AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Can you stop holding your breath?”
Whoosh.
Oh my freaking shitsickles. I just let go of a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I’m a fucking romance novel cliché.
Once my pulse returns to a level that won’t require a hospital visit, thanks to Cal’s helpful suggestion to breathe, I realize he’s talking to me.
“Something you need to know about my mother.”
“Yes?”
Mia’s responses— now with 75 percent less squeak.
“She might be fine, rational and lucid.” He sighs deeply. “Or she might think I’m still in the Army. She might ask about my ex-girlfriend, Jenna. She might think my dad is alive. You never really know what you’ll get.”
Instinctively, I reach out to comfort him with a soothing stroke of his forearm.
Wow. His arms.
I can’t resist squeezing those corded muscles. But given his serious tone and the topic, I force myself to stop thinking about sex with this man. My attraction to him is quickly becoming so much more than physical.
“That must be awful, Cal. I’m so sorry your family is going through that. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you. And her.”
“I didn’t ask how you know about her condition, but I don’t fucking care. I’m tired of keeping it to myself.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone? Big Al? Tomer? Shep? I’m sure they’d understand and support you.”
He presses his lips together firmly and shakes his head subtly. “I’m sure they would.”
“Then why have you been dealing with it on your own? It’s a heavy load to carry without help.”
After scanning the mirrors for the hundredth time in the last sixty seconds, probably checking for tails, he answers, “I didn’t want to admit it. To myself. To others. I realize how stupid it sounds, but I hoped by not talking about it that it wouldn’t be real.”
My chin quivers as I fight the urge to cry.
His voice is thicker and clogged with emotions when he adds, “I don’t want it to be real.”
“Oh, Cal.”
I want to kiss him. I want to hug him. I want to access the hard drive of his mind and erase all the horrors he’s seen. I want to implant a device inside his mother’s brain to stop her from losing her memories. Losing any more of herself.
But I can’t do that. No one can.
All I can do is be here for him.
With him. Beside him.
Suddenly, the fear I felt at meeting his mother isn’t as strong. It’s quickly eclipsed by my desire to be a source of strength for him.
Chapter32
Come fly with me
KLEIN
“Ma, it’s me.”
“I’m in here,” she calls from her bedroom.
