A Forever Kind of Love Read Online Free

some cleaning done around the house and make some calls to the store, and that had been a bitch. A shipment at the store had been screwed up, and she needed to get online and figure out what had gone wrong.
    She had payroll to deal with.  
    Worse, every waking minute with Roger was like walking on eggshells. She never knew what was going to set him off and the stress from that alone was driving her insane, and then, piled on top of that, was the guilt. Her husband was dying and she was whining because he was in a bad mood?
    The last thing she wanted to deal with was her mother.
    Shit. Tears pricked at her eyes but instead of letting them fall, she answered the phone.
    “Yes?”
    “Hi, Zoe. I know this probably not the best time, but…”
    Not the best time.
    Twenty minutes later, she hung up the phone and gave into the urge to press her back to the wall and close her eyes. Weariness dragged at her. She was so tired. So fucking tired.
    Lifting her head, she stared down the hall at the open door of the bedroom she shared with Roger.
    She had to go see about Mom, no choice there.
    But she couldn’t leave him alone.
    Shoving away from the wall, she headed toward the bedroom. One thing at a time. If he wasn’t feeling so sick, then they could worry about the next thing.
    Then the next thing, and the next, and the fucking next…
    “Damn it, can I just have a bit of break here?” she muttered as the burn of helpless anger settled in the pit of her belly.
     
     
    Staring at the bag of books, Chase tried to tell himself to just leave it on the porch and get back in his car.
    Instead of doing that, which was probably the smarter thing, he knocked on the door. Hell, he knew Roger needed a distraction and he’d just gotten some new political thrillers in that were just up the guy’s alley—and two of them were audio books.
    Zoe’s favorite urban fantasy author had a new book out.
    Books were a nice distraction at any time, right?
    It wasn’t like he didn’t have a good reason for swinging by.
    Ever since he’d found out about Roger’s diagnosis, the petty anger he’d harbored against his friend… Well, Chase had realized just how fucking petty it was, and he’d shoved it straight where it needed to go, out of his heart, out of his mind.
    They might never have the friendship they’d had in high school, but they were friends and right now, both Zoe and Roger needed all the friends they could get.
    And Chase needed to be there for both of them as much as he could.
    Besides, his dad was worrying about him too. Ever since Roger had turned in his resignation, the old man had come by as often as he could, but it was now re-election time and instead of visiting every couple of days, he could only get by once a week or so and Chase had promised he’d come by today.
    All valid reasons.
    Nobody needed to know it was a perfectly legit cover for him to be able to look at Zoe and soothe the ragged pain inside his heart, one