Read Online Forever by Linda Cassidy Lewis - Free Book Online

sighed. She wanted to keep her relationship with Tom like a locket lying under her shirt, held warm and secret between her breasts. But she’d shared a lot of life with her baby sister, most of it bad, and not sharing this good part seemed selfish.
    Annie laid the brush on her nightstand and divided her hair in thirds. As she started braiding, she opened up to Kate. “He is handsome. He is tanned. And he does look like he’s in good shape— although I haven’t seen that for myself,” she added, anticipating Kate’s next question. “He’s got this great voice, deep and”—Annie closed her eyes for a moment, remembering—“it stirs something inside me when he talks.”
    Like a delighted child, Kate hugged her knees to her chest. “He sounds perfect. Tell me more.”
    Spurred on by Kate’s excitement, Annie propped a pillow against the headboard of the bed so she could sit facing her sister. “There’s something Tom and I have in common.” She hesitated, not sure how Kate would react. “When we met at the Cineplex, something really weird happened to us. Remember the dream I told you Sunday morning about the man dying in the woods?”
    “Yeah, it really creeped me out.”
    “Well, it wasn’t exactly a dream.”
    Once Annie started talking she didn’t stop until she’d told Kate all of it. All, except that Tom was married.
    Kate listened wide-eyed until Annie finished and then gushed, “That’s so beautiful . Like destiny or something. You lost each other in a past life, but now you get a second chance. It’s so romantic .”
    It did sound beautiful and romantic—and simple—when Kate said it, but then Kate was missing a key piece of the story.
    “So, when do I get to meet him?”
    “I don’t even know when I’m going to see him next.” In one swift motion, Annie swung her legs off the side of the bed and started aimlessly rearranging things on her dressing table. The warm glow she’d retained from earlier in the evening had vanished. The cold light of day had dawned at twenty-seven minutes past nine.
    Kate moaned. “He’s married , isn’t he?”
    Fighting back the tears, Annie nodded. “Ironic, huh? I’ve fallen in love but with someone else’s husband.” Her tears won the battle.
    Kate pulled Annie down beside her and held her while she cried. Her voice soft, Kate reminisced. “Remember all the times we huddled together like this, when we were kids? Mama and Daddy drinking and cussing at each other? Only then, it was you holding on to me, telling me everything would be all right.”
    Annie nodded against Kate’s neck.
    “Then Daddy would slam the door and burn rubber down the street. After all that noise, the silence seemed almost scary. We’d finally fall asleep, our arms still wrapped around each other.” Tenderly, Kate stroked Annie’s hair. “You were always the peacemaker, Annie, trying to make everyone happy, trying to keep the family together.”
    With Kate rocking her like a baby, Annie relaxed and her eyes grew heavy. Kate lowered Annie’s head to the pillows, kissed her forehead and whispered, “I hope you get what you want, Sissy.”

6
    June 8, part two
    N aked and with eyes closed, Eddie lay on his bed masturbating as he recalled one of the many pleasant nights of long ago.
     
    Maggie slumped naked in the corner of the room. He appraised her condition with contempt. If only she’d obey without a struggle he wouldn’t have to beat her so badly. As he stepped toward her, she dared to beg him.
    “Please . . . no more.”
    He laughed and kicked her in the stomach. “You’re a filthy whore, and I’ll do anything I want to you because I own you.”
    Her pain excited him. The dark, fetid smell of sex and blood oozing from her cunt and ass excited him. That she was young excited him most of all.
    He grabbed her by the hair and pulled. “On your knees, bitch.”
    She opened her mouth without being told to.
    “Good girl. You’re learning.”
     
    Eddie’s smile