After the Fall Read Online Free Page B

red,” he said, glancing at her feet. “But not too practical for a day like today.”
    â€œBefore you say, ‘I told you so,’ next time I come to Philly, I’m investing in some boots.”
    â€œBabe, you should take off those heels. Change into your sneakers.”
    â€œI just have to make it to the car. Once I get dropped off at the airport, the sidewalks will be shoveled. Right?” Laura looked down at her feet. “Should have packed flats. I have only myself to blame. Never was a Boy Scout—”
    â€œI’m taking you shopping myself,” Tim said, “for some big, furry boots.”
    Laura pulled on the coat, buttoned the top button, and ran her fingers over the stubble on Tim’s unshaved cheek.
    â€œUntil next Saturday in Tampa,” Tim said, taking one of her hands in his. “I love you, Laura. I want to spend my life with you.”
    Interrupted by the driver who’d come for her bags, Laura and Tim exchanged a kiss, then he placed the travel mug of coffee in her hands.
    â€œBetter get a move on,” the driver said. “Gonna be slow going on these roads.”
    â€œI’m ready,” said Laura, following him out Tim’s door, onto the elevator, and then out into the elements.

CHAPTER SIX
    M ONDAY , F EBRUARY 17
    A sense of abandonment swept over Tim as the elevator door closed behind Laura. Like his life was walking away, leaving him an empty shell. He’d asked her to marry him. After all those years of thinking about it, agonizing whether it was the right time. And now he’d gone and done it. What would be her response? That favorite Corinthians 13 quote came to mind. About the only biblical quote he knew:
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
For a time, he stood at the door to his apartment, until jarred back into the moment by the paper delivery man. A hefty man, who covered the prime addresses in Center City and probably made as much money as any academic surgeon.
    That trivial economic speculation started him thinking about where he and Laura should live. He’d already decided he’d move to Tampa. All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg would be happy to have him. But what would Laura want now that her kids were no longer in Tampa, but, rather, clustered about Philly? Mike permanently, the twins in med school. Kevin an architect in nearby Princeton, and Patrick in grad school at New York University, an hour’s train ride away. If Laura joined the staff at the University of Pennsylvania as a thoracic surgeon, would she be okay not being chief?
    â€œPaper, sir,” the carrier said. “Bad news. Hit and run right outside the Four Seasons.”
    Tim wasn’t in the mood for news, bad or otherwise, so he accepted the paper, murmured a “thanks,” and went back to his cup of coffee on the kitchen table. The snow was still falling, not enough yet to close the airport, so Laura’s flight should get off okay.
    He’d asked the hospital not to schedule any early cases, knowing Laura would spend the night, but now he found himself with extra time. He opened the
Philadelphia Inquirer
. On the front page he saw the headlines: “Keystone Pharma Vice President of Research Struck Dead Outside Four Seasons: Hit and Run. Dr. Fred Minn, sixty-seven years old…” The coffee in his mug slopped over the rim as his hand trembled. Minn was one of the men Laura had had dinner with last night. Tim checked the article for the time of the incident: 11:00 p.m. Frighteningly close to the time Laura had left the hotel. God, it could have been Laura. The Corinthians verse replayed in his mind.
    Tim reached for the telephone on the kitchen counter. He needed to call Laura. To tell her what happened. Obviously, she’d had no idea. She had one of those clunky cell phones. Hated using it, but with her job and her kids, she