Love in the Pages

When I wrote The Inheritance! I didn’t plan on it turning into a 5 part series! I hope you enjoyed it and that you like the conclusion today. As always, thanks for taking the time to read my posts and for your comments. I do appreciate them! 

 

My cedar chest

Amanda opened up her Mom’s cedar chest and wondered where to start. Did she just pick up the first journal on the stack? Were they in a certain order? Then she asked herself again whether she was sure she wanted to read them. Were there deep secrets hidden in the pages?

She pulled out the one with the moon on it. Amanda remembered her Mom sitting by her bedroom window at night looking out at the moon. Many times Amanda had crept into her Mom’s room, when her Mom thought she was asleep. She sat by the door watching her Mom write while sitting by the window. She often saw her put her pen down and look out the window for a little before picking it back up and writing again. Would these journals give her a glimpse into her Mom’s late night thoughts?

It had only been a few days since Amanda had returned home. She hated to leave Lisette and her beautiful Inn, but she was eager to travel and meet the Grandparents that she hadn’t seen in such a long time. To see the amazing castle that they were leaving to her. It still all felt like a dream! Why hadn’t her Mom ever taken her back to see her Grandparents? What had happened?

Going into her kitchen she poured herself a hot Chocolate Cherry Latte. She was so glad that Cara had given some of the special mix when they visited Bittersweet Creek. It was one of the best latte’s she had ever had. Holding the cup she settled herself down into her overstuffed chair, picked up her Mom’s journal and began to read.

A few hours later Amanda was wiping tears from her eyes. She was on the 4th journal and her heart was full. Her heart ached for her Mom. How she wished that she would be right here with her now and that they could talk about her Mom’s life. All the details that Amanda was learning in the pages of her journals. She needed to take this one journal with her to her grandparents. It would make them cry, but they needed to see their daughter’s words of love to them. Her words of apology. Words that she had planned on telling them in person, but the car accident had tragically prevented that.

Now Amanda was seeing things more clearly. A few months before she died her Mom had told her that they would soon be leaving for a long overdue visit to a certain place that she couldn’t wait to show Amanda. Amanda had asked where they were going, but her Mom had only smiled and said in time, she would explain. Then she got a wistful look in her eye and a pang of regret crossed her face while looking at Amanda. She reached out and brushed a strand of Amanda’s hair out of her amber eyes. “Don’t be headstrong like your Mama dear, I have made many mistakes, and I only hope that I haven’t waited too long to correct them!”

Her Mom may have made many mistakes in her past, but she had been a great Mom. Of course no Mom was perfect and they did have their share of arguments, but she knew her Mom’s heart. Reading through her Mom’s apology to her parents she hoped that they would see through to her Mom’s heart as well and be assured that she had never stopped loving them.

Amanda laughed and cried some more as she continued reading. Reading memories from the past of when Amanda was young and when she lived close to her Grandparents and went on adventures with him. Amanda had memories of riding a horse when she was little with a man leading the horse, she now knew that man had been her Grandpa. She remembered a man holding her up high to pick apples from a tree and them sitting and eating them together, while he told funny stories, making her laugh. She had forgotten all about those memories, but they came to light now as she read.

It was getting late and Amanda was getting stiff from having been in the same position for the past couple hours. She had to put the journals away for the night and get some sleep. Not all her questions had been answered, but many had and she loved getting a peek into her Mom’s life. She felt closer to her as she read, and her cheeks were still wet from tears. Tears of joy from learning more about her grandparents and tears of sadness. She was so very thankful for her Mom’s journals. Amanda understood her now in a way she never had before.

She walked back into her bedroom and put them all back in her Mom’s cedar chest. Then she grabbed her own journal from her night stand, walked over to her glider rocker by the window and began to write. Writing from her heart, and at times putting her pen down, as she looked out the window at the crescent moon.

Many weeks had passed and once again she found herself sitting by a window at night with her journal in her lap. Blank pages waiting to be written upon. She picked up her pen and then heard the knock on her bedroom door.

“Come in!” Amanda said.

Her grandmother entered her room and stood there smiling at her. “Your Mom used to sit by that very window, writing through the night. She also used to climb out that window!”

Amanda laughed. “Don’t worry Grandma, I have no intentions of climbing out the window, and I don’t think any Romeo is going to come whisk me away!”

“I sure hope not! I just found you, I am not ready to let you go yet!”

Putting down her journal, Amanda rose from her chair and walked over to her Grandma, giving her a warm hug. “I am not saying that I will stay here, but I promise that I will keep in touch, wherever I go.”

They held onto each other for a little while and then her Grandma let go and put her hand on Amanda’s cheek. With a twinkle in her eye she said, “Are you thinking of returning to Bittersweet Creek, visiting a certain coffee shop?”

“I am sure Cara would be glad to see me again, and they do have very good coffee, not to mention their homemade pies.” Amanda replied.

“You have said that, and I do believe that you also mentioned the name Mason a few times.”

“Well he is the owner of the diner, that is all.”

“Hmmm…” her grandmother said, and with a light kiss on Amanda’s forehead she walked out the door, closing it softly behind her.

Amanda’s face felt a little warm, but she couldn’t help and smile at her Grandmother’s remark. Sitting back down, she picked up her journal and began to write.