Free Long for Me by Shiloh Walker Page A

back again.
    She wanted to howl, but then a few seconds passed and she thought of what he’d told her, and she almost wanted to laugh.
    Theo Miller was dying.
    Would be dead in a few months.
    He had cancer.
    Chris had always thought herself a relatively decent person who wouldn’t wish cancer on her worst enemy, but here he was. Theo Miller, the monster who’d stolen her mother from her and he had cancer.
    A bad one.
    She knew about pancreatic cancer, but only vaguely. Mostly because it had killed a celebrity a few years back—one of the few movies she remembered watching with her mother had been The Outsiders . Patrick Swayze. He had been one of her mother’s favorite actors and because of that, Chris had liked him too. Her mother was why she liked flowers, why she liked Tinker Bell, why she liked a lot of things, although she didn’t always admit it.
    So when she’d heard the actor had pancreatic cancer, she’d actually read a few of the articles about it. A rather aggressive, hard-to-cure cancer.
    Now it was going to kill the man who’d killed her mother.
    But she’d wanted to see him held responsible.
    Her back started to ache from sitting curled up on the floor and she shivered, pressing her brow to her knees as the ache spread upward and through her. Her entire body hurt. Her heart hurt. Her soul hurt. As the minutes ticked away, she stayed where she was, afraid to think too much about what she’d been told.
    Guilty.
    He was guilty.
    He’d even admitted it.
    But it wasn’t enough.
    Rising to her feet, she moved to the window. Across from her, she could see the golden glow coming from Guy’s apartment, but she turned her back to it, refused to look.
    No. It wasn’t enough that Theo had admitted his guilt.
    But honestly, she didn’t know what would be enough.

Chapter Eight
    Morning came streaming in, too bright.
    Too early.
    Her alarm jangled out, Yoda’s voice far more obnoxious in the a.m. than it had seemed when she downloaded the Star Wars voice pack off Google Play. “Do or do not. There is no try . ” His wise, wizened little voice was the first thing she heard in the morning, the familiar old saying the tone she’d programmed in place of an alarm.
    Just then, she was tempted to tell Yoda to Kiss my ass, you must . But she didn’t have the energy.
    Maybe after coffee.
    Rolling onto her belly, she grabbed her phone, silenced his voice, and then threw the phone down and took up the study of the floorboards beneath her bed.
    Three hours of sleep, she guessed.
    Not much to go on, but she didn’t have to be social today. It was Wednesday and she didn’t have to be at Shakers. She’d fill the Internet orders for Bells N Blooms, and keep her cranky ass away from society.
    It was probably a good thing she couldn’t really open up an actual store. Not that she wanted to. There was the old guy who’d gotten her hooked on flowers and lately he’d made noises about her coming in with him, maybe buying his place in a year or two so he could retire, but she wasn’t ready to do that.
    She’d probably fail. Spectacularly, like she did with everything that really mattered.
    Although sometimes, she thought about it. She’d fallen in love the first time she went in there. She could still remember it.
    It had been with Mom.
    A lance pierced her heart and she rolled onto her back, flinging her arm over her eyes.
    It had been to pick up a corsage. Tate had had a dance at school.
    The scent of flowers, the chaotic blooms, it had been like magic to the girl she’d been. So young. She’d already loved digging around in the dirt and the idea of working with flowers all day …
    Les had even let her put together her own little bouquet, with some of the flowers he wouldn’t use, when he saw the amazement in her eyes as he finished up an order.
    She’d been hooked.
    School seemed like a waste of time to her, but she managed to learn more about flowers and plants than most adults knew. She knew how to plant