Stepping Out : Young Adult Romance Books (A New Adult Romance Story "Swanson Sisters Series" : Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

remember her mother the way she had been when Alicia was a little girl. She could not conjure up any memories that were peaceful so she stopped trying to remember. Instead she thought about her life.
    Alicia loved Mondays. The whole week spread out in front of her filled with seminars and workshops and labs. She could stay up all night and study if she wanted. The only restrictions on her time were the classes. She wondered how she’d feel if she had to give this up. Her feelings would begin with outrage. She let her thoughts roam, trying to follow the emotions that her mother must have felt when she gave up her studies to get married.
    She had followed this train of thought in the past but it never seemed to make sense. Alicia’s father was a distant man, who spoke quietly and Alicia had never seen him be anything but supportive to his wife. Rotten to his kids but he always backed up Mom no matter how miserable she was.
    Once upon a time, Alicia tried to figure out if her mother had been pregnant when she got married but she had done thorough research and it seemed that Sophie had really been born a good solid fourteen months after her parents got married.
    She had also wondered if perhaps there had been another pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage shortly after they got married but further research indicated that the wedding had been planned for a full year before it took place.
    She had been surprised to discover that her mother had actually completed her degree before she got married. Most of Alicia’s childhood friends came from families where the mothers worked and her mother always gave the impression that she would have worked outside the home too, if she had been given a chance.
    Once she had asked Sophie what her thoughts on their mother’s life choices had been. “I was wondering why Mom never tried to do something outside the house.”
    Sophie laughed, “I bet it was because no one would hire her.”
    On the phone now, Sophie asked. “So are you going on another date with Howard?”
    “Maybe,” Alicia said. Sophie could tell that her sister was not in the mood to be forthcoming.
    ***
    Howard debated confronting his father the first thing Monday morning. His reluctance might have been part of his usual way of dealing with his father’s aggressive approach to life. Leland Wentworth was not a man to take no for an answer.
    Howard had to test every nuance of his reluctance to tell his father what his life choice was. On Saturday, it had been fear of his father’s anger mixed with the certain knowledge that his father would mock him for being such a child with such childish feel-good dreams. Leland would ask him for details about his plan and what steps he had taken.
    The reality was that he had taken no steps at all. It was a vague plan and while he could see himself carrying out his work in a third-world situation, the images were only clear in the  specifics. He could see himself in a small office, working, for instance but he could not see anything of his overall project.
    To confront his father this way, Howard was condemning himself to failure. He would be nothing more than a small child who was announcing that he was running away from home and asking for taxi fare to do so.
    One of the reasons Howard was so good at computer science was that his mind was logical. He applied that logic to his current problem. He began sketching out the work flow for his education project and by the end of the day, although he had missed all his classes, he had a good strong grasp of what he had to do.
    He drew up his plan of action and broke all the work flow steps into smaller units. As his plan took shape, he realized two things. One was that he had never been so energized in his life. The other was that he didn’t know anything at all about getting involved in a humanitarian project. There was a lot more to his dream than just writing a computer program.
    It would be a busy week, he told himself. He began making