Afterthoughts Read Online Free PDF Page A

up in front of
her . “She is beautiful. Even after all
she’s been through, she is still beautiful,” he thought to himself as he turned slowly and headed toward
the kitchen.
    She watched the blue jays
playfully darting in and out of the branches and landing on her
bird feeder. She couldn’t remember the last time she put seeds in
the damn thing. “ The poor things would
starve if they had to depend on me,” she
thought to herself. The birds swept down over a small squirrel that
was scratching around under the feeder causing the squirrel to run
into the row of shrubs along the yard. “ If
the squirrel would only figure out that he’s
bigger ,” she chuckled to
herself.
    She could hear David
banging around in the kitchen and wondered what he could be finding
for breakfast. “ Hmmm, groceries, that’s
another thing I can’t remember the last time I
did .” Paige barely even had time to spend
with David, yet here he was, making breakfast and worrying about
her. “ I’ve got to spend more time doing
things for me, ” she promised herself that
this would also include time for David and Sarah. The tears began
to flow again and she buried her face in the pillow.
“ When will I ever run out of
tears?”
    A few minutes later, David walked in
carrying a tray with oatmeal, toast, and coffee. “I’m sorry. This
was all I could find, and it’s instant oatmeal at that,” he smiled
as he sat the tray on the coffee table.
    “ It’s perfect,” she smiled
back as she took the tray and placed it in her lap. She picked up
the spoon and pushed the oatmeal around in the bowl for a few
seconds before she decided to take a bite of toast.
    As she picked at her breakfast in
silence, David watched her. Harry watched her as well, hoping she
would carelessly drop a nibble. He took his nose and nudged her
leg. Absentmindedly, Paige rubbed his head. With a large sigh and a
low groan of disappointment, Harry lay down on the floor next to
her.
    David noticed her slim
hands as she played with the spoon. “Definitely not the hands of a cop,” he told himself as he admired her. He felt his cell phone
vibrating in his pocket and ignored it as he watched her try to
eat. He thought she resembled a wet cat. Long and thin. He smiled
when he realized she didn’t eat the oatmeal and barely nibbled on
her toast. When he saw her snub the coffee he remembered, “You need
more cream and sugar, don’t you?”
    She smiled at him and begged,
“Please?”
    He took the cup from her and headed
toward the kitchen, accepting the fact that she would not eat the
oatmeal. Paige slipped the rest of her toast to Harry who
practically swallowed it whole.
    When he returned, she had already
placed the tray on the table with only the toast gone. “Guess
you’re not hungry?” he asked her as he handed the cup to
her.
    She shook her head and sipped the
coffee. “This is all I need.” She wrapped her hand around the cup
and took another sip as she pulled her legs back up under her.
“Thanks for taking care of me,” she finally said.
    “ Like I said, where else
would I be?”
    “ I’m sure you could come
up with at least a hundred things you’d rather be doing,” Paige
said as she tried to sound light.
    “ When will you ever
believe me?” he asked as he exaggerated his sigh.
    “ Probably never,” she
smiled halfheartedly. “Who would want to be with a cop that never
has time for anything but being a cop? I know I wouldn’t.” Paige
turned toward the window and continued watching the
birds.
    David sat next to her on the couch and
took the cup from her hand. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to
be. You know that.” He started rubbing her neck. She tried to relax
feeling his hands caress and squeeze her shoulders as she rolled
her head around. It felt nice.
    She didn’t realize just how tense she
was. He slowly rubbed her neck, hitting all of the tight spots and
giving them an extra squeeze. It was painful, she realized, but at
the same