Read Online Ask Me to Stay by Elise K Ackers - Free Book Online Page B

I’ll, uh – I’ll tell Dean I’m going home. I’ll be right back —’
    ‘Caleb, you’re not listening.’
    He paused, startled by her tone.
    ‘I’m leaving you .’ When his eyes dropped involuntarily to her stomach she uncrossed her arms to put her hands on her hips. ‘I’m not keeping the baby. I don’t want this.’ She waved a hand at the farmhouse, at the bonfire beyond. At Cal.
    For the first time, he looked past her into her car. It was packed full of suitcases and large plastic bags knotted at the top.
    ‘You’ve been nice to me. You’ve spoiled me and loved me. Thank you for that. But I need more than a kid-crazy barman. This just isn’t enough.’
    ‘I own the bar,’ he said quietly, unsure why that was what he chose to defend.
    She sighed, as if this fact was somehow disappointing. ‘I know. But I’ve got to get out of here. I feel like I’ve got cabin fever. And now this?’ She pointed at her flat stomach. ‘I can’t be stuck here. Not here, not with a kid and a guy who pours drinks for a living. I want a bigger life.’ Her hand fell to her side and her brows crept together. ‘Don’t you ever wish for that?’
    ‘I —’ I’m happy, he thought to say. Or at least he had been until a few minutes ago, when he’d thought all his dreams had come true. His small, meagre, pitiful dreams . . .
    She opened the car door. ‘I’ll send you confirmation of the termination. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I figured you had a right to know.’
    Anna lowered herself behind the wheel and put the car in reverse. She hadn’t even turned off the engine, so brief had she expected her conversation with him to be. She waved as she turned. Caleb’s hope and happiness was dragged through the dirt in her wake, to fade eventually when her tail-lights slipped out of sight.
    Sam hadn’t seen Cal for over an hour. She had just about run out of rooms to check when she found Ethan. He sat at his childhood desk, almost comically too big for it now. His fingers touched a glass. Beside it a near-empty whisky bottle held pride of place.
    She stepped in. ‘Drinking alone. That’s rarely a good sign.’
    Bloodshot, heavy-lidded eyes blinked at her. His bottom lip protruded in what was perhaps meant to be a thoughtful way, and he nodded. The movement made him wince.
    ‘Did Cal tell you he was leaving?’
    Ethan thumbed his chin then fingered his cheek. ‘Nope. Nobody tells Ethan anything.’
    She turned to the door. ‘Well, stick around long enough and one day someone will.’
    ‘You tell me something.’
    Her fingers touched the doorframe, ready to grip, to anchor her should he rip the world out from beneath her feet again. She looked over her shoulder. He’d turned in his seat, engaging in the conversation.
    ‘What do you want to know?’
    He rolled his bottom lip between his teeth then spoke through his hand. ‘Did I hurt you, Sammy-doll?’
    Ethan, she thought, you broke me. But she said, ‘No one likes getting dumped.’
    ‘I didn’t dump you.’
    Against her better judgement – against the voice in her head that begged her to run – she sat on the bed opposite him. This, too, was small for him. Bought for a teenager, not a six-foot-seven man. She wondered how far his feet hung over the edge.
    ‘You came to me on the day you were leaving and said the equivalent of “thanks, but no thanks”. You dumped me good.’
    You crushed me. You discarded me. You left me behind. She rubbed a hand over her face and breathed deeply. ‘Why the walk down memory lane?’
    His answering smile was sloppy at best. ‘That’s what I said.’
    ‘Right. Whatever that means.’ She got to her feet, pulled him to his. Before he was altogether sure of what she was doing, she’d stepped on the back of one of his shoes and eased his foot free of it. The second foot was harder once he realised he was required to balance. He toppled. And he took her with him.
    Together they crashed onto the bed. He laughed