Read Online Forever After by Deborah Raney - Free Book Online Page B

you what, let me talk to somebody at the station. I’ll see what I can do. And um … just so you know, I’m more of a cat person.”
    “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
    “’Fraid so. Cats rule, dogs drool.”
    That made her laugh, even though she was disappointed that he didn’t seem too enthused about her and Bryn’s idea. She must be crazy to have agreed to transport that stupid dog to Luc’s, but she was excited at the prospect of seeing him again.
    She’d forgotten what it felt like to just have fun with a guy. Or maybe she’d never known. In sixth grade she’d had a crush on a boy, but Zach was the only guy she’d ever dated. They’d been together all through her high school years, even after he graduated and left for Springfield to study fire science, and later when he moved back to the Falls to work.
    “So, what do you think?” Lucas’s voice broke through her rambling thoughts.
    “I’m sorry—what was that?”
    “I wondered if you want to go for coffee again. After you get moved in, I mean. I could pick you up … Tuesday? Think you’ll be settled by then?”
    If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was asking her for a date. But she smiled into the phone, happy he wanted to see her again. “I’d like that.”
    “Good. I’ll give you a call. Hope your move goes okay.”
    “Thanks.” She hung up, feeling a little bewildered. What had she gotten herself into?

Today, locking up the house for the last time … hit her harder than she’d expected.

 
    9
    Sunday, November 30
    T here! That’s done!” Bill Morgan secured the plastic tarp over the furniture Jenna was storing in the Morgans’ garage and brushed the dust off his hands. “You’re sure everything else goes inside?”
    Jenna nodded and wiped her face on the sleeve of her T-shirt.
    “Okay, then.” He pulled down the garage door behind them, and Jenna followed him around to the front of the Morgans’ house on the circle drive.
    Clarissa waited on the front porch, holding the door open. The three of them had spent all day moving Jenna’s things out of her Brookside house and into Bill’s fourth garage bay.
    It had taken longer than she’d anticipated, and despite the brisk November wind, she was sweaty, tired, and hungry.
    And homesick.
    She supposed one could say she’d moved up in the world. She had the most desirable address in the Falls now—Clairemont Hills. Butalready she missed the Brookside house—and everything it had represented about how far she’d come.
    Today, locking up the house for the last time—the house she and Zach had shared—had hit her harder than she’d expected. It didn’t help that Clarissa had kept up a teary running commentary about her “sweet Zachary” the entire time they were loading boxes.
    Bill looked up at the gray skies and mumbled under his breath. All day he’d lamented having to move his precious restored Karmann Ghia to make room for Jenna’s things. The vintage car had gone in the bay where Bill’s woodworking shop was. She felt bad about that and had offered to rent a storage unit for her furniture. But she couldn’t afford the monthly fee and they knew it. Bill would have ended up having to pay that bill, too.
    So many things to worry about. At least tonight she would keep busy setting up her new digs in the Morgan’s walk-out basement. She grabbed a suitcase from the back of Clarissa’s vehicle and headed toward the front door.
    Bill shouldered a stack of boxes and started down the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Quincy followed, yapping and wagging his tail furiously.
    “Wait, Bill. … Those go downstairs. To my room.”
    He turned and looked past Jenna to his wife, confusion drawing his brows together.
    Clarissa waved him on down the hall. “No, go on. You’re right.” She glanced at Jenna, looking sheepish. “I thought I mentioned … We’re going to put you in the guest room up here instead. We just got to thinking that if you took over