Read Online Learning by Karen Kingsbury - Free Book Online Page A

spend more time on Skype than together.”
    He opened his mouth, mock indignation flashing in his expression. “Hardly.”
    “Oh, yeah,” she giggled at him, at the way he was always such an actor. “Your movie shoots take you all over the world.”
    “Yes, but …” His look was still overly dramatic. “You’re forgetting something.”
    “What’s that?” She was closer to the screen now, her eyes melting into his.
    “Every movie I make … from this point on … is going to star you and me together.” He shrugged, as if the matter had already been decided. “We’re too good a team. I’ve already decided. Of course … when you open tomorrow you’ll take Broadway by storm, and then I may have to figure a way to sweeten the deal. You know, to convince you.”
    “You’re crazy, Brandon.” Again she laughed. “Okay … seriously. I really have to go.”
    “Okay. I’ll be thinking about you tomorrow night.” He gave her a sweetly stern look. “Don’t be down on yourself. You’ll do great. And I’ll be praying for you.”
    “Thanks.”
    He held his arms out in a circle. “This is me hugging you.”
    She laughed and tried to keep a straight face as she did the same thing. “This is awkward … but here’s me doing the same thing.”
    His fingers came close to the screen until they took up most of it. “And this is me touching your heart.” This time he wasn’t kidding.
    His eyes made her feel breathless, not sure what she was supposed to say or where they were taking this. But she did the only thing she could do. She brought her fingers to the top of the screen where the camera was located and she saw in the small box at the bottom of her screen that the effect was the same for him as when he’d done it for her. “There. That’s me touching yours.”
    “You didn’t need to do that, Bailey.” His smile mesmerized her … and again she had to work to keep from being swept away.
    “Why?”
    “Because … you already touch my heart. Every hour … every day. Without Skype or texting or even saying a single word.”
    She tilted her head, her smile reaching all the way through her. “Goodnight, Brandon.”
    “Goodnight.”
    She hated ending a Skype conversation with Brandon, hated watching his image disappear from the screen. But she had no choice. She needed her sleep. Tomorrow she had a run-through early in the day, and then a quick lunch break, and after dinner she would perform her part in
Hairspray
for the first time.
    As the computer screen went black, Bailey slid her chair over and looked through her Bible on her desktop. She had been reading Philippians lately, and tonight she was on chapter four. But as she found her place, something else caught her attention. She looked up and her eyes fell on the photo of her and Cody, the only one of the two of them that she had put up in her new room. The one they had taken after a long walk last summer.
    Everything about her face, her look, shouted that she was in love. Her eyes danced and his spoke volumes about how much he cared for her. How he would always care. Next to the photo was the Winnie the Pooh, and the other half of the sunglasses — thepair Cody had broken at the Lake Monroe beach last Fourth of July. Maybe it was time to take the picture down. She hadn’t heard from him at all, which meant that no matter how difficult that meeting at the hospital had been for him, he had moved on. If he thought about her, he would text or call. Something.
    She reached toward the picture to take it down or turn it around … anything but seeing Cody’s face stare at her while she tried to read her Bible. Anger stiffened the edges of her soul and she bit the inside of her lip. How could he care so little about her? Even tonight … when he had to know she was having her first performance sometime soon. He wasn’t a nice guy … that was all she could figure. She’d been wrong about him all along.
    But just as she was about to grab the photo and