Going Home

By Carole McKee

Fifteen years ago Cassie fled her hometown, taking with her an undeserved bad reputation and a broken heart. She reluctantly returns for her father’s funeral and comes face to face with the one who broke her heart. This encounter sends her packing again, only this time it’s not so easy to just leave and forget. Her visit opens old wounds, stokes old flames, and uncovers lies and deceit. It’s showdown time!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carole McKee
• Release date: Jun 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311651174

Carole McKee

I am originally from Pittsburgh, but I now reside in Florida, with my two cats. My first attempt at writing was when I wrote a tribute to my Black Lab after he passed away. That short story appeared in a veterinarian's magazine and now appears in a paperback collection of short stories, "Forever Families" edited by Shelagh Watkins. After earning a couple of college degrees, I started writing for fun, and as a hobby. I completed my first novel "Perfect" in 2007. I entered the book in a contest and it received an honorable mention. In addition to that, I received a lot of great feedback on that first attempt, so I decided to try another. That led to my second book "Choices" and then came "The Bushes are Red" and "The Full Nelson"--a trilogy that is turning into a series, because readers didn't want me to stop there. Another book, in that series ("Consequences") was released in April, 2013. In December, 2011, "Kisses from the Heart" was published--all new characters. "Maddie's Garden" (2011) is another new story with all fresh new characters. "Second Chances" came out in 2012, and "Going Home" came out later that same year. There are many more to come. I love writing and will continue to write every day. Please email me! I answer all emails as soon as I can. [e-mail].

Book preview

Going Home

By Carole McKee

Published by Carole McKee at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Carole McKee

ISBN: 9781311651174

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter 1

Cassie pulled into the first rest area on I-79 as soon as she crossed the Pennsylvania border. Besides having to use the facilities, she had to gather her wits and draw strength from that. It had been a long time since she had last set foot in the state—a very long time. Almost fifteen years, unless you wanted to count those two Christmases when she came back on Christmas eve and left less than 24 hours later. She had left two days after graduation and never looked back, well, except for those two times when her parents made it known that they felt it was mandatory that she make an appearance. She didn't count those times, since she got in and out as soon as possible, not even spending a full twenty-four hours. Her last duty visit had been two years ago. She had come home for Christmas for the last time and had to endure the questions from her parents and the insults from her two brothers, as well as her mother's plea that she settle down and get married before it was too late. Too late for what, Cassie had no idea. She had only stayed a day, flying in on Christmas Eve late in the afternoon, and then leaving on Christmas day after dinner. Six months after that, her mother had passed away. Cassie had been on vacation in The Orient at the time, and couldn't be reached with the news. When she returned to her home in Florida, she had called her father. He was distraught over her mother's death and that she hadn't made it to the funeral. She apologized to her father and asked if he needed anything. He declined her offer of help and they hung up on a rather bad note. Now he was gone. He was gone and now she would have to face her brothers' insults and criticisms for the next three to five days—tops. She hoped that was all the time she would be there.

She got out of the car, stretched and yawned, and walked into the rest area facility. On her way back out, after running a comb through her hair and checking her make-up, she grabbed a cup of coffee from the vending machine. Since she was in no hurry to get there, she leaned against the fender and sipped her coffee, wincing at its bitterness, but drinking it until she drained the cup anyway.

It was a beautiful April day, she had to admit. The cloudless sky was that perfect shade of blue that makes you think that the whole world is pristine and peaceful. For a second, at least. A light breeze made her hair flutter just slightly, and she was aware that even though it was much cooler than it was in Florida right now, the temperature was not too bad. The rest area was almost deserted, save for one other car with a young family seated in it. She guessed there wasn't much travel this time of year--at least in this part of the country.

After tossing her empty cup into the trash receptacle, she sighed and got back into her car. She should be there in less than an hour. Give me strength, she whispered to no one in particular, but hoped that the right being heard her. She took a deep breath and sighed. It's now or never, she said aloud as she merged back onto the interstate.

Fifty minutes later she was pulling into the driveway of the old 'homestead' where she had grown up. She parked her car to the side of the relatively long driveway so she didn't block the other three cars that were there ahead of her. She guessed that two of those cars belonged to her brothers, but had no clue who owned the third one. Her parents had a double car garage and they always kept their vehicles in there. Many times, her father repeated to the family that if you don't use your garage why bother having it. So invariably, his car went into the garage every time he returned from wherever he had gone. Leaving her bags in the car, she got out and approached the front door. Should she knock? Probably. No, probably not. It was her home, too—wasn't it? She knocked. The door swung open and her brother, Mark stood in front of it, staring at her like she was the evil twin.

"Cassie...How good of you to show up. That your Benz?'

Hello, Mark...yes, that's my car.

Mark stood still and stared at the small black Mercedes for a moment. Must be doing well for yourself.

I'm doing okay. How about you?

