Engage by June Gray Read Free Book Online Page A

my parents know?”
    “Not yet,” he said. “I thought that maybe you’d want to tell them.”
    I was overcome with emotion as I looked at Henry, wondering how I had managed to be without him for so long. I thought that maybe, like that tape recorder, I had simply put my life on pause while I waited for his return.
    I turned back to Julie and the amazing being in her arms. “Can I hug you?” I asked Will. He gave a shy little nod and came over.
    I wrapped him in my arms, his little body so small yet overflowing with life. He hugged me back, squeezing my neck like only a child can. When he pulled away, he tugged at one of my wayward curls, just like his dad used to do and my heart burst with bittersweet love.
    I tickled his sides and reveled in the utter abandon and joy of his laugh, taking a little bit of it for my own. Jason may have died out there in Afghanistan but a small part of him survived here in Dallas where he lived on in his child.
     
    ~
     
    “You doing okay?” Henry asked as he walked me back to my apartment after our ride home.
    “I’m more than okay,” I said, reaching for my keys. I shook my head, still reeling from the day’s events. “I’m an aunt.”
    “Yeah, you are.”
    I beamed up at him. “Thank you for taking me. That was the most amazing surprise.”
    “I’m glad you liked it,” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets.
    I opened the door, stepped inside, and waited. “Are you coming in?”
    He shrugged. “I didn’t know if you wanted me to.”
    I got him a beer and myself a bottle of water and we sat at the dining table once again. “So a Volvo and a Harley,” I said. “How very bipolar of you.”
    “I bought the Harley the day I got back, and the Volvo, well, I figured I needed something sensible to counterbalance my metal death trap.”
    “I like them both.”
    “Even the motorcycle?” he asked hopefully.
    “Especially the motorcycle,” I said. “It’s kinda sexy.”
    He said nothing, just looked at me with mirth in his eyes.
    “So tell me, New Henry,” I said, pointing my bottle at him. “What else is different about you?” I took a swig of water, waiting for his answer.
    “Well, I’ve started to paint.”
    I sputtered water all over the table. “Really? I didn’t know you were artistic.”
    He laughed. “As a matter of fact, I used to draw a little back in high school. Then I took an abstract painting class in Korea because I was bored, and I guess I’ve kept up with it.”
    “Can I see one of your pieces?”
    “No way,” he said. “Well, maybe one day. They’re nothing special.”
    I smiled, suspecting that anything Henry did was the opposite of nothing special. “So what you said back in Gainesville,” I started, knowing he had nowhere to run. I was sure; I’d locked the front door. “That you got out of the service because of me. What did you mean?”
    His nostrils flared. “It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
    “Why wouldn’t it matter? It has to do with me.”
    “Because you’re involved with someone,” he said. “It wouldn’t do you any good if I told you that I got out because I wanted to make you my first priority, that I didn’t want to be separated from you any longer. What would it serve if I told you that I’m still in love with you and I would follow you wherever you went?”
    I was grinning by the time he was done. “You’re right,” I said. “It wouldn’t serve anything.”
    “That’s what I thought,” he said, playing with the label on the beer bottle.
    “Except that Seth and I broke up.”
    His head snapped up. “What?”
    “You heard me.”
    He shifted in his seat, reaching into his pants pocket. A second later, he placed an object onto the table with a loud thunk, his hand hiding it from view.
    “What do you have there?” I asked nervously.
    He lifted his hand and revealed a pebble in the shape of a wonky star.
    “I thought you’d lost it,” I said, picking it up and turning it