Moving On (Rolling Thunder #7) - P.J. Fiala Page 0,7

this without buying anything."

"You had it all here, Linda, we just needed to find it among the weeds." She looked proudly over what she had accomplished and couldn't wait to see it all in a few weeks when everything fully bloomed.

Linda pulled her into a huge hug and LuAnn hugged her back. It brought tears to her eyes to have someone hold her and genuinely be happy. It had been so long. Even when Chase had first dropped her off a week ago, Linda politely hugged her. While she appreciated the feeling, she could tell it was because Linda felt like it was what she was supposed to do.

Sniffing, Linda pulled back and looked at her. They both had blue eyes; their brother, Lance, also had had the same blue eyes. God, she missed him. He'd been dead about nineteen years now and not a day went by that she didn't think of him especially while she'd been in prison. She was guilty of committing crimes that had landed her in prison and knew Lance would be so ashamed of her. He loved Dog so much.

"Are you crying?"

"No." She swiped quickly at her eyes and looked away from Linda.

"You are to crying. Why on earth are you sad?"

Shaking her head, she sniffed. "I'm not sad. It felt good for you to hug me. I haven't had a genuine honest to goodness hug in years."

Linda pulled her in for a hug again, this time it was slower, but firm, and completely from the heart.

"I love you so much, Lu. I guess things have been a bit stressed recently. I'm so sorry if I’ve made you feel like you aren't welcome. It certainly wasn’t my intent. I'm so happy to have you back. I just wanted to give you time to adjust. Sadly, I didn't realize how in doing so I made you feel unwanted."

That didn't help her to stop crying, it actually made it a bit worse, and she sobbed in Linda's arms. Her body shook as her sister held her close and whispered sweet words in her ear.

"It's all going to be alright, Lu. From here on out, you've got your head on straight and you're going to be successful at anything you want to do."

Squeezing Linda as hard as she could, she mumbled into her shoulder, "I hope so."

"You will. You're smart. You're talented. Look at my yard. Maybe you should be working in a greenhouse."

She giggled then. "Great minds. I was just thinking that today. When I get plants tomorrow, I thought I'd see if they have any job openings. My only problem is I don't have a phone. You don't have a landline. What number will I give them on my application?"

"Tanner and I just talked about this last night. I thought we could go this afternoon and get you a phone. I'll pay for it until you get a job, then you can take it over, deal?"

Pulling back, she looked into her sister's eyes. "I promise you I will get a job somehow and I'll pay you back."

Linda's hands came up and framed her face, her thumbs swiped at the tears that tracked down LuAnn's cheeks and she smiled, "I know you will, honey. I know you will."

Linda stepped back and moved to admire her yard once more. The smile on her face was all LuAnn needed to know that she loved what she saw. Linda turned and looked at her, the smile on her face grew.

"Let's go clean up then get you a phone."

Giggling LuAnn nodded, "Sounds good."

Going back into the garage, she dumped the weeds into the garbage can, dusted her hands off and walked into the house with Linda right behind her.

She walked into the kitchen, turned left and then left again and went downstairs to the basement, which was now her bedroom. She had a bathroom there as well. The temperature stayed cool and Linda had kept all of her old clothes hanging neatly in the closet in her bedroom for her return to society. Looking through her clothes again today, just as she had these past few days, she shook her head. She'd dressed like a whore. All of the shirts and t-shirts were low-cut, exposing half her breasts. She'd always been well-endowed, but now she looked at herself with new eyes.

Linda had kept all the pictures she'd had before prison and the bleached-out hair, dark makeup, and tight pants, were, God, how embarrassing. How did she not see it before?