Breaking Matthew Read Online Free Page B

across the lawn. But eventually she’d start patting him on the back, and he’d get the message. Then we’d head for home, and Mother and I’d finish preparing our big Sunday dinner.
    Nowadays, I was on my own most Sundays. Dr. Fisher and his wife went to a different church. James and Emma Rae rarely made it into town ’cause it was such a hassle. They’d head over to the big house with the Calhouns and have their own service, with a big family dinner following. They’d invited me a few times, but I avoided the Calhoun place whenever possible. Too much poison in those memories.
    Mother and Uncle Asa kept to themselves too. The year following the storm, he sold Grandma Graves’s place in Good Hope and bought a small farmhouse just outside of town. Wasn’t long till he and Mother married, which made many of my relatives uncomfortable to say the least. I guess some people just can’t let go of the past. But I thought it was wonderful. I couldn’t think of anything better than falling in love with someone a second time, after so much heartache. Theirs was a story of redemption, and it saddened me that so many of my good Christian neighbors and family couldn’t see it that way.
    I let out a deep sigh as I thought of them, wondering if I could catch a ride out to see Mother and Uncle Asa in time for dinner. I’d never get there in time if I walked. But just at that moment, I caught sight of Matthew Doyle approaching from across the street, and my skin went all tingly. He was coming right for me, and it was too late to pretend I hadn’t seen him. My mind went in all different directions, but one thought was clear. He was the last person I wanted to speak to on such a beautiful day.
    So I turned on my heels and headed for home with a deliberate pace I hoped communicated my intentions. I made certain not to look over my shoulder, but everything within me wanted to. Was he following after me? Had he really seen me? Had I really seen him? I thought I might have heard my name, but I wasn’t about to turn around to find out.
    When I reached the next intersection, I had to cross over to the side of the street I’d seen him on, and I couldn’t stop myself from taking a quick glance down the sidewalk to see if he was coming. He was there all right; I hadn’t imagined it. But he wasn’t walking toward me any longer. He was just standing there on the sidewalk, looking at me with his hands in his pockets. 
    My feet seemed to stop of their own accord. Some little part of me wanted to go to him, to fix everything that had gone wrong. But I just stood there looking at him, and he just looked back at me. We might have stood there like that for hours, maybe only seconds. I wasn’t sure. Sometimes, single moments have eternity wrapped up inside them. It was long enough for me to relive the heaviness in my chest from back when he’d looked at me like I was some kind of witch. It was long enough for me to remember my resolve to forget about Matthew Doyle. Then, just as he raised a hand to wave at me, I turned and persuaded my feet to start moving down the sidewalk again.
    I made it back to Ms. Harmon’s house, where I’d been renting a room for nearly a year. I hurried up the steps to the large wrap-around porch and glanced back to see if Matthew had come after me. He hadn’t, and I think that might have been the first full breath I took since I started walking. I pushed open the front door as quiet as possible, preferring to take a few solitary moments in my room to settle my nerves.
    But before I reached the stairs, Ms. Harmon pushed through the kitchen door and into the dining area to my right. She caught sight of me just as I reached out for the banister. “Miss Ruby, will you be joining us for dinner?”
    I paused with my foot on the first step. “No, ma’am. I just came by to freshen up. I think I’ll head over to Dr. Fisher’s.”
    She stopped beside me with her eyebrows raised like she was expecting trouble. “Now,