A Perfect Day by Richard Paul Evans Read Free Book Online

stomach for it. I turned off my computer then sat back in my La-Z-Boy with my eyes closed, my stocking feet up on its footrest.
    After a few minutes I heard Allyson’s soft footsteps on the floor above me. I could hear her cross the kitchen floor then descend the stairs. Embarrassment welled in my chest. I had no doubt that she had already concluded it had been a bad day. I didn’t look forward to telling her how bad it really was.
    The lights were off in my den, and the room was only illuminated from a lamp in the hallway. Allyson walked up behind me. She rested her hands on my shoulders and gently massaged me, working up to my neck. I leaned my head back, and she kissed my forehead then drew her long fingers up the sides of my neck and jaw, then up to my temples and massaged again. After a couple of minutes she said softly, “So what happened?”
    I took her hands from my head and just held them. I looked up at her. “I got fired.”
    “Fired?”
    “Stuart said that I wasn’t performing.”
    “But you’re their best salesman . . .” Allyson looked at me anxiously. “What does this mean?”
    “It means what it means.”
    She took her hands from me then came around the chair and sat in my lap, draping her arms around my neck. “Here, sweetie, let me hold you.” She pulled my head into her breast, cradling it in her arms. Suddenly my wall of stoicism cracked. I began to cry. She pressed her cheek against the top of my head.
    “It’s okay, honey.”
    She ran her hand down to my chin and lifted it until my gaze met hers. For a moment she just looked into my eyes.
    “What am I doing, Al? I’ve spent the last seven years selling air. Most of my friends are moving into the peak of their careers and I have nothing to show for my time. I’m such a failure.”
    “That’s not true. You’re the most wonderful husband and father on this planet. No one could take such good care of us.”
    “That’s a joke. We live hand to mouth. Mark’s taking Becca on a Tahitian cruise for her thirtieth. You got a mixer.”
    “I asked for a mixer. And you’re all I need, Robert. You’re my life.”
    I shook my head. “Well, this isn’t what I thought my life was going to be. Working at the radio station was supposed to be temporary until I got my writing off the ground. How much more of a loser could I be, getting fired from a career I never really wanted to begin with?”
    Allyson stroked my hair then pressed her forehead against mine. “Maybe this is really a blessing, Rob. Maybe it’s a sign that it’s time for you to chase your dream of becoming a writer.”
    “And how do we live in the meantime?”
    “Ever since Carson started school full day, I’ve been thinking about getting my old job back at Nordstrom.”
    “We can’t live on that.”
    “Not like we are, but we can get by. And we have savings.” She knit her fingers with mine. “Rob, you’ve wanted to do this since you were a boy. You’ve got to at least give it a try.”
    I looked down at our hands. They were laced together in a tangle of flesh.
    “Rob, I don’t want you to hate yourself for what you might have been. But I especially don’t want you to resent Carson and me for keeping you from your dreams. So take some time and finish your book. Maybe you could get a job selling on the side, maybe not. But you have to do this. Without dreams life is a desert.”
    After a moment a slim smile broke on my lips. “I don’t deserve you.”
    “Yes, you do.” She pushed her lips onto mine and I lost myself in her softness. “Now come to bed. I want my man next to me.”

Chapter 9
    N ew hopes are a fountain of energy. I found my self filled with an exhilaration I hadn’t known since I was fresh out of college and the world looked like the up escalator. I made a trip to a nearby office store and outfitted my den with everything I thought I needed for writing: a dictionary, thesaurus, describer ’s dictionary, notepads, mechanical pencils, Post-it