Loving by Karen Kingsbury Read Free Book Online Page B

at her.
    He narrowed his eyes, watching the couple. Bailey never would’ve judged him for having a mother in prison. Never would’ve pinned his mother’s failures on him. And not for a minute would she have believed his past might define him forever. If only he had believed back then the truth about having a new life in Christ. A new life perfectly deserving of a girl like Bailey.
    But he hadn’t believed it then, and sometimes he struggled to believe it now. Still, for just a minute, he wanted to think he was that guy across the room, that the girl was Bailey, and that he’d figured it out in time. Long before it was too late.
    “Coach?” DeMetri whispered in a loud voice. “You in some sort of spacey place or what?”
    “Hmm.” Cody turned to the kid. “What?”
    “Come on, Coach.” DeMitri didn’t miss much, and this was no exception. He kept the whisper. “That chick looks like your Bailey girl. That what you’re thinking?”
    “Nah.” Cody made a face as if to say DeMetri wasn’t even close.
    “Coach. Don’t mess with me.”
    “I’m not. She looks nothing like her.” Cody looked back at the girl and then at DeMetri. Then he winked at him. “Okay, maybe a little.”
    The professor took the podium, positioned his ear mic, and launched into a ten-minute discourse on hyperbole. When he came up for air, DeMetri motioned to the door. Cody nodded and led the way quietly out of the classroom.
    Outside the room, DeMetri kept his voice low. “Let’s go that way.” He pointed to a courtyard behind the building. When they were outside, DeMetri stretched his hands over his head and let loose an exaggerated sound of relief. “I mean, how much can a man talk about hyperbole?”
    Cody laughed. “He takes his English seriously.”
    “Me too, but really?” DeMetri shaded his eyes. “Looks like food in that other building.”
    They walked past a fountain and several picnic tables of students and headed into the cafeteria. After buying a couple platefuls of tacos, they went back to the courtyard and found a table. As soon as they were seated across from each other, Cody leaned on his forearms. “So what did you think?”
    DeMetri opened his taco wrapper and wrinkled his brow. “About how that girl looked like Bailey?”
    “About the class.”
    “Actually, I have a thought about Bailey.”
    Cody smiled. There was no reigning the kid in. “Okay … what’s your thought?”
    The kid took a big bite of his taco and nodded while he chewed. When he could talk he tapped his finger on the table. “She wasn’t the girl for you, Coach. You know that, right?”
    Cody waited, his eyes on DeMetri. “Why?”
    “Don’t get me wrong … Bailey’s hot.” He seemed to dislike his choice of words. “Scratch that. She’s very pretty.”
    “I’m with you so far.” Cody could see how seriously Smitty was taking this.
    He gave a shake of his head like he was baffled. “I mean, the two of you look good together, and there’s all this history stuff between you. Like, anyone could feel it.”
    A chuckle came from Cody. “Okay.”
    “But there’s this problem in your eyes. Both your eyes.” He lifted his gaze to the sky and squinted. “When you were talking to her outside the theater, when we went up to New York, it was like … like you both had goodbye in your eyes.”
    “Hmmm. Goodbye, huh?” Cody liked keeping things light with DeMetri. He struggled to do so now.
    “Yeah, you know. The way people look at each other when it’s over. When there’s nothing left but goodbye.”
    Cody angled his head, not sure what to say. If a high school kid could see goodbye in their eyes, and if Cheyenne could see it, then no wonder he and Bailey were finally able to see it too. Cody pressed his lips together and breathed in sharply through his nose. “You’re right. Just took us a while to figure it out.”
    “Happens.” DeMetri shrugged and grinned at the same time.
    Then the conversation switched to the Liberty