Read Online A Promise of Fireflies by Susan Haught - Free Book Online

backward and he laughed, a deep throaty sound so much like his father. Her chin fell to her chest in a desperate attempt to recant the ridiculously inappropriate comment, but rose as a prudish heat from her toes to every nerve she owned. She pulled her lips in on themselves and lifted her eyes to her son.
    “That was priceless, Mom.”
    She raised her palms in resignation.
    “I’ll make you a deal,” he said.
    “No deals. I always end up taking it in the shorts.”
    “I promise I won’t let anyone read it but me—”
    Her hands landed firmly on her hips. “No,” she said, prepared for a battle of wits.
    “You always let me read your work.”
    Ryleigh turned away and busied herself restacking a lopsided pile of resource books. Acutely fond of the story, she’d fleshed out the characters and the plot was solid, but the ending never came together. Out of sight for months, she’d simply forgotten the manuscript. The idea of letting it go and her son reading some of the scenes she’d written left her terribly uncomfortable.
    “I don’t know—”
    “I won’t let it out of my sight. I swear.”
    “That’s not the problem and don’t swear.”
    “I’ll give it back as soon as I’m done. Thanks, Mom.”
    “I didn’t say you could take it—”
    The moment he turned and left the room Ryleigh grabbed her stomach, the groan in her throat a paralyzing reality check. A cursory zip signaled he’d opened his sport bag. Then the shuffling of paper. Her unfinished story. Her manuscript under a pile of dirty underwear in a smelly gym bag both amused and nauseated her, but her thoughts abruptly turned to his leaving. He had to get back to Tempe for classes. And she had to focus on returning to work. And to some parody of normalcy.
    The space between heartbeats lengthened, the gray silence as unfamiliar as the curveballs life had thrown her. Lost in anxious thought, she leaned against the wall and listened while her son packed his belongings (and one of hers). The first steps onto that stage both tugged at a ripple of excitement and plunged her into terrifying uneasiness.

Chapter Ten

    EVAN PULLED INTO the driveway earlier than expected for Thanksgiving break, the Civic’s horn screeching through an otherwise quiet neighborhood. Ryleigh hurried to meet him, arms flailing to stop the infernal noise. Joy split his features into a mildly malicious grin, and he picked her up and twirled her around. “Mom, you’re never going to believe this.”
    “You know I don’t care for surprises, so tell me,” she pleaded, slapping him on the shoulder. “But first—Put. Me. Down. I can’t breathe.”
    Evan released his death grip and once inside the house, slid into his adopted place at the kitchen table opposite her. “Well?” she asked, her eyebrows arched to match the curl of her smile.
    “I landed an internship,” he said, a profusion of emotions radiating across his face, “and it’s paid.”
    “Evan, that’s wonderful,” she said, tilting her head and folding her hands on the table. “A perfect way to spend next summer.”
    “It’s full time.” Evan sucked a breath between his teeth. “And it’s next semester.”
    “What about school?”
    “I’ll earn credits from the internship and I can take classes online,” he said and rubbed his hand across a sparse growth of whiskers, “but it means an extra semester of school.”
    Ryleigh nodded, calculating the added expenses. But the normal spark in his eyes had grown into a consuming passion. Her apprehension seemed trivial, and she bathed herself in the gravity of his exuberance.
    “It’s a small, upstart magazine publishing company based in Los Angeles.”
    California . First her husband. Then her mother. And now her son? The emptiness she thought she had abandoned swallowed her, and she lowered her eyes to hide the sudden casualty of her elation. An unbearable weight anchored her to her seat and her fingers clasped into a tight fist squeezing her