That Day by Karen Deen (best novels to read in english txt) 📕

Why is it I can tell Asha a hundred different ways how I feel about her, but with my own dad, I can’t tell him I love him? Because it just feels like I’m giving fate a chance to take me.

My family didn’t choose to live this life with me, so I can’t leave them forever.

If there are words left unsaid, then I have to make it home.

There’s just no other option.

Chapter Sixteen

ASHA

After my scare of collapsing, there was no way Kurt could keep his mother and father away any longer. They wanted to meet me, and nothing was standing in their way. Just thinking back to how hard Barbara squeezed me, I know I won’t be forgetting that hug in a long time. And the look in Jeff’s eyes was like looking into Kurt’s. The gaze of protection for all in the room, as well as the softness of love hidden behind the tough exterior.

Although I was still recovering, we sat for hours chatting, and Barbara insisted feeding me as much as she could with her homemade treats. I loved it all, even though it made my heart ache for my own parents. They reminded me of them so much it hurt.

Finally, Kurt kicked them out and told them the doctor’s orders were that I needed rest, which was right, but I know it was just so he could spend the rest of the day alone with me. The clock was ticking on his time left before he would have to go back to his company and get things back running smoothly and catch up on his workload.

As hard as it is to be away from Kurt, at least the last few days with him back at work, I’ve gotten back to writing. At first it was hard not getting distracted and to focus on the story, but then I just got my head around the fact that if I wrote my word quota, then I could be on the beach watching him surf, rather than up in the house just imagining him in the water.

The book is coming along nicely now and it’s almost to the point where the ending is in sight. It’s at this spot in the story where everything starts to link together, and the characters never stop talking to me. But today, I made my word quota, and although they are getting louder in my head, the pull to see Kurt is stronger than they are.

I’m sitting on the beach, feeling the sand between my toes. It’s a strange sensation. The grittiness of it, but it has a soothing vibe to it as you wriggle your toes up and down in it. Because it’s a hot day and we haven’t had rain for days, it’s really fine and dry on the top layer, but the deeper you dig, it gets wetter, more compact, and harder to dig into.

A lot like people, really.

We tend to have a fluffy exterior that is what most people see and pass over, but the deeper you go to get to know someone, the harder it is to get through the things they hide deep down inside.

Leaning back on my hands on the towel, staring out into the water, for the first time in a very long time I feel at peace. The faint breeze has my hair blowing slightly but not enough to be annoying. Coco is lying next to me, her head on her front paws, watching her human boyfriend out on his board. There’s nowhere I would rather be.

I feel about sixteen again, back in high school. Sitting on the bleachers watching all the football jocks training, while all us girls would drool over them. Not that I had a chance with any of them. I was the quiet one in the group who was just happy to be allowed to sit with them. I was on the fringes, in some ways, kind of like their mascot. Everyone thought I was cute because I was so little. There were a couple in the group who were bitches, but the rest were like me and just tagging along for the ride. If you were in the popular group, then you weren’t being picked on by the popular group. Even if we were the second-tier popular group.

Being second-tier, we didn’t get to go to the sleepovers or small parties, but we were allowed to hang out with them at school or any big parties outside of school. Looking back now, the whole school social hierarchy system sucks, big time. No one feels like they fit in, really. Everyone in some way or another is just trying to make it through to graduate.

On my lonely nights I often sit back thinking of where some of those people are now. It’s not like I can talk to my mom who used to keep me up to date on the town gossip when I would call her. Even though we still lived in the same town, I was never one to seek out the gossip. But Mom, like most women her generation, still had her weekly coffee and cake with her friends, which really was just a gossip session. Dad used to laugh at her and say those women were no more than bored housewives who made up shit so they felt important—of course, he always excluded Mom from that, saying she wasn’t like them. Otherwise, he would be cooking his own dinner that night.

I wonder what was said after we all disappeared.

What shit were they saying about us all? To be honest, I don’t care what they said about me, but I hope they never said anything awful about my mom. She’s the sweetest woman I know. Always ready to help anyone, no matter the circumstances. I can imagine her and Kurt’s mom Barbara getting along perfectly.

Both of them just live for their family.

I often also think about what happened to our house.