Lift Me Higher Read Online Free PDF

there an echo in here? Why not?” Brent asked again.
    “Because—”
    “Because you’ve taken this ridiculous vow of celibacy and solitude that makes absolutely no sense. That’s why,” Brent said.
    “Brent, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Monte said. He pulled his lips in tightly, a sign that he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.
    “Monte, I love you like a stepbrother, but it’s time you got honest—if not with me, at least with yourself. Shawna would not want you living this way,” Brent said softly.
    Monte was poised to get defensive and tell Brent that he really had no idea what he was talking about. He wanted to tell his friend to back off, but something stopped him. He leaned back in his seat and his eyes gravitated to the left, toward the credenza behind him. There was a picture of Shawna, the boys and him, taken about six months before she died.
    “She’d give you permission to be happy if she could,” Brent added.
    “What makes you think I’m not happy?” Monte asked, lifting the framed photograph from the shelf.
    “I’m not saying you’re not happy. I know you love the boys, and for some crazy reason you even love this place. I’m just saying that you’re blessed, man, but all that’s missing is someone to share it with.”
    “I’m blessed? Listen to you sounding like a brotha. Keep on hanging out with me and you’re going to get your white-boy card revoked,” Monte joked.
    “See there, now your memory is fading. I already became an honorary brotha last Thanksgiving when your mom got me hooked on her collard greens and black-eyed peas,” Brent replied with a laugh. “On that note, I’ve got a meeting to get to. Just think about what I said and, after you do that, invite the woman to a harmless lunch.”
    “Later, man,” was Monte’s noncommittal reply.
    Left alone with his thoughts, Monte stared at the photo of his family. He couldn’t believe that he still loved Shawna as much as he did the day he’d married her, but there it was, sitting in the middle of his chest like a boulder. A love that once lifted him and made him believe he could fly now weighed him down and left him feeling like a drowning man. For the first few months after her death, he’d looked up to the heavens and asked over and over again why she’d left him. He never got a response so eventually he stopped asking. He’d heard that when people lost a loved one, they often felt that person’s presence, comforting them. He didn’t feel that. All that Shawna’s death had left was a hole that he’d believed could never be filled. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him that perhaps what Shawna had really left was a space and not a hole. Maybe she’d left that space purposely so that there would be room in his heart for someone new to love.
    Monte spontaneously turned toward his computer. He struck a few keys on the keyboard and pulled up the firm’s client directory. Within seconds, Torie Turner’s name, address and telephone number appeared on the screen. He picked up the handset on his telephone, punched her digits into the keypad and waited. Her recorded voice came on after the second ring, urging him to leave a message.
    “Hello, Torie. This is Monte…Monte Lewis. I just, uh,wanted to say thank-you for the flowers. A beautiful yet entirely unnecessary gesture, but you are more than welcome. Listen, I was wondering if you’d like to, uh, have lunch sometime. I know your schedule is probably pretty hectic, but if you have a free hour or whatever, give me a call. Okay, well, take care.”
    Monte hung up and expelled the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. Uncertain as to if she’d call or how that would make him feel, Monte allowed the alluring scent of Torie’s roses to soothe him temporarily. He couldn’t deny that she’d touched him in a place that he’d thought no one would ever be able to reach again. He certainly