Fire and Rain, Season 2, Episode 5 (Rising Storm) Read Online Free PDF

slowly, tasting the word. He seemed so serious suddenly that she knew whatever he wanted to talk about couldn’t be good, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear anything bad.
    They hadn’t had enough time together. Couldn’t it just be good for a little while longer?
    But he was going to get whatever he had to say out whether she was ready or not, it was clear.
    “There’s something I have to tell you,” he began. “It’s been weighing on me, and it’s something I can’t hide forever, even if I tried. I don’t want to tell you, but it’s past time. And if you feel differently about how you want to move forward after this…I mean if you change your mind about anything , I’ll understand. I will not hold it against you.”
    “What on earth is this about?” she asked him, her mind jumping around to every awful possibility it could come up with.
    Was he married? Had he left a wife, or worse an entire family, behind in Nashville?
    She knew she was jumping to conclusions that were likely ridiculous, but things had just been too easy. Too good. So she was bracing herself for the worst.
    “I haven’t been completely upfront with you,” he continued.
    “You’re scaring me, Chase.”
    “I’m not trying to do that. I’m trying to come clean.”
    “That sounds even more ominous.”
    “Just hear me out. I’m not the man I’ve presented myself to be, Annie. I’m not as…whole as I once was.”
    “What on earth does that mean? You seem plenty whole to me.”
    It was dark in the cab of the truck, but she could still see enough from the light streaming out of the house and into the driveway that he was staring at her with an intense sadness that had her gut clenching up tight in dread. “Just tell me,” she finally prompted him when he’d stayed silent for too long.
    “I have Parkinson’s disease, Annie. Do you know what that is?”
    She was no expert but she certainly knew what it was. Enough to be annoyed with him. “Yes, I do. That’s the something you’ve been keeping from me?” She couldn’t disguise the irritation in her voice.
    “I know. It was wrong. I’m very sorry. You deserve so much more than broken down me. I never should have deceived you.”
    “I can’t believe you!” she exclaimed.
    “I have no excuse for myself,” he said, blinking rapidly, looking absolutely terrified. “I just missed you. And I love you. I’ll find a way to be enough for you, I promise.”
    “Sometimes I could just throttle you!”  The man made her want to scream at him and kiss him all at the same time.
    “Excuse me?”
    “Being sick doesn’t make you less whole. You honestly thought I wouldn’t want to move forward with you? Because you have Parkinson’s?”
    His whole face lightened for a moment, and then the shadows were back. “It’s not pretty, sweetheart, and it’s only going to get worse.”
    “I understand that. But did you really think I’d love you less for it?”
    “I didn’t know what to expect. I just knew that it was wrong to let you commit yourself to me without telling you. I don’t deserve you, Annie.”
    “That’s nonsense. What a silly way to look at it.” She reached for his hands, loving the feel of his calloused fingers against hers. “Do you know how lucky we are? We found each other again after all of these years. Do you think I’d still love you after all this if I thought you were unworthy? You’re the one that thinks that. Not me. And life is too damn short for you to do that to yourself. Look at Jacob Salt. That poor boy was barely grown and God took him from us. That could happen to anyone at any time, and it just goes to show how fleeting life can be even without your disease. Every day we have together is precious, and we can’t ever forget it.”
    He took a very deep breath, his shaking hands clutching her steady ones. “You’re so right. I’m not letting you go. We’re in this for good, Annie. And I promise I won’t keep anything from you ever