Return to Glory (Hqn) Read Online Free PDF Page A

talked about this. You’re still in high school and you shouldn’t be out by yourself that late at night. It’s dangerous.” He held up his hand to silence her when she would’ve interrupted him. “And I don’t want my last memory of tonight to be you red-eyed and snot-nosed.”
    Betsy had other plans for his memories of tonight, but she had to get him to agree to the bus station first. “I promise I won’t cry until you’re gone, and Caleb said he’d bring India to ride home with me so I won’t be alone.” Betsy bit her lip. “Please? I need to tell you something and I don’t want to tell you here.”
    “What’s this about?” His confusion looked genuine.
    As if he didn’t know how she felt or what she could possibly want to tell him. All the more reason this was so important.
    “I’ll tell you if you come with me. You’ve had enough of the party, right? Wouldn’t you rather have some of my mother’s fried chicken and my Nutella cheesecake cookies down by the river?”
    “Sometimes I think you know me too well. The party, your parents, it was great, but—” He shrugged.
    “They know that. My mother packed the picnic basket in my car.”
    “I’m going to miss Lula’s cooking.”
    You could have it every day if you stay. Of course, Betsy didn’t say that. This was the life he’d chosen, the one he wanted. Either she could behave like an adult and support him, or she could be a selfish child worried only about her own feelings. She was trying very hard to be the kind of woman he needed.
    Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them away. “Come on, then.” She grabbed his hand and led him out to the parking lot.
    Betsy was so nervous her knees shook and she considered herself lucky she was able to walk upright and didn’t fall on her face. Not only did Betsy plan on telling Jack she loved him; she planned on showing him, too. It would be perfect. Moonlight and stars, the smells of the grass and his cologne would be indelibly marked into her memory. The taste of the homemade blackberry cordial she’d smuggled out of the pantry on their lips.
    Or so she’d read in the books her mother kept under her bed. Of course she’d heard things from friends, but Betsy preferred to think it would be like the books rather than sweaty grunting and strange faces with a gearshift digging into her back.
    Whatever it was, she decided it would be perfect because it was with Jack.
    The community center overlooked the Missouri River, but there were still too many people around for what she intended. Betsy drove to a small campsite close to the riverbanks and parked. They walked a short trail to a secluded spot where she spread out the red-and-white-checkered blanket.
    “It’s been a long time since we’ve been here. I thought you forgot.”
    When she was younger, after he’d saved her from drowning, Jack had brought her here to show her the river wasn’t something to fear. It was powerful and should be respected, marveled at, but never feared. She always felt so safe with him, which was why this was the perfect spot. Something else new to experience with him.
    A small voice niggled at the back of her brain asking what if he said no? What if he didn’t want her? Betsy refused to think about that. Fate was never wrong, and she knew with a certainty as deep as her bones that Jack McConnell was her fate.
    “How could I forget, Jack?”
    She pulled out the cordial and offered him the bottle.
    “Does your mother know you have that?” he asked.
    “I told you that she packed the basket.” A teensy, tiny lie. Infinitesimal, really.
    Of course he could see straight through it. “You’re a horrible liar.”
    “What she won’t know won’t hurt her. It’s just a little bit and it’s just tonight.”
    “Only one sip if you plan on driving me to the bus station,” Jack admonished.
    A four-letter word clanged in her brain like a gong. She hadn’t thought of that. “Like I said, just a