Sweet Reunion by Melanie Shawn Read Free Book Online Page B

coursed through her body, alternating
with freezing cold flashes, until she felt she would go insane. She wondered
idly if she had been suddenly stricken with some debilitating physical ailment,
if she were coming down with some sort of rare strain of flu, perhaps, or the
bubonic plague.
    It wasn't out of the realm
of possibility. Her every joint ached and her stomach felt queasy. She couldn't
catch her breath, and when she put her hand to her forehead, she could swear
she felt feverish.
    Still, the one big
difference between what she was feeling and a true physical ailment that, even
in her condition, she could not fail to notice was that, alternating with the
shaky sick feelings were sensations of overwhelming exhilaration and pure joy.
Her joints and muscles traded off aching with tingling.
    No, if she were honest, she
had to admit to herself that this was a case of good old fashioned love
sickness. Every sensation coursing through her body tonight, both positive and
negative, could be attributed to the return of Justin Barnes.
    Damn Justin.
    Her life had been going
along calmly enough. She had a handle on it, it was moving forward, she knew
where it was going. And then Justin had walked back into her life. Just as she
had finally gotten over him, he had waltzed back in.
    Well...if she were honest
with herself, maybe that “finally gotten over him” part was a bit of an
exaggeration. After all, wasn't it she who still couldn't even think of his
name without getting choked up? Wasn't it just yesterday afternoon that she
hadn't been able to tell the story of their parting to Karina, Lauren, and Sam
without, in fact, crying? So maybe she wasn't entirely over him, if it
came to that. But she was mostly over him, dammit! She could go through
an entire day sometimes without thinking of him now, for God's sake, and Lord
knew that hadn't always been the case. She was in a much better head space where
he was concerned now than she used to be, and she had worked very hard to get
that way.
    Yet, in one split second –
yes one tiny little second was all it had taken to totally obliterate years of hard work in forgetting about him – in that one instant when he had walked
back through the door, he had smashed all of that peace of mind to bits.
    Now she had to admit to
herself that she wasn't over him at all. If she tried to deny that, her queasy
stomach and aching joints would tell her differently.
    Amanda got up from her bed
and sighed. It was clear she was not going to get any sleep at all this night.
She had been trying for hours and she had not been able to achieve anything
even closely approaching the relaxed and languid state that would allow her to
drift off. No, if anything, she was in such a hyper-aware, hyper-charged frame
of mind that she felt as if her nerves had live wires attached to them. She
jumped at every tiny noise. She didn't know if she would ever sleep again.
    Amanda wondered if seeing
her again was affecting Justin in even close to the same way as seeing him
again had affected her. She padded over to her bedroom window, which had a
clear view of the front porch of the bunkhouse, and gazed down longingly.
    Yes, this was far from the
first sleepless night she had spent, eyes locked on the front porch of the
bunkhouse, her mind, body, and soul completely consumed with the alternately
blissful and torturous awareness that Justin was near.
    But, as she had gotten
older, she had convinced herself that this was a teenage affectation. And yet,
here she was – a grown woman – still tossing and turning and stealing glances
at the small cabin where Justin slept. She was every bit as affected by his
presence now as she had been as a silly teenager. What was wrong with her?
    As Amanda tried everything
in her power to slow her breathing, to calm her heart rate, to become again the
rational adult that she had fought so hard to grow into, the one lingering
thought that she absolutely could not shake no matter how hard she