Always For You (Books 1-3) by L. A. Shorter Read Free Book Online Page A

emotionally, but I
didn't care. It was helping me right now.
    My dad grew ever more frustrated with
me, and I him.
    “ Grace,”
he said to me one day as I trundled downstairs at 3 pm, “this is
unhealthy. You have to stop living like this. It's been weeks now.”
    I had no reply, not on that morning,
not on any morning. I'd grown apart from him, his constant nagging at
me to stay in, quit the job, work somewhere else. I'd grown tired of
Tom as well, always jealous, always questioning me when I didn't text
him back while working.
    He came into the bar one night and saw
me laughing with Marco over in the corner. He stormed over, his face
red, and threw his phone down on the table in front of us.
    “ I
texted you FOUR times over the last few hours, and I called you
twice. What the hell Grace, why the fuck are you being like this.”
    I saw Marco stifle a bit of a laugh as
his words began to crumble. “Tom, you're embarrassing me in front
of my friends. Look, I'll talk to you tomorrow, OK.”
    “ Screw
this Grace, you've changed. I love you but this is bullshit. Your mom
died months ago, get over it.”
    His words hit me like a knife in the
back. He'd never spoken to me like that, no one had. Before I could
reply Marco stood up, his frame carrying his wide shoulders far above
Toms. “You gonna come in here and talk to your own girlfriend like
that? You better get the fuck out before I throw you out on your
face.”
    I just sat there, tears once more
building in my eyes. I'd managed to keep them down for weeks, trying
not to think about it all, but he brought it all right back. “Grace,
I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I'm just finding this so
hard.”
    “ Just
leave Tom,” I said quietly through a whisper. “Leave.”
    He hesitated, his face full of remorse.
“Grace, I really didn't mean it. I can't believe I said...”
    “ LEAVE,”
I shrieked at the top of my voice, the smattering of customers left
in the bar all turning towards me.
    With that Marco grabbed Tom and dragged
him outside, throwing him out onto the cold street. I watched as he
kicked him in the stomach while he was down, seeing Tom squirm there,
gasping for air.
    I didn't care. Not anymore.

Chapter 9
    December
19 th 2012
    Cain
    Christmas
was always my least favorite time of year. Anyone without a family always said the same. Seeing
all those happy families out and about was like a dagger in my chest,
a reminder that I had no one. This year would be like the last couple
– alone in my flat with a bottle of whiskey and a heat up roast
dinner. Maybe I'd push the boat out and get a little tree.
    I'd
been working a lot recently, trying to take my mind off all that shit
from September. It wasn't easy, it had settled in there like a
splinter, always bothering me, a dull throb in my head. I was past
the worst of it though, and had been getting as many shifts as
possible at Foz where I worked. Brad had been doing the same, which was cool. That
guy's awesome .
    “ Bro!
Drinks later. No 'no's' mate,” he said in mid December, a week or
so before Christmas.
    “ When
do I ever say 'no'? Credit where it's due!” Brad was pretty much
the only guy I really liked in town, the only guy I, if ever, would
speak my mind to.
    I'd told him over a few too many drinks
one night about the crash, something he didn't even know about. He
wasn't one to watch the news, so it was quite refreshing to be able
to tell him about it and not have him pre-judge the situation.
    “ So
let me get this straight. You were cruising to check out a chick,
then dropped back and some guy swerved off and hit the car in front.”
I nodded. “Mate, nothing wrong there. It's that dickhead cars fault
for being too close in the first place. No wonder they didn't come
forward.”
    “ And
mate,” he continued, “then you go and rush in and save the chick,
try to save the mother, and almost die yourself. Fuck bro, what the
hell are you beating yourself up about for? Who else woulda done