Ask Me to Stay Read Online Free PDF Page A

Ethan looked across the street, slowed and stopped.
    The mechanics’ shop stood as it always had, crowding the intersection with cars and bikes. A sign shaped like a squashed diamond turned slowly clockwise, showcasing the Foster name. Sparks tumbled from one of the open garage doors, brilliant and mesmerising. The concrete driveways were stained with rubber and grease, the door handles with automobile grime. Dean had a monopoly on the market – there wasn’t a garage within one hundred kilometres, but he kept his prices reasonable and his staff were good with their hands and accountable for their work.
    Sam looked back at Ethan, the absent co-owner of Foster’s Garage, and wondered what he saw.
    Dean had got used to the seeking fronds of the willow tree a long time ago. The way they rode on the slightest of breezes and sought the lines of his neck. Bree used to feign jealousy as they’d sit there hand in hand, feet angled towards the creek, lounging in the high-backed chairs. Once she’d trailed a branch up the length of her thigh, over her stomach, between her breasts. Then she’d laughed and professed to be the tree’s favourite.
    Dean fingered the stem of his wine glass, remembering the soft musical sound of her delicate rings against the glass when she’d done the same.
    The creek bubbled and purred as always and the tall grasses beyond played percussion to the evening’s song. Her laughter had trumped them all. The light in her eyes had shamed the stars. Bree had been one of a kind. Striking in her beauty, irresistible in her soul. He’d burned for her from the beginning. In primary school, he’d wanted to sit with her during morning tea break and lunch. In high school he’d watched her from afar, shy despite the years because of his evolving feelings for her. When he’d eventually asked to walk her to school one day, she’d said yes and his mum had driven him to Bree’s house. On the walk to school, Bree had confessed to missing their morning tea breaks and lunches together. And that, as they say, was that. Dean and Bree had fallen in love.
    It had been too short. An abridged fairytale.
    She was gone and he was incomplete without her. He burned now as he’d burned then, but these were flames of despair and fear.
    He thought of their children and closed his eyes. It was never supposed to be this way. Kids needed their mother. Ethan had been robbed of his, and looked how he’d turned out. No amount of trying on Dean’s part had kept his brother on the rails. And here he was today, irresponsible, full of contradictions and resentment. By all accounts a stranger to his family.
    Dean had already raised a kid. And he’d be the first to say he’d failed. Now cruel, capricious fate had given him two more to twist and damage.
    A car turned off the main road and slowly rolled up the driveway. Bree’s mum, Fiona, had taken the kids out for an early dinner following their first outing alone with their uncle. The gravel crunched beneath the tyres, then underfoot when tiny feet leapt from the back seat and ran to where he sat.
    Nina clambered into his lap. He reached over her head to set his wine glass down on the small side table. With his other arm he held her tightly. Never tight enough, but as tight as he dared.
    ‘We had chicken nuggets!’ Nina trilled, her voice bell-like as her mother’s had been. She reached into the pocket of her dress and removed something covered in lint and grass. ‘I saved you one!’
    ‘Thanks, beautiful.’ He took it and kissed her soft cheek. She laughed and wriggled free. Dean had barely stood before small arms closed around his waist. He rubbed Rowan’s head, squeezed his shoulder. ‘Hi, champ.’
    Not a word since he’d lost his mother.
    Dean didn’t know whether to push or indulge. Everyone dealt with death in their own way. It didn’t feel right to decide for Ro. No one had decided for Dean when he’d lost his parents, just as no one was deciding for him now.
    At