A Moment of Weakness by Karen Kingsbury Read Free Book Online Page A

whisper. “I have nothing against your hospital, Jade. I’m an intern. They sent me a file and I wrote a brief. When I reported in this morning, they told me I was in charge of the presentation.”
    Jade released a shaky sigh and then, for the first time that afternoon, she gave a short laugh. “I should have known. Those snakes on the board used you as their scapegoat.”
    Tanner watched her, a dozen questions filling his mind. He ran a thumb along her cheek and allowed himself to get lost in the memories her face evoked. As he did, he felt his eyes brimming with unshed tears. “You never came back.”
    Jade could manage only a slight shake of her head as her eyes grew watery again.
    He thought back to that afternoon on his front lawn, the day Jade said good-bye. It was all coming clearer now. “You were going to meet your mama in Kelso.” He was transfixed, trapped in her gaze, carried back to the spring of his twelfth year. “You were supposed to come back when summer ended.”
    A wall went up in Jade’s eyes and she stiffened. “We ended up staying.”
    “But why? What happened?”
    She stared at her hands, and he had the strong sense thatshe was wrestling with something. Finally she sighed. “Mama never came back.”
    “She didn’t?” Tanner frowned. “Where did she—”
    “I don’t know. Daddy still won’t talk about it.” Jade kept her eyes trained on her hands, and Tanner saw they were trembling. “I used to think she got killed in a car accident somewhere between Virginia and Washington.”
    “And now?”
    “I found a letter from her a year after we moved, postmarked D.C.” Jade’s expression was hard and Tanner realized the years must have been difficult for her. “She told Daddy to tell me she was sorry. That kind of thing.”
    The truth about what she was saying hit Tanner like a truck. Jade’s mother had walked out on her with no intention whatsoever of coming back. No wonder Jade never moved back to Virginia. His heart broke for her, and he pulled her close again, stroking the back of her head as if she were still the ten-year-old girl he had grown up with. “I’m sorry, Jade.”
    She remained stiff and although she allowed him to comfort her, Tanner could tell she wasn’t crying.
    “Have you heard from her since then?”
    “No. It doesn’t matter. She’s dead as far as I’m concerned.”
    Tanner got the point. The topic was closed. He pulled away again, this time completely. He had so much to tell her, so many years to make up for, but he didn’t want her to feel like he was prying. He leaned back against her car so they were standing side by side.
    “How old are you, anyway, Jade? Twenty, twenty-one?”
    She smiled, and Tanner could see she was glad he’d changed the subject. “Twenty-one. And you’re twenty-three.” She studied him for a moment. “So … if you’re an intern I guess you’re staying in town?”
    “Rented an apartment for the summer. Furnished. And one of the supervisors lent me a car. The internship lasts through August.”
    Jade cocked her head. “Where’s Princeton, anyway?”
    “New Jersey.”
    “Hmm.” Jade hugged herself and looked away. “You like it?”
    “It’s all right.” Tanner didn’t want to talk about Princeton and politics and his well-planned future. “So what’s it been? Twelve years?”
    “Eleven, I think. A lot’s happened since then.”
    Tanner gazed at the treetops behind city hall for a moment then back at Jade. “I thought about you all the time after you left, wondering what happened to you.”
    Jade hugged herself tighter. “The minute I saw you I thought … I thought you looked like my old friend, Tanner. The way I imagined you might look grown up.”
    Tanner watched her, how she brushed her hair back from her face and tilted her head just so. He was mesmerized by her, taken aback by the fact that his long lost friend wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes