Here With Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

and like
always, joy blossomed, pushing despair aside. However it had
happened, whatever had been the consequences, what mattered was
now. She was having a baby.
    But first she needed to take her new husband
home. “Let’s go, George.” He didn’t answer but he did get out. Once
inside the store, he wandered up and down the aisles, like a little
kid, touching things, looking at price tags. When they got to the
men’s section, she turned to him. “What size of pants do you
wear?”
    He shrugged and she had no choice, really
none, but to take a really good look at his body. His belly was
flat, his hips trim, and his legs long. “I’m sort of out of my
element here,” she said, “but I’m guessing about a 34-inch waist
and a 36-inch length. How’s that sound?”
    “Fine,” he said, but made no move to pick
anything out. She looked at his ugly flannel shirt. “Large in
shirts, right?”
    “I imagine,” he answered.
    She waited another minute before she simply
picked out a pair of tan pants, some jeans, a couple shirts, and
shoved them all into his arms. “Okay?” she asked.
    He nodded. As they walked up to the checkout,
she’d added a package of briefs and some tee shirts, never making
eye contact. At the last minute, she detoured to the sundry items
and picked up a handful of the basic things he’d need.
    It cost her a hundred and forty-two dollars
and when she handed over her credit card, George’s mouth literally
dropped open. When the clerk handed her the sack, she pulled him to
the side and pointed to the restrooms at the front of the store.
“Why don’t you change here,” she suggested.
    Fifteen minutes later, she realized he
cleaned up real well. When he walked out of the men’s room, she
barely recognized him. He’d put on the jeans and tucked the
long-sleeved white shirt into them. He’d shaved and maybe even
washed his hair. It was wet and pushed away from his face.
    She’d been right about the sizes although the
jeans looked just a little loose at the waist.
    Easy for a lover to slip her hand inside.
    Damn. Where had that thought come from? She
sat down so hard on the red plastic bench lining the wall that she
felt the vibration all the way up her spine. He crouched in front
of her and reached for her hand. “Is it the child?” he asked, his
voice thick with concern.
    How could she tell him that she’d just had a
thought that no woman who was pregnant with another man’s baby
should be having about a man that she’d met just a day before? “I’m
fine,” she said. “I get tired when I stand too long,” she lied.
    He helped her up and kept his hand under her
elbow as they walked out of the store. When they got to the car, he
opened her door, waited until she got in, then carefully shut
it.
    She thought it was so sweet that she didn’t
even get mad when he got in, fastened his seatbelt, and grabbed the
door handle again, like he was hanging on for dear life.
    He didn’t let go for three hundred miles. He
held on and stared out the front window and every so often sucked
in a breath of air like he was gasping for oxygen.
    He’d spoken once. They’d been on the road for
several hours when he turned to her and asked, “Should you eat
something? It’s been more than three hours.”
    She looked at her watch and realized he was,
give or take fifteen minutes, right on the mark. That freaked her
out since she’d noticed he didn’t even wear a watch. It freaked her
out even more that he’d remembered what she’d said the day before.
Like he really cared.
    She reached her hand behind her seat and
fished a box of crackers out of a bag. “Want some?” she asked,
holding up the box.
    He shook his head. “You go ahead.”
    She dumped ten or so onto her lap and then
tossed the box over her shoulder. “I guess we should get our
stories straight,” she said.
    “Probably be a good idea.”
    “We got married on New Year’s Eve. A small
ceremony at City Hall. You’d recently returned to