Completing the Pass Read Online Free Page A

they’d met at a playgroup for twelve- to twenty-four-month olds. Carri had been on the young end and Josh on the old. But the two mothers had formed a fast relationship, having experienced their first childbirth, first round of diapers and bottles and sleepless nights. Their only children, for both moms, as it turned out, and they’d even bonded over that.
    â€œIt’s like old times, isn’t it?” Gail beamed at Josh. He gave her a weak smile back. “You two catching up?”
    â€œYeah, just picked right back up where we left off,” Carri said, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
    Josh bit back a laugh. She had claws and knew where to sink them in . . . but she’d always had a knack for the deadpan. That definitely hadn’t changed.
    â€œOh, look at these flowers!” Maeve gushed as she hustled over to the side table Josh had left his arrangement on. They were a little overdone, but when the man you consider a father is in the hospital,
overdone
doesn’t seem like such a sin. “They just brighten the room right up. Carri, come look at these. Josh, you shouldn’t have.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t have,” Carri echoed, walking up beside her mother and sliding a smaller vase of flowers around to sit in front of his offering.
    Hers, he assumed.
    â€œHow about you two go get some coffee?” Maeve said, hugging Carri from the side. Gail walked up behind him and patted him on the shoulders.
    â€œYes, go. Go chat about young-people things.”
    â€œI just got coffee with you,” Carri said through her teeth. “And I have a soda now.” She held up the bottle as evidence, as if anyone was going to call her a liar. “Thanks anyway. I’ll just—”
    â€œYeah, let’s get some coffee.” Josh stood, suddenly eager to needle her a bit more. It had been a favorite pastime of his as a kid . . . Couldn’t hurt to pick the hobby back up as a distraction. “C’mon Carri, I won’t bite.”
    Both the mothers giggled. They had that effect on each other. They could be conniving, manipulative mother hens one minute and giggly school girls the next.
    â€œI want to stay with Dad.” Her face set in a mulish expression Josh knew all too well, Carri crossed her arms again and planted her feet. “Thank you for coming by, Gail.”
    Message received.
I’m not thanking you, Josh.
You can go now.
    Josh sighed and reached for her arm, intending to gently tug her with him into the hall. “I—”
    â€œNo!”
    They all whirled around at Herb’s exclamation. The old man thrashed in the bed, waving his arms and trying to pull out his IV. “Don’t you hit her! Don’t you touch my little girl! Get away from her!”
    â€œHerb!” Maeve rushed at him, trying to hold him down. Gail ducked out into the hallway, assumedly to get help. Carri froze, hand covering her mouth.
    â€œDaddy!” she called out. “Dad, it’s okay! It’s Josh. Josh Leeman.” Coming unfrozen, she grabbed Josh, pulling him close to her, wrapping an arm around his back and placing a hand flat against his chest. “Remember?”
    The sudden burst of sensation at his body being so tight against Carri’s warred with the real and visceral fear for Herb as Maeve fought to keep him from leaping out of bed . . . and the uncomfortable knowledge that for much of his life, Josh had fought against touching her, for fear of cooties.
    Herb’s eyes were wild and he glanced around the room. As if the wind had been sucked out of him, he slumped, half on Maeve, half onto the bed. Carri brushed past Josh to help her mother angle him back into bed just as a male nurse bustled in.
    â€œOkay there, Mr. Gray. Let’s get you settled back in bed now.”
    â€œI don’t know you,” Herb said, sounding almost childlike with fear and wonder. “I