Free Broken by Rachel Hanna Page A

if she was transporting herself to another world a million miles away.
    When the song was over, the speakers blared “Joy to the World” and ruined the romantic mood. Laughing, they walked out from under the pavilion, but Grant didn’t release Bella’s hand as they walked toward the truck. As he opened the door for her, she went up on her tip toes and kissed his cheek softly.
    “What was that for?” he asked.
    “Just for being you,” she said as she slid into the vehicle and buckled up.
    A few minutes later, they were in Bella’s driveway. The thought of going into her house alone was daunting to her. She’d gotten used to Ethan being there, and there would be a void tonight.
    “Would you like to come in?” she asked, surprising the hell out of Grant.
    “You want me to come in?” he asked in complete shock.
    “Well, I need a favor, actually.”
    “A favor?” he said, squinting his eyes.
    “You’re going to laugh, but Lori’s mattress is kind of worn out. She must have slept in the middle, and I sort of slide into this canyon every night.” By this time, Grant was chuckling at her description. “Anyway, I tried to flip the mattress the other day and almost threw my back out!”
    “Ah, I see. So you want me to help you flip your mattress?” he asked.
    “Yes. If you don’t mind.”
    “I don’t mind at all. But, I will warn you that if this is a ploy to get me into your bedroom, it might work,” he said, poking her in the side as he got out of the car. Before she could get out, he was right there opening her door. Oh, how she was starting to love chivalry.
    Bella unlocked the front door and turned on a lamp in the living room. Lori’s house was very modest with just two bedrooms and one bathroom, but it was plenty of room for her and Ethan.
    “Come on in,” she said as she took off her coat and put her purse on the kitchen counter. “Glass of wine or coffee?”
    “Wine, of course,” he said as he walked around the living room looking at pictures of Lori and Ethan. “You and Lori looked a lot alike.”
    “Yeah. We looked like our mother,” she said with heartache in her voice. “See this one? That’s the only one we had of our mother.” She pointed to a picture with Lori, Bella and a beautiful woman with waist length blond hair and stunning green eyes.
    “She was a lovely woman. That explains your beauty,” he said, smiling over at her as she handed him a glass of wine. “Do you remember much about her?” he asked as he sat on an ottoman.
    “Not a whole lot. Her name was Sarah. She had us very young, so she never went to college. When she died, she was working as a waitress and doing some side jobs as a house cleaner like Lori.”
    “Any good memories?”
    “A few. I remember that she loved Christmas time. She was all we had, but she made everything about Christmas special,” Bella looked off in the distance as if she was re-visiting that time in her life. “One thing I remember was that she loved to climb trees.”
    “Climb trees?” he asked, laughing.
    “Yep. Remember she was young, so she was still pretty spry. There was this huge tree over in Clayton Springs right by the river, and she would take us there every Saturday to climb it. It’s one of those big, old trees that’s been there over a hundred years. Wow, I can’t believe I just remembered that. I haven’t thought about it in years…”
    “So you’re a tree climber, huh? I’ll have to remember that…” he said with a laugh.
    “Ready to help me flip that mattress?” she asked, changing the subject from anything personal.
    “Sure,” he said as he put his wine glass down on the coffee table.
    They walked into Bella’s room, which was perfectly clean. If there was one thing she did inherit from her mother, it was her cleanliness.
    “Do you even live in here?” he asked, looking around.
    “Yes. Why?”
    “It’s so… clean.”
    “I don’t like chaos,” she said simply. “Okay, can you grab that