Days of You and Me Read Free Page A

they’d made of our lives.
    It was time to move on.

The Water is Wide by Karla Bonoff
     

     
    “. . . and then this set, he takes an hour after lunch. I wrote 1 PM on the box, but you need to make sure if he eats a little later or earlier, he gets the pills exactly one hour later. If it’s any earlier, they can cause stomach upset, but if it’s any later, it can interfere with his later meds.” Sheri shook the plastic medicine box. “Quinn, did you understand that? Do you hear me?”
    I jerked my attention back to Nate’s mom, who was frowning at me across the coffee table. In front of her lay the tray of medicines, organized into smaller containers, each labeled with a day of the week, and next to that was a manila folder full of notes about the prescriptions as well as other aspects of Nate’s care.
    “Yes.” I struggled to keep my eyes open and my voice clear. “One PM. After lunch. The blue box. Got it.”
    “No, not the blue box. The clear box. The blue box is for before breakfast. Remember? B stands for before breakfast.” Sheri was frustrated, and she wasn’t trying to hide it in her tone or her expression.
    I bit back a sharp retort. I’d always gotten along well with Sheri Wellman; just like Lisa Taylor, Leo’s mom, she’d been a second mother to me. When Leo, Nate and I were little, we’d obeyed all parents equally, and there were times when any of the three women—Sheri, Lisa or my own mother—would respond when one of us yelled out for a mom. Sheri had always been frank with me about Nate’s feelings; I remembered her assuring me once, way back in high school, that although Nate was in love with me, it was all right that I didn’t feel the same.
    I’d been aware on some level that she’d withdrawn from me a little after Leo and I had begun dating, but she’d been there for my mom and me after my father was killed suddenly. Her support had been steadfast, and I’d never doubted her love. But lately, since Nate and I had moved back to Eatonboro after our two weeks at the shore, she’d been tense and just a little snippy.
    I could’ve been snippy right back, or I could’ve shut down. After all, as I would’ve been happy to point out to her, most girls my age weren’t dealing with stuff like this. My friends were all off enjoying their summers while they interviewed for their first real jobs, looked for apartments and got ready to start their post-college lives. Even Gia, who was still so shell-shocked and withdrawn, was getting ready for grad school, and she was interviewing for an assistant’s position at one of the Philadelphia news stations. Zelda was grumpy these days, because although she’d been determined to work for a non-profit farm-to-table group, she was being courted by several large companies. She was scary-smart, my former roommate, even though she tried her best to hide that fact.
    I didn’t want to be jealous of my friends. I wanted to be happy for them. I wanted to have time to talk on the phone for hours, going back and forth about which choice was the best. I wanted to take impromptu trips down to the shore with them, stay on the beach until the sun set and then play on the boardwalk until we shut the place down. I wanted to revel in the last weeks of freedom before we officially joined the real adult world of responsibility, rent and jobs.
    But instead, I was here, at Sheri and Mark’s house, spending my days and nights with Nate. My husband.
    And most of the time, I was consumed with doubt that I’d done the right thing by marrying him.
    The stress and effort of keeping up his energy during our two weeks of ‘honeymoon’ had sapped Nate’s shallow reserves, and since we’d been back, he’d slept most of the time. We’d made a trip to see his doctor, who hadn’t had much to say beyond a few recommendations about medication. I’d noticed the man’s eyes linger on me, and there was no way to miss the pity in his gaze. I wondered how much he knew about