Read Online 15 Tales of Love by Jessie Salisbury - Free Book Online
Authors: Jessie Salisbury
Ads: Link
valedictorian, the member voted most likely to succeed at whatever he chose to do. Jasmyn was merely a member of the Honor Society. Matt played no sports, and usually refused to even watch. He had joined the high school chess club and the math team mostly because involvement in school activities was required and looked good on his transcript. Jasmyn had played volleyball and was part of the team for two years, and was involved in student government.
They had attended different colleges, chosen totally different career paths, his in social sciences and hers in business, but both schools were near home and they stayed in touch, getting together during summers and again after graduation. They talked of marriage and she had never before doubted that they would continue onward together. It was a comfortable relationship and she had been sure that it was what was meant to be.
But when did he move onto a different course? Is he taking me for granted, always there when he wants me? What was it Uncle Horace once said, ‘some folks are like the weather, you can’t predict what they’re going to do’? Had Matt encountered something somewhere that had changed his outlook? Or was it someone else who was interested in all these degrees in various social studies? Had he moved totally away from her?
He never mentioned anyone and she didn’t want to think it now, but he had seemed particularly anxious to leave this time. And he doesn’t talk a lot about the people he works with. I wonder why that is.
And now there was Rory McAlpine, devastatingly handsome and wickedly charming, but a total social misfit who had no ambitions at all, and who was suddenly paying unwanted attentions to her. He had tried in the past, but she had discouraged him. He was not at all her type.
She didn’t want to like him. He was an infuriating man, although she had frequently found him amusing. He was a couple of years older than Jasmyn, but she had known him in high school as the class clown, the one who was always in the drama club productions. He played drums in the band flamboyantly, and had charmed all the prettiest cheerleaders with his handsome blondness, athletic build, easy grace, and his prowess in the baseball outfield. She knew that in his attentions to her he was just amusing himself. He had no ambitions, did not go on to college, worked at whatever caught his eye for the moment. Most of her girlfriends had dated him once or twice and written him off as hopeless. No one could see a future for him or with him.
Rory might be diverting, but she was engaged to Matt and that was where her thoughts should be. I should be in Boston with him. Why doesn’t he want me there, too?
Uncle Horace’s advice “to take the weather as it comes along and see what falls out” was of no use at all. She needed a plan, some way to cope with Matt’s apparent reluctance to settle down, which she very much wanted to do.
Can’t Uncle Horace see I need to think about my future, and if he can’t help just shut up?
That thought was unkind. Uncle Horace cared about her. He was her father’s much older half-brother. He was, when all was considered, of an older generation, and had little in common with his younger brother. After the untimely death of his mother, he had been raised by his grandparents, ancestors Jasmyn had never met.
Uncle Horace thinks just like them. He’s stuck back there in the thirties with no concept of how we do things. Why can’t he adapt to how things are now, or just leave it alone? That stuff just doesn’t work anymore. If it ever did.
Her father, Bryan Jameson, was only partly sympathetic. “My grandparents were very upright, pious people. Taking in a three-year-old isn’t easy when you’re in your fifties, but they raised Horace as they believed was right. I knew them, of course, but I never lived with them. By the time my father married my mother, Horace was grown and never came to live with us. They say my father was so grief
They had attended different colleges, chosen totally different career paths, his in social sciences and hers in business, but both schools were near home and they stayed in touch, getting together during summers and again after graduation. They talked of marriage and she had never before doubted that they would continue onward together. It was a comfortable relationship and she had been sure that it was what was meant to be.
But when did he move onto a different course? Is he taking me for granted, always there when he wants me? What was it Uncle Horace once said, ‘some folks are like the weather, you can’t predict what they’re going to do’? Had Matt encountered something somewhere that had changed his outlook? Or was it someone else who was interested in all these degrees in various social studies? Had he moved totally away from her?
He never mentioned anyone and she didn’t want to think it now, but he had seemed particularly anxious to leave this time. And he doesn’t talk a lot about the people he works with. I wonder why that is.
And now there was Rory McAlpine, devastatingly handsome and wickedly charming, but a total social misfit who had no ambitions at all, and who was suddenly paying unwanted attentions to her. He had tried in the past, but she had discouraged him. He was not at all her type.
She didn’t want to like him. He was an infuriating man, although she had frequently found him amusing. He was a couple of years older than Jasmyn, but she had known him in high school as the class clown, the one who was always in the drama club productions. He played drums in the band flamboyantly, and had charmed all the prettiest cheerleaders with his handsome blondness, athletic build, easy grace, and his prowess in the baseball outfield. She knew that in his attentions to her he was just amusing himself. He had no ambitions, did not go on to college, worked at whatever caught his eye for the moment. Most of her girlfriends had dated him once or twice and written him off as hopeless. No one could see a future for him or with him.
Rory might be diverting, but she was engaged to Matt and that was where her thoughts should be. I should be in Boston with him. Why doesn’t he want me there, too?
Uncle Horace’s advice “to take the weather as it comes along and see what falls out” was of no use at all. She needed a plan, some way to cope with Matt’s apparent reluctance to settle down, which she very much wanted to do.
Can’t Uncle Horace see I need to think about my future, and if he can’t help just shut up?
That thought was unkind. Uncle Horace cared about her. He was her father’s much older half-brother. He was, when all was considered, of an older generation, and had little in common with his younger brother. After the untimely death of his mother, he had been raised by his grandparents, ancestors Jasmyn had never met.
Uncle Horace thinks just like them. He’s stuck back there in the thirties with no concept of how we do things. Why can’t he adapt to how things are now, or just leave it alone? That stuff just doesn’t work anymore. If it ever did.
Her father, Bryan Jameson, was only partly sympathetic. “My grandparents were very upright, pious people. Taking in a three-year-old isn’t easy when you’re in your fifties, but they raised Horace as they believed was right. I knew them, of course, but I never lived with them. By the time my father married my mother, Horace was grown and never came to live with us. They say my father was so grief
Similar Books
