The Way We Were by Kathryn Shay

Author:Kathryn Shay [Shay, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-04T04:00:00+00:00

Letter #7

Dear Annie,

Please, please go to therapy with me. I know you haven’t talked to your sisters about what’s going on. But our estrangement gets stronger by the day. I’m feeling so alienated from you that I ache with it. And now, you won’t even let me touch you. I promise I can be patient in this, but you have to let me in. And I don’t think you can do that alone. For the first time in fifteen years, I’m frightened of losing you completely.

Chapter 8

Opal went to school on Monday of the next week and Ana headed into work. Jared stayed home, ready now to tackle a draft of chapter three of his book: “The Relevance of The Scarlet Letter Today.” Leaning back, he stared at the cursor blinking on an empty page. But, instead of concentrating on the material he’d already gathered in his notebook, Jared’s mind reeled back to the past few days.

Kissing Ana the night of her date had kept him from falling asleep. He’d watched a movie with Opal, but was wide awake when Ana came in around midnight. He ordered himself not to get up, even as he threw back the covers, put on pajama bottoms and opened the spare bedroom’s door…

He called out so he wouldn’t scare her, “Ana?”

“Yes, it’s me.” She’d spoken softly, but he could hear the sweet lilt of her voice. Soon, she reached the top of the steps. “What are you doing up?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” He leaned back against the doorjamb and perused her in the damned sexy red outfit.

“I see.” She bumped a hip against the hall table. “Why?”

He’d run his fingers through his hair. “Take a wild guess.”

“You shouldn’t have kissed me.”

“Ha! No insomnia is ever going to convince me of that, sweetheart.”

A small smile, one she couldn’t seem to help. “You’re something else, Dr. Creswell.”

Pushing away from the door, he took steps toward her. She couldn’t back up, but she lifted her chin. Her eyes glittered with defiance and a lot more. She said, “I’m not afraid of you.”

“I don’t want you to be afraid of us, Annie.” His voice was a soft whisper in the dimly lit hallway.

“That will take a while.”

“Do you honestly think we shouldn’t have kissed?”

“No, I wanted to.” She sighed. “We have to be careful that we don’t push this, though. I’d hate for things to be awkward between us now.”

“Me, too. How about this? I won’t initiate anything. When you’re ready for more physical contact, let me know.”

“It’s a deal…”

They’d had a nice few days. They took Opal out for a ride, gone to a movie, where they ate buttery popcorn and stopped for hot chocolate afterward. They’d taught Ana to play a video game, which had been hilarious. Jared had almost forgotten that life had once been like this: easy, centered on the family, being together simply because they wanted to share their lives.

Then, she’d surprised him by coming to the spare room last night. He’d been in bed, reading a new biography of Herman Melville.

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.