Read Online Consequence by Shelly Crane - Free Book Online Page B

The way they existed so effortlessly in each other's world and space. They could go minutes without looking away from each other. They kissed constantly. They hugged all the time, stole touches and wrapped their fingers around the other's wrist. I knew it was to feel their calm, to be wrapped in the little bit of bliss that their touch provided.
                  I felt like I was watching a romance novel play out before my eyes.
                  "I'm OK," she told him and whispered her next words. "Thank you for this. And for earlier. I really needed it."
                  "Eew. Gross. Stop," Rodney said, hands up. He threw some forks haphazardly on the table. "Don't you see the way my ears are singed?"
                  Mom laughed. "I was talking about the bubble bath your father made me, you goober." She reached up again, kissing Daddy on the lips, but he reached around her and drew her in even more. I turned to fill the glasses. It was disgusting, they were my parents after all, but I was also envious. Things were still a little up in the air with the imprints and everything. It seemed that things had gone back to normal for the most part, except there were no more age limits. You met them when you met them and that was that.
                  So instead of knowing I'd meet the person I wanted most in a few years while in college, I was forced to spend my days waiting.
                  The only thing a girl in high school, who's never dated anyone before, wants is to find someone to love her. I was breaking out and going my own way, and while I was reinventing myself to become the me I would always be, I was dying to throw my epic love story in the mix.
                  "I love you, Maggie," I heard behind me.
                  "I love you more."
                  "Go sit. I'll bring you a plate." And I waited for it…
                  The sound of Daddy's palm lightly smacking Mom's butt was my cue that it was okay to turn around now. Mom shook her head at Dad as she took a seat. Dad, smug as all get out, brought her plate, kissing her forehead as he sat it in front of her, before setting the rest of the table and playfully yelling at Rodney to sit down and behave like a Jacobson.
                  They were so predictable. And adorable. And so in love with each other it hurt to look at them.
     
     
     

 
     
    Two
     
     
    Six Years Later
    Ava
     
     
                 
     
                  I yawned and got the stink eye from Professor Gracco. I loved and hated class, but it was the last week of them before summer break. Every class was a yawn-fest. The teachers knew it, but I think it just made them that much more ornery.
                  The minutes crawled by and my watch kept winking at me, taunting, begging me to keep looking at it so the time would move even slower.
                  Only two more years of this and I'd graduate and could go work at the firm with Grandpa. Well, not for very long because he was retiring in a few years. But the chance to work with him at all would be worth it. He was happy that I'd decided to come work with them. A few other family members had taken a cue from Dad and went their own way, running a business that they wanted instead.
                  But they always seemed to be good businesses. Our kind had a knack for smart ventures and risks that paid off. Businesses that were good for more than just us. Like Daddy with his learning centers and my second cousin, who has a horse farm, who started an equestrian riding school.
                  When the professor took the little golden bell from his desk and jiggled it in the air at us like it was a catholic school and not a college, we knew the class was over. I packed up my things hurriedly and rushed across campus to the coffee shop. Every Friday I brought