Kiss by Ted Dekker Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t need so much from Landon, only a moment, a glance, a smile.
    Certainty that he believed her. Trusted her. Protected her.
    “Your groveling doesn’t help anyone.”
    “I wish I—”
    “This isn’t about you, Shauna. This is about Rudy. This is about what you took from us. Rudy won’t get to campaign with me. He won’t get to attempt a single one of his dreams. For heaven’s sake, Shauna, he wasn’t even old enough to be disillusioned yet! He wanted to be a politician !”
    Rudy uttered a moan that sent a chill through Shauna’s nerves. She stood, unsure what to do.
    “Now I think we’d better all take a deep breath,” Pam said, coming around the table. “Let’s lower the volume a notch, shall we?”
    “Is he okay?” Shauna asked.
    “Is he okay?” Patrice mimicked, barely audible. “You are unbelievable.”
    Shauna eased back into her chair and picked up Rudy’s hand again. His head began to hit the pad.
    “Sh, Rudy.” Shauna stroked his palm. She could not bear the sight of his pain. “Sh.” He beat his head more violently, and for the first time, his eyes let go of hers. They slipped upward, back into his head. “Rudy?”
    “You let me take care of this,” Pam said, preparing to wheel him out of the room. But Shauna could not let her brother go.
    Landon leaned over and gripped Shauna’s wrist. He drilled his thumb between her small bones and she cried out, dropping Rudy’s hand. Her father’s eyes were gray like her brother’s, but much more clear in what they meant to say.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Sorry doesn’t fix this. You only upset him.”
    Rudy’s moan rose to a shrill pitch as Pam pushed him away from the conflict and down the hall toward his bedroom. Landon released Shauna and turned his back on her to face the window.
    “You ought to go now,” Patrice said to Shauna, stacking empty plates on the table, making more noise than was necessary. “You upset him.”
    “I think he’s responding to conflict—he senses the stress between us, obviously.”
    “So we remove the cause, and voilà.”
    “There’s no need to be sarcastic.”
    “I’m completely serious.”
    Shauna folded her hands in front of her to prevent them from shaking. She sensed Wayne move to stand behind her. She looked to Landon for defense, but he had removed himself from the exchange.
    “I take full responsibility for what happened to Rudy,” she said, staring at her thumbs. “And I know there’s no way to make up for it, but I’m sure I can help—”
    “Shauna, you owe so many people so much that you will never be able to make it up to even one of them.”
    Shauna’s first tears finally escaped, and she couldn’t say whether they were tears of injustice or anger or agony over the truth of her stepmother’s words. She felt all these emotions simultaneously, and she reached out blindly for Wayne’s hand. He caught her grip.
    Patrice walked around the table, closing the protective gap that Shauna would have rather maintained.
    “I’m sorry that I don’t remember—”
    “Give up this game, Shauna! I am so sick and tired of your using this poor-me routine as an excuse to get your way. I think you remember everything. You owe your father more respect than that.”
    “I really don’t understand—”
    “Of course you don’t. If throwing you out on your brainless head wouldn’t cause Landon a publicity nightmare, I’d never let you come home. It’s bad enough that you’ve been indicted for a felony.”
    Landon made no move to intervene.
    “Patrice,” Shauna pleaded, “it was an accident . ” She hated being reduced to a quaking leaf in front of this cruel woman, while her father acted as if nothing were going on. But she had no reason to expect more from him. Landon was simply being Landon. At her expense.
    “I’m not talking about the accident!” Patrice was shouting now, and something in Shauna ignited. “I’m talking about your disregard for all the sacrifices your father