Read Online The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series by LaDonna Cole - Free Book Online Page A

strode out onto the tarmac. The helicopter wasn’t a rental. The company owned the chopper.
    “I mean, I’m glad that we can all be there for Kate.”
    “I guess I should tell you.” The chopper revved up and so did my sense of urgency. “Hey, let’s go.”
    We ran to the helicopter, crawled inside, and the pilot whisked us away before we had our seat belts fastened. Donnie didn’t ask again and I didn’t volunteer the information. I think he chalked it up to stuff on my mind.
    I had called Kate four times since we left the village, when we first got on the chopper, and at each fueling. We couldn’t hear over the blades of the chopper so we mostly texted back and forth. Her texts were one or two word replies and she sounded bad at the refueling stops. She was not doing well. She couldn’t seem to force words out.
    Finally she texted, “Just get here.”
    I watched the clock tick by on the phone and felt we were never going to get there. Donnie slept most of the ride. At 2:45, the pilot squawked in my ear, and asked where I wanted him to set down. I told him to get as close to the First Presbyterian church as he possibly could.
    He consulted the other end of the radio and finally came back over the headphones. “There is a pad two blocks away.”
    I ground my teeth together and texted Kate that we were very close. She didn’t respond.
    We raced down five stories of the hospital where the helicopter landed and ran two blocks over to the church. We skidded to a stop at the front door, straightened our ties, smoothed our hair and entered the large arched front doors of the terracotta brick colonial styled building.
    The music played a somber hymn and the seats were already full. Donnie spotted Mel and went to sit with her. I found the assistant funeral director, and he took me to Kate.
    I walked into the formal family room and found her curled up in Trip’s lap, spasms shook her with each hitched breath. His eyes met mine and an unspoken challenge struck me. For a moment, I felt separate and other as I watched my best friend comfort my wife. I didn’t think he would relinquish her. But that fleeting thought seeped away as my heart broke for Kate. I knelt down in front of them.
    “Kate, darling,” I whispered. She turned bleary eyes to me, hollowed out with sorrow. No recognition registered on her face, just intense sadness. Deep inside a world of grief, Kate existed with the other lost ones. Ghosts of family memories haunted the halls where she walked. Nothing real remained.
    “Excuse me.”
    I wrenched my attention from Kate’s face to see who would interfere. Kate’s dad frowned down at me. I recognized him from her jump experience.
    “Mr. Wilson,” I stood and held out my hand. “I am so sorry for your loss.”
    “Who are you, young man?”
    “I’m Kate’s…uh…boyfriend.” The word stuck like cotton in my mouth. I couldn’t say what I truly meant to her, lover, husband, soul mate, thousand-year companion.
    “Boyfriend?” He snapped his eyes to Trip, who just happened to be kissing Kate on the forehead at that moment.
    She pressed into his chest seeking strength, solace.
    “Yes, sir.”
    He took me by the arm and dragged me to the door. “Listen, I don’t know what you think you are to Kate, but she has lost everything, everyone, and a silly crush isn’t going to help her right now. You meander in here at the last minute, seconds before the service starts and think you can what? Console her?”
    He pointed over to Trip. “Young man, she has a boyfriend, right there, a real man who has been here with her every moment for the last two days. He has never left her side. She has never left his embrace. I don’t think any little date you have been on with her can compete with that. So thank you for coming to offer your condolences, I’m sure there is a seat for you in the back somewhere.” He opened the door and handed me out, then slammed the door in my face.
    I didn’t know what to do.