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That’s the way I’ve felt about hi, and the reason it’s so hard to just walk away I remember the first tihborhood Our hoest and most palatial on the street, but when it was built, the owners had placed it close to the street withroo by

Always a reticent child, I’d been sitting in thatseat, wiling away another suaze out theat a pair of birds that were chasing each other through the branches of the hundred-year-old nolia tree out front

I’d had thecracked a little to let the breeze in, preferring that to the artificial coolant of the AC, that’s why I was able to hear the voices as they came down the sidewalk He’d been with a couple of his friends, and they were rubbing each other about so or another

I’d looked up just in ti off his dark hair as he had his head thrown back, laughing at soht knot in lued to hi I’d ever seen, still is

After that day, I’d sit in thatlonging for the sight of hiain And then I’d searched him out, me, the quiet as a church one in search of the Adonis who’d stolen not justpart of me that day

It’s probably so that should’ve faded by now People have crushes every day, but for rowing and growing, and the fact that I never got to see him only made it worst Noe’ve come full circle, and he’s still out of my reach

Derrick

I had to fight like hell to get out of that hospital I thought they were in the habit of kicking people out these days, but they seemed to want to keep me there for as little more than a headache A concussion wasn’t the end of the world, and I needed to get hoirls

Dad had touched base with the cops, and there was still no word on where Lauren had gone I wasn’t sure how I felt about her at this point I was pissed, yes, but in e all those years ago

The fun-filled adventurous spirit who could sometimes be moody but never harmful or hateful to anyone else We’d sort of fell into a relationship, I guess Both of us were ree than the rest of our peers who saw college as a place to escape their parents and live wild and free

Me, because I ca line of successful architects and wanted to make my family proud, and Lauren because she was the first one in her family to make it that far up the education ladder and she wanted so more for herself

It didn’t bother round; in fact, I didn’t ask When one of rew close over tireatest love story in the world, but those feelings greith time

In et a respectable job, find an equally respectable partner, and settle down to have kids I’d left h school I figured I’d done enough indiscri to last me a lifetime, and it was time to settle down

And why not with the girl I’d just spent three years ofa relationship with? And then the twins cahtapart at the seams now?

Everything had been going so well and on track Not that I had a blueprint in ent But growing up in a home with two parents who loved each other and showed it, always having been taught the sanctity ofpretty okay

Lauren and I didn’t even really fight with each other There was never a tio down to the bar to hang with the guys until I cooled down She’d never said a cross word tomajor anyway