A Shot at Freedom Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Mum can handle it. I just wanted her to have a phone so I could call her.” He reached back into Brooke’s bag. “I’ll take the phones for a while. It’s not going to be fun. Let me deal with it in the beginning.”
    “ Your mum must have hated seeing you go.”
    It surprised him that she didn’t put up a fight. “I wanted her to come.”
    “I can’t imagine her squished in here with us.”
    David smiled at the thought, the third wheel.
    “The rain’s stopped ,” Brooke said.
    “The main road isn’t far.”
    “Turn the lights down then.”
    Leave her? Take her. Leave her? Take her.

 
     
    Chapter Five
    Brooke
    Waves crashed along the soft sand. The beach was deserted for as far as Brooke could see. In her t-shirt and Tinkerbell underwear, she let the water suck and sip at her ankles. Her head throbbed and with every yawn she felt a tired crackle run through her brain. For a moment she was content to watch David belly flop over the waves, coming up behind them flicking his hair into wild styles.
    Bobbing in the green calm, h e beckoned to her. She nodded and trudged out to him, standing on tip toes as the waves battered her knees, thighs and hips. The wet shirt clung to her skin, goading her to give in and dive.
    The water clear ed the cobwebs from her mind and helped relieve her headache from lack of sleep. Body surfing, David sailed towards her, his face poking out of the waves. She cheered him on, deciding to plunge in and swim out, watching for a wave on the verge of breaking. She caught the first one. He was on the shore waiting for her, and helped her up. Laughing, they played in the waves like seals. No one was there to see them. They were at peace, lost in an alternate moment in time.
    It was hard to stop, but exhaustion eventually set in. T hey dragged themselves up the beach and flopped down on the blanket below the dunes. Brooke smothered herself with sunscreen and offered it to David. He slapped a bit across his shoulders and face.
    She settled on the blanket . Realising she had been looking at him too long, she pulled her gaze away and fixed it on the dry sand at the blanket edge. She let it drizzle through her finger. “Can you believe we’ve done this?”
    “We haven’t done anything yet .”
    “But after all this time and planning, we’ve actually left it all behind.”
    David scratched his nose and looked out at the sea . “Yeah,” he agreed, “But it’s only the beginning.”
    “This is what it’ll be like all the time on an island, won’t it?” she said.
    “I don’t think they have surf.”
    Her stomach fell.
    “Maybe we’ll find a surf beach somewhere,” he said. “Just not all the islands have it.”
    For a moment, the world around them blurred, and the sea gulls and surf faded into the background. David had a way of looking at her, like no one else ever had. It was like he really saw her. And the small smile it came with made it known he loved what he saw. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear , forcing her gaze to hold his. He touched her cheek. And she couldn’t help but feel full, and wonderful, strong and alive. It was like they were caught in the same wave of energy. It was a way of checking in, making sure each other were okay. They both had a lot to deal with. But they always had each other.
    Sometimes, it was hard for Brooke to look him in the eye. Love hurt s when you aren’t used to it. A lot of people don’t know it’s hard to receive love when you haven’t been raised with it. Uncertainty rears up like a burn from deep in your gut, and pushes you back like something putrid, ugly, worth nothing to nobody. Brooke hated that she was always the one who came off cold. But she had to look away first. If David did, it would cripple her. Brooke wished to be brave enough to tell him about it one day. Somehow, it never seemed right. The shallow words and the pitiful ideas seemed straight from victimhood 101. On the surface, David’s life