Read McKenna Homecoming for Free Online

instead of facing the choices that put him in that hospital bed, I realized that I was in serious danger of becoming him. I want more now. I want us again.”
    She let out a gust of breath and got to her feet. Her hair turned to gold under the sunlight, but her green eyes held shadows and doubts. “Oh, Alec, I barely know what I’m doing from day to day.”
    “You’re feeling lost, adrift. Am I right?”
    She shrugged, but he could see the words had hit their mark.
    “That’s how I felt before my grandmother made her offer. I realized I’d spent ten years doing nothing but spending the family money and meeting only the lowest of expectations. When she gave me the job at McKenna Media, my first instinct was to turn her down, to stay in that comfort zone. The first two weeks I spent there were the worst. No one took me seriously, everyone thought I was just placating my grandmother so she’d keep bankrolling my life. But then I buckled down and put in the hours, and people started looking at me differently. It’s been an uphill battle, and one hell of a learning curve, but for the first time in my life, I have direction, Leah. A purpose.”
    “I’m glad for you, I really am. You were always so much smarter and more capable than you thought.”
    He smiled. “You always saw the best in me.”
    She raised a shoulder, let it drop. “That’s the job of a girlfriend.”
    “I’ve had girlfriends and none of them ever believed in me the way you did.” He stood, took her hands in his, and looked down into her wide green eyes. Damn, he loved those eyes, that smile. He always had. “That’s what someone in love sees. The best of the person standing before them. It’s what I’m seeing right now.”
    She opened her mouth, closed it. “Alec, we haven’t been together in ten years, and—”
    “And I was too stupid to realize what I had back then. Now I know better, and I know how I feel. How I’ve always felt.”
    “You can’t do this. I
    I can’t
    ” She backed up, breaking their contact. The grass flattened under her feet as she put distance between them. “I have to go in. I promised my aunt I’d take her shopping.”
    He nodded, not letting his disappointment and hurt show. He’d tried, more than once, to get through to Leah, to reach her heart again. And he’d failed. The realization sliced his heart.
    “Maybe it’s too late,” he said, the words ripping past his throat. “Maybe too many years have gone by. I wish you luck, Leah, in whatever you do.” Then he pressed one last kiss to her lips before he walked away.

Chapter Eight
    She was insane.
    Leah stood in her aunt’s yard for a solid ten minutes after Alec left, warring with herself. She thought of all the things she had started and not finished over the past ten years, and all the excuses she had held on to, because that was easier than facing her fears. There was no age limit for college, for following her dreams, for going after what she wanted. She was the only thing standing in her way.
    And she didn’t want to do that anymore.
    She’d vowed to change when her father had died, but when the scary moment had come, she’d retreated. Again. That was no way to reclaim her life, to move forward.
    Aunt Bea opened the back door and poked her head out. “Is Alec gone?”
    Leah nodded.
    “It’s so nice to see that young man again. I used to think you two would get married.” Aunt Bea sighed. “Ah, well, life throws you curveballs and sometimes you just have to find your own way to get from first to home.”
    Leah laughed. “What’s that mean?”
    A mysterious smile curved across her elderly aunt’s face. “You’ll figure it out, I’m sure. You always were a smart girl. Always knew the right answer.” Then she brightened. “So, do you want to go shopping? Or is there
    something else you need to do?”
    Leah’s gaze went to the side gate, the same one that Alec had used a little while earlier. “There is one thing I have to do first.