Read Online Ain't No Sunshine by Leslie Dubois - Free Book Online

laughing at the dinner table.  I loved the way Julius interacted with his younger brother and sister.  He teased them a lot, but it was always good-natured.  They could tell that underneath his sarcastic façade he really loved them.  It kind of made me wish I had a brother or sister.
    I sat by the phone every night, willing it to ring, hoping that Ruthie would call, but she never did. I thought about her constantly, wondering if she had found someone else to love.
    If my father thought sending her away for the summer would make me forget about her, he was sadly mistaken. I felt like a part of me had been savagely ripped away from my body. At first basketball helped to ease the pain, but I quickly learned that it only masked it. Especially when I constantly heard boys on the basketball court talk about how beautiful Ruthie was and how nearly every guy in town had asked her out over the past couple of years, but she always said no.
    My aching for Ruthie grew every moment. By the time the day came for her to return I thought I would explode. I sat on my front porch, trying to look casual as I waited for the taxicab that would bring her back to me. I flipped through a book, the title of which I can't even remember, and looked down the road every ten seconds.
    At 3:17 in the afternoon, it finally came. In my dreams, I imagined that the taxi would pull up in front of my house; Ruthie would leap out, jump into my arms, and kiss me with six weeks’ worth of bottled-up passion.  But that didn't happen. I watched Ruthie stare straight ahead as the taxi drove right past my house and toward her cottage.
    I stormed into the house and threw my book across the room. I guess it happened. I guess Ruthie had found someone else and didn't care about me anymore. How could she not want to see me as soon as she returned? If she missed me half as much as I missed her, she would have jumped out of that car before it even stopped moving.
    "Reverend?" my mother asked, stepping out of the kitchen. She must have heard the book crash and thought my father had come home angry.
    "No, it's just me, Mother."
    My mother clutched her chest in relief. "Oh, okay. I'm going to go lay down for a few moments before he gets here."
    She headed upstairs as I plopped on the sofa, prepared to wallow in my own misery. A few minutes later, I heard a knock on the back door. It was Ruthie. It had to be. I jumped up and ran to answer it. Sure enough, it was her.
    "Hi, Stephen," she said when I swung open the screen door.
    "Hi," I said, still hoping she would leap into my arms at any second.
    We stared at each other in silence, as if we were strangers.
    Finally, Ruthie said, "I bought a gift for your parents...from New York." She held up a package, but didn't try to enter the house.
    "Oh, uh, my mother is asleep and my father isn't home."
    "He isn't?" she asked with eyebrows raised.
    "No, he –"
    Before I could finish my thought, Ruthie wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me hungrily. I picked her up and clutched her thighs in my hands as we stumbled into the kitchen.
    "I've missed you so much," she said, taking a second to pull away. She wrapped her legs around me and pressed her body into mine. "I'm so sorry I didn't call you. He told me not to." She pressed her lips to mine again.
    I knew she was referring to my father. I don't know what he said to her to convince her to stay away from me, but it obviously didn't have any permanent effects.
    "Never leave me again," I pleaded as I laid her on the kitchen table.
    "I won't. I can't," she said with tears in her eyes. "I can't live without you anymore, Stephen."
    I crawled on top of her while slipping my hands under her shirt. I kissed her neck, her cheeks, her eyes, her lips. When my hands undid her bra and massaged her breasts, she moaned my name. I didn't know if I would be able to stop. I thought I was going to take her right there on the kitchen table. That was until we both heard a car door slam.
    "Your