SWNOVELS Chapter 2276
Late at night, Rosalynn sent a lengthy voice message to her daughter, who had long been asleep. She promised to return home with a gift the next day.
After sending the message, she placed her phone aside and nestled her head into the pillow, feeling both satiated and exhausted.
She felt a bit warm from the evening's activities, and the air conditioning was set a tad too low. Wayne went to adjust it, returning with a warmer setting. He then enveloped Rosalynn from behind like a koala clinging to a tree, resting his weight on her.
Rosalynn was too languid to move, her gaze fixed on the rain that continued to patter against the large window outside.
"Grandma always loved big windows," Rosalynn suddenly said. "Back in the day, no one around here had these floor-to-ceiling windows like we do now. She told me that before I was born, she planted a gardenia opposite the window of the room she was preparing for me. When the gardenias bloomed, I loved to fling open the window and sit under the eaves all day long."
Wayne gently kissed Rosalynn's shoulder and neck, whispering, "Next holiday, we'll bring the kids to stay here."d2
He knew she was missing her grandmother. A wave of guilt spread through him. If he had recognized his feelings for Rosalynn sooner, he could have been by her side when her grandmother passed away. The gardenia in the yard had grown into a large bush. Many years ago, after she and her grandmother had left L City for H City, the gardenia had mysteriously fallen ill, losing all its leaves and rotting at the roots.
When they returned to see it, both had thought the gardenia wouldn't survive, but neither had the heart to dig it up and throw it away.
So it remained in the yard of their home, treated like a dead tree for many years.
Until the spring when her grandmother died.
After Rosalynn signed her grandmother's death certificate, she came back home, despondent, only to find new tender green leaves sprouting from the gardenia in the morning light.
She told Wayne about it, her lips quivering, her voice catching, "I think she was still worried about me when she left, so she made this flower, which came into the world because of my birth, come back to life." Wayne sensed her sorrow, gently nuzzling her neck and planting another kiss, "Grandma really loved you, you know." "Mhm," came Rosalynn's soft agreement.
That night, Rosalynn had a beautiful dream. In the dream, Gravel Lane wasn't as desolate as it was now; back then, every household had wonderful neighbors.
The elders were kind, the children were naughty and cute, and the young parents often chased after these little rascals with switches in hand.
Her mother was the only one who never spanked the kids and was also the prettiest mom in the lane. All the children envied her.
In the dream, it was a blazing summer day. Wearing overalls made by her grandmother and with her hair in pigtails, she ran home with a pinwheel that Noah had bought for her, shouting, "Grandma, Grandpa, Addy, I'm home!"
Her grandmother peeked out from the kitchen with a smile, "You always call your mother her name, careful or she might tell you ghost stories tonight!"
Her grandfather was under the porch, weaving small bamboo mats.
Rosalynn had gotten a rash from a store-bought mat and cried for two days. Her grandfather, heartbroken, went to the countryside to get bamboo to make a mat for his beloved granddaughter by hand.
"Don't be afraid, I'm right here. If mom tells ghost stories, just come to me. I'm very powerful; with me around, no ghost or goblin will dare scare you!"
Her young and beautiful mother descended from the second floor, and Rosalynn instantly transformed into a sweet angel, not shouting for Addy anymore. She ran to her mother, hugging her legs, "Mom, Noah quizzed me on math today, and I got an A+!"
"Really?" Addy squatted down, looking into her daughter's eyes, "Then what's 1 plus 3?"
Little Rosalynn, clutching her pinwheel, fell into deep thought and then proudly held up five fingers.