Her Name Was Annie by Beth Rinyu (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📕

he was heavily sedated. Would I have the nerve to do the same when he was conscious? I wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. I wish I could be as brave as you.”

“As brave as me?” She placed her hand on her chest, seeming a little shocked.

“Yes. You told the entire world your story, and I can’t even tell a man I’ve known for most of my life how I feel about him.”

She sighed heavily. “What I expressed was out of years of anger over what he’d done. It’s somehow easier to let it all out when so much rage has built up inside. But when you love someone and you’re afraid of getting hurt again, you tend to tuck those feelings…the words that should be said away. I’m not going to lie, I thought about Tommy a lot over the years. I loved my husband. I truly did, but it wasn’t the same as the love I had for Tommy. I often thought to myself maybe I should have kept writing to him. Maybe I should’ve tried to contact him when he returned from Vietnam.” She shrugged and continued, “When I saw him that day in the coffee shop after all those years, I remembered how my heart would flutter over the boy I was once so in love with.” She regarded me thoughtfully through her long dark lashes. “Does your heart still flutter when you look at Jack?”

“Yes,” I whispered, becoming painfully aware of how that flutter turned into a dull ache as I gazed down at him in that hospital bed. “I’m just so confused.”

“Do you love him…and I mean, are you in love with him?”

“Yeah, I am. Although after all these years and at the age I’m at, is there really a difference between loving someone and being in love with them? I care about him. I love him, and I want to be with him.”

“You just answered your own question. Stephanie, I have quite a few male friends I’ve known for a long time who I care deeply about, and love, but it ends there. I couldn’t imagine sharing my life with them or anything else for that matter. You want to share a life with Jack.”

“I do. But so much has happened between us and so much time has passed. I mean, we’re two different people than when we first met.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe you two had to be apart for a while to be able to come together again.”

“Well, if you ask my best friend, she’ll tell you I’m taking the easy way out and settling on what’s comfortable,” I murmured.

“There’s nothing easy at all about what you’re contemplating. You had to work through so much pain and forgiveness to get to this point. That’s not so simple to do, and I think it’s great.” I sighed heavily, wishing I had a crystal ball to see what my fate had in store, but at that moment, my only wish for the future was for Jack to recover.

Chapter 39

THE SCHOOL DAY dragged on at a snail’s pace. I had been checking my phone constantly to see if there were any updates from Kara, but to my dismay there were none. I was hoping Jack would’ve showed some signs of improvement within the last twenty-four hours of seeing him. The only text I did receive from Kara was letting me know that she and Ian were taking Francesca out for a late lunch. She offered to wait for me to get home from work to go with them, but I declined. Tired, cranky, and glum weren’t suitable traits for a dining companion, so I spared them all the misery of my presence.

When I hopped in my car, I had every intention of heading home, but found myself going in the direction of the hospital instead. Unsure if I’d even be able to visit, since I was certain the fraudulence of my wife status had been revealed, I had to at least try. I had an overwhelming need to see Jack, and I didn’t know why.

After five minutes of driving up and down the rows of the visitors’ parking area, I finally scored front row parking just as someone was backing out. It was hard to believe that such a massive hospital had such a miniscule parking lot for visitors. As I stepped out of the car, the first snowflake hit the bridge of my nose. The gray sky loomed overhead with the white flakes flurrying around in the breeze. A chill in the air shot through my body, so I zipped up my coat as far as it would go and reached for my gloves inside the pockets.

“Stephanie, we have to stop meeting like this!” Ted Wagner greeted as he hopped out of a black SUV.

“Oh, hello, Ted.” I smiled, slowing down my pace as he closed the door of his vehicle and ambled over.

“Are you here to visit Jack?” he asked.

“Hoping to. Yesterday, I kind of fibbed and told them I was his wife. I’m pretty sure they’ve figured out there is no wife anymore.”

He grinned, revealing the wrinkles in his forehead. He had definitely aged over the years, but like Jack, he seemed to get even more handsome. “I think I can probably smuggle you in. Maybe today instead of being the wife, you can be an FBI agent.” He winked and held the entrance door open for me.

“That would be great.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you here to visit Jack too?” I asked.

“Actually, I have to make an unwanted visit to Guy Antonaci first. He’s being released from the hospital later this evening, and I want to make sure everything goes smoothly with the transport.”

“Oh.” My stomach tightened at the mention of his name. There were so many things I’d say to that man if I could, so much anger I would love to unleash on him. He took my baby from me, he was the reason for