Read Fall into Forever (Fall into Him Book Three) for Free Online Page B

“Thing is, I'd like to talk to you
before the next time I see you because who knows when that'll be. Give me a
call when you get home from work. Thanks, sweetie. Love ya.”
     
    **BEEP**
     
    “It's Brad again. I'm guessing you're at work, but I can't figure out
why you haven't responded to any of my voicemails. Maybe you need to give me
your work number so this doesn't happen. I'll try again later.” She could hear
the edge to his voice even though he was trying to sound pleasant.
     
    Voicemails? Plural? As in, he'd called more than once.
     
    Jennifer sighed in frustration as she went back to her phone. Sure
enough, there were eight missed calls from Brad and eight voicemails. She
wasn't going to listen to them. She'd already heard two of his messages. She
didn't need to hear the same thing eight more times. Besides, she knew it was
an answer he was after and she wasn't ready to face that just yet.
     
    Jennifer deleted the messages and told herself that she'd call him
later. Right now, she needed to talk to Rachel. Their conversation had gotten
cut off last night and Jennifer really did want her friend's perspective on the
whole thing. It shouldn't take long. Rachel had a way of putting things
succinctly that most other people would take hours to explain.
     
    After she'd changed out of her work clothes and into a comfortable pair
of jeans and a t-shirt, she grabbed a bottle of water and a bag of pretzels to
munch on. She had a feeling she wouldn't be doing much of the talking in this
particular conversation. When Rachel was giving her opinion, she tended to
dominate the conversation. Since the cell was still charging, Jennifer took the
house phone with her to the couch.
     
    “Forgot to charge the phone again, didn't you?” Rachel's voice was
dryly amused as she answered.
     
    “Yeah, Mom, I know, I need to pay better attention.” Jennifer grinned
at the familiar exchange. Even though she and her roommate were less than five
years apart in age, Rachel often took a mothering approach to their friendship.
She said it was the result of having been raised with all brothers. She
mothered them and they were extremely overprotective of her. Jennifer was of
the opinion that it was just Rachel's personality, but she didn't argue her
point of view.
     
    “Look, Jennifer,” Rachel grew serious. “There were some things that I
didn't get to finish saying yesterday, but I need to know that you want to hear
them.”
     
    “I do.” Now she was curious. Usually she only had to ask once for
Rachel's opinion.
     
    “You know how you asked if I believed if people could change and I said
I did? I was going to offer a clarification at the end of that statement
because I don't think it's just some magical thing that happens just because
time passes. At least, not in the way you're talking about. When it's in
someone's personality to treat others poorly or to control other people, it's
ingrained in their personality, a part of them. They might want to change it,
especially if it's hurting their relationships, but it's hardly ever something
they can do on their own.”
     
    Jennifer set down her bottle of water, her stomach tightening. Rachel
was saying what Jennifer had been afraid of, that she was being too hopeful
about Brad being different.
     
    “Did Brad say that he'd gotten any help? Like from a therapist or a
counselor?”
     
    “No,” Jennifer's voice was small. She didn't even have to ask Brad to
know the answer to that question, even if he hadn't said it. Brad had always
said that people who needed therapists were just too weak to deal with things
themselves. “He just said that he'd come to the realization that there’d just
been a miscommunication this whole time. That he never actually meant to say
anything hurtful.”
     
    “Sweetie,” Rachel's voice softened. “Did he ever actually admit that
he'd done anything wrong or did he claim all of it was a mistake or a
misunderstanding?”
     
    Jennifer swallowed