Rough Drafts Read Online Free

shaken Jameson’s entire family
to their core. With no history of trouble, both were given a Conditional
Discharge by the presiding judge. Scott and Craig would both be required to
enter a drug rehabilitation and counseling program and they would need to
complete a hundred hours of community service. All seemed well for the next
year. Even when Craig had dropped out of his classes again, no one suspected
that he and Scott had begun to fall back into their old ways. No one suspected
until that fateful night.
    “Jameson,”
Candace called to her wife. She gently coaxed Jameson to open her eyes. “There
is nothing you could have done,” she said knowingly.
    “You
don’t know that,” Jameson said. “How can you
know that ?” she asked.
    Candace
took a deep breath and released it slowly. She led Jameson to the bed to sit.
“Because, there is no what if in life, honey. There just isn’t.”
    Jameson
sighed and shook her head in dismay again. “He didn’t even call. How do I
forgive him for that? How could he not even call?” Jameson asked. Her voice had
lost its edge and fallen to almost a whisper.
    Candace
pulled Jameson into her arms. “I don’t know. Have you ever asked him that?” she
asked Jameson cautiously.
    Jameson’s
eyes flew open. “Ask Scott why he didn’t call for help?” Jameson asked. Candace
nodded. “No. Until today, I haven’t spoken more than hello to him in sixteen
years,” she said sadly.
    “Maybe
you should start there,” Candace suggested.
    “I
can barely look at him, ” Jameson
admitted. Candace gently caressed Jameson’s back and waited patiently for her
to continue. “Every time I see him….”
    “You
remember Craig,” Candace guessed the problem. Jameson nodded. Candace pulled
Jameson back onto the bed with her and into her arms.
    “It’s
my fault,” Jameson said softly.
    “No,
it isn’t,” Candace said flatly.
    “Maybe
if I had been there…”
    “Maybe,”
Candace admitted. “And, maybe not. Maybe it would have been a car crash. Maybe
something would have happened to you. There are no maybes, honey. I think, the
only maybe to consider is that the person you need to forgive is yourself.”
    Jameson
held onto Candace more tightly. “Maybe it is,” she confessed. “You fired Gollum
over this,” Jameson said bluntly. She’d seen an initial story on the evening
news. It had shown Jameson and her mother in a photo with the caption: Addicted to more than love? “Now,
someone has lost their job because of me too.”
    Candace
pulled Jameson to face her. “Jason lost his job because he failed to do it
properly,” she said assuredly. “Not because of you, Jameson. He’s been walking
a tightrope for months. Today it snapped. This campaign is only beginning in
earnest now. I can’t spend the next nine months babysitting my campaign
manager. It won’t work. Jason did this to himself.”
    “Is
this bad for you?” Jameson asked with a tinge of guilt in her voice.
    Candace
couldn’t help by laugh. “Bad for me? That you are working on a project in
memory of your cousin? Hardly,” she said as she placed a kiss on Jameson’s
temple. “Dana has it under control. You don’t need to worry about that at all.”
    “I
do worry,” Jameson said.
    “Don’t,”
Candace told her. She kissed Jameson’s lips gently. “I am worried about you.”
    Jameson
brushed a strand of hair out of Candace’s eyes and smiled. “I’ll be okay. It’s
just something I have to do. I’m just not sure how I am going to do it right
now.”
    Candace
understood. “Why now?” she asked gently.
    Jameson
shrugged in Candace’s embrace. “You’ll laugh.”
    “At
you?” Candace asked. “I doubt that.”
    “I
don’t know. After we got back from Marianne’s, I just kept thinking about them. I mean…maybe it was being with the kids. I just couldn’t help but think about
Craig. About how things were before…I don’t know.”
    Candace
smiled. She placed a tender kiss on Jameson’s