Love's Awakening Read Online Free Page A

Long Island. Oklahoma City. She was not necessarily in Northern Virginia. David won’t be home. How can that be? Three days ago, he was walking around, living...fucking someone else?
    Stop at Baskin-Robbins.
    Stop at the mall.
    Stop at the flower shop.
    Go to Dulles. Buy plane tickets for somewhere. Anywhere that’s not here. I bet Rome is good this time of year.
    “We’re here,” Lynn announced.
    Celia wandered upstairs to the nursery. Her breasts could wait a few more minutes. She and David had not finished the nursery, but the necessities were complete. Crib, fresh green paint on the walls, diaper changing table, rocking chair. Baby book. Celia slumped to the floor, pressing the book to her lips. The leathery kiss of dead cow failed to comfort her. No faux leather for her husband. First-class all the way for David Hall, yes sir. Always.
    About a year ago, David arrived home with a gift. “Here,” David said, an impish and quite unusual light in his expression.
    “A baby book?”
    David’s lips tugged up. “Let’s have a baby soon. What do you say?”
    Confusion washed through Celia. Before their wedding, before their engagement, they had talked about kids—or rather, the lack of them. David preferred not to have more children, and that was fine with Celia. She would rather have kids, but it wasn’t a make or break issue. Plenty of pros to not having kids, and this way, she wouldn’t have to gain tons of weight and watch her body crumble before her very eyes.
    “A baby?” Celia asked. “Do you mean—I don’t understand.”
    David’s grin widened. “Come on! Let’s have a baby.”
    “A baby,” Celia repeated. She would not bring up David’s age. Life was unpredictable. She could die years before David. There was work, though. Celia was making inroads in her job, with her promotion to manager.
    David deflated. “I was at the park today on my lunch break. Really cute kid there, maybe a year old. He kept saying ‘mama!' ‘mama!' I realized that…” David’s cheeks flushed. “Stupid, huh? Never mind. His smile was, I don’t know. He looked like Oliver. Hard to explain. I just…” David sighed. “You want kids. Now I do, too.”
    David rarely was at a loss for words and hated to show weakness. This is serious. For real. David’s face had lit up in a way Celia saw only occasionally. The light in her husband’s expression was pure, unbridled, joyous.
    Slowly, Celia wrapped her arms around David. “Sure,” she said. “Let’s have a baby.” Work would always be there. Family took priority.
    The first page of the baby book held four pictures: David and Celia, two months pregnant, four months pregnant, six months pregnant and from only last week, eight months pregnant. The next few pages showed photos from the baby shower and copies of a couple of sonograms. Celia flipped back to the first page, focusing on the photo of her two months pregnant, her baby bump truly only a bump. David beamed in a pinstripe business suit and purple tie. His hand protectively covered Celia’s stomach. The photo was taken just before their marriage nosedived.
    That was another life. Yesterday was another life.
    Celia wanted to cry. Tried to cry. Could not. I’ll cry when the phone call comes. It’s happened. Your husband, your son’s father, passed away. Peacefully.
    *****
    Oliver liked the middle school Paul Joseph and Erin Elizabeth attended, although he wondered if they felt out of place there. Paul and Erin lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, and their school was full of white faces. Paul and Erin were fairly dark, although Erin was lighter than her brother. Just a bit lighter.
    Paul’s baseball game was in the third inning when Oliver arrived, and the boy manned third base. Easy to tell which one he was: the only black face. For that reason too, identifying Erin and her parents in the stands was easy. Oliver sat as far from them as possible. He wore sunglasses and a hat to help conceal himself. He was in no