Love Lift Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

really go for something. I haven’t eaten since
first thing this morning.”
    I
considered it for a moment. Should I really go with him? It was one
thing to just ride next to a guy or have an innocent chat, but it felt like something
altogether different when Shane asked me that. It felt like…a date… almost .
    I
technically still had a boyfriend. That would most likely be changing soon
anyway, though. In the end, I decided that it couldn’t hurt and it was much
better than sitting alone and staring at my phone. If Hale didn’t like it, that
was tough. It was his fault I had to take a damned bus home and he didn’t
deserve to know what I was doing anyway.
    “Sure,”
I answered confidently. “I’d love to.”
    Once
the driver gave the all clear, the bus emptied out and we joined the shuffling
line of people. Shane and I made our way through the weather, getting peppered
with stinging rain only briefly as we left the safety of the buses to cross out
in the open before reaching the sheltered entrance gate. The terminal inside
was well-lit, with high ceilings that went up nearly twenty feet and smooth,
marble-tiled floors that seemed to extend in two directions for nearly a
quarter-mile each way. Tinted glass windows ran along the entire length of the
outermost walls, and through them I could see row after row of multi-colored
buses, taxi cabs, and rental cars. The sound of the storm raging outside took
on an insulated, heavy drone.
    I
walked quietly beside Shane, wondering if I should try to say something to him
about my complicated relationship with Hale. Ultimately, I couldn’t think of
anything interesting to talk about other than how much nicer this depot was
than the one we’d left. So, I simply enjoyed his company as he blazed a trail for
us past the other passengers and made way for the glowing neon signs that
seemed to point us towards a quick meal.
    “A
sushi place?” he said, stopping by a set of wooden benches in the middle of the
thoroughfare. Straight ahead of us there was a small eatery featuring a pink,
glowing frame of a fish with Japanese symbols that hung over the cash register.
Behind the counter there was a man in a chef’s hat diligently manning his post
with one elbow on the counter and a hand against his chin. No one was in line.
The poor guy looked utterly bored out of his mind.
    “Uh,
no thanks,” I muttered. Sushi was not on my list of places to eat today. I was
cold and wet, and the last thing I wanted to eat shared the same qualities. It looked
like everyone else had the same idea.
    “Oh
yeah, I know. It just seemed strange to find one here in a bus depot.” He
scanned the long corridor of restaurants. “There’s a burger place. How’s that
sound?”
    “That
works,” I answered, my stomach already gurgling at the smell.
    The
line wasn’t very long and the service was fast. Neither of us knew how much
time we had before the bus would board again and the driver hadn’t exactly been
specific. We grabbed a table near the wall and tore into the warm bag of food
like people that hadn’t eaten in days.
    I’m
not going to say it was the best burger I’d ever eaten. I don’t even recall the
name of the place. Being there with Shane, alone with him among the crowd of
anonymous travelers going this way and that was the only thing I could rest my
mind on the entire time.
    “So,”
Shane said between french fries, “Are you from the big city of Wilmington
itself? Honestly, you seem like more of a country girl than that.”
    “Kirkland.
It’s a small town outside of Wilmington. Same county, though. My family owns a
farm there. That’s what most of the people do where I’m from - The ones I know,
at least.”
    “I’ve
never actually been on a farm before. My folks both worked at Baker College.
Desk jobs. They weren’t teachers or anything like that. Administration, or
something…I think. To this day, I couldn’t tell you what they did there to save
my life. They retired early