Forever Read Online Free PDF

sound of it opening, and he shouted, “Cole … ten minutes, buddy. Almost time for the lake.”
    “Fishing!” His high-pitched squeal followed. “Can I bring the baby frogs?”
    Ashley laughed. The two of them were wonderful together, Landon and Cole. She glanced at Devin sleeping in her arms and was overwhelmed by God’s goodness. I was almost too proud to let Landon in. She shuddered, imagining the cold dull grays life would’ve been without him. Thank You, God, for changing my heart. Me, Cole, Devin … all of it is only because You brought Landon into our lives.
    Her husband darted back through the living room and down the hallway. “The fish are calling,” he yelled as he ran. “Your dad won’t beat me in another contest, Ashley. You know that, right?”
    17
    She couldn’t answer him without startling Devin, so she only smiled. It was good that Landon kept this date with Cole every Saturday in summer. The fire station had been kind, giving him every Saturday off, even though he sometimes had to make up for it by working a double shift. The years were zipping by at warp speed already, and soon enough Cole would have baseball practice or soccer clinics or driver’s training to keep him busy on the weekends.
    For now, though, he was still a tadpole, swimming around in the waters of boyhood, his tail still in sight. And the days Landon and Cole shared, the hours of fishing sitting atop an old red ice chest on the shores of Lake Monroe, were precious-every one. They allowed Ashley the chance to appreciate everything about her life-but especially Landon. His wisdom and love and tenderness and courage.
    He flashed back into the room wearing a baseball cap Cole had given him for Father’s Day-one with a satin, multicolored fish tail sticking out the back. He held up his tackle box. “Ready!”
    Ashley smiled. She loved all those things and something else-something that would always mark these most tender, precious, fleeting days. The way he made her laugh.
    The way he always made her laugh.
    18
    19
    DAYNE STRETCHED his legs out on the leather sofa and stared out the window of the private Gulfstream jet. They were flying around 43,000 feet, higher than most commercial jets, and he felt like he could see much of the Midwest from his vantage point. He would be in Bloomington in half an hour.
    Five days had passed since Dayne talked to Ashley, and he’d worked things out with his director to take this time off. The editors needed a look at the footage they had to make sure they were headed in the right direction. There were technical shots and a few stunt scenes to film, so a day off was necessary anyway.
    His director, Riley S. Rosvold, was the movie industry’s magic man of the moment. He was in his late thirties, and everyone in Hollywood knew him simply as Ross. He was a smart man, and no matter how badly he hinted that Dayne should be spending time with Randi Wells, his costar, Ross knew the truth. Everyone close to Dayne did. When Dayne asked for time off, Ross had only given him a resigned look. “Going to Indiana?”
    “Taking the private jet.” Dayne grinned. With the arrangements in place, he could already smell the clean summer air that 20
    breezed around the edges of Lake Monroe. His shoulders lifted in an easy shrug.
    “A few hours there early tomorrow, a few hours back later that night. Can’t think of a better way to spend a day off.”
    Ross had looked pensive for a moment. “Mitch Henry told me about her, told me she read for him for the part in Dream On. Rumor around town is that she’s the real deal, Dayne. She can act. You should get her out here. If she has that much talent, she’s wasting it out in Podunk, Indiana.”
    Dayne pictured Katy, the way she looked surrounded by kids onstage at the Bloomington Community Theater and then as she lay sprawled out beneath a fallen artificial Christmas tree minutes before he proposed to her. He saw her sitting in her favorite box seat, teary eyed as