Read This Thing Called Love for Free Online

trailed too close, right behind her.
    As she searched the cabinets for a mug, he pulled off the lid and sipped, then handed it to her, like they were sharing a Coke in the old days. A simple, impulsive gesture, but it seemed too intimate. She turned, leaving the cupboard doors ajar, and took a sip. Strong, aromatic, rich. Within seconds, the caffeine fired up her sleepy neurons and set her heart racing. Or was that from Brad’s nearness?
    “Bet you won’t find any junk food in there,” Brad tipped his chin toward the open cabinets, “unless Kevin managed to hide a stash somewhere.”
    Olivia smiled. Trish had religiously followed an all-organic, no-caffeine diet all through her pregnancy. Her sister had always thrown herself into anything she did one hundred percent. Both of them possessed the same drive, just aimed it in completely different directions.
    She was suddenly grateful Brad was here, joking and flirting. Keeping at bay the dark void that threatened to pull her in around every corner.
    “It must be hard to stay here,” Brad said, looking around the kitchen as if he’d sensed her fear and dread. The mail pile with catalogs to recycle and bills someone else would have to pay. A package wrapped with paper from a brown grocery bag, a birthday gift for a cousin that never made it to the post office. A pair of Kevin’s flip-flops tossed off by the door.
    And worst, the photos. Trish was obsessed with them. She took them, copied them, printed them, scrapbooked them, and hung them everywhere. Olivia could not glance in any direction without being inundated by happy, wonderful, heartbreaking moments.
    Brad walked over to a bookshelf in the family room and picked up a framed picture. It was taken at the hospital, just after Annabelle was born. It was the typical pose of Trish in the hospital bed, Kevin’s arm around her, the baby pink and new with a cap on her head and bundled in a white flannel hospital blanket. The expressions on the new parents’ faces were jubilant, relieved, exhausted. They were both grinning from ear to ear.
    “Who called you?” Brad asked.
    Olivia must’ve looked puzzled, because he added, “You know. The night she was born. I just wondered which of us knew first.”
    So he still had his competitive streak. “Trish called me from home at dinnertime, before she went in. She was painting the hallway gray when her water broke.”
    “She wanted to finish before they went to the hospital,” Brad said. “Kevin was so upset. He couldn’t understand why she was doing that. ‘It didn’t need painting’ he said, ‘and what was wrong with beige, anyway?’ Being a lawyer, he always made a practical argument.”
    Olivia took a seat on the brown sofa, chuckling a little. “She wanted to throw laundry in, too. He’d almost had to force her into the car. That was just like her. She wanted everything to be neat and tidy when she came back with the baby. Poor Kevin had to finish painting the hallway on, like, an hour of sleep.”
    Brad replaced the frame. “I went to the hospital right after work. Annabelle wasn’t born until midnight.”
    “I was in Chicago on business. I caught the first flight back but didn’t get in till the next morning. I missed everything.” She went quiet. “I let my sister down.” When you were part of two sisters raised without a mother, that was a big deal. She would always feel guilty she’d missed the most important experience of her sister’s life.
    Brad looked surprised. “Don’t say that. You did your best.”
    She shrugged, not believing him. “It was an extra trip. I could’ve said no.”
    “Trish wasn’t due for two weeks. You couldn’t have known.” A sudden grin lit his face. “Besides, Trish FaceTimed you before they even let me in to see the baby. So looks like you win after all. You saw Annabelle first.”
    Except no one really won. Because here they were, in an empty house surrounded by memories.
    Olivia was getting choked up so she