Twisted Hearts

By Sara (Dennis) Schroeder

17 year old Joe is forced to take up the role as the head of the household, when his dad gets injured, the company he works for goes bankrupt and they lose their home. Forced to live in tents, Joe must go to school, work and protect his family, by protecting their circumstances.

Joe falls for the new girl, 15 year old Amanda, whose father has had her in boarding schools since she was 9, and is keeping family secrets from her as well.

A tornado wrecks havic in the town and in their lives, in Twisted Hearts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477292174

Sara (Dennis) Schroeder

I started writing poetry and short stories when I was in 4th grade. My middle school English teacher, Mr. Meyers, was very inspirational with getting his students to step out of the box when it came to writing stories. I grew up in Mt. Vernon, Iowa and now live in Cedar Rapids, Ia. I have been married 25 years to Kirk and we have two sons, Andrew 22 and Bryce 18. Kirk and I are now empty nesters, but have our two cats Kato and Jag to keep us company. Andrew and his wife Brandy also live in Cedar Rapids and blessed us with a beautiful granddaughter in May 2012, Aubrey Jean. Our son Bryce lives in Iowa City and attends the University of Iowa where he studying Liberal Arts.

Book preview

Twisted Hearts

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Sara (Dennis) Schroeder

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2012 by Sara (Dennis) Schroeder. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/19/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9218-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9217-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover design by Andrew Schroeder

Editing by Bryce Schroeder

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter One

Joe Reynolds was at the yearly spring dance at his high school, Grey Oaks, In Hayfield Missouri. Even though he could dance, he just didn’t feel like dancing and wondered why he had even come. That was until he spotted the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on walk in.

He just had to find out who she was. Joe had become kind of a loner ever since his dad, Charlie lost his job and then they lost their home. He had worked for a local construction company for 20 plus years, but when that company went bankrupt, everyone lost their job. Economy was not doing well and no one was building anything.

The final blow for the Reynolds family came months later when Charlie was doing some repairs on their home, hoping to get it on the market and sold before the bank foreclosed on it. He was up on the roof of the house and stepping down onto the ladder, when he missed a step and fell backwards off the ladder onto the ground below. Fracturing several vertebrae, He was now unable to do anything, but lay flat on his back at home. A month after injuring his back, they lost the house. Joe’s mom, Julie was working double shifts at a restaurant in town.

Having no family and lots of stubborn male pride. Charlie would rely on no one but his wife and son. That ended up with the three of them selling off all their furniture and all but one car.

The town of Hayfield was a small and old enough town that it had several debilitating buildings that no one could use. Now that the town’s construction company was shut down, no one was working on the buildings.

With Charlie unable to physically be the man of the house, it was up to 17-year-old Joe to keep his family going. He moved them all into one of the old churches on the out skirts of town. Julie would take the one car they had left and drive to and from work every day, and come home on breaks to bring Charlie a meal, give him his pain meds and help him to the bathroom. Then after school Joe was there to care for his father, until he started helping out the school janitor, then he would have to take breaks to go check on his dad’s needs. Joe didn’t mind, other than the fact that it made his custodial work take that much longer to be done every evening.

A few nights before the schools spring dance, Joe had moved his dad out side into one of the family’s large tents that they had. Charlie had been having some breathing issues being inside the old falling down church all day and night, with no windows to open. Joe knew his dad would love to be out in the tent with the tent windows and door open wide to let the warm spring airflow thru. The screens were all zipped; no curious animals could wander in.

Tonight was Joes one evening off and he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to even go to the Spring dance at school… until he saw a beautiful, blonde haired girl, with hair down the middle of her back. Who was she? He pretty much knew everyone in school by name. The school was big enough that two small towns 15 miles away were both bussed in. Maybe one of those towns had a new family move in and this was her 1st day? Joe wasn’t sure about where she came from… However, he knew he just had to find out who she was.

The girl was now talking to Mrs. Borde, the English teacher. Joe couldn’t help but just stand there staring. A few minutes later, the girl walked away and Joe knew this was his chance to ask Mrs. Borde who she was.

Mrs. Borde had seen Joe looking in her niece’s direction while she and Amanda were talking, so she was not surprised when she felt a tap on her right shoulder. She turned, knowing it was Joe, before he said a word. Mrs. Borde had always liked Joe; he was very smart and courteous to adults. She was a little surprised when Joe blurted out Who is that girl? Mrs. Borde shook off her wanting to tell Joe how rude he was for not greeting her first, but because she liked Joe so much, she let it go.

Well Joe, how nice to see you too (being an English teacher she at least had to greet him properly) That young lady is my niece, Amanda she is going to be staying with me until her father gets his business all wrapped up in Italy, and then she will probably be whisked off to another boarding school some where out of the country, poor girl.

The only part Joe heard was she will be staying with me.

Joe walked around stopping to talk to a few people, while still keeping an eye out for Mrs. Bordes niece. He ended up going outside to find his best friend Paul. Joe and Paul had been friends since the first day of kindergarten. He was the only one Joe trusted to keep the secret of his family’s’ situation.

He found Paul outside leaning against his motorcycle. He was talking on his cell phone to his mother. Paul’s mom was a widow and the only thing in her life was him, so she was somewhat obsessed when it came to her only child.

Joe heard Paul tell his mom that it was his choice as to what college he went to not hers and then he hung up on his mom.

"Wow, I have never seen this side of you, take it easy on your mom, man, you know how hard it is gonna be on her even having you move