Stronger By Your Side (Great Love Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

time.”
    Sarah nodded weakly. “Good for you, girl.”

Chapter Four
Megan
     
    It had been five days since Emerson and Sarah had helped me get Charlotte and me settled into our new place. We had seen Travis almost every day for at least one meal, and he had taken Charlotte to the park down the street a couple of times. We had also spent time with Sarah and Emerson, along with Jules. It was starting to feel more like home each day. Being surrounded by people whom I adored was helping with that.
    I sat on Jules’s couch, the very couch that Cal had slept on the night before we buried Charles, the night he brought me Charles’s last letter. The words flashed through my mind, as they often did when I was missing him. I will always love you. You can always love me, you don’t have to stop, but please, please, Megan. Promise, promise me that you will love again. You are far too good at it not to. I sighed, and then I thought about the fortune on the top of my coffee cup the other day. Love will find you. But maybe I didn’t want it to. I didn’t want to love anyone else. The only other guy I loved before Charles had been my childhood best friend, SJ, and I had left him in the worst way. Pretty sure he would never want to see me again. Maybe not loving anyone again would be better. Maybe it would be less painful. Both of my experiences with love were worthy of a bloodcurdling scream—that kind of painful.
    It was only five days before the first day of school. I had gone into my classroom twice to work on things, but I still had a lot to do. Currently, I was surrounded by everyone who loved Charles. This played a large part in why I was distracted by my late husband’s words. Travis sat down next to me with Charlotte in one hand and pumpkin pie in the other. It was late summer, so usually you wouldn’t expect pumpkin pie. However, as I said, Travis’s family owned the largest pumpkin farm in northern California. They canned their leftover pumpkin each year and also froze pies. In fact, you could buy their frozen baked goods and canned pumpkin or fruit year round at the local grocery store, Big Mike’s. The Farmer family pies were legendary, so at least one was always expected at any family event or party. Today, Jules was throwing a welcome back party for Charlotte, Travis and me.
    I smiled over at my daughter, who was shoveling the pie in her small mouth. I had to hold back a slight gag at an unfortunate memory I had with pumpkin pie. I also had to suppress the automatic smile that came to my lips at the memory. It was the unfortunate night that I ate two pumpkin pies by myself and had been given the nickname of Pumpkin Girl by my best friend, SJ. We had been seven at the time, and as we got older it became just Pumpkin. It was a name I hadn’t been called in a long time, and although part of me longed to hear it, the other part of me knew why I never would. I cleared my throat, shook my head and focused on my little girl.
    Then I laughed as I watched Charlotte rabidly force even more pie into her mouth with her fork. “Jeez, kiddo, slow down.”
    I laughed as I took a bite of my own pie, which was apple instead. It was not the famous Farmer pie, but it was still delicious. “That’s her third piece, Travis. She’s going to be up all night.”
    He laughed. “Yeah, probably.”
    I shook my head. “Seriously? You’re not the one who has to stay up with her.” I was finding that being angry with Travis made it easier to forget about the two men that haunted me, Charles and SJ. Being mad at Travis always made life easier. I think he knew it too, because he often let me. Travis’s face turned serious and his voice lowered. “Let me stay the night and I’ll stay up with her.” I almost dropped my pie.
    Travis must have forgotten that my daughter was currently a parrot, and there was absolutely no whisper quiet enough to escape her super spy ears because she began yelling, “Yay, Uncky Travey stay night with me!