Free Blast From The Past 3 by Faith Winslow Page B

you in the back of that van, I stopped caring about them, and only cared about you.”
    J.R. shook his head and looked away from me for a moment. I could see tears pooling in his eyes.
    “If only we’d called the authorities earlier,” he said, “then you wouldn’t have had to go through all of this. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking… I mean, if only I’d trusted you from the beginning, or if I hadn’t…”
    J.R. would have kept talking, but I interrupted him. “If only,” I repeated. “If only this, if only that—we can’t change any of it now.”
    Whatever drugs the hospital had given me, they were good ones—because I meant every word I said.
    “You’re right, though,” I said after a much-needed breath. “If we’d done anything differently, I probably wouldn’t be in this hospital bed right now…”
    J.R. regarded me during what was only a pause in my statement.
    “But, then, you wouldn’t be here beside me either, now would you?” I added.
    J.R.’s frown turned upside down, and he arched forward to kiss me on the forehead.
    “I guess not,” he said, sounding somewhat giddy. “But I sure hope it was worth it.”
    “Me too,” I replied, a little giddy myself. “You’ll have to prove to me that it was.”
    “I will,” J.R. said. “I promise… Even if it takes me the rest of my lifetime.”
    “I hope it doesn’t take that long,” I chimed back.
    “I mean it, though,” J.R. said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make this up to you—and to show you how much you mean to me.”
    “Well, I appreciate that,” I said, fumbling beside me. I was looking for the remote to the bed—if J.R. wasn’t going to let me sit up on my own, I’d let the bed hoist me. “But, right now,” I went on, “can we start with one little favor?”
    “Anything,” J.R. responded without hesitation.
    “I could really go for a cup of coffee,” I said, raising myself to eye level.
    J.R. stood up and smiled at me. “Black, with two teaspoons of sugar,” he said as he disappeared through the doorway. “I’ll be right back.”
    I closed my eyes and sank into the pillow behind me.
     
    ~~~
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