Love Came Just in Time Read Free

stared down into the placid waters. All right, now was the time to get ahold of herself and make a few decisions. She had no intentions of jumping—not that she would have done herself much harm anyway. Well, short of getting strangled in Mr. Murphy’s weeds, that is. No, she had come to face death and figure out just what it was she had to live for.
    She threw out her hands as a gust of wind unbalanced her. Okay, so maybe this was a little drastic, but she was a Garrett and Garretts never did things by halves. That’s what her father had always told her and she had taken it to heart. Her dad ought to have known. He’d fallen off Mt. Everest at age seventy.
    She stared out over the placid pond and contemplated her situation. So, she’d lost her job. She didn’t like typing for a living and she hated fetching her boss coffee. She would find something else. And her apartment was hazardous to her sense of smell. She could do better.
    Her fiancé Brett could be replaced as well. What did she need with a perpetual Peter Pan who had three times as many clothes as she did, wore gallons of cologne, and deep down in his boyish heart of hearts was certain she should be supporting him while he found himself? Maybe she’d look for a different kind of guy this time, one who didn’t mind working and wouldn’t hog all her closet space. She crossed her heart as she made her vow. No one who dresses better, smells nicer, or works less than I do .
    So maybe her life was in the toilet. At least she was still in the bowl, not flushed out on her way to the sewer. She could go on for another few days.
    Oh, but Sir Sweetums. Abby swayed on the railing, shivering. He was irreplaceable. Even after two years, she still felt his loss. Who was she supposed to talk to now while she gardened in that little plot downstairs? Who would greet her at the end of each day with a meow that said, “and just where have you been, Miss? I positively demand your attention!” Who would wake her up in the morning with dignified pats on her cheek with his soft paw?
    Meow!
    Abby gasped as she saw something take a swan dive into the pond. She climbed up to the top of the railing for a better look. That had to have been a cat. It had definitely meowed and those headlights had most certainly highlighted a tail.
    Headlights? A very large truck traveling at an unsafe speed rumbled over the one-lane bridge, leaving behind a hefty gust of wind. Abby made windmill-like motions with her arms as she fought to keep herself balanced on that skinny railing.
    â€œHey, I wasn’t through sorting out my life!” she exclaimed, fighting the air.
    It was no use.
    Darkness engulfed her. She didn’t see the pond coming, but she certainly felt it. Her breath departed with a rush as she plunged down into the water. She sank like a rock. Her chest burned with the effort of holding what little breath she still possessed.
    Time stopped and she lost all sense of direction. It occurred to her, fleetingly, that Murphy’s Pond wasn’t that deep. Maybe she had bonked her head on a stiff bit of pond scum and was now hallucinating. Or worse.
    An eternity later, her feet touched solid, though squishy, ground. With strength born of pure panic, she pushed off from the gooey pond bottom and clawed her way to the surface. She started to lose consciousness and she fought it with all her strength. No halves for this Garrett.
    She burst through the surface and gulped in great lungfuls of air. She flailed about in the water to keep afloat, grateful she was breathing air and not water. Finally, she managed to stop coughing long enough to catch her breath.
    And then she wished she hadn’t.
    The smell was blinding. Her teeth started to chatter. Maybe she had died and been sent straight along to hell. Was this what hell smelled like?
    Well, at least there was dry land in sight. It was possible she had just drifted to a different part of Mr.