Take Care, Sara by Lindy Zart Read Free Book Online

thing?” he said harshly, stopping before her. Cole’s body heat radiated off him, warming her with his nearness.
    She swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. “You’re not saying anything. What am I supposed to think?”
    “I am so happy,” Cole said slowly, cupping her face in his rough palms. “So happy. You have no idea how happy I am.” He took a shuddering breath, pressing his cherry Carmex-scented lips to her forehead. “So happy,” he whispered.
    Sara cried, loving Cole more in the moment he knelt before her and pressed his cheek to her flat stomach than in any other moment she could remember. “Love you, baby.”
    “Love you too.” She brushed his soft hair back from his forehead, loving the texture of it, loving him.
    He looked up at her. “I was talking to the baby. You know, love you, baby .”
    With a snort, she pulled away. “Of course you were. What were you attempting to hang up when I walked through the door?”
    Cole stood, rubbing the back of his neck. “Nothing.” He looked guilty.
    Sara sighed, moving toward the living room. “What is it, Cole?”
    “I won it,” he announced, a slight scowl on his face.
    Eyebrows lifted, she looked at the 10 X 13 picture resting on the couch. “So everything you win must go up on the wall?”
    “No. Just the cool stuff.”
    The ‘cool stuff’ was a close-up photo of a vintage red Ford truck from the fifties or sixties. It sat in a field of grass, shining with the glint of sunlight on it and blue skies behind it. The body was rounded in a way the newer trucks had gotten away from.
    “I thought you were a Dodge boy?”
    “Well. Yeah. But look at it! And I won it.”
    Sara smiled at Cole. “I like it. Not above the couch, but I like it.”
    “So you’re saying I should put the wedding picture back up?” Cole laughed at the look on her face, grabbing her wrist and spinning her into his arms. He kissed her nose, saying, “We are going to be the coolest parents ever .”
    Sara blinked her eyes and the sink full of dishwater came into view; a sink full of water and dish soap for two plates, one cup, and a fork and a spoon. The soap smelled like apples and the bubbles make a fizzing sound. Some things were hard to adapt to, even the lack of dirty dishes. She would give anything to have a sink full of dirty dishes if it meant he was still in her life. With a sigh, Sara quickly washed them and set them in the strainer, wondering how such a small task could so completely wear her out. The effort it took to get through each day wore her out.
     
     
     

4
     
     
     
    It was Tuesday. Three weeks exactly from Tuesday the 29of November. That was the date she’d been told to be there, to talk to Dr. Henderson, to do what had been chosen for her to do. It was a countdown of dread for Sara. She would never be ready to talk about what he wanted to talk about. It was unequivocally impossible for her to do what had been designated as her duty long ago.
    Her feet unconsciously moved in the direction of the art room she hadn’t entered in months. Sara stopped by it, running a hand over the rough wood, closing her eyes at an onslaught of sorrow. She couldn’t bring herself to open the door. It reminded her of him. Everything in this house did. But she couldn’t forget. She didn’t want to forget. Maybe part of the reason she couldn’t let go, the reason Sara refused to let go, was because if she did, she feared she’d lose him as well. She couldn’t say goodbye to him.
    Sara touched her forehead to the door, hot tears pooling in her eyes and dropping to her cheeks. She closed her eyes, shuddering breaths wracking her shoulders, her whole body. Her mind formed the image of his laughing face with the crinkles around his pale blue eyes and she couldn’t move from the pain that came along with it.
    She missed his eyes the most. They’d been electrifying, charged with life and passion, able to see every part of Sara there was to see and those she’d rather