Free The McClane Apocalypse: Book One by Kate Morris Page A

advantage of the situation, inviting him to join them, which he accepted. But, try as they might to gain his attention, it had been obvious to everyone at the table that Derek only had eyes for Sue. She’d felt ten feet tall. He wasn’t classically beautiful but hard, angular. His hair was dark brown, cut tight to his skull and matched his cocoa-colored eyes. At five feet seven inches tall, Susan is fairly tall or feels so around her two sisters. But around Derek she always felt dwarfed in size even though he is only five feet ten. He is a stocky guy, “built like a bull,” her grandfather had assessed once.
    After paying for everyone’s dinners, he asked Sue if she’d walk with him in the park and he’d see her back to her hotel. She hadn’t even paused before accepting his invitation, which her girlfriends found unusual because she was normally so reserved and cautious. As they strolled more laps than Sue could count around the dimly lit park, she’d learned so much about him and vice versa. He was twenty-four at the time and had joined the Army straight out of college. She was in her first year of college. Her plans had been to be a school teacher. Her plans changed quickly. Within a year they’d married, Justin came nine months later and Sue realized that she had never wanted anything more than to be a mother and wife.
    Even though they’d been separated by continents, oceans and war torn countries, their love had never faltered. It is the one constant Sue has always had in her life. He’d always come home, sometimes a little worse for the wear, but he would always come home.

 
    Chapter Four
    Susan
    Another three days have passed, and Sue is nearly out of her mind as she is tucking her two angels into bed. They’d sat on the sofa in Grams’s parlor and read a bedtime story together as Sue secretly dabbed at her tears. She’s been doing this a lot these days, and she isn’t sure if it is the pregnancy hormones or the worry over Derek.
    “Mommy, is Daddy coming home tomorrow?” Arianna whispers softly, her tiny voice scratchy and tired. Her hair is still damp from her bath an hour ago, but the air coming through the window near her bed is warm and soothing.
    “Um... maybe, sweetheart. We’ll see. Why don’t we say a prayer for Daddy, ok?” Sue gently urges. She sidles in beside Arianna and runs her fingers lightly over her daughter’s downy forehead. Justin is already snoring quietly. Boys and farms are a good and very exhausting combination.
    Arianna is fast asleep before they finish their prayers, so Sue finishes without her. Reaching over to turn off the bedside lamp, she kisses her little girl’s forehead one last time.
    “Everything ok in here, sis?” Reagan asks from the door. She’s in a white tank and cut off fleece shorts with her university’s logo on them. No fancy lingerie for her. Her sister’s frizzy ringlets are already springing back, though her hair is also still damp from a shower. Oh, how many times had Sue tried to straighten that girl’s hair?
    She rises from the bed and crosses the room on tiptoe, though she’s not sure why because her kids could sleep through a tornado.
    “Sure, we’re ok, Reagan,” she says reassuringly as she closes the door behind her.
    “Do you wanna talk?” Reagan prods.
    “Not really. I’m afraid I’ll just fall apart if I say the stuff I’ve been thinking out loud,” she explains as she goes down the long hall to her bedroom at the other end of the second floor. Reagan follows her and plops onto Sue’s unmade bed.
    “It’s ok if you fall apart, Sue. It’s to be expected. You’re pregnant, living in a post-apocalyptic country with two little kids to raise, and you can’t get in touch with your husband- whom you love like crazy,” Reagan hammers straight to the point. Nothing new there.
    Sue changes into a worn, cotton nightgown that comes to her knees and sits at her dressing table to unbraid her hair and give it a brushing.
    “I