Deliver the Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

mouth shut about him sneaking in.
    Trusting other people had never been a strong suit of his, but slowly he learned to trust her. By the end of the quarter, she’d become a decent photographer and they’d become best friends.
    Those were the days, Gabe mused glumly. He wished he could go back to those times, before life became so complex, so complicated. Before the accident.
    He turned. The stool beside him was empty.
    “It’s hard to keep the interest of such a pretty lady when you go off into a dream world like you did.” The bartender shot him a strange look as he wiped the counter.
    Is that what he’d done? Gabe shrugged and reached for a handful of peanuts, eyeing the untouched Scotch. His hands shook with want for that drink, but he knew full well that one drink would lead to another, and then another. He closed his eyes. With a sigh, he pushed the glass across the counter. “How about another Coke?”
    ****
    Louisa tossed and turned until her bed sheets were a tangled mess around her waist. In the moments when she was half-awake, she replayed the entire reception in her mind over and over from the second she’d first seen Gabe in the receiving line to when she’d accepted Evan’s proposal only to look up and find that Gabe had disappeared. In the few instances when she slept, it was a fevered sleep, filled with nightmares of an evening exactly six years ago. A night that had changed the course of her entire life.
    When the sun finally streamed into her windows at the crack of dawn, Louisa thought about heading over to her parents’ house for breakfast. Her heart was empty, and she craved company and comfort. But she knew her parents would realize she hadn’t slept, and they would know why. And inevitably Gabe’s name would come up. They would blame him for her nightmares. They blamed the accident on him, after all. Louisa didn’t think she could handle that old discussion. Not today.
    She sunk back into the pillows of her daybed and the memories overtook her. Gabe had been the one who wanted to leave her parents’ house early that night. And he’d been the one who insisted on taking the back roads to avoid having to drive through downtown. The accident hadn’t been his fault. The other driver had been drinking and ran a stop sign. Gabe couldn’t have avoided the collision.
    Still, he’d been the one driving the car the night their son was killed.
    ****
    Louisa looked up from her drafting table when her boss poked her head into her work area.
    “Louisa, you haven’t gotten a stitch of work done today, have you?” Jody Woods asked matter-of-factly as she glanced at the sketches spread out on the table.
    Louisa sighed and sat back on her stool. “That obvious, huh?”
    Jody nodded. “Evan told me what today is,” she said gently. Jody was Evan’s older sister and the person who introduced them. “Why don’t you take the rest of the afternoon off? The Appleton project can wait.”
    “I’m okay, really.” Louisa hated to give her boss any reason to doubt her commitment to her job. One of the firm’s art directors was leaving next month, and she had her eye on the position. It would be a major coup to get that job before she was thirty. And she planned to get it.
    Jody frowned at her. “You look like shit, like you haven’t slept in days. Now, go home. I insist.”
    With a lopsided smile, Louisa straightened the drawings on her table. “Thanks.” Who was she to argue with the boss?
    Twenty minutes later, she waited for the bus in the pouring rain. Luckily, she always carried an umbrella in her briefcase. Today was no exception, even though when she’d arrived at work that morning, the skies were blue and clear. Typical June weather in the Northwest.
    She squinted at the approaching bus. Her number. In fifteen minutes she’d be home, then she could take a nice long nap. But as the bus stopped in front of her and the passengers began to alight, she changed her mind and stepped back from the