There was a huge dresser in my room, and I kept pulling drawer after drawer of broken promises and lies out and dumping them out the window. It felt proper. It felt therapeutic. It felt plain good! But then there were no more drawers, in fact no dresser. I was still in my room, but now Mr. Sedgwi...
A conspicuous marker. “Is everything all right, Winchester?” I called out through the open window. “Aye, tis fine. Now sit down an’ shut up,” the man rudely replied. “You cannot talk to me like that. I will be telling my father about this rude treatment as soon as we reach our destination,” I s...
She had no reason to believe the people in the car were looking for her, but she had no reason not to believe it, either. The temperatures had dropped with nightfall, and she had started to shiver uncontrollably. It had been raining off and on all day, and though the precipitation had stopped for...
She was showered and mostly dressed but with only one fully functional hand she was struggling. And on the stroke of the hour Ryan knocked on her door. She opened it. “Am I early?” Ryan asked looking at his watch. “No, I’m disabled,” Jeanie said. “Help me, please? I can’t get the zipper up.” R...
Anina soothed. “Here, have another sip of cocoa.” The morning sun was peeking over the horizon by the time that Elise found the Rangers’ Lodge. Shaking and terrified, she’d been welcomed into the three-story cabin by an elderly lady with small, hunched shoulders. Her face was streaked with silver...
John said as they approached the symphony hall. “Yes, I do.” After spending a great deal of the past two weeks in John’s bed, Meg was a little sore, but otherwise she felt terrific. She’d been practicing again, playing just for the joy of it, trying to emulate John’s improvisation some of the tim...
She knew it would be Beck telling her he couldn’t do the kid thing. How could he ever be okay with it after the way he reacted? But would he even bother calling, or would he just never call again? She didn’t know him well enough to know for sure. Days went by and she didn’t hear from him. She’d d...
Cheryl moved around to the driver's side door. Derrick's window was rolled down. He looked nervous, unsure if their plan would work. She couldn't tell what he was more worried about: failing his brother, his own safety, or hers. She imagined it was a mix of all three. “You don't have to do t...
Nearly 20 chairs surrounded the large conference table in the middle. Joe sat at the far end, windows illuminating his shape. With the light behind him, Addy couldn't see his expressions very well. On the sides of the table next to Joe sat the two Elders, Foster and Lockwood. As far as Elders wen...
The Helmut’s breathing and Sven’s snoring reverberated through the room. I stifled a yawn and lay my head back against the pillow, but I knew I wouldn’t get back to sleep. I’d not slept well in the recent weeks. Something kept stirring me awake at obscenely early hours. It wasn’t like I was being...
she said to the driver, as she slipped into the back seat of a taxi she found waiting at the bus terminal and named the cross-street her friend from Nashville had given her, because she couldn’t think of anything else that would get her away from the bus station as soon as possible. It wasn’t onl...
There was so much birdsong. It was as though every bird in creation had decided, just that morning, to sit outside her window and exercise its vocal chords. This couldn’t be normal. But then she had stuck her head out of her window and the world appeared to be working just fine, only with more mu...
It was unusual. Colorado generally didn’t have many days that began and ended with constant, unrelenting rain. But this was one of those days. Her thoughts turned to her mother then. Joslyn had been a wonderful woman, tall with fiery red hair, green eyes like the grass of late summer and skin tha...
Mary asked the second Tyler picked up his phone. It was two weeks after they had spent the weekend together and Tyler had driven up to see Mary every weekend since. “Hello to you too. Yeah, she did. I was thinking about saying no.” “No! Say yes. Because if I have to sit and listen to them go goo ...
he shouted. “And where the hell have you been?” Kitty set the last of her books in a file box and closed the lid. “Good morning to you, too, Dad. “That will be all, Mel,” she said, turning to her new partner. “You can go get started, now.” “Wait just a damn minute!” Konstantine shouted. “What do ...
Where was she? Why was she outside? There was a ringing in her ears that was really starting to annoy her. Swaying she sat up blinking. Something was on fire she could smell the smoke. It was close. She stared at a bright light until some neurons, not currently misfiring, managed to produce some ...
Knock! Knockknockknock! Emma groggily came to, wondering what the knocking was about in her already fading dream. She slowly cracked open her eyes, sunlight bathing her shivering body. Where am I? She wondered. Everything came flooding back to her. “Hey!” Emma looked outside of her window and s...
She emerged into the shared living room of the suite, eyes drawn hopefully to the spot where a Ben-shaped imprint still lay on the cushions. The door to the minibar gave a click, and Layla’s gaze snapped toward it. Brent was popping open two mini bottles of orange juice. He put one on the breakfa...
Dale said. I looked up towards the driver’s seat. Dale Simson’s six foot plus frame filled the driver’s seat. His woody brown eyes sought mine out in the rear view mirror. I felt a stir. I’d thought about those eyes a lot. “Yeah?” I said. I had a feeling I’d been zoning out again. I was engrossed...
Beck’s furry body was still wrapped protectively around Logan and when they landed, Logan jumped up and looked back up at his mother. “Are you okay?” she shouted. “Yes!” But the bear didn’t seem to be moving. “Is Beck hurt?” she called down. Logan shook his shoulder. Beck uncurled his body and st...
By ten she was sitting at a table in the Lemon Drop Café in town, and he was seated opposite her. They spent hours there, talking and drinking far too much coffee, and then they went on their way. He called her the day after that again. And they followed the same routine. By the fourth day, Will...
“Sixty days,” Kurt said. He crossed the day off the calendar, the one with the big red ring around it. Sixty days had arrived, and Stacey felt a thrill rush through her. “I can’t believe we’ve waited this long,” she said in amazement. “Well, there were a few slip-ups,” Kurt added. “A few temptat...