Circled Heart Read Online Free PDF

Johanna. I know you used to run for sport, but I’ve never seen you move quite that fast.”
    “Haven’t I always run into your arms?”
    “Not in recent memory, but I do recall one episode with a spider.”
    The memory made me laugh. “I wasn’t exactly running toward you, more like away from that large, hairy arachnid. It scared the dickens out of me.”
    “Your years away must have mellowed you because I’ve never heard you confess to a fear of anything.”
    I pushed open the front door and took his hand. “I admit to a loathing for anything with eight legs, large or small, smooth or hairy. Come back inside. Were you going to leave without saying hello?”
    “I stopped by to say hello, but your grandmother told me you were out for a walk, and I figured it would be hours before you were back. What have you done to your hair?”
    I stopped to examine myself in the hall mirror. “Cut it as short as I could without scandalizing Grandmother. Is it awful?” I hadn’t really given my hairstyle much thought before, but now, seeing it through his eyes, I was inclined to be critical.
    He turned me away from the mirror to give me a sober inspection, finally telling me, “No, it’s not awful, not at all. The style suits you somehow.” Then, hands still on my shoulders, he added in a different tone, “I don’t know of anyone who’s had your share of adventures in life, Johanna. How are you?”
    Five years before I had met Allen Goldwyn on the train to Philadelphia, I on my way to Bryn Mawr College and he traveling to Temple University, both of us away from home for the first time and sensing in each other a kindred spirit. We were friends since that meeting, good friends, and sometimes I wondered if we might not become more than friends, although nothing ever passed between us that would have led me to such speculation.
    “I’m fine. I suppose it was an adventure but more a tragedy, I think.” I shook off the memory of Douglas Gallagher shielding his match to light a last cigarette and patted the sofa cushion next to me. “Sit down and tell me what’s happening in your life. Are you still with the same firm?” He nodded.
    “Yes. I have the feeling I’ll be offered a partnership in the company next year. They like everything I design and my clients seem to be pleased. You’ll have to let me show you some of my buildings. They’re springing up all over the city.”
    “I’d love that. I knew you’d be a success. You once told me you were born to build.”
    “You remember that?”
    “It seemed poetic at the time, I recall.”
    “I’m not a very poetic man, Johanna.”
    “Not in words, but I have a feeling your architecture speaks to people.”
    “You’re a kind woman but wait until I give you the grand tour before you say any more. I don’t want you to have unrealistic expectations.”
    “About your work?”
    “About me.” He went suddenly quiet, a little half smile on his face, and I thought he had told me something besides the obvious with his last remark. “Now,” he continued, “what about you? You finished your social work studies with honors from college, then crossed an ocean to attend nursing school. What’s next?”
    I hesitated. “I know this will sound odd, but I’m not quite sure.” Allen looked at me with surprise.
    “That’s impossible. You are the most sure woman I know.”
    “I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I’m going to take some time to think things through.”
    “That will make your grandmother happy. She told me earlier that she hoped you were home to stay.”
    “If she could, she’d have me live in this big house forever, grow old in the front room, take up needlework, and putter around the kitchen, but she knows me too well to believe that will ever happen. I have my mother’s sense of adventure.”
    “Which is why Mrs. McIntyre wants you to stay close to home, I imagine.”
    I looked at him guiltily. Of course, that was true, and I should be less