Shoe Strings

had to end sooner or later.   Better to do it now, rip the bandage off
quick and spare herself and him the pain of a slow pull.   “I want you to leave, Bryce.   I want you to find someone else to love,
someone who can give you what you deserve.”
    She saw a flash of pain in his eyes just before the anger
seeped back in.   He turned without a
word, grabbed his clothes and shoes, and slammed the door in her face.   She took a step toward the door, but
then turned away.   She couldn’t go
after him, couldn’t stop him from leaving.   That had always been the problem.   She knew she’d have to let him go.   She just hadn’t thought it would be so soon.   When it hit her, his leaving, her knees
buckled and she literally sank to the floor, curled into a ball, and howled.

 

 
    Chapter 25
    The beauty of the mountains still amazed Lita.   She tried to hold onto the sense of
peace they gave her on her morning hike through the woods at the start of every
day.    At the top of the path,
just before it switched back down, she’d pause and watch the sun cast its glow
across the valley below.   The breeze
always rustled her hair and kissed her face as she closed her eyes and took a
deep breath of clean mountain air.   She’d never smelled anything as fresh and invigorating as the woodsy
scent of the mountains.   She wanted
to bottle it, capture it in her lungs, so when she was home and feeling
suffocated, she could close her eyes and conjure up the scent and drench
herself in its purity.
    The list she kept in her head of all the things she’d miss
when she left kept growing.   The
mountains and watching the sky wake up were near the top.   Jesse was another.   Somehow, he’d taken up the number one
spot and it worried her, for more reasons than one.   She’d let herself get attached to him
and his family.   Cal, Ty, Kerri Ann,
and Bryce—they were all connected and all a part of her life now.   She couldn’t imagine not seeing them
during the week, not witnessing the relationship between Kerri Ann and Bryce
take root and grow.   Ty, on the
verge of manhood, seemed to change everyday.   It fascinated her, watching Jesse with
his son.   It made her wonder what it
would have been like for her if her boy had lived.   She’d never been able to imagine him
beyond toddlerhood, but seeing Jesse and Ty made her wonder.   What would it have been like to have an
almost adult relationship with her child?  
    She poured herself another cup of coffee and sat down at the
kitchen table to work on her designs and answer e-mails when her cell phone
rang.   She flipped it open with a
quick glance at the number.   Her
father.   She knew she couldn’t avoid
him forever.  
    “Angelita, finally you answer.”   The anger she heard in his voice had her
regretting her decision to speak to him.   She hadn’t decided what to do and didn’t know how to put him off again,
especially when under the gun.   “Are
you home?”
    She feared he’d soon hire a private investigator to find her
and drag her back.   “I’m still out
of town.   It’s difficult to answer
when I’m in meetings,” she lied and hoped he’d buy her excuse.
    “I received a call from a reporter from the Atlanta Sentinel yesterday.”   Oh no.   She should have told Jesse to have his
friend keep it low-key.  
    “Why are you telling me this?”   She tried to sound bored when inside she
trembled.  
    “Apparently, he’d heard a rumor that the consulate might be
closing.”   He cleared his throat
and, as he did when she was younger, waited for her to fill the silence with
information.   When she offered
nothing, his control snapped.   “Tell
me you’re not responsible for this.”
    “Of course I’m not responsible.” She hoped she’d come across
as insulted, instead of scared to the core.   “I’ve barely had the time to give
your…proposal a second thought.”   She got up to pace, suddenly unable to sit while her nerves bounced
uncomfortably beneath her skin.   “If
you’ve heard the rumors, surely you can’t be surprised someone in the media
heard them too.”   Unless he’d lied
to her and the supposed rumor was, as she’d hoped, a fabrication.  
    “It’s highly unlikely anyone outside the government in
Brazil would know.”   He exhaled
forcefully.   “Arre, Angelita, you
disappoint me.”
    A fate worse than death when she’d been a teen now seemed a
million times worse.   She needed