The Storm (Fairhope) Read Free

swings; I could calm her with my boring rationalities, and I could count on her to listen with a dynamic ear. Naturally, she was the person I would turn to when I needed to process the fact that Andrew withheld information that could, after all, change our lives.
    “Well, something really awesome could have happened to me, too, but Andrew is resisting fate." I shoved the episode into a sixty-second synopsis.
    “Patience, Jana.” She sighed in response to my explosion. “Let a little time pass, and you will both see the right road. Don’t rush it, honey, or you’ll miss the scenery. Live in the moment.” Her voice was still too chirpy, even for her. Her medicine must have been working well that day.
    Live in the moment? Not my forte. I had read and re-read Eckhart Tolle, but my ability to live in the present was definitely lacking. Patience was a virtue I had not quite mastered; the item that never got crossed off my New Year’s resolution list.

 
     
    MONTHS LATER, AFTER my fury at Andrew subsided into slight aggravation, I was flying high on adrenaline, enjoying every challenge in my flourishing career. One of my top surgeons and another customer’s surgery nurse lived in my apartment complex, both females, and we socialized after work, building my business over hot fudge brownies and margaritas. I still think about those lazy nights under the star-streaked sky, laughing over husband annoyances as we drowned the day in whipped cream.
    The prospect of moving back to Fairhope was never far from my thoughts, but the time flew as our activities multiplied, life a whirlwind of lots of work and little play. In the blink of an eye, fall arrived and settled in with its cool breezes, colorful leaves, and shorter days.
    I left my house early on the day Chris told me about the sales force expansion. The October day was flawlessly clear and beautiful, abounding with chirping birds and absent of the muggy humidity that clouded fall days in Alabama. I rolled my windows down to feel the cool, whispering wind as I drove. I smiled, musing over my life … finally one to envy.
    As I drove, my mind lazily floated away to my conversation with Andrew the night before…
    “So, are you ready to start making babies yet?” Andrew grinned. An only child, he wanted a houseful of barefoot monsters. I was not so sure.
    “Um, you get enough practice. More than your friends.”I raised my eyebrows suggestively.Since Andrew and I started dating, his friends accepted me as one of them, which meant being privy to dozens of inappropriate conversations over beers, boneless wings, and football games. No one held back when I was around, so consequently, I knew way more than I wanted to about his friends’ sex lives, or lack thereof, and they knew way too much about ours. All that was sacred elsewhere was public in my house.
    Secretly, I was pumped Andrew bragged to his friends, saying I was a sex goddess. I thought he was the sexiest man I ever met, the only one who stole the breath out of my chest. Well, that is, except for that one night he shared way too much information after six mixed drinks. It took more than margaritas to erase the images of his previous conquests from my mind. I shouldn’t have asked.
    “We can make a baby when you make it happen for me to go home.” Privately, I hoped it would take at least a year. Andrew’s overly Catholic mother seemed to think so, since her once-heathen son and OCD daughter-in-law were using birth control pills. “Your mother thinks we are going to hell for me being on the pill anyway. If I don’t get knocked up quickly, she’s going to say we are being punished.” I refrained from voicing the thought that crossed my mind—that I might be okay with that. Being a parent scared me to death.
    I could have mimicked his unruly laugh that followed. “Yes, babe, I can see that coming. My mother’s fanatical.”
    My heart ached to go home, even if it meant participating in somewhat agonizing