Read Online If Wishes Were Horses by Robert Barclay - Free Book Online Page B

she would understand.
    Still, a sense of guilt haunted him. Was he right to allow the son of the drunk who had killed his family to participate in his late wife’s cherished dream? Had Jacobson been right when he said that this was what Krista would have wanted? Wyatt didn’t know and the longer he sat thinking, the more conflicted he became.
    Enough of this, he thought.
    Shrugging off his concerns, he stood and stretched. If he rose before dawn, he could arrive home in time to attend the last church service of the morning. Leaving the bottle behind, he walked through the cabin and extinguished the lamps. Wyatt checked his watch again then wound an old alarm clock sitting on the crude bedstead and set it to ring at five A.M. Finally he extinguished the last lamp and took off his clothes.
    Eager for sleep, he slipped naked into the master bed that he and Krista had once shared. For a time he lay there peacefully, wishing that her warm, seductive body was beside him in the Florida moonlight. As he listened to the various night creatures, Wyatt turned over and stretched his muscles across the welcome coolness of the sheets.
    He was asleep in minutes.

EIGHT
    T REVOR WAS IN a particularly sullen mood as Gabby navigated her weather-beaten Honda through the upscale streets of Boca Raton. It was Sunday morning, and she and her son were on their way to church. As she passed sidewalk cafes, palm trees, and trendy boutiques, Gabby realized that she would have to hurry to make the ten o’clock service at St. Andrew’s.
    Although living in Boca taxed the limits of her income, Gabby loved this stylish and beautiful city. She smiled to herself as she remembered something that Reverend Jacobson had mentioned in one of his sermons. In biblical times, prosperous cities were known as the lands of milk and honey, he said. But today, many upscale places like Boca Raton had become the lands of plastic surgery and stock options. Sadly, he had added, many modern-day people couldn’t tell the difference between the two, nor did they care.
    Because Trevor hated going to church, his last-minute acquiescence had come with a price. He would remain in his usual clothes or he wouldn’t go, he had said. Although Gabby liked to believe that she ruled the roost in her small family, in truth there was little she could do to force her son into the car. And so she had reluctantly agreed to Trevor’s demands, while also praying that his appearance wouldn’t draw too much disapproval from the well-to-do congregation.
    Gabby knew that today’s worship service would not convert Trevor to an avid churchgoer, nor was that her goal. She had another reason for wanting Trevor to accompany her. If Wyatt Blaine was there, Gabby would introduce him to her son. But most of all, she would make sure that Trevor thanked Wyatt privately for allowing him to enroll in the New Beginnings Program.
    She had waited to tell Trevor her motives until after they were well on their way. It had been a sneaky thing to do, but these days it seemed that sneakiness had become a necessary part of her life. She would be greatly relieved when Trevor started the program, and all this subterfuge was finished. Manipulating people wasn’t like her.
    As Trevor listened to his mother’s confession, his face flushed with anger. He surprised her by not saying a word, his only reaction one of scowling and slumping farther down in his seat. The brooding ghost of James Dean overcame him again as his pinched expression negated every trace of the fragile goodwill that had existed earlier. Gabby skillfully changed the subject, but Trevor’s only response was to defiantly turn up the collar of his red Windbreaker.
    That’s just as well, Gabby thought, as she turned into the St. Andrew’s parking lot. Let his dead alter ego take over for a while. If we’re going to be in church, I’d rather he be quiet than have to endure another angry outburst.
    As