Shaded Amethysts - Ann Omasta

1

Avery

I was happy that everyone else’s lives were on the right track. Really, I was. I just wished my life would find some sort of direction. My train had left the station and was trying to meander through the woods… blindfolded.

Losing my job as a paralegal at Bernstein and Gray, the only law office in Brunswick Bay Harbor, hadn’t been that bad. We all knew it was because I was outspoken about my brother, Alex’s, innocence in his wife’s disappearance when everyone else believed him to be guilty.

But, of course, they couldn’t admit that was the reason for my dismissal. No, it was because they ‘didn’t have enough work to keep me busy,’ despite the fact that I had worked my ass off day and night for two years straight for that firm.

Once it was proven that Alex was indeed innocent in Claire’s disappearance, they couldn’t take me back without confessing that had been the true reason they let me go.

So, there went two years of my life down the drain. Well, not really, because now I was determined to take the final steps to become a lawyer, open a kick-ass practice right here in town, and put those jerks out of business.

I thought about taking a job unrelated to the law to make ends meet until I finish my classes and pass the bar exam, but decided I would get done quicker if I just buckled down and focused on my goal.

No job means no money for an apartment, so I tucked tail and moved back in with my parents. They are paying for my schooling, putting a roof over my head, and making sure I eat. It’s just like I’m in high school all over again, except I’m almost ten years too late.

It wouldn’t be so bad if all of my friends weren’t doing so well. They are all enjoying successful careers, getting married, having babies, and moving forward into their futures, while I keep spinning my wheels.

My love life was rather pathetic before, but now that I’ve moved back in with Mom and Dad, it has withered up and croaked. My parents mean well, but they don’t realize that having to explain to a man in his late twenties or early thirties that he has to meet my parents before we go out is mortifying.

“Their house, their rules.” Blah, blah, blah.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate my parents. I do. So much. Most parents think they’ll be done supporting their kids at 18, or perhaps, if they are really generous, after college. Mine helped me through law school the first time, didn’t freak out when I decided I needed a break, and are now supporting me once again.

They have to be wondering when it will all end as much as I am.

You’d think their daughter, who set her sights on becoming a lawyer, would have an easier time in the real world than their free-spirited son, who followed his pipe dream of becoming an author, but you’d be wrong.

Alex is a successful and loving family man. He’s every parent’s wet dream, aside from the whole murder suspect thing, but that only lasted for about a year, and it’s all cleared up now.

My best friend, Molly, and I used to commiserate about being the last two single, aimless losers in town, but then Grant Chandler––yes, the huge movie star––sped into our tiny town, nearly ran her over, and fell madly in love with her. True story! I couldn’t make this stuff up.

The lights of my life are my nieces and nephew. I might seem like a deadbeat to every adult that spends more than ten minutes with me, but those kids think I’m super-cool Aunt Avery.

It’s my mission in life to take them on great adventures every chance I get. I especially like to get them hopped up on sugar just before taking them home to Alex and Claire. That’s part of the beauty of being an aunt, isn’t it?

Today’s grand plan involved the first ice skate of the season. Alex and I had loved skating at this tiny pond on the outskirts of town when we were little, so I wanted it to be a special place for his kids, too.

Molly, her movie star fiancé, and their son, Scout, were coming to join us. It was sure to be a fantastic time.

When I went to pick up the kids, Alex’s black lab, Pepper, gave me the most pathetic puppy-dog eyes I’ve ever seen––even though she’s well beyond her

readonlinefreenovel.com Copyright 2016 - 2024