Love's Someday Read Online Free PDF Page A

forget the bread.”

Chapter Five

    At lunch, Ashleigh made the short walk home to check the spaghetti that she’d left on the stove to slow cook. When she moved to St. Francisville from Baton Rouge, she was lucky to land a job at the only doctor’s office in town. She was promoted a year later when the office manager retired, an accomplishment by default, but the raise did sweeten the deal. That the office was two blocks away from her front door was an added bonus. St. Francisville with its moss-laden trees and Southern charm reminded her of Savannah. Occasionally she missed her childhood home, but those times were growing less frequent.
    As Ashleigh walked past Drew and Kaitlyn’s house, Drew stopped working her flowerbeds and fell in step with her. “I was wondering if you were coming home for lunch today.” Drew draped an arm around Ashleigh’s shoulders.
    “I’m making spaghetti for dinner, and I need to check it,” Ashleigh said, knowing that Drew was not going to leave her alone.
    Drew gave Ashleigh’s shoulder a squeeze. “I made taco soup, join me. It’s your favorite, and I added extra jalapeños just for you.”
    Ashleigh hadn’t had an appetite since she saw herself prancing across the screen in the video that wrecked her life. She hated to hurt Drew’s feelings further by refusing to eat.
    “Just let me check the sauce and I’ll be right over.”
    “I’ll walk with you,” Drew said without letting her go. “I’m out of soda, and I wanna raid your fridge. Do you have any cheddar?”
    Ashleigh pulled out her keys and unlocked the door. She held it open for Drew, who patted her cheek as she walked by. Ashleigh followed her inside and went straight to the stove. She stirred the sauce while Drew rummaged around in the refrigerator.
    Drew helped herself to a drink and pulled a block of cheese from the crisper. She handed Ashleigh a soda and leaned against the counter, making it obvious she was trying to catch Ashleigh’s eye.
    “I…um…looked you up online last night,” Drew said as her gaze swept over Ashleigh’s face looking for a reaction. “You probably don’t want to hear this right now, but I’m blown away. There was some old concert footage on YouTube. I had such a hard time making the correlation between you and the woman I saw there.”
    Ashleigh never could make herself look at the footage. She hadn’t watched their one and only music video in its entirety. Her self-critique was brutal. She didn’t like the way she moved or the way she sounded. And after Kelly’s death, she couldn’t look at any of it again.
    “You were quite the accomplished musician,” Drew went on when Ashleigh didn’t comment. “Vocals, piano, guitar, drums. Was there anything you couldn’t do?”
    “Control myself,” Ashleigh said, keeping her attention on anything but Drew.
    “Come with me.” Drew tugged Ashleigh’s scrub shirt decorated with funny-faced kittens and cats.
    Ashleigh followed her out the door, resigned to the fact that the conversation was inevitable.
    “I read about Kelly Jasinski. The article implied that you two were lovers.”
    Ashleigh was about to take a sip of soda but lowered the can from her mouth. Hearing the name on Drew’s lips made her insides turn to ice. The bright sun that shone on them as they walked to Drew’s house failed to warm her.
    Drew pushed open the kitchen door and the smell of the soup filled Ashleigh’s senses. Normally, she would have run over Drew to get to the stove. She sank down at the table feeling slightly nauseated.
    “Your song was huge. I had no idea that it topped the charts for three weeks,” Drew said casually as she moved about the kitchen. “I used to love it. It seems so strange to me that I sang along with you twenty years ago.”
    Drew placed a bowl in front of Ashleigh and grated cheese over the piping hot soup. “This is really a fall and winter dish, but I was craving it. Notice that I’m going to continue to chatter