All That Lies Broken (Ashmore's Folly Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

enough. I missed you.” She heard vague traffic noises in the background. “I’ll be out of the office until early afternoon. I’m meeting a client, then I have a board meeting at Julie’s school this evening. Hold on.” A few seconds of silence. “The meeting won’t end until ten – we’re voting on a capital campaign to build a fine arts center, and it’s going to be contentious – but I could swing by for a few minutes if you’ll be up.”
    “Sure.” Laura stretched out in the pale sunlight filtering in through the draperies. “I’ve got errands to run today—” a new bank account, cell phone, and credit card, at the very least— “I’m not going very far. I’ve got to do some work. That concert is coming up fast.”
    She had missed this, the coordinating of schedules, the mundane recital of plans for the day. Even when she and Cam had exchanged only the bare recital of facts – I’m working on a new code stream, don’t interrupt me unless the house is burning down – I’m working in the studio, just call if you need me – there had been a comfort, a security, in meshing their schedules together, in knowing that their activities mattered to each other.
    Richard must have driven under a bridge; she’d missed a few words. “—doing for the 4th? Are you going to Texas?”
    Laura sat up and shoved her pillows against the headboard. “No. Meg’s going to the lake with some friends. I don’t want to be with Mark and Emma if she isn’t there.” She needed to talk to Mark about Dominic’s checks, one more thing to add to the day’s list. “How about you?”
    He laughed. “Here’s where I start shamelessly imposing on you. I usually hold a get-together on July 4th– I get rid of all my entertaining obligations for the year in one fell swoop. My partner’s wife usually shares the hostess duties with Lucy, but she’s on call for the ER, and I don’t want Lucy to do it by herself. The food’s catered, and people usually bring dessert – not a lot to do, but if you could help Lucy supervise—”
    “Oh, not a problem.” Her heart picked up the pace. She wondered what role she was to play, sister-in-law, childhood friend, or significant other. Lucy would probably place her firmly in the little sister/sister-in-law slot. “I have to call Lucy today anyway. I’ll get the details from her.”
    “I appreciate it.” On the surface, Richard sounded brisk, professional. The traffic noises in the background were dying down; he must be north of Richmond by now. “Listen, I’m at the site – I’ll try to email you this afternoon, and I’ll see you tonight.”
    Max reasserted his dominance as she hung up, throwing himself against her in a bid for attention and food. He let her pet him for a few minutes before he made it clear that she had tried his patience long enough. He wanted food, and he wanted it now . She threw on her robe and followed him downstairs.
    Once he buried his face in his bowl, she brewed a cup of tea and took it out to the terrace where she and Richard had talked a mere two days before.
    Between that morning and this lay Monticello, and nothing would ever be the same again. She’d thought on this terrace, then, that everything had changed, but she’d not even known what that meant. She hadn’t known of the titanic shift still to come, when he had finally told her about Francie and she had finally accepted the past. When she had told him she wasn’t letting him go. When she had claimed him.
    She held the cup to her lips and let the tendrils of steam from the tea steal across her face.
    The world had changed. They had changed. We stand together . This was real, this was serious. This was exactly the disaster Lucy had feared.
    She wondered how they were going to deal with the real world – the world of Julie and Lucy and Diana and Meg, the world where they did not exist only unto themselves. Their weekend out of time had run out of time; they were back in their everyday