The Truth About Love Read Online Free PDF

was spending roughly eighteen hours a day unconscious.  The longer this continued, the harder I tried to convince him to see a doctor and get help, all to no avail.  At one in the afternoon, as I prepared to leave, he was still there.
    “Babe, you wanna come to Taco Bell with us?”  I spoke quietly, gently, so as not to anger him. The second his head turned my direction, I knew I had failed miserably.  Still, I stood my ground and waited for a response.  He hated when I acted nervous around him.
    “Why would I want to go to Taco Bell?” He snapped instantly.
    Trying to maintain a calm disposition, I sighed.  “I thought you might want to meet Julia and her family.”
    “ I don’t want to be around anyone right now.”  He glared at me, indicating that I was lumped into that category.
    Instead of reacting, I merely nodded.  “Okay.  Want me to bring food back for you?”
    Already he had turned his head into the back of the couch.  “No.”   His arms were crossed over his chest, his balled up fists tucked into his armpits.  Occasionally, he would open his eyes enough to peek and see if I was still there.
    There was no sense in staying when he was in this mood.  The time apart might do us both good.  “Well, I’m leaving.  I’ll be back after.”
    Turning, he sneered at me.   “ I supposed you want me to move the truck.”
    A trailer filled with tools took up one side of the double driveway, forcing him to park in front of my SUV and block it in, but disturbing him further was the last thing I intended.  I shook my head.   “ Nope.  I’ve got it.”  I walked down to his truck, hopped in the cab, parked it on the street, then exited and locked the vehicle.
    So, I went back in the house, where our daughter played in her bouncer.  It only took a few minutes to pack up Kylie.  Then I secured my baby girl in her car seat before driving away.
    The drive was short, less than three miles, which didn’t give me much time to shake off the melancholy hanging over me.  Seeing Julia and eating Taco Bell had me feeling happy and hopeful once more.  Sadly, I’ll admit I’m easy.
    Lunch was good, but entirely too short, which is why I went with them to the doctor.  After all, the doctor Julia’s son was seeing had been Kylie’s pulmonologist since she was discharged from the NICU.  It meant we could talk more before she interviewed me that evening as a special guest on her radio show.
    By the time I returned to the house, it was four in the afternoon.  At first,  I was pleasantly surprised to discover Shane was no longer asleep on the garage couch.  Further investigation, however, showed he had merely relocated to the bedroom where he was sleeping diagonally upside down on the bed, bare feet on the pillow, shoes kicked haphazardly onto the floor.  Laying Kylie down in her crib, I planned to use this quiet time to my advantage.  I had writing to do. Since Shane hadn’t worked in weeks, it would fall on me to replace his income.
    As I started to leave the room, I heard his phone ringing.  Knowing he was attempting to sell some of his excess tools on Craigslist, I stood beside him a moment before speaking quietly.  I had learned never to rouse him unnecessarily.   “ Do you need to answer that?”
    His eyes shot open and within seconds he was glaring at me.   “ What are you doing here?”
    “I live here.  Where else would I be?”  My brows furrowed as I waited for him to process our conversation.
    “You left.”  His tone was accusatory.
    Nodding, I agreed.  “And now I’m back.  Check the phone.”  I hoped to distract him as I gestured towards his pocket.  The phone seemed to ring insistently and I didn’t want Kylie woken up.  I watched as he struggled to reach inside the Velcro secured pocket of his cargo pants and pull it out.  He silenced the phone and began the struggle to put it back once more.
    This is where the tension began.  This is where I started doing what I