Choices by Sara Marion Read Free Book Online

Maybe that’s what he is giving me right now.”
     
    “He’s not!” Paxton was taken aback. Duke hadn’t raised his voice like that in such a long time. She stared at him and there was a look of pity on his face.
     
    “How do you know?” Paxton waited for a response but he said nothing as he looked away. Paxton knew he was hiding something.  “How do you know that we aren’t going to be together?” No response. “Duke, tell me. What do you know?”
     
    “He’s with Kenleigh. I saw him when I was at my conference.”
     
    Paxton gasped. She shook her head. She thought back to the night of the gallery opening. She wondered if Jack misinterpreted her when she said she needed more time. Did he think she didn’t love him anymore? Was he really with Kenleigh now?
     
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you but I don’t want you wasting any more time on him.”
     
    “You’re lying. I think I would have seen something by now if it were true.” Paxton knew it wasn’t true because she looked him up every once in a while. No picture of him and Kenleigh ever appeared. There were a few of him and his parents but nothing with Kenleigh.  Duke didn’t know she kept tabs on Jack. She wanted to avoid fights like these.
     
    “I’m not. I went to see him.”
     
    She pulled her phone out of her purse. She dialed Jack’s number. She stared directly at Duke. She would prove him wrong. It rang and went to voicemail. She hung up and tried again. She stared at him and the emotion flickering across his face made Paxton believe he wished he was lying to her. She waited as it kept ringing, voicemail picked up again. He was ignoring her calls. Her heart broke a little more. Duke was right. Jack would have never ignored her if she called twice in a row. She stared at her phone as if it were a foreign object. Paxton didn’t understand what was happening. She felt Duke pull her into a hug. She pulled away.
     
    “Please leave.” Her voice was quiet and she didn’t want to break down in front of Duke. He would only try to stay and smother her. Part of her wanted him to stay but she needed time to digest the fact that she waited too long to forgive Jack. 
     
    She heard the door close. A few moments later, she heard the rumble of Duke’s truck starting up. She was letting the only person who truly cared for her drive away because she was stuck on her ex-husband. She hoped this didn’t damage their relationship but she had to finish dealing with her warring heart and mind. She needed to get her head and heart straightened out with the news of Jack.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    FIVE
     
     
    Paxton woke up feeling drained. Duke never called her last night after he left and she didn’t get any sleep. She walked into the gallery and went to the second floor where her office was. She peeked into Ryan’s office, which was next to hers, and saw that he wasn’t there yet. He had been having problems with his car lately and sometimes he got a ride in. She went and sat in her office. The gallery would be open in about a half hour and she wanted to start making plans for the art charity event. She would look for two of everything because she was sure Ryan would want to go. After all, the gallery was his idea to remember his niece by.
     
    She fired up her computer. While waiting for it to boot up, she looked at the pictures on her desk. There was one every one important in her life. She had a picture of her and Jack. She picked it up and stared at it. It was one that Ella took of them in the middle of her residency. She had on her scrubs and he was in slacks. They met after work at a local diner. Paxton remembered she was on call that week. She had to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. When she left the hospital, she was starving and called Jack and Ella to see if they wanted to meet up. They all made plans on their 3-way call to meet up at the diner. They looked like quite a trio as Ella herself was wearing overalls with