Echoes Read Online Free

interested?" she asked, raising her brows.
    "I don't know. I just hate that she gave up what we'd planned."
    "Lance." Sofie touched his arm. " You gave it up."
    He sighed. "Want to see the rest?"
    "Sure."
    He headed up the stairs. "I'm here in Seascape." His room had a weathered mariner theme in sea blue and beige that didn't quite suit him, but the guitar in the corner made it his.
    Rese's mother's room next to that had shades of rose and cream; lovely, though lacking decorative items that could be hazardous to a schizophrenic. In contrast, the Rain Forest room was heaped with colorful clothing, jewelry, paints and paintings, books of Shakespeare and other sonnets, and a plethora of bright enamel frog sculptures.
    "Star's room."
    "Of course." It fit the little she'd seen of Star in the Bronx.
    Lance closed the door, then indicated the farthest door on the landing. "Maria and the baby are in there, probably napping. She's pretty wiped out."
    "Thought you weren't running an inn." She nudged him.
    "More like a shelter for misfits."
    "I hope it's okay that I—"
    "Fagedda-bout-it." He gripped her shoulders. "We're glad you're here. Nonna's ecstatic."
    A throaty melody trailed down the attic stairs through the open door in the hall. Sofie turned.
    "That's Star. She takes Elaine to the attic when she paints inside."
    She hadn't met Rese's mother. "How is Elaine?"
    "Some days better than others. She can get agitated, but she's mostly content and more or less coherent. Seems to be glad she's here."
    They climbed the stairs to the long attic furnished with colorful beanbag chairs. Rese's mother leaned on a purple one by the window, repeating fragments of Star's bawdy tune. Sofie approached the canvas on which Star had incorporated an aspect of Elaine's face into a floral garden scene, the effect created by the shadows of leaves and petals. "That's wonderful."
    Star stopped singing and turned with a serious mien. "Flattery lights like dew upon the leaf, too soon evaporated."
    "Or, as Nonna says, fine words don't feed cats." Sofie smiled. "But it really is amazing."
    "Then I'll bask in your flattery and thank you."
    Bask. How long had it been since she'd even thought of basking? Suddenly the possibility was real that, in this place, with these people—two who were family, three who were strangers, and a mother and infant she had yet to meet—where no one looked at her and saw death, she might make her way through the last of its trappings.
    She startled as Elaine gripped her arm. "Have you seen him? Where have they gone? They've all gone. Gone, gone."
    "No, I'm sorry," Sofie told her, startled by the words. "I don't know where they've gone." She looked into the white-haired woman's face and saw Rese's features housing a troubled mind. "I'm Sofie. It's nice to meet you, Elaine."
    Elaine searched her face but didn't answer.
    Star detached Elaine's grip. "Come on, Mom. Come watch the street."
    Sofie glanced at Lance. He smiled. She smiled back, thankful once again for an old woman's words. Where there was life, there was most certainly hope.
    ————
    Still keyed up and more than a little aggravated, Matt went into his house. He wasn't in the mood for company, but Ryan obviously had no qualms about admitting himself, raiding the kitchen, and enjoying the plasma flat screen in the den.
    He looked up, all blue eyed and eager. "Hey. Long day?"
    And getting longer. "A late call that got complicated."
    Ryan didn't press for details, didn't want them, and wouldn't get them anyway. "Grab a beer and join me."
    Nice offer, Matt thought, as it was his den, his beer and food Ryan was consuming. "Did you leave me any stew?" He'd thrown the steroid-free meat and packaged organic vegetables into the slow cooker before leaving for work that morning.
    "There's plenty." Ryan mopped up the gravy in his bowl with a chunk of baguette. "Good thing one of us can cook."
    "You could do a lot of things, Ryan, if you tried." Like patching things up with