Jen_C’s Reviews > Adam > Status Update

“Wait, are you happier about the movie or marrying me?” Bailey slanted him a mischievous look, and he knew he was in for a lifetime of her teasing the hell out of him. He wouldn’t have it any other way. “Which do you think?” she asked. “I don’t care,” Adam said, deciding. “As long as you’re with me, I don’t care.”

Adam stepped to her, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her. Heat spread from his hands, as though he’d absorbed the fire in the ring and was radiating it back to her. The kiss went on, Adam taking her strength, but lending her his. When he eased away, Bailey let out a breath. “I’m liking what you have to say.”

Adam had come back to Riverbend and left it again many times before, his work consuming him. But this time Adam would be leaving more than the town, his family, his home. Once before, he’d walked away from what he’d started with Bailey, and he didn’t want to walk away again.

Adam didn’t pay much attention to them, letting their conversations flow over him. Something important had happened to him today—Bailey had planted inside him the idea that he might someday forgive himself. He turned the thought over in his mind, wondering what to do with it.

“Is that your answer to everything? Hitting it?” “Pretty much. Makes me feel better, anyway.” There it was—Bailey’s smile, flashing warmth through the gloom. “Well, I’m not going to tell you. You don’t need two lawsuits.” “Hey, I’ve been living in California. Everyone sues everyone there, all the time. It’s like a state pastime.”

Only a moron would give up Bailey, didn’t matter what other woman walked past. Adam wanted to tell her all kinds of things—I missed you; I thought about you every day; When I saw you here, everything started to come together again. Coherent speech was beyond him, though, which right now didn’t really matter.

"What do you mean, with me and Adam? There’s nothing going on. At all.” Christina’s brown eyes sparkled. “Oh, right. Sweetie, last night, when Adam saw you with Kyle, he looked like he wanted to murder everyone in the bar, starting with Kyle. He was furious. At first, I thought he was mad at me for going out with Ray, but I was totally wrong.”

“Sure, baby,” Adam said. “I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry.” Faith didn’t believe him. She kept her hand on his arm all the way down the hall until he was in his old bedroom, lying on his bed. Faith took Adam’s boot off his unsplinted leg, covered him with a blanket, kissed him on the forehead, and left him alone. Damn the girl. Now he wanted to cry.

Adam heard himself flatline. The machine shrilled one long sound, and everything he’d ever known vanished. He saw no light, felt nothing; he had no body, did not exist. There had been a roar, red fire, the stunt crew yelling, his best friend trapped in a pickup, surrounded by flame, eyes fixed in an unseeing stare.