Family Blessings by Lavyrle Spencer Read Free Book Online

imagined being in Chris's arms since the first time she!d met him two years ago, when Greg had joined the Anoka police force and the two had begun sharing an apartment.
    Never had she imagined him holding her for such a reason. He was thirty, she only twenty-three. He'd always treated her like Greg's kid sister, old enough to be in college and out on her own, but far too young to date. Suddenly, in the space of a few hours, death had stepped in and trivialized age differences. Their mUtual bereavement brought them together simply as two people who had loved someone they'd lost. Only that loss mattered while they clung and grieved.
    They separated and Chris extended his hand. "Hi, Kim. I'm Christopher Lallek. I'm sorry you had to end your vacation so soon after you got there."
    Kim's face, too, looked puffy and red. "There was no question of my staying once I heard the news."
    He picked up Janice's carryon and they walked three abreast toward the luggage return.
    In his car, heading north to Anoka, Kim sat in back, Janice in front.
    He answered Janice's questions and reached over to rub her shoulder when she was forced to dig in her purse for Kleenex again and again.
    "How's Mom holding up?"
    "Like the Rock of Gibraltar, cheering up everybody who comes in the door instead of the other way around. Greg always said she was a strong woman and I've seen it today. I know she'll feel better when you get home though. The hardest thing she did was call you and your brother."
    "Is he home yet?"
    "He wasn't when I left. The Whitmans were heading back from the lake though to bring him."
    They rode along thinking awhile, about their own feelings, and Lee's, and those of a fourteen-year-old boy who had been left the only male in the family. The muffler on Chris's old car was nearly shot, its thunder reverberated in their heads while the rush of hot wind from the partially opened windows moved their hair. The fuse had blown on the air conditioner shortly after Greg replaced it, but Christopher had decided it wasn't worth replacing with the new Explorer soon to arrive.
    The new Explorer-hell, he hadn't given it a thought since noon. The dealer had probably called his apartment all afternoon wondering what had happened to him. Funny how the new vehicle had lost all importance in light of today's tragedy. The sun was dropping toward the horizon.
    The outline of downtown Minneapolis appeared veiled in a shimmery pearlescent haze then fell behind them as Christopher fixed his eyes on the tar and drove without conscious awareness of changing lanes, working a signal light, maintaining speed. The two women stared out their side windows and Janice thought about how everything had changed since yesterday. How her life would never be quite the same again.
    All those memories she and Greg had shared of growing up together, there was nobody to reminisce with now, especially about the time before Daddy had died. Joey was so much younger his memories were separate from Janice's. It was Greg she'd played with, had gone to high school with, had cheered for when he ran the 440 and talked with about dating and the boys she'd liked, the girls he'd liked.
    His kids would have been her kids' cousins. They'd have played together as they grew up, and would have shared holidays. She'd have baby-sat them sometimes when he and his wife wanted to get away alone.
    All their kids would have been at each others' birthday parties, graduation parties, weddings. Staring out the car window she felt suddenly cheated and angry. All that time and love invested in someone else's life and now he was gone, and with him so much of her future!
    Abruptly she felt guilty for the thought. How can I be angry? And with whom? Greg? Mom? Dad? The baby that died and didn't have to go through all this heartache and isn't here for me now? Myself for going off to San Francisco instead of spending the last couple of days with him?
    She dropped her head back against the seat and said, "Do you