I'm hanging in there. Getting lots of work these days. Busy as hell.

Good, she responded as she pushed past him. Who else is here?

Matt and our cousin, Jim. They're in the kitchen. Have you had anything to eat? There's tons of stuff out there. Everybody in the neighborhood and from the church dropped stuff off. We could feed the whole town on what's been dropped off. Cassie nodded and moved toward the kitchen.

At least she knew Jim would be happy to see her. She heard the conversation before she got to the kitchen. Matt and Jim had a way of sounding like a whole group of people when they carried on a conversation. She stopped at the entry way and observed them before they realized she was there. Jim was the first to spy her, and he immediately got up from his chair and came over to hug her.

Cassie...so sorry about Uncle Evan. Why do people always say that? It's not his fault. She smiled, hugged him back, and thanked him. You're looking really good, girl. You been working out or what?

It's more like 'or what,' she laughed. I barely have time to eat, let alone work out. Well, you look great.

Thanks. How's the family? Before her cousin could answer, Matt pushed his chair out with unnecessary force, making a loud scraping noise on the floor tiles.

Cassie...will you be staying more than a day this time? Do you think you can find the time to attend all of the viewings and the funeral, too?

Don't start, Matt. I'm here.

Yeah...until you have to catch a plane.

I drove.

Oh...that explains the two day delay in getting here.

Matt was not quite a year younger than Cassie. In fact, they were mistaken for twins all the time when they were of school age, since they were in the same grade. Cassie, born on the first day of February, started school the same year as Matt, who was born on the second day of January, the following year. The qualifier for starting kindergarten was that a child had to be five by January thirty-first, making Matt eligible to begin his schooling the same year that Cassie did. They went through the entire thirteen years of school together and graduated the same year. After graduation, Matt went on to college and Cassie up and ran off—left town—two days after graduation. She had her reasons for leaving, but she hadn't shared any of them with her family.

In the years that she was gone, she managed to work and put herself through college, an option she didn't have while living with her parents. Her old-fashioned parents felt that boys needed the education and girls could just work until they got married and started a family. Cassie had never liked that reasoning, since she hadn't considered getting married and having babies a good career choice. During her junior and senior year, she and her parents had fought about her future on numerous occasions, usually ending with Cassie stomping to her room in tears. She had always been a stellar student, graduating second in her class just in front of her brother, who had graduated third. In college, she excelled in all of her classes, was consistently on the Dean's list, and graduated Summa Cum Laude, spiking the interest of a few major corporations. But Cassie knew what she wanted to do. She took a job with a major corporation that had no relation to her plan, so that there would be no reason for the company to claim conflict of interest. She worked there while she saved and worked out the details for her own company. When it was ready, she launched her campaign, using her own marketing strategy, and within a few months after that, she was able to leave the electronics corporation and work full-time in her own company. It was six years ago that she went live with her line of products, and now her line of cosmetics was on all retail shelves and the sales had made her a millionaire. Just after the new year her company went global, introducing her products to women outside of the United States. Her line was a huge hit with Europeans as well as Asian women. Cassie's Naturals advertised cosmetics, skin care and hair products that were made from all natural ingredients, hypo-allergenic, and safe, for both the body and the environment. She had come up with the idea when she was in her first year of college, when she began taking chemistry and chemistry lab courses as electives. She began experimenting on her own until she found exactly the right ingredients to be blended together.

Her success had never been acknowledged by her family. Her parents thought she was squandering her life away by not having a family, and her brothers just thought she was a loser who didn't give a damn about anything. Well, she did give a damn! She cared about people who cared about her, which probably didn't include anyone in Pennsylvania. She gave to many charitable organizations and even helped out at the homeless shelter on holidays. Once a month she volunteered at the local animal shelter, where she had gotten her two cats and two dogs. She had friends that she saw socially, inviting them to use her pool and stay for dinner, and occasionally went out on dates. And she took care of herself by eating right, exercising and walking or running when she had the time. Not too long ago, she had participated in a three day race for Breast Cancer. It had been fun, fulfilling, and for a good cause. In fact, the fight for a cure for breast cancer had become kind of an obsession with her, since one of her best friends had battled breast cancer a couple of years prior. Kathy was doing well now—had been pronounced cancer-free just two weeks ago—but because of her, Cassie had added pink lipstick tubes to her line, designating the profits on those tubes to breast cancer research.

Of course, her family wasn't aware of any of this. All they saw was a failure—a failure at life—and an embarrassment. She never received any recognition when she graduated from college, but yet she had been invited to come home for the huge blow-out party for Matt. Her mother expressed her pride in Matt when she called to invite her. Cassie declined the invitation. She was in her third year of college then, having delayed her start date at the local Florida university in order to establish residence in Florida and save up all she could. Establishing residence allowed for her to have in-state tuition and grants that were offered.

Matt in particular had developed a disdain for her when