The Bridge Read Online Free PDF Page A

say?”
    “The line of credit was denied.”
    Charlie lowered his gaze to his old brown loafers, the ones he’d worn to The Bridge every day for five years. The business had never been lucrative. He andDonna had sacrificed to keep the place, but neither of them would’ve changed a thing. The Bridge gave them a purpose. He was quiet for a long while.
    “Donna . . .” His voice cracked. He looked at her, his heart aching with sadness. “It was worth it, right?”
    “What?” She had hold of his hands now, her eyes kinder than he deserved.
    “The Bridge, the bookstore . . . all the years.” He touched her hair, her cheek. “You never had nice things. We never traveled.”
    She looked at him for a long time and then put her hands on his shoulders. “Our time here, it was never about the money. It was about the people.” She pointed out the front window. “There’s not a person in Franklin who hasn’t been touched by your books and your kindness, Charlie Barton.”
    He let the words soak in and then pulled her close once more. “I don’t deserve you.” They stayed that way for half a minute, rocking slightly to the sound of their beating hearts and the passing cars and pedestrians outside. Finally, he took a step back and shrugged. “What should we do?”
    For the first time since she walked into the store, her face clouded. “That’s just it, Charlie.” She crossedher arms and turned her back to him, her eyes on the empty spaces. It took her nearly a minute to face him again. “No matter how many people you’ve touched, they won’t pay the bills. Your customers can’t buy books we don’t have.”
    He waited, hoping she had something else, some way out that he’d missed.
    Instead she looked down for a long moment. When she lifted her eyes to his, there was a resolution in her face he’d never seen before. “It’s time, Charlie. You had a good run. Three decades.” She shook her head. “But no more. You need to let it go.”
    Panic crowded in around him and put its cold fingers against his throat. “I’m a bookseller, Donna.” His voice was pinched, his heart pounding. “I don’t know what else to do.”
    She shook her head, glancing about as if the answer might be somewhere on the barren walls. “You know retail.” Pain colored her eyes. “Costco or one of the supermarkets. Someone has to be hiring.”
    Charlie shuddered at the picture. He was almost sixty, his hair whiter than the snow outside. Pushing carts at Costco? Bagging groceries at Kroger? How could that be his swan song when he had planned towork at The Bridge until God took him home? He gave her a weak smile. “I’ll figure something out.”
    “You have to close the store. We can’t afford the lease.” Her eyebrows raised, she studied him, searching his intentions. “You know that. Right?”
    He couldn’t have felt more pressure if the roof collapsed and pinned him to the floor. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he wiped it with the back of his hands. He felt a hundred years old. “I have to do something. I know that.”
    A long pause followed while she watched him. “I’m going home.” She held her hand out. “Come with me?”
    “Not yet.” He shook his head, and again panic breathed its icy breath down his back. The store was his home, his family. Leaving it now without an answer was like putting his mother out in the cold and wishing her the best of luck. He couldn’t do it, couldn’t promise anything other than the obvious. “I have to think.”
    A tired sigh sounded in her throat and she put her hand alongside his face. “I love you, Charlie. It’s not your fault. Bookstores everywhere are dealing with this.” She smiled at him. “I believe in you.”
    “I know.” He gave her a brave smile and a look that said he’d be fine, that she could go and he would find the answers somehow. The truth was, Donna didn’t understand completely. This wasn’t any other bookstore. It was Franklin’s