Fault Lines by Rebecca Shea

Author:Rebecca Shea
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780986428821
Publisher: Rebecca Shea Author LLC

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The sound of her voice pulls me from the past. "I was wondering if you'd ever call me again now that you're some famous lawyer," she says, answering the phone with a small laugh. Normally I'd joke around with her, only I'm not in the right frame of mind.

"Ash?" I respond, my voice breaking.

I hear her inhale sharply at the sound of my voice. The tone of her voice changes from joking to serious. "Frances, what's wrong?" I can hear shuffling on her end of the line before she speaks again. "Talk to me. Are you okay?"

I can feel the lump in my throat growing as it sits heavily at the base of my neck. I swallow hard, trying to choke it down. "There's so much I need to tell you." My voice cracks again. Emotion is not something I show freely. I've been trained to bury it. Stick to facts. Articulate issues and derive solutions. It's the lawyer in me. Only Cole isn't an issue I can derive a solution to. "Cole—" I manage to get his name out as the tears start to fall.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," she says under her breath. "Start from the beginning. I've got all night so don't spare any details."

This is what I love about Ashley. She'll drop what she's doing at the drop of a dime for me and I couldn't love her more for it. She knows my deepest secrets and has held my hand through the hardest events of my life. She is a true friend, and I'll be indebted to her and her family forever. After college, Ashley moved to Washington D.C. to work as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill. We may have lived across the country from each other, but our friendship and support never wavered.

As I get myself together, I take a deep breath and start at the beginning, telling her how out of the blue Cole called to tell me about my mom. As the sky gets darker and lights of Los Angeles become nearer, Ashley listens intently for the next hour and a half and I spare her no details on what happened back in Crescent Ridge.

"He still loves you." I hear her pop the cork on a bottle of wine. Oh, how I wish I was sitting with her on a couch, sipping on a glass of wine. "He fucked up so bad, Frances, but he still loves you." She pauses. "And I know you love him. He was the kind of love you never get over."

I hold my breath for a moment as I think about what Ashley's just said. "I'm getting married, Ash. To Ted. I moved on from Cole a long, long time ago."

"But have you really? What if there was no Ted?" Her voice echoes in what I assume is her wine glass.

"Well, there is a Ted. So we're not playing what-ifs, all right?"

"I'm just saying, if the circumstances were right—"

"Ashley!" I bark at her and she instantly quiets.

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