Take Four by Karen Kingsbury Read Free Book Online Page B

would be nice. There was a stream a quarter mile in where a family of box turtles had created a home, probably preparing to hibernate for the coming winter. “Let’s go find the turtles.”
    “The ones Ricky says are in there somewhere?” She took a few steps toward the gravel path. “As long as we stay away from snakes.”
    Earlier in the summer Bailey’s brothers had come across a copperhead snake, and Bailey hadn’t forgotten it. Cody laughed. “They’re in for the night by now.”
    “I’m not sure.” She waited for him to start out on the path, and she walked alongside him.
    This was the sort of moment they hadn’t shared much of this summer. Cody could’ve pushed for it, but again he wanted to make sure Bailey was comfortable with things between them first. He reached for her hand and gently eased his fingers between hers.
    “I still can’t believe it.” She walked close enough to him that their arms brushed against each other.
    Cody didn’t have to ask. He knew very well what she was talking about. “Me either.”
    “Tell me something.” She lifted her eyes to him, their pace slow. The trees were still a ways off, so for now the sunlight still danced on her face.
    “Anything.” He didn’t look away, didn’t want to be anywhere but lost in her eyes.
    “Why did you tell me to stay with Tim when you came homefrom Iraq?” The slightest shadow fell over the moment. “I figured you didn’t see me…” she lifted their joined hands, “…like this. You know?”
    How could he answer her? It was too soon to put his feelings for her into words—the intensity of how he felt might scare her off, even now that they’d found this connection. He swallowed hard and looked straight ahead. “I told you why.”
    “You said he was better for me.”
    “I thought he was.” Cody slowed his pace and looked at her. “His background isn’t complicated like mine…he doesn’t have a past. I felt old, like I’d seen too much. I guess I wanted to keep you away from all that.”
    “I care about your past.” Her voice was kind, but still a little hurt. “It’s not your fault…what happened in Iraq.”
    “Not just Iraq.” He thought about his drinking problem, and the trouble with his mother. “I come with baggage, Bailey. You know that.”
    “None of that matters.” She smiled, but there was sorrow in her eyes. “You know what I wanted you to say that day? The day you came home from Iraq?”
    “What?” He ached to take her in his arms, but he resisted. He focused on her eyes, her heart.
    “I wanted you to tell me to leave Tim. I wanted you to say you’d been thinking about me the whole time you were at war.”
    Again Cody wasn’t sure how much to tell her. They kept walking, heading into a thicket at the entrance to the woods. They could hear the creek somewhere up ahead. “I wouldn’t have told you to break up with him.” He kept his tone soft, tender. “That had to be your idea.”
    “You could’ve said that.” She wasn’t trying to fight with him, that much was obvious in her expression. “Instead I spent every day from then until this last Fourth of July thinking you weren’t interested.”
    At that, a single laugh rattled in Cody’s throat. “Yeah, Bailey…I was interested. I was always interested.”
    He could feel her smile. “Really?” She gave his hand a slight squeeze. “Always?”
    Cody stopped and touched her cheek as gently as he could. “Always, Bailey.” They hadn’t talked about this, even since the Fourth of July. Almost as if it had been enough that they’d found something special together. Like they didn’t need to define it or analyze it or wonder about why it hadn’t happened sooner. Not until now. “Every moment…every day.”
    She smiled, and for a moment it seemed like they would kiss again. The electricity between them, the connection was enough to stop his breathing. The air was cooling, and the deeper they got into the woods the less the fading