well.”
    Dolly blinked. “You were in foster care your whole life? You never knew your parents?”
    Mariah tensed, bracing herself for that look she got when people realized she was a throwaway.
    “I was an abandoned baby, only a few hours old when someone found me. I grew up in the foster care system in Lexington until I aged out. After that I was on my own.”
    Meg stopped making sandwiches and stared at Mariah, trying to imagine what it would be like to be that alone in the world.
    But for Dolly, the story was shocking. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry I brought up a touchy subject.”
    “No, it’s nothing like that, at least not for me. It’s a fact of my life and definitely taught me to be independent.”
    Dolly got up, walked around the table and wrapped her arms around Mariah’s neck.
    “Every motherly gene I have is imploding. This just breaks my heart,