King 02 - Breathless Read Online Free PDF Page B

remarked.
    I nodded, and she reached over from her seat to clasp my hand.
    “He misses you terribly, you know,” she said, her voice revealing only a small measure of the reflected pain I knew she was feeling. “For the first hour or so of the ride up, I was holding my breath, waiting for him to insist on turning around.”
    I tried to smile in return. “It’s a good thing he didn’t. I don’t think I could have handled another goodbye at that point.”
    Luke nodded. “Farewells are always painful, even when they’re temporary,” he mused. “Marly, remember how hard it used to be?”
    She smiled at him and reached with her free hand to pat his knee. “I haven’t forgotten. It never got any easier, did it?”
    We were all quiet for a moment, lost in our own thoughts and memories. Then Marly turned to me again.
    “Tas, we’re going to run down to the diner to eat. I’m in no mood to cook tonight, and I can hardly expect you and Lela to do it, either. You’ll come with us, won’t you?”
    I hesitated. Part of me wanted to have dinner with the Sawyers, linger in their company, just to feel that much closer to Michael. Another part was aching with his absence each minute that I spent with his family. I took a deep breath and made a decision.
    “Thanks. I’d really love to eat with you. But my parents haven’t seen me in days, and I think they’d be happier if I went home and caught up with them.”
    Marly squeezed my hand. “Okay. I understand. Another time. And we’ll see you tomorrow at work, right?” We’re all going to have to adjust. I can’t keep Tasmyn here just to feel closer to Michael. But I hope she knows I still want her to come around as much as she can. I heard her as easily as I usually heard Michael and bit my lip, nodding.
    “I’ll be here.” I answered her words, both spoken and unvoiced.
    Lela helped me to gather my bags from Michael’s room. I avoided giving it one last glance as we went down the stairs.
    We tossed everything into the trunk of the Mustang, and I hugged everyone before I slid into the driver’s seat.
    “Sure you can handle her?” teased Luke, referring to my less-than-stellar beginning in driving a standard transmission.
    I rolled my eyes at him. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’ll try not to stall until I’m off nursery property.”
    So we were all laughing when I pulled away. But tears blurred my eyes as I glanced back in the rearview mirror and saw the three of them, watching me go.
    My parents were thrilled to see me. My dad exclaimed over how well I did driving the Mustang, and my mother insisted on helping me unpack my bags. She even did my laundry for me. I sensed that they had missed me and were worried about my reaction to Michael’s departure.
    To ease their minds, I made a good show of being fine. I ate dinner, forcing the food down my throat as I knew my mother was watching me anxiously. I kept up a steady stream of conversation and told them about my experiences at the nursery. I even managed to share some of Michael’s news from college, that he was settling in and liked his roommate.
    By the time I could safely escape to my bedroom that night, I was exhausted. Keeping up a good front was tiring business. But my parents were reassured, and that was worth the effort.
    Being back at home somehow made Michael’s departure more real. I knew I had to go to bed, sleep, and then get up the next morning and do it all over again. And I would have to do that every day for the next three weeks, until school began.
    As I climbed into bed, I decided that it wasn’t the initial pain that broke a heart; it was living with the loss on a daily basis. I had survived that first break, but I wasn’t certain that the routine wouldn’t kill me.
     

As it turned out, I didn’t have that much routine in the weeks between Michael leaving and school beginning. Work kept me on schedule, of course, but since being out at the nursery with Marly and Luke felt