Free Too Hard to Break by Missy Jane

You’re nuts, Megan. There’s no way.
After all I’ve put him through. Me?”
    She was nodding hard enough I thought her head might fall
right off.
    “Yeah, and he still doesn’t want you to move out, right? In
fact, I’ll bet all this talk of you moving has him spooked and he figures he
needs to hold on with both hands before you try to leave again.”
    It made a weird sort of sense…and scared the hell out of me.
“No. No way. He can’t be that crazy.”
    She laughed and plopped back down in her chair. “Why would
wanting to marry you make him crazy?”
    I looked at her as if she were nuts. “I’m a mess!”
    She smiled and shook her head. The sympathy in her gaze
almost started my waterworks going but I sniffed the tears back and sat too.
    “Oh, honey, you’re really not that bad. You’re pretty
special to me and I’d bet good money to Hank too.”
    I didn’t really know how to respond. Luckily a few members
walked in and I didn’t have to.
    The remainder of my shift passed in a blur and before I knew
it Megan was pulling me along to the time clock. I had just put my card back in
its slot when Craig walked in to the break room.
    “Hey, ladies, who wanted to know about vacations?” he asked.
    Megan and I both pointed at each other and he laughed.
    “Well, okay. It was me. But I’m sure she needs to know too,”
I said.
    “That’s cool,” he replied. “Our fiscal year ends next month
so you only have about six more weeks before you can take some time off. You
both get two weeks this time around.”
    “Really?” we asked in unison.
    “Yup.”
    “Cool,” Megan said. “I’ll have to tell Sean.”
    “Yeah. I guess I should tell Hank too,” I said with much
less enthusiasm.
    She turned a worried gaze my way but Craig didn’t seem to
notice.
    “Just make sure you let me know the dates you want ASAP.
We’ll have to look at seniority if anyone else wants the same dates.”
    “Okay,” we answered in unison again.
    He just shook his head and walked out with a laugh.
    “It might not matter after tonight,” I said.
    “Oh, will you stop that? I’m telling you there’s nothing to
worry about.”
    I looked at my best friend in the whole world and prayed she
was right. I just couldn’t think past the fear and dread in my gut. “Yeah,
okay.”
    “Come on,” she said. “Our men are waiting.”
    I followed her, not at all certain one of the men waiting
was really mine.

Chapter Five
     
    We drove in silence with the low sound of a classic rock
station playing on the radio. Hank had tried to engage me in conversation but
must have gotten sick of my one-word answers. I was sick of telling him nothing
was wrong. Sean’s headlights shined in the rearview mirror and it was a small
comfort to know I had friends close by. Whatever tonight would bring, at least
I wouldn’t be alone to face it. I wanted to laugh at the thought, after all my
tough talk of being independent. Seems I was just a baby after all.
    “Penny for your thoughts,” Hank said.
    “They’re not worth that much.”
    “Can I be the judge of that, sweetheart? It’s really
breaking my heart you feel like you can’t confide in me.”
    I glanced at him but he was watching the road. His profile
held a serious expression that matched his tone.
    “I’m sorry. I was just thinking…I’m never going to really be
independent, I guess.”
    He sighed and ran a hand across the back of his neck,
keeping the other firmly on the wheel, but said nothing else.
    A couple of minutes later he pulled off the main road and
turned into a neighborhood I’d never been in before. It wasn’t far from home
and I’d seen it plenty of times but had never had reason to explore it. I
briefly wondered if his girlfriend lived nearby and panic struck me before I
pushed it away. Hank would never be so cruel as to take me to another woman’s
house.
    He turned onto a quiet street with well-manicured lawns and
pretty two-storied houses. When he turned into the