Love Will Find a Way by Barri Bryan Read Free Book Online Page A

can get my hands on another ticket."
    His words were like a cruel blow. How could he be so insensitive? Slowly, because speaking was so painful, she said, “You could ask Larry. He might have an extra.” Her mind seemed to have gone blank.
    From what seemed to be a long way off, Robert's words intruded. “I'm having trouble communicating with Larry these days. I thought you might ask him for me."
    She fought a rising fury. “If you want the ticket, you will have to ask him yourself."
    Robert's hand tightened on his glass. “I never realized until we separated what a stubborn woman you are."
    Emily shook her head, trying to clear her mind. “I've leaned over backwards to be fair with you."
    "Oh, have you?” he said in a lashing tone. “Do you call it fair when you refuse to take alimony, when you won't let me pick up the tab for your health care premiums? You want to punish me and make me feel guilty. You're being stubborn, Emily, stubborn and vindictive."
    "You think I'm stubborn because I refuse to let you continue to run my life?” Emily's voice raised a few decibels. “You are no longer my lord and master. I make my own decisions now."
    "I'm not trying to make decisions for you.” He sighed wearily. “I'm trying to take care of you."
    "You're trying to salve your conscience,” she shot back angrily. “You gave up the burden of taking care of me when you divorced me."
    "I never thought of caring for you as a burden."
    "Will you stop being such a hypocrite?” Emily felt the internal combustion of frustrated anger. “You feel guilty as hell because you've treated me like dirt. You're upset because I refuse to allow you the luxury of buying peace of mind at the cost of my self respect."
    "Is that how you saw me?” he asked in a hushed voice, “as your lord and master?"
    She spoke with quiet firmness. “That's what you were. You were overbearing and selfish.” She knew she should stop. She was saying far too much.
    "I resent what you're implying.” The muscles in Robert's jaw tightened. “I never put my wishes ahead of your self respect."
    "Oh, yes, you did.” Memory liberated a host of old recollections. “All of my life you've been telling me what to do and I've been doing it. Even when we were children and played games or went to movies, you said what and where and when."
    "I was older and better equipped to make decisions.” He swallowed, making his Adam's apple bob up and down like an elevator. “I always did what was best."
    "Best for whom, Robert?” she asked with quiet scorn.
    "You can't hold what we did as children against me.” He took a quick swallow from his glass. “I always had your best interests at heart."
    "We both know better than that. You've always been self-centered and domineering. When you decided we were going to be married, it had to be immediately. I wanted to wait and go to college, but you said no."
    "I had finished college. I was ready to settle down. I needed a wife."
    "I had, I was, I needed. Listen to yourself, Robert,” she said dispassionately. “I, I, I."
    "I thought it was the best for both of us,” he declared on a troubled breath.
    "What did you think when I wanted another baby after Larry was born?” she asked softly. “I begged you for another child. You said no. When Larry started school and I wanted to enroll in college, you said no again. When I wanted to accept a paying job with the library, you wouldn't hear of such a thing. You didn't mind your wife volunteering, but she couldn't work and get paid for what she did. That was too much for your macho ego."
    He had turned quite pale. “I had no idea you harbored such bitterness."
    Her eyes smoldered with resentment. “Neither did I until you left me for the kind of woman you never wanted me to be."
    "That's not...” His voice trailed away and then revived. “You really do hate me, don't you?"
    "It wasn't all your fault,” she said on a note of despair. “I let you siphon my life away. You took, I