All That Remains (Metamorphosis Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

became more. But we had to hide it from her parents. Her fathers were very strict about wanting her to be at least eighteen before she started thinking about finding a partner or partners. I suppose the secrecy was part of the excitement. Then her entire family moved to Portland when her older sister entered into a licensed triad and got pregnant.”
    Hatch looked up at the clear sky, dotted with a million stars.
    “I followed. She was building something in Portland by the time I got there. Her sister had a family and Summer was really close with them. Her parents all had jobs. They had a great plot of land with several small houses on it. I could see how happy she was. And I wanted her to be happy.
    “But the trip across the country awakened something in me. It was my first caravan journey and by the time I got to Portland I was itchy. City life is great for most. Like I said, Summer was thriving.” He shrugged. “But it wasn’t for me and within a few months I knew I had to go. I had to see what was out there. I asked her to come with me but one of her fathers was in poor health and she wanted to stay.”
    Guilt washed through him at the memory. He’d been young and desperate to get out of a place he’d felt stifled by. But she’d been dealing with the weight of illness of a loved one. He’d left anyway.
    “I wish I could say I was a bigger person and waited with her until she was ready to come with me but once I’d enabled myself to think about the world beyond a city or a village, it was like a fever. I had to go. That was four years ago.”
    “You never contacted her from the road?” Charlie’s question held no judgment, which was good because Hatch felt enough of it on his own.
    He searched hard for the right words. “I hate this. I hate having to confess that while I did a few times after I’d been away for a while, it felt like I’d made the choice between her and being on the road and that if I really loved her I’d either go back for her or let her go. I talked myself into believing it was better that I was gone. I worked and moved and saw more places and then I met you and we worked and moved and saw more places and that life sort of faded. I always figured she needed life in the city with her family. I assumed she’d be in Portland still, partnered up, or working a farm on a New Earth commune. I felt like I wasn’t what she needed and I couldn’t be what she needed back in the city. I can’t pretend it was totally noble of me. I did it for selfish reasons. I needed to go. But I honestly did feel like she’d move on and have a better life if I just let her go and do it without me. What could we have had with me on the road anyway?”
    Charlie blew out a breath.
    “When you said you’d met a strawberry blonde it was her I remembered. I never forgot Summer and frankly, when I came to meet you I figured I’d pretend maybe. Because there’s no woman like her. When I saw it was her, when I kissed her—and she kissed me back, by the way—it was like everything was perfect. You and her, me and the two of you. It was right. She’s here and her circumstances are different. It’s a possible thing and the place I’d shoved away my feelings for her can’t hold them anymore. It’s all back, flooding me. I can’t stop remembering. I can’t forget the way she feels.”
    “You’re going to have to do some groveling.” Charlie sipped his tea. “She’s clearly hurting. But in my arms she was fire. She’s not shy about fucking or wanting to be fucked. But the heart is another thing entirely.”
    “You sure you want this then? After hearing my story?”
    “You’re telling me you want to drive away? Head to another site and work there? Look for another woman when the perfect one is just on the other side of the village? Really? You’re in love with her still. I can hear it in how you describe her. I could see it when you looked at her.”
    “I’m in love with you.”
    “I know. Which is