Kiss Me Hello Read Online Free Page A

sound concerned—and she was—but she couldn’t hide her excitement. She was going to see Turtledove Hill again. “I have a bad feeling about it,” she said. “Aunt Amelia didn’t sound very happy. I don’t think she likes the rehab place.”
    “Who would?” Bram made a face. “It’s probably full of old people. Sick old people.”
    Sara was used to Bram’s comments about older people. She’d given up trying to change his attitude. “I wish I could go right now.”
    “She said to wait, and she’s right.” Bram still ate like an athlete. He raced through his Moroccan chicken. “In two weeks school will be out, and she’ll be home from rehab. Better for both of you. She’ll need you more then.”
    “That’s true.” Sara picked at her Caesar salad. It was too soon after lunch, and she wasn’t hungry. “When I go, why don’t you come with me, just for a few days?”
    “Nah.” Bram pushed his empty plate away. “She wants to see you, not me. And I could use the space.”
    “Space.” Sara put her fork down. Sometimes Bram could really hurt her feelings without realizing it.
    “Ah, come on. I love ya, babe.” He smiled and raised one eyebrow. He knew she loved that. “But you know I can’t write when you’re around.”
    “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
    She acted like she was joking, but her smile was a lie. She was dead sure how she felt about it. She hated it. It felt wrong that Bram couldn’t be creative when she was in the same room. It would be more romantic to be a muse, not an obstacle.
    “Aunt Amelia would like you.”
    “I doubt that.”
    “If you spent a little time with her, you wouldn’t dislike old people so much.” Actually, that might not be true. The one time Sara saw Aunt Amelia, she wasn’t very friendly. But Sara remembered liking her anyway.
    “I don’t dislike old people,” Bram said. “I’m just not used to them.”
    “Not just old people. Anybody over forty.”
    Before he finished kindergarten, all four of Bram’s grandparents had died. His father was killed in Iraq when he was ten, and his mother had died of cancer when he was sixteen, just before Sara met him. She believed his aversion to the elderly came from the same place as his need to flirt. It was all about his fear of death.
    The first time they had sex, he collapsed on top of her and said, “Fucking is the opposite of dying.” It sounded philosophical and deep, and it made her feel powerful and necessary.
    “Everybody dies,” he said now. “Especially old people. I can’t be near that.”
    She wasn’t going to argue with him. “Aunt Amelia must hate being away from Turtledove Hill.”
    “She’s eighty-five. She should get out of there,” Bram said. “Sell it. A couple hundred acres in the middle of nowhere.”
    “She’s lived there sixty years,” Sara said. Sixty years of constancy, dependability. It must be wonderful.
    Bram stabbed a piece of the chicken on Sara's salad with his fork. “Are you going to eat this?” He knew her too well. When she started pushing her food around, she was finished.
    “Marie got a final notice.” She slid the plate over to him. “I forgot to check the mail yesterday. I’ve had intimations of doom ever since she told us.”
    “You’ll squeak through.” Bram’s face clouded over at the mention of RIFs. “You’re safe.”
    “If I taught math or science, maybe. Today Charlotte threatened to quit. Her husband made partner at his firm, and she’s been talking about having another baby anyway.”
    “Nice to have a choice.”
    Thoughts of children made Sara restless again. Envious, if she’d admit the truth. “Where are we going, Bram?” she blurted out. Her heart pounded hard. Had she really said that?
    Bram closed up. He sat back in the booth, and his eyes dulled. “What?”
    “We’re closer to thirty than twenty.” This would make him uncomfortable, but this was important. This was their marriage. “We should be more … I