Cold Comfort by Kathleen Gerard

Author:Kathleen Gerard [Gerard, Kathleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Published: 2014-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Four

It didn’t matter where I was—the kitchen, the parlor, the bathroom—I kept drawing back the curtains and flipping my fingers through the slats of mini-blinds in Aunt Minnie’s house, peeking to see if the snow had started. But every time I stared out at the glow of streetlights beginning to pierce the gun-metal gray skies of Federal Hill, I found the street macadam dry and pitch black. A blizzard of snowflakes had yet to skitter down from the heavens, but the emotional storm brewing inside of me was already raging, ratcheting up my dread about being forced to spend a whole afternoon—breaking bread and making nice—with “the guy who broke my heart in college.” The painful past I’d shared with Jack, a part of my life I had spent ten years trying to quell and avoid, chattered through my mind with a wild, frenetic energy that only magnified my pending apprehension. What could I do? How could I possibly ransom myself from Thanksgiving Day?

A few hours later, I escaped to the bathroom, Smartphone in hand, and hammered out a text to my boss at the Associated Press.

Do u need help covering the Nor’easter? Would b willing 2 change my plans.

I re-read my words, again and again. Deep in contemplation, my finger vacillated between the send and delete buttons. I was well aware that by volunteering for this assignment, I was being blatantly self-serving. If my boss agreed to my offer, and I went on the road, there was no doubt that I’d disappoint Aunt Minnie and disrupt our Thanksgiving plans. But at that moment, my heart was much too fraught with panic and vulnerability.

I pressed send, instantly regretting my decision and feeling a sickness rise in my throat.

OMG! What kind of person am I that I’d cut and run, sacrifice time with Aunt Minnie, my last vestige of family, in order to make my own emotional life easier? What a coward!

Sitting on the closed lid of the toilet bowl, I berated myself until a wave of tears began to stream down my face. How could one person I hadn’t seen in ten years make me feel so weak and powerless?

The pity-party of my hysteria was interrupted when, minutes later, my boss responded with: Thx 4 the offer. All covered. U haven’t taken time off in yrs. Forget work & b good 2 yrself. Enjoy turkey day!

But the reprieve was short-lived, and my fear returned only to galvanize my resistance. The mere thought of Jack dredged up feelings I struggled to put away a very long time ago, a past I was staunchly unwilling to unearth.

Something in my desperate, pride-filled heart kept hope alive that maybe, by the eleventh hour, we’d be clobbered, hit really hard by that blizzard, and Mother Nature might paralyze the whole city just enough to accommodate my needs.

* * *

Daylight weakened and darkness fell, but the predicted Nor’easter that was supposed to gather strength had yet to materialize.

“Don’t be fooled. We are still anticipating an inch

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.