Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) by Kathleen Royce Page A

close to her age, as
often as possible. He became a regular fixture in her life, as did Jenny.
During the summers, the three were inseparable, always running off to the creek
to swim or fish, sometimes even taking her sisters along.
    They became so ingrained in her life
that she never knew a time when Ty and Jenny weren’t present. Her best friends,
she could confide anything to them. They never judged or criticized her.
Spending time with them taught her and her sisters what a normal family was
like. It made them be who they were at the time, just a bunch of kids having
fun. It was a blessing, not having the constant constraint and stigma of being
a Stone Girl on them.
    Ty became the big brother she always
wanted. He taught the girls everything from how to swim to algebra. So much about
herself she learned because he built up her confidence, after somehow sensing
the lack of it. He seemed to know it was rooted in her parents’ death and the
sheltered life she was forced to lead. Ty brought back her love of life,
renewed her belief in happiness and brought stability and happier times.
    Her grandparents, very protective of all
the girls, feared the cruelty and ambition of others knowing some would feign
friendship just to get close to the girls, and hurt them, ultimately motivated
by their own personal gain. However, Ty and Jenny were clearly different; so
Emma, her grandmother, promoted their friendship.
    Alex soon relied on Ty. He answered her
questions, always telling her the truth, no matter how private. He always
treated her with respect. Like when she had turned thirteen and thought she was
dying. She was sitting on the porch, crying her heart out, when Ty passed by
the house on his way home and saw her.
    “Why the tears little one?” he asked
softly, picked her up and placed her on his lap.
    “I’m dying!” Alex wailed, crying even
harder than she had before he arrived.
    “Care to explain what you’re dying
from?” he asked, amused and trying not to laugh at her distress.
    “I’m bleeding and it won’t stop!” she
confessed, looking at Ty with such sorrow in her eyes that he became
increasingly concerned. He was beginning to wonder if she had actually injured
herself somewhere he couldn’t see.
    He asked shortly, “Where are you
bleeding?”
    He began to look her over checking her
legs and arms for an open wound.
    “I can’t tell you where. It’s private,”
she stammered, looking embarrassed. She tried to pull out of his arms,
struggling in vain to get him to release her.
    He knew instantly what was wrong with
her. He let out a long breath, thankful she was not really hurt, just
frightened.
    “Have you asked your sisters or your
grandmother about this?” he asked patiently.
    She refused to answer, shaking her head
and staring down at her hands evasively. He placed a hand over hers to get her
to look at him. “You’re not dying, just growing up.” He explained to her what
happens to a woman’s body as she gets older, answering all of her questions. He
made her promise to talk to her grandmother about what was going on with her
body.
    It was probably inevitable that Alex
would fall in love with him. It started the summer she had turned seventeen,
when he was seeing Amanda, a girl in his own age group. Seeing him and Amanda
together set her teeth on an edge even though he’d had girlfriends before.
She’d hid how she felt about him from him and everyone else, choosing not even
to tell Jenny how she truly felt.
    Ty began acting like being around her
was an inconvenience, and he said as much when she bravely asked him why he was
behaving so strangely around her. He dismissed her, stating, “You’re just a
child. I have better things to do than spend time with a pesky kid.”
    Not coming around the house as much to
visit her, he seemed to spend all of his spare time with Amanda. It had been
hard losing one of her best friends. She had missed the closeness they had
shared for most of her