Read This Heart of Mine for Free Online Page B

it was never easy to contend with her mother.
    “What the hell’s going on out here?” Lizzie shouted, her words and tone containing the caustic edge she was so famous for.
    Phoenix pocketed the slip with Kyle Houseman’s number, removed the sandal on the foot that hurt the most and limped close enough that she wouldn’t have to shout. She’d promised herself before she left prison that she’d be unfailingly kind to her mother. As ornery as Lizzie could be, she hated herself more than anyone else did. After what Phoenix had been through, she had greater empathy and understood that Lizzie sounded worse than she actually was. It was smarter not to react to all the cussing and yelling and the harsh things her mother said to drive people away.
    Fortunately, the dogs stopped barking and settled down, so it became possible to speak in a normal voice. “Everything’s okay, Mom. Don’t worry,” she said, but a few calm words would never reassure Lizzie. She took nothing on faith and was always ready to fight, even if she was only shadowboxing some imaginary enemy.
    A scowl creased what Phoenix could see of her face through the narrow opening. “Thought I heard a car.”
    “You did.” Phoenix picked up her sandal. “My feet were hurting, so I caught a ride home.”
    Now that she was no longer in danger of revealing herself to anyone else, Lizzie opened the door wider. “From
who
?”
    “Just some guy who passed me.” Phoenix shrugged. Her mother didn’t need to hear the details.
She
wasn’t even sure what to make of Kyle, whether or not she could trust his kindness. She had few friends in this town and that probably wouldn’t change.
    “You hitchhiked?”
    “More or less.”
    Her mother tsked. “You better watch out. Folks around here hate you, and you have no idea how they might decide to show it,” she said. Then she shut the door.
    Phoenix stared at it, wondering why her mother had to be so difficult. Before she left this morning, Phoenix had told Lizzie she’d be having breakfast with Jacob. Why couldn’t she have shown a little interest in that momentous occasion?
    She could have at least asked how it went...
    Except that Lizzie thought reaching out to Jacob, holding on to any shred of hope that he might accept her, was a waste of time. She insisted that Riley would never allow either one of them to play a significant role in Jacob’s life and Phoenix was a fool for trying to prove she cared.
    Maybe it was true.
    With a shake of her head, she started back to her own trailer, which wasn’t easy with one bare foot. She had to thread her way through the refuse that had been dumped in the yard since before she was born. That meant circumventing old tires, two broken-down vehicles from when her mother did drive, a decrepit, hand-powered lawn mower, a washing machine. But it wasn’t the big stuff that worried her now that Kyle wasn’t there to see it. She was afraid she’d step on a nail or a piece of broken glass.
    If she hadn’t been looking so carefully, she might’ve missed the banged-up bike peeking out from under an old mattress. Once she’d pulled it out, she saw that it had two flat tires and the frame was rusty, but...maybe she could fix it. Then she wouldn’t have to walk every time she needed to go to town.
    Pushing the bike, she reached the trailer and leaned it up against the side. This was a project she’d have to tackle later.
    She was just climbing the three steps to her door when her mother screeched her name.
    From her new vantage point, Phoenix couldn’t see Lizzie’s steps—or Lizzie, either—but it wasn’t difficult to tell she was standing where she’d been before. She rarely came all the way outside.
    “Yes?” she called back.
    “My toilet’s plugged up!”
    Phoenix allowed herself a grimace but was careful to keep the impatience out of her voice. “Did you try to plunge it?”
    “You know I can’t bend over like that!”
    So who’d played the role of plumber