My Wildest Dream

By Trisha Faye

Jenny is filled with enthusiasm and excitement about her decision to open her own herb and garden shop. She awakes each day, eager to begin her new journey as she follows her wildest dream.

Jenny’s friends stand by her side, encouraging her and inspiring her to keep chasing her dream. Most of them. Sadly, she discovers that sometimes friends are not always what they portray themselves to be.

Lately it seems life has conspired against her dream, as Jenny runs up against one obstacle after another. She stays strong – at first. She battles to remain strong and persistent, however, she soon discovers that the fiercest enemy may be herself. Will Jenny have the determination to continue her quest and not give up? Will she find the courage to believe in herself? Will the lessons she learns in this new venture enhance or contradict what she’s discovered since her cardiac arrest a year ago?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trisha Faye
• Release date: Jan 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311743282

Trisha Faye

Trisha writes from north Texas where she spends her spare time gardening and rescuing abandoned kittens.

Book preview

My Wildest Dreams

Book 2 in the Growing Wings Series

Trisha Faye

When Jenny survived a Sudden Cardiac Arrest, she realized that another day

is never promised to us. She resolves to live life fully and chase her dreams.

But, will she find the courage she needs to follow this path?

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2015 Trisha Faye

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of authors everywhere!

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any semblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The one exception is the old brick bank building in Argyle, Texas. It is a real building and the historic tidbits woven around that location are true.

This year I am choosing to live beyond my wildest dreams.

I wonder where they'll take me.

Oprah Winfrey

Chapter 1

No one has ever achieved anything from the smallest to the greatest

unless the dream was dreamed first.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

A parking lot full of Tahoe’s and Expedition’s greeted me when I pulled up at Crafty Hands. We weren’t even to Thanksgiving yet, let alone Christmas, and shoppers were already lining up at the doors twenty minutes before we opened.

Leanne was just getting out of her sporty red Nissan and met me as I came around the front. So…you ready for this?

Not a chance. I would have rather stayed in bed. I looked at the queue standing there to get in the doors and groaned.

"So…when are you quitting this horrid place to open your herb store?

"You mean if I open an herb store?"

I thought you’d decided that was what you wanted to do. Leanne stopped to readjust the bags she carried.

Oh, I want to. I’d rather have my own place than to be working here. I nodded towards the anxious women crowding towards the door.

So what’s stopping you?

Things with Leanne were always so clear cut. You wanted something or you didn’t. There weren’t any in-betweens.

Well, for one thing money.

I thought you’d been tucking some away for your venture.

I have. But I don’t have near enough. And I don’t even know if I can make this dream come true. This is a huge undertaking. I don’t know if I’ll have the courage.

We shut up as we neared the door and the milling throng eyed us closely, hoping they could sneak in with us, to get a jump on their shopping.

Our assistant manager stood on the other side of the lobby door, key in hand to let us in. And that was all the conversation we had on the subject. We barely saw each other the rest of the day. Our new manager was a task master and he kept us hopping. If we weren’t helping customers, he had us restocking merchandise. Christmas pieces flew off the shelves faster than we could put things out. I thought I’d be used to it after six years here. I wasn’t.

My job for the day was cleaning up the aisle with the Christmas picks. First I had to clean out each separate space. Each shelf, each three foot section. Wipe out all the glitter, all the loose pieces – tiny berries, pinecones, leafs, and bits from the picks. It’s amazing how many loose ends fall off and how much trash accumulates. But the worst of it was the glitter. By the end of the day I was covered from head to toe. My smock pockets were filled with it. It was in my shoes and all over my arms.

A customer had stopped at one point during the afternoon to tell me, You have glitter all over your face.

Thanks, I muttered. As if I didn’t know.

I was supposed to meet Carla for dinner that evening. I texted her after clocking out.

Can we make it 6:30 instead of 6?

Sure. U getting out late?

Have to go home and get rid of this glitter first.

??? OK. CU at 6:30.

Best friends. Where would we be without them? I felt blessed to have many wonderful friends in my life. There are still many women in California that are as close to me as my sister, Elisabeth, is. Especially, Amber. Amber and I try to speak with as often as possible, although it’s never as often as we’d like. But here, it was Carla. We were the dynamic duo of north Texas.

At Taco Bueno later that night I sat waiting for Carla to fill up the condiment cups with her assortment of hot sauce, onions, pico de gallo, and jalapeños. This was one of her favorite places to go – anyplace Mexican. Or, Waffle House.

When she finally settled down, placing her toppings in neat little stacks in front of her, she continued on where Leanne had left off. What’s going on with your plans for your business?

I have pages and pages of notes at home. I’m making lists of products I can make. What I need to order from suppliers. What kind of hardware I’d need for displays and such. But…I don’t know…I think this may be something bigger than I can pull off.

You getting cold feet?

Well…no. Not necessarily that. Just trying to be practical.

What’s practical about following a dream?

Nothing I suppose. Maybe realistic is the word I’m looking for. I took a sip of my tea and made a face. Yuck. This is nasty. This is regular tea.

You poured it.

I know. And from the tab that was marked ‘raspberry’.

You’re just trying to change the subject.

She had me there. It was one thing to dwell with my own fears and doubts. They drifted through my mind at all hours of the day, scattering their negative seeds like unwanted chaff, filling up the crevices in my psyche. While I could admit some of them – at least to Leanne and Carla – I didn’t want to dig too deep, or let either of them really know how much terror consumed me when I thought of opening my own business.

They called our name from behind