Sick Day Read Online Free PDF

boy—the entire pail, not just the water, so it was a good thing she missed him—and then she ran off, laughing while the boy whined and complained. The entire scene made me smile.
    “You know that Matt’s older than I am,” she elaborated, sitting on her shins and shifting to stay comfortable. I wondered if she would allow me to pick the sand out of her knees. “And with our careers, we’re just not in a position where we can lay down any roots, so marriage really isn’t a priority for us.”
    “Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself more than you’re trying to convince me, Hope.” Although I found myself far more interested in seeing how this argument between the brother and sister would unravel, I felt Hope’s glare burning into the side of my head. She knew I was right, didn’t she?
    “What the fuck is that supposed to mean, goob?”
    I nodded at the kids. “How much do you want to bet that little girl kicks her big brother’s ass?” At that point, the boy tackled her, and the mother was hurrying over to separate them. “Maybe not here at the beach. But tonight at home, right before bed when they’re both overly tired, she’ll sneak up on him and give him a cheap shot.”
    “I don’t need to be married,” Hope continued with a defensive tone that suggested she was on trial. “Why would you say that, Cameron? You’re being an asshole.”
    I allowed my eyes to meet hers as the argument between the brother and sister fizzled and the mediation process failed to hold my attention. “Maybe you’re right and there’s a reason we met two months before your big move—”
    “So you can preach your idea of marriage to me?”
    “Maybe.” I stared up at the sky. “Or maybe it was just so I could remind you of who you are. You know, the real Hope. The one who lives deep, deep down behind that hard candy shell.”
    “Is that what happened three years ago?” she asked. “I reminded you of who you are?”
    “Maybe.”
    Hope’s face tightened. For the span of a heartbeat, I thought she might take another swing at me. Instead, she stood up and started walking away. “Epic fail, Cameron,” she called back, swinging her shoes in her hands, the back of her skirt crumpled to show a little more thigh than I had seen back at the office building. “All you’ve done is remind me of what an asshole you are.”
    I stood up and chased after her, closing the gap of a half-dozen feet that she had spread between us as the sand squeezed into my shoes and socks somehow. “Hey,” I said, keeping my voice soft and empathetic. “I didn’t mean to piss you off.” I didn’t dare reach out to touch her, to slow her down. I knew to keep my hands to myself and not distract her from her little march. “Maybe I don’t know you anymore. But when I did? When I knew you like nobody else did? Hope, listen to me.”
    She kept walking. But I never expected easy from Hope. Ever.
    “You talk about moments between Oliver and Olivia in that story?” I asked, although it was more of a statement, and I had to pick up the pace to keep up with her. “Well, those days when you opened yourself up to me, they were the most beautiful moments of my life.” I swallowed hard. That anger in her face made for one hell of a barrier to this deep-down honesty spewing from my lips. “Sorry. Maybe I was confusing the memory of those moments with who I thought you were.” I glanced over at her and saw that she had softened a bit, her perfect eyebrows more relaxed than two sentences ago.
    We walked in silence for what felt like an eternity, my words hanging over us like molasses clouds.
    “Hope, what are we doing here?” I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake the answers out of her, get to that emotional paradise she had walked out on three years ago, the place I had fought so hard for.
    Silence, as she kept walking. To my eyes and senses, she seemed to consider letting me in, allowing me back on the other side of those