Steeling My Haart Read Online Free PDF

thank goodness he
already knew she had been prescribed the pills that protected her from
pregnancy.   He was clean and knew
she was, but he never even broached the fact he didn’t have a condom. He hated
himself for not thinking this out and ruining his dreams for them. He would
never regret ever having those precious moments with her, especially if that
was all he would have to remember her by. He knew that made him no better than
his own goddam loser of a father, and that made the fact he was about to walk
away that bit less of a bitter pill to swallow. It reaffirmed his feeling that
she would be better off without him.
             He
took in the sight of her curled up on the sofa and tried to take one last
mental picture of her. Tears pooled in his eyes as she breathed deeply, looking
so serene as she slept. Leaning in, he took in one last deep breath of her
scent, and kissing her gently so as not to wake her, he whispered, “Please
forgive me, Em, for what I am about to do. Be happy, sweetheart. That is all I
want for you. This is not how I wanted things to happen, but please know that I
will love you forever.”
             Choking
back a sob, he collected a few essentials he had found in one of the old metal
boxes and he headed out of the shelter and up to the reality awaiting him. As
he reached the top of the steps and opened the metal door he scanned around he
saw the utter devastation that had occurred as they took refuge in each other
the previous night. Thank God they had made it to the shelter when they did.
Last night’s tornado, or tornados as he was to later find out, had flattened
the entire town and some of the surrounding towns, too. The worst storms in a
century, they were to declare.
             Emma’s
house was obliterated. His truck was a mess and buried beneath rubble and
timber. The Old Fitzgerald place behind him was no more, merely a cement base
that gave away where it had once stood. Ironically, he let out a short laugh as
he thought to himself that Emma would be pleased to finally see the old eyesore
gone. Trees were uprooted and likely to have been dumped by the terrifying
storm a distance form their original positions. Shattered pieces of furniture
and household items lay strewn all around. Oddly, he noticed familiar pieces
from Emma’s home that were littered across the surrounding area and there were
some photos and personal items just blowing gently in the wind. Live electric
wires hissed and zapped around a short way up the road from where he stood. This
far out of town there was no gas main, so apart from the risk from the
crackling live wires waving around in the breeze, he was reasonably safe if he
kept his distance
             His
immediate reaction was to cross the street and head for his truck to see if his
cell phone was in there. He had forgotten to grab it out of the glove
compartment in all of the panic the night before, but it was fruitless. The
truck was all but buried deep under a pile of mangled metal, rubber and other
masses of debris. He had never seen such carnage. In the distance sirens blared,
presumably from the multitude of emergency services out trying to find signs of
life in the middle of all this appalling mess. His heart sank as he could see
plumes of smoke rising from the general direction of the town. It wasn’t a good
sight.
             He
attempted to collect a few things he recognized from the demolished house but
as soon as he was collecting them, they were blowing away in the gentle morning
breeze. Most pieces were wet from the rain last night and also the cool morning
dew. It was pointless; Emma and her family had lost everything. He was about
to, too.
             Finding
a perch under a nearby tree that had been spared, he reached into his pocket
and pulled out the items he had taken from the shelter. He had found a couple pieces
of paper and pencil in one of the boxes and with a heavy heart, he picked them
up to