Kaboom by Peggy Hoffman

Author:Peggy Hoffman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret Hoffman

Fifteen

Julie called him, bubbling with happiness. “I’m off work on Saturday. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a Saturday night off work? I can’t even remember. Let’s go out somewhere fun, Cowboy!”

How could he say no to the joy in her voice? Even though they were still broken up, still not a couple anymore, he couldn’t resist Julie’s enticement. He just hoped they could go someplace small and dim where people wouldn’t look at him.

When she came to pick him up, his parents and Brooke were just as happy to see her as they’d been back when he and Julie were a couple, before Kaboom.

“Yay for you,” Brooke said to Julie. “You got him out of those dumb sweatpants.” Clay was wearing the khaki slacks he’d worn the day he’d returned from Germany. Jeans were just a little too stiff to wear with his prosthesis.

But they didn’t go to someplace small and dim. Julie drove with purpose out to Long Grove, to a popular, busy, lively restaurant with a karaoke bar. She had even made them a reservation on the assumption he would agree to come.

Why had she brought him here, to a place he’d enjoyed before Kaboom, when he’d been a whole, happy person? He suffered through wannabe karaoke singers who thought they could do Whitney Houston or Adele or Prince, and was just about to ask Julie if they could please leave now, when she turned to him and requested, “Sing a song for me, Cowboy.”

“No.” The response was reflexive, a knee-jerk reaction.

“You have such a beautiful voice,” she cajoled. “I’ve missed hearing you sing. Remember the last time we were here, just before you left for the Army?”

She wasn’t going to give up on getting him up there in front of a bar full of people who were probably eager to gawk at the cripple. Despite his continued resistance, she requested, “Sing Faithfully for me again.”

The Journey song was one of his and Julie’s favorites. He’d sung that song here for her, just before leaving for Basic Training. Afterward she’d run her hands through his hair, mourning the fact that in forty-eight hours it would be buzz cut by an Army barber. Then they’d gone to his house, to his room, to his bed. His parents and Brooke had conveniently gone out of town overnight.

“No, I can’t.”

“Yes, you can,” she insisted. “I remember when you wrote to me from basic training. You said the drill instructors told you and the other recruits that the word can’t was to be cut from your vocabulary. There is no can’t, Cowboy. You can.”

Clay had had a reputation as a great singer even back in high school. He could have had the lead in the school musical his senior year. They did West Side Story. The choir director had begged him to audition, although auditioning would have been a mere formality. The role of Tony would have been his for the taking. But the rehearsals would have conflicted with his track meets, so he’d declined.

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.