Searching for Yesterday by Valerie Sherrard Read Free Book Online

ideas. I don’t treat
you
that way.”
    â€œYou make me sound so horrible,” I said. I
felt
pretty horrible just then.
    â€œYou’re not horrible. At least, not
that
horrible,” he said with a smile. “And it’s just lately that you’ve started doing these things. I don’t even think you’ve been aware of it.”
    â€œI haven’t!”

    â€œSo, okay. Now you are.” He reached for my hand. “You never met my mother’s sister and her husband, but if you ever do, you’ll see an example of two people who shouldn’t be in the same room together, much less married. They hardly ever speak to each other in a civil tone of voice. They snap and snarl and bicker full time. They even call each other names, if you can believe that. It’s gross.”
    â€œAnd I reminded you of them?” I asked, horrified.
    â€œNot by a long shot, though now that you mention it, you
do
look a little like my uncle.”
    â€œHey!”
    â€œWell, okay, his moustache is thicker.”
    â€œGreg!”
    He smiled and stepped a little closer. “No, you don’t remind me of them,” he said. He leaned over and kissed the tip of my nose. “But I asked my dad about them one time — why they got married if they don’t even like each other. And I never forgot what he told me.”
    â€œWhich was ...?” I asked, impatient at the pause he’d taken.
    â€œThat, just like most couples, they seemed to like each other just fine when they first got married. But as time went by, the way they talked to each other changed. It started out with small things — the wrong tone, a nasty word here and there. And then it just got worse and worse, until now they hardly say anything to each other in a civil tone. You’d swear that they hated each other.”“That’s horrible!” I said, before I remembered this conversation had started over the way I’d taken to speaking to Greg.
    â€œIt really is. But I got thinking, if you know what to watch for, and never start treating the person you’re with carelessly, you can be pretty much guaranteed it won’t happen to you. And I think you’d keep liking each other, because you wouldn’t be building up all the resentments you’d start feeling if someone was being nasty or critical or whatever.”
    â€œI wasn’t actually being nasty, was I?”
    â€œNo.”
    I thought about it for a minute and then I hugged him. “I’m really, really glad I’m going out with you,” I said. “And that you care enough about how things are between us to talk about stuff like this. Most guys wouldn’t.”
    â€œWell, don’t let it get out,” he laughed. “I’ll be kicked off the rugby team.”
    â€œMy silence,” I told him, “can be bought.”
    â€œYeah? How much?”
    â€œHow about a couple of slices of that pizza at your place?”
    â€œSounds fair.”
    So, we went back to his place, and as we walked along I had one of those moments of such acute happiness that make you feel like you might cry.

C HAPTER N INE
    â€œI won’t be home for dinner tonight,” I told Mom as I got ready to leave the house the next morning.
    She glanced up from kneading a round ball of dough on a floured board. I was a bit surprised to see the dough. Dad had been making comments for the past week that he sure missed the bread she used to make. When it comes to dropping hints, my father isn’t exactly subtle. But Mom had told him he’d keep right on missing it, because he ate half a loaf slathered in butter every time she made it, and she wasn’t going to help him kill himself.
    â€œGiving in to Dad’s begging, or did you change your mind about helping him kill himself?”
    She laughed. “I’ll try to keep an eye on him,” she said. “It just doesn’t seem fair that he has to miss