Howl for Me Read Free Page B

think of a person I’d rather have with me, through all the ups and downs. I don’t have any idea what he was talking about, but it doesn’t even matter. Whatever vague hint he was giving, the only thing that matters to me, is right here.”
    He kissed my forehead and I could have just about died.
    But then again, if I’d died, then there’s no way I could keep doing this – keep being with him. I giggled softly.
    “What is it?” he asked, letting a little space open between us. “What are you getting all giggly for? Did I screw up another old saying?”
    “No,” I said in a low whisper. “No. You’re just so perfect, you’re just so... So you . I was giggling because...” I smiled to myself. “Because without you, I’d laugh a whole lot less. I’d smile a whole lot less. And without you, I’m almost sure I’d never have left Fort Branch. This little town woulda been my birth and death. But, with you? I get the feeling we’re going to see the world together.”
    Right there, in that one moment, with Damon’s arms draped over my shoulders, and the moonlight streaming through the bay window, I had everything in the entire world – more than I ever dreamed.
    *
    M y phone was so loud, that even in the bathroom on the far end of the house, I heard Rod Stewart yelling about Maggie May, in a voice sexier than most any other one on earth.
    Except for Damon’s.
    Damon’s leathery, gruff-and-soft voice could turn me to Jello on a bad day, and if I was already in a good mood when he gave me one of those ‘Come here, Lily,’ lines that he gave me all the time? Just thinking about him gave me a little wriggle of pleasure.
    I took the little plastic stick out of the wrapper and made sure all the parts were in the right place, and that I knew how to use it. My hand had just a little bit of a shake, as I looked at it, and compared the almost ominous baby-blue stick to the picture on the box.
    This wasn’t my first pregnancy test, but it was the first one where I wasn’t absolutely sure what the result was going to be. Between my inheritance, and the mystery packages that Damon’s parents kept sending him, money wasn’t a concern, really, but the idea of becoming a parent was strangely confusing to me.
    I always wanted a couple of cute, little babies, but the reality of it happening hadn’t ever really occurred to me. I mean, there wasn’t anyone I wanted to have them with, until Damon, so I hadn’t even considered the possibility. Sitting there, on the toilet, with the test in my hand, listening to Damon grumble on the phone, I realized that it wasn’t fear I felt.
    It wasn’t even anxiety, or the dull ache of worry.
    It was hope.
    Everything was okay. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have anything to complain about, or worry about, or think was going to fall apart, the next time I turned around.
    My whole life, as crazy as it might be, was stable.
    Thirty seconds or so later, it was over, and I was standing up, pulling up my jeans, and staring wide-eyed at the little blue thing on the countertop, waiting for one line, or two.
    Damon – and whoever it was he was talking to – didn’t sound very happy. He had that not-quite-yelling thing going on, where he was speaking low and slow, but his voice was so deep, I could hear it from all the way at the other end of the house.
    I stared, hard, at the little blue stick, willing it to do something before my head exploded in anticipation.
    One line showed up.
    “What do you mean, now?” Damon shouted from the other end of the house. Damon never shouted.
    The second line popped up.
    It was faint, yeah, and fighting for life, against the white background, but it was there.
    I could hardly breathe.
    I grabbed the test, stumbled over my half-zipped jeans, and managed to pull them the rest of the way on, as I yanked open the door.
    “I don’t care what happens to him,” Damon was saying as I wheeled my way out of the hallway. I was gripping my little,