I Hear...Love (A Different Road #2)
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Authors: Annalisa Nicole
I Hear…Love
Book Two in:
A Different Road Series
by Annalisa Nicole
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2016 by Annalisa Nicole
This book is a written act of fiction. Any and all names, places, or similarities are coincidental. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any electronic or written form without written permission except for brief quotations for reviews or blogs. This book may only be distributed by Annalisa Nicole, the owner and author of this series.
This book is dedicated to:
Everyone who feels like tomorrow isn’t worth it:
Because your story isn’t over yet
Mine wasn’t . . .
;
My toes are dug deep into the heavy, wet sand as the ocean gently laps around my feet. Both eyes are closed and my head is tipped upward toward the warm, setting sun. My ankle-length, white cotton, eyelet skirt is stuck to the front of my legs and whips behind me as the strong wind blows past me. Both arms are crossed, snug over my chest as I hug my shoulders tight. The waves violently thunder against the huge boulders to my left as the tide comes in. It’s almost deafening how loud the water against the rocks can be. This time of day, standing right here, is one of the few times I can be without my music plugged into my ears. I need the constant noise to function like a normal human being. Most days, no amount of noise is loud enough to drown out the visions and memories in my head.
At twenty-three, I feel as though I’ve lived through enough sorrow and pain to fill generations of lifetimes. Both of my parents died in front of my eyes and just an arm’s length away when I was only five years old. The simple fact is, I solely blame myself for their death. I’m the reason my two brothers and I grew up the way we did—without parents.
It happened one summer day when we were driving in our family car on our way to a mini family vacation. It was me who wanted to go to Legoland. I begged and begged my mother relentlessly for months to please take us to Legoland. I whined and threw tantrums saying it would be the end of the world if we didn’t go. Instead, it was the end of the world as I knew it.
I first came across the vivid, colorful advertisement for Legoland while I was flipping through my brother, River’s, Lego magazine. The bright colors caught my eye right away. But the best part was, at the bottom of the advertisement was a ticket for one free admission. It was like a sign from above. That free ticket was meant for me. We just had to go. I carried that magazine around all winter until the pages were ripped and frayed, and it fell apart. That summer, my mother talked my father into taking a four-day vacation. It was on that road, toward the vacation that I had whined to go on, that my parents were killed and my brother, River, was left permanently blind.
I have two older brothers. River is five years older than I am and Stephen is ten years older. I not only hated being the baby of the family, but I also hated the fact that I was a girl. I followed my brothers around incessantly. All I wanted was to go everywhere, be everywhere they were, and do everything my older brothers were doing. Needless to say, it was a given, I was a tomboy growing up. The one thing I was never good at was swimming, and it used to bug the crap out me when they’d go to the pool just to get away from me. The only thing I loved about being a girl was that I was daddy’s little girl. I absolutely adored my father and even though I was only five when he died, I loved the look he’d get in his eyes when he’d come home from work.
To this day, Stephen and I have never really connected as siblings, probably because of the age difference, but River and I have always been close. Even at ten, River wasn’t really into playing with his Lego’s anymore, but I think he still played them with me because he knew it made me happy. Since I can remember, River has always gone out of his way to make me happy.