Page 151 of Head Room
“Fletcher!”
He muttered a curse, then swung up into the saddle.“Maggie, I’ll write to you.I’ll send you money.I’ll see that you don’t want for anything.”
She shook her head mutely.
He would never fill the want in her.
He would return to his old life, to his old self, to his old love.He would be hers no more.He had never truly been hers.
She turned and went inside.She could not, after all, watch him leave.She leaned back against the door.
A prick of hot moisture struck her clasped hands.Then a second, a third.They slid over her knuckles and continued to the floor.
She heard the command to move out and the steady beats as the command headed east.
****
There was moreto read, but not enough time to finish the rest.
Because the doors to KWMT opened and Jennifer Lawton walked in.
CHAPTER SIXTY
It took awhile before she got past all the hugs.
I noticed Dale hung back, apparently awed by her.She did look more polished, more grown-up.
As her path took her past him, she gave him a quick one-armed hug.
He turned brilliant red.
Poor guy.
As she reached the door to Mike’s office, Diana moved in for a hug, followed by me.
“I had my parents drop me off here, so I’ll need a ride home,” she said.
“We’ll get you home,” Mike said.
“Your parents must be thrilled to have you come here first.”As the parent of a daughter going off to college in the fall and a son who’d follow in a few years, Diana empathized with the Lawtons.
Those words and thoughts seemed to come from a long distance.
“Elizabeth?Where’d you go, Elizabeth?”Diana asked.
“Ah.Sorry.My mind wandered.”
“The wedding?”
“No.The phrase Occam’s razor, except I suddenly had an image of the swinging blades in an old Indiana Jones movie.”Brought on from my interrupted re-reading of my notes, I thought.
“Also known as the circular saw trap.”In response to the looks her comment drew as we all sat in Mike’s office, Jennifer added, “Varieties show up in fantasy role-playing games, video games.They’ll slice you to ribbons if your timing’s off.Don’t need death by a thousand cuts when the first one will get you.”
“Fun,” Diana said.
“Maybe Iwasthinking of the wedding.Anyway...”I searched for where the conversation had been when my brain detoured to potential destruction, Hollywood style.
“Some guy’s razor,” Jennifer prodded.
