Read Online One Tuesday Morning & Beyond Tuesday Morning Compilation by Karen Kingsbury - Free Book Online Page A

care if President Bush was calling you, Murphy could've handled the teleconference.” She huffed. “Josh needed you tonight. It took Jenna half an hour to calm him down.”
    “That's ridiculous. He's old enough to—” Eric stopped himself and paused. “I passed Jenna on my way out of the neighborhood. He wasn't alone for three minutes, Laura.”
    “Okay, so you had your phone call. You could've come home.”
    “Things came up.” He let loose a long sigh. “You know how it is before a trip. Don't do this now, Laura, please.”
    Suddenly, she could feel Clay's arms around her, hear him reminding her not to do anything crazy, and that everything was going to be okay. But Clay was wrong. Everything was wrong, for that matter. What was happening to her? When was the last time she'd read her Bible or prayed about her relationship with Eric? Everything that ever mattered was unraveling like a half-knit sweater, and she couldn't think of a single way to stop it.
    Worse, she didn't want to stop it.
    When she spoke again, the fight was gone from her voice. “I'm going to sleep, Eric. When you get home from New York we need to talk.”
    “Talk?” For the first time that night, the slightest hint of fear spilled over into his words. “Don't overreact, Laura. You know how busy I've been.”
    “Yes, I know. Josh knows too.” She closed her eyes. “That's why we need to talk.” Her voice broke, but she did her best to cover it. “We can't go on like this, Eric. I can't.”
    Silence hovered between them, then Eric's tired sigh sounded over the phone line. “You're right. I get back early Thursday afternoon.” His voice was kinder than before. “I'll come straight here and take you to dinner. I promise, Laura … things'll slow down. I'll make it up to you and Josh. Give me a chance.”
    Normally, Eric's promises melted her, even though he rarely made good on them. But tonight she was too tired, too hurt to care. “Good night, Eric.”
    He hesitated. “Plan on dinner, okay?”
    “We'll see. I have to go.”
    They hung up with no declarations of love or assurances that the other would be missed. Laura returned the phone to its place on the wall and tried to remember the last time Eric had told her he loved her. Two months? Three, maybe? Was this the man she'd thought would rescue her from a childhood of sorrow and abandonment? The man she'd thought would share her dreams of happily ever after?
    And what about Josh? Eric had never once told the boy he loved him, even after she confronted Eric about the issue back when their son was four. Not one time.
    “You love him, don't you?” They'd been finishing up dinner, and Josh had gone out back to play.
    “Josh?” Eric had looked surprised. “Of course.”
    “Then tell him. A boy needs to hear that from his father.”
    Eric had dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “That's ridiculous. My father never said it to me.”
    “Your father wasn't a Christian.”
    “Maybe I'm not either.” The moment he'd said the words his face had looked stricken. “I … I didn't mean that.”
    But he had meant it, of course. Eric hadn't been to church with her since the stillborn death of their tiny daughter a year after they were married. At the time Laura had thought the loss was infinitely harder on her than Eric. Until one afternoon when she came home to their small apartment and found him in the baby's bedroom, sitting in the rocking chair they'd bought at a garage sale.
    It was the only time before or since that she'd seen him weep.
    “Why, Laura?” He'd been utterly broken, his usual confidence shattered. “Why would God take her?”
    “He didn't take her.” Laura had knelt between his legs, gripping his wrists and trying her best to help him understand. “It's just one of those things.”
    “No, it's not.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Because I'm still in school and God didn't help us and no one'll give us decent medical care. Otherwise she would've lived.”
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