Reach for Tomorrow by Lurlene McDaniel Read Free Book Online

over a sawhorse when Josh strolled in.
    “Would you mind a little company?” Josh asked.
    “I thought there was some big movie everybody was watching tonight in the rec center,” Morgan answered. He wasn’t crazy about having company right then.
    “I can’t get into it.” Josh lowered himself in an old chair. “They won’t miss me. I just needed some fresh air. I saw your light on and I knew you weren’t at the movie.”
    “Movies bore me,” Morgan said, flipping the saddle around on the sawhorse so he could reach the other side.
    “How do you like working at the camp so far?”
    “The scenery’s pretty, but I miss the wide-open spaces of Colorado.”
    “I’d like to go out there sometime. From the pictures I see, the place looks awesome.”
    Morgan worked a few minutes in silence, then asked, “You the only one not at the movie?”
    Josh gave him a blank look. “I think so. Why do you ask?”
    “Just wondering.” Morgan was bombarded with images of Eric sitting in the dark next to Meg, or slipping out with her much as Josh had done so they could be alone.
    More silence. Josh broke it with, “You don’t like hanging around with us counselors much, do you?”
    “I like some of you more than others.”
    “Who don’t you like?”
    “Eric sort of gets under my skin.”
    “Eric’s all right. He’s kind of a party guy, but he means no harm. Just has some growing up to do.”
    Morgan grunted.
    “What about the rest of us?”
    “I’ve always liked horses better than people. They don’t talk much.”
    Josh burst out laughing. “They don’t talk at all.”
    Morgan grinned in spite of himself, dropped thepolishing rag, and dragged a chair over to face Josh. “Look, I know it seems to all of you that I don’t mix. But keeping to myself is just a habit. Back home, I spend lots of time alone out on the trail. It’s easy to forget how to talk and socialize. Nothing personal.”
    In truth, Morgan liked Josh. The guy had a good head on his shoulders and seemed mature in ways the others didn’t.
    “No offense taken,” Josh said.
    “You’re sweet on Katie, aren’t you?” Now that the ice was broken, Morgan felt like talking.
    “You could say that. I love her.”
    “That’s hard to tell from a distance.”
    “Well, things between us are a little one-sided right now.” Josh leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’d change it in a heartbeat if I could.”
    “What did you do to back her off?”
    “Nothing. She’s just confused about her life these days … doesn’t know exactly what she wants. Her friend Lacey tells me to just be patient. That Katie’ll come to her senses soon. That I’ve got to give her plenty of space until it dawns on her that she loves me too.”
    “You believe Lacey?”
    “I’m willing to wait, I know that much. I thinklove is worth the wait. I know Katie’s worth the wait.”
    Morgan was intrigued. He’d never heard a guy talk so openly about his feelings. He had sometimes tried to
show
a girl how he felt, but saying a bunch of sappy words wasn’t his way. Maybe that was why he was reading the poetry book. So that he could feel more at ease with pretty words of love.
    “You have a brother, Morgan? A big family?”
    Morgan shook his head, feeling the old squeeze on his heart when he remembered what fate might await him within his family.
    “I had a brother once,” Josh said. “He practically raised me because our parents were drowning inside booze bottles. I never told Aaron I loved him. The last day I saw him alive, he came into our grandfather’s kitchen and told me to clean up my room. I had my face buried in a cereal bowl and didn’t even take the time to look up at him. I just resented him telling me what to do.
    “That very day, he walked out onto a football field for practice and had an aneurysm go off in his brain and died. Just like that. I would give anything in this world if I could look up and see him come through the door one