A Breath Until Forever by Keira D. Skye Read Free Book Online

up by black suspenders. He was a fashionable man, but in a strange more flamboyant way, and she often wondered if that perhaps he was gay, and he hadn't wanted to tell his family. And that was the real reason why he left Thunder Valley. But it wasn't for her to judge, or interfere in Mr. Cambria's personal life, and so she left it at that, shaking her hand, thinking that he was a nice man, with a nicer smile, and made the deal for her to travel to Thunder Valley to paint ten pictures. Nine to hang up in the suites at his new hotels, and one for him, to hang up at his private home in Miami above a fireplace mantel in replacement of the swordfish he caught in the Canary Islands back in 1965.
     
    “Getting back to his roots. Hmmm.” Joshua looked like he was thinking hard now, his eyes wandering around to another place. “Wonder why he wants to remember this place, after forgetting about it such a long time ago and running away from it.”
     
    Meredith instantly thought about Mr. Cambria's alleged lifestyle, but she stayed quite about her judgments. Looks could be deceiving, and she didn't want to give her judgment any less satisfaction. “People can be strange, I guess.” Was Meredith's answer, which seemed to have been suffice for Joshua, for Joshua answered with a nonchalant, “I imagine so.” and left it at that, not speaking of Mr. Cambria for a very long time after that.
     
    “Listen, pretty lady, would you like a drink?” Asked Joshua, who was starting to feel a little guilty about not remember his manners.
     
    “Would love one.” Said Meredith. She had a rough long journey to Thunder Valley, and a drink was more then welcome in her life right now. “You got a rum and coke around?”
     
    “I gotta Coke.” He offered. Being that Meredith was a pretty woman, and Joshua had instantly been attracted to her, he decided to flirt a little, and see where it led him. “But you are going to have to work for that rum.” He gave Meredith a  little wink. Meredith smiled a 'hard to get' smile, and Joshua fell for it.
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    A cold rain swept up against the old planked ranch house in the south North Carolinian valley. Winter had just passed and Spring was unearthing it's new birth. It had been raining for five days straight now, and the storms that it rode with, were hungry and feverish. A tornado had even touched down nearly three miles away from this place leaving a path of devastation and destruction Joshua had just gotten a raise at his job at the engine plant and he was drinking a nice cold beer in celebration. Joshua watched the rain through a dirty window, seeing the view towards the North Hills thinking of Adrienne. She had died in that tornado that happened just days before, from something that he would rather not remember as it was so horrendous that the pain emotionally crippled him. It had been on her birthday. They had just moved into a trailer home for a few weeks before, crushingly happy that they could buy and build a happy home together. He told her he was going to surprise her he left, when he returned there was nothing there. She had blown away in the wind, along with their dog had been found underneath a heaping stack of ? He remembered holding her in his arms. And although he knew she was dead, the life out of her, she was cold and white he tried to breathe life into her. Joshua thought of her now and the gentleness she had offered to him the goodness of a kind hearted young good woman who kept him steady in his ways, who helped him to steer out of trouble. She had given him a second chance at life and kept him away from the bad history that he seemed to always get himself into.
     
    He had called his mother. He remembered crying for hours and each of them had the words to make this even anymore comfortable. She hadn't even made it to her 21 st birthday. He had been working hard, working up to 80 hours a week at AR Steel Company where he worked as a machine operator, and he had