Waters Fall Read Online Free PDF

hours. But he missed coming home at the end of the day.  There was something rewarding about flexing his arms and straining his back to provide for his family.
    And there was something soft and feminine about Nora after she'd spent a few hours puttering around her nest and nurturing her children. He especially missed that.
    “No. I can’t go back,” he asserted aloud. “I can’t. I deserve better. I can’t quit now.” Today was just a little bump in the road he had to get past. So what if it wasn’t happening as quickly they’d planned? That didn’t mean it wasn’t happening at all.
    He scrubbed his shadowed jaw with his fingers—he ’d need to shave before she got home—then flicked his phone so that it spun across the slick desktop and bumped up against the miniature sand garden Leslie had given him for Christmas last year, complete with rake, shovel, and a red pail. The sound of canned clapping, his text message ring tone, had him raising his fists in triumph, as though all those tiny cheering people in the phone still believed in him. “Who’s the man? I’m the man. That’s right.”
    Then he saw the sender ’s name. Nora.
     
    Need to put in a late night at the office - sorry. Coming home for early supper, then back to work for me. Bringing Antonio’s family meal unless you have something else planned. Love you.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    4
     
     
    The glowing windows seemed to glare at Nora as she pulled into the driveway, angry at her for making them wait up. It was after midnight, and Jake had left all the lights on again.
    Slipping out of her heels just inside the door, she systematically made her way through the kitchen, dining room, family room, and the hall, shutting things down as she went. She poked her head into the kids' rooms, smiling at the sight of each rumpled head in the glow of night lights. She wrinkled her nose at the sweaty boy smell in Felix ’s room; it seemed to be losing its charm these days.
    “Good. You're home.” Jake's voice spoke out of the darkness as she crept into their bedroom. No matter how quietly she came through the house, she always woke him up.
    “I'm home.”
    “What time is it?” Jake knew exactly what time it was—his clock with its bright blue numbers faced him on his bedside table. This was a game they played almost every night, even those when she didn't stay late at her office. If she came to bed after he did, it was how he greeted her. Not “Come snuggle with me,” not “Where have you been all my life, Baby,” but the badly played part of the neglected husband who’d been rudely awakened out of a sound sleep.
    Nora responded the way she always did. “It's late. Sorry I woke you.” She quickly retrieved her nightgown from the top drawer of her dresser, and tucked her shoes under the bed so she wouldn’t trip on them in the dark. She would get ready for bed in the bathroom.
    Just as she was closing the door behind her, he spoke. “Did you finish what you needed to tonight?”
    Nora stopped, and turned slightly to answer him. “I did. I'm going to take my shower now. Go back to sleep.”
    “Who are you working for right now?”
    “The Carlsons, remember? I told you at supper.”
    “Yeah. The Carlsons. Are you meeting with them in the morning?”
    “What is this, Jake? Twenty questions?” Nora peered through the darkness toward the shadowy shape of their bed. She pressed her tight spine against the door frame, her muscles protesting, but the pain bringing relief and loosening her tongue. “Or are you asking me something you're not really asking?”
    “What does that mean?”
    “I don't know. You tell me.”
    “No, you tell me, Nor. Is there something I should be asking you? Or is there something you should be telling me?” She could see him moving, pushing himself upright into a sitting position. His shape was now silhouetted by the pale moonlight slipping in through the blinds at the window, and she could see him cross his