Living Again: Living Again, #1

By Lisa C.Clark

Seventeen-year-old Rebecca Marin lost her sister Olivia to a tragic death at the beginning of the summer, and her family hasn’t been the same ever since.  Now that Olivia is no longer, a stifling cloud of grief hangs over the heads of the Marin family—until the August day when Rebecca awakens and decides that she wants to start living again.  Will she find love—and a new start in life—where she least expects it?  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisa C.Clark
• Release date: May 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781498903660

Book preview

Living Again (Story #1)

ONE

Olivia died in early June.  There was a funeral, followed by weeks of grief and adjustment.  And then one August morning, Rebecca Marin wakes up and wants to live again.  She washes in the bathroom and pulls back her hair and puts on a sundress and lip balm. 

Then she peeks into Nico's room and sees he is still sleeping.  In the kitchen, she pours herself a glass of orange juice before walking out onto the screened front porch.  As she emerges from the air-conditioning, the heat rises to envelop her like a shroud.  Almost immediately, perspiration beads behind her neck and knees.

She sits at the porch table where her parents, Jenner and Carole, are breakfasting on the glazed cake doughnuts and dark-roast coffee Jenner brings in from town every Saturday morning.

"Good morning, princesa," says Jenner, and offers her a weary smile.  Friends are forever saying that Jenner, born and raised in Guatemala until the age of ten, bears a striking resemblance to Antonio Banderas, something across the eyes.  For the life of her, Rebecca just can't see it.  Her father, with his sun-roughened dark skin, wide dark eyes, and loose black wavy hair, now peppered heavily with gray, is all his own person.

He offers her a doughnut and she accepts.  It's a bit dry, and the icing crumbles away in her mouth.  It's a hot day, she says, attempting conversation.

Supposed to be hotter tomorrow, says Carole.  She is still in her nightgown, and her hair is loose around her face, sticking to the perspiration on her neck.  Even so, she drinks hot coffee from a mug as though it's lemonade.  Born into a Sicilian-American family, Carole was once a very beautiful woman, her skin a delicate olive, her hair cascades of chestnut-brown, her eyes and smile open and inviting.  Ever since Olivia's death, she's been different, looked different, older and more tired, all the light and life drained out of her.

Rebecca supposes they all have.  She wonders if her life will ever regain a semblance of normalcy and knows now, with a certainty she hasn't felt in weeks, that she wants it to.

She continues with the small talk.  I think I'll take Nico to the beach today.  Maybe we'll visit Paige and get some ice cream.

That'll be nice, says Jenner.  He reaches around into his back shorts pocket and pulls out his wallet, proffering her a slightly wrinkled ten.  Consider it my treat.  Only a hint of Spanish accent tinges his speech.  Despite the sadness and exhaustion in his eyes, there is love there too, and a strong sense of wanting to make things all right