The Widow and the Orphan Read Online Free PDF

Sure enough, after a few of them, his face seemed to regain some color and his eyes stayed open and focused. She thought he still looked ashen, but again, she just couldn’t tell in the poor lighting of the bathroom. Dammit, who would pick this color tile ?
    “Come on. You have to get dried off,” Pepper insisted. He let her go long enough to get some towels and she spread them over the shower and bathroom floor so he wouldn’t slip as he leaned on her for support. With careful steps, they made their way to the bed, where Gabe slumped onto the mattress and leaned forward. Pepper panicked when she thought he was going to fall forward again, but he caught his head in his hands and sighed.
    “That was surely the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced.” Gabe looked up at her and gave her a weak smile.
    “I think you should go to the hospital. What happened before you went blank? Did you have any pain? Chest pains? Your head?” She was about to grab for her purse and her phone, but the refreshed strength in Gabe’s voice stopped her short.
    “No, absolutely not. I told you, it was just a faint. I haven’t been eating properly and it was terribly hot today. I’m probably just dehydrated.”
    Pepper kept her eyes fixed on his face while she rubbed him dry with a towel and considered what he said. The dim lighting in the bedroom wasn’t helping her to figure out if his color was still improving. She switched on a bedside lamp, but the room only filled with a yellowish glow.
    “It was hot today,” she admitted, her anxiety diminishing. Gabe reached for the towel and plucked it out of her hands.
    “Darling, you’re soaked to the skin. Get out of those wet clothes.”
    Pepper gaped at him. How he could be thinking about her in the middle of everything, she couldn’t fathom. That’s Gabe . She stripped off what little clothing she still wore and let it pile up on the floor. He wrapped the towel around her, then pulled her into his arms.
    “I’m fine . I’m so sorry to have frightened you.”
    Pepper was reassured by his returning vigor. The embrace felt familiar and comfortable, like a billion others he’d given her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him.
    “Don’t ever do that again,” she whimpered and then burrowed harder against his chest, feeling like a complete idiot. The adrenaline coursing through her veins began to dissipate and her limbs trembled with release.
    “Shh, there, there.” Gabe whispered other soothing words into her head that she couldn’t hear.
     
    * * * * *
     
    The next morning, Pepper woke to find Gabe’s side of the bed empty and right away her heart tripled its beat as her stomach plunged to her feet. She scrambled out of bed, nearly falling when she got tangled up in the sheets. “Gabe! Gabe!” she yelled, bursting into the bathroom and finding it empty. All of the horror from the day before came rushing back to smack her in the face.
    She turned and bolted out of the bathroom, across the bedroom, and to the door. She felt like she was ripping it off the hinges as she burst from the room into the open hallway that looked down onto the foyer below. Not seeing him, she raced down the stairs. Grabbing the newel post at the bottom step, she swung herself around so she could race to the kitchen.
    “Gabe!”
    Pepper grabbed the island in the kitchen to steady herself when she found Gabe standing at the counter, fixing himself a cup of tea. Buds were tucked firmly into his ears and Pepper could hear classical music from all the way across the room.
    Stomping over to him, he caught sight of her at the last second before she reached up and yanked on the cord to his earphones, making them pop out of his ears. “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.
    Gabe frowned at her and rubbed the sides of his head. “What the devil are you doing?”
    “You scared the shit out of me! I wake up and you aren’t there. I start yelling my head off for you and you don’t