Forever This Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

clicked out the door and down the stairs. Only after he heard the outside door close did he sit back from his computer and let his shoulders drop back to their normal position.
    Ten years ago, he’d thought his future was wrapped in a Josie-shaped package. Ten years ago, he’d thought they’d have three kids and a log cabin at the edge of the lake by now. Or be living together in her someday-house on Sugar Maple Drive.
    He pulled himself back to the desk and shook his head to clear the thoughts. There was no point going there. The Josie who’d just left the office was an all-grown-up version of the girl he’d known. She might be back in town, but it was a temporary, guilt-induced stopover. She’d left ten years ago without a backward glance, and she’d be in her car again as soon as her dad was better.
    If he got better.
    Yes, that traitorous piece of his heart that had lurched awake at the very sight of her in the doorway had better just go back to sleep. There was no going back to the past, and there was no way there’d ever be a future with her. The only thing Josie Kendrew was likely to bring to town was more heartache.
    And he’d had quite enough of her version of heartache already.

 
    Chapter 4
    Josie flicked on her left blinker, muttering curses at the windshield. “Dammit, Ethan. Why couldn’t you have been fat and bald and ugly ?” But no. The man looked like he’d just stepped out of the Raiders yearbook, except for the tiny frown lines on his forehead, and some that fanned out from his eyes.
    Ten years later, Ethan was even more unfairly gorgeous than he’d been in high school. She’d adored every inch of his body back then, and seeing him just now had made her practically ache to touch him.
    She’d actually had to clench her own hands together to keep from combing her fingers through his slightly mussed hair like she’d always done. It was still the color of dark chocolate, and his smoky blue eyes still had the power to make her feel completely naked even though she was fully clothed.
    As she got to the four-way stop sign in the middle of town, she blinked hard and stepped on the brake. Where was she even going? She had no idea—just knew she needed to get far, far away from Ethan.
    She shouldn’t have been hurt by the frost in his eyes as he’d dismissed her. She was the one who’d left, after all. But realizing that frigid reception was her own fault made the pain even worse.
    A beep from the car behind her startled her, and she swiped at her eyes. Dammit. Josie Kendrew didn’t do crying. She didn’t do regrets. She most certainly didn’t sit at the one stop sign in a tiny Vermont town, bawling over might-have-beens.
    She pressed the gas pedal, going straight through the intersection and into a downtown area where it looked like time had pretty much stood still. There was a brand-new Rite Aid on the corner of Main and Pine, right where the crumbling old creamery had been, but other than that, everything looked the same as it had ten years ago. Still a bunch of brick storefronts backing up to the Abenaki River on the right, and a matching set crowded together on the left.
    The brick was still tired, the paint on the windows was still chipped, and the glass storefronts were still dusty. Even the store names hadn’t changed. The tourists rolled in at nine o’clock in the morning, and back out at five, since there was only one decent hotel in Echo Lake.
    Josie sighed. The town’s name suited it well. Even ten years later, it was just the same thing, over and over and over again.
    Just as she headed over the Tumblebrook Bridge and up the hill out of downtown, her phone rang. It was Mom, for the second time today.
    Mom, for the second time in ten years.
    â€œJosie? It’s—it’s Mom. Are you—okay?”
    Josie looked out the window, feeling a strong case of déjà vu creeping in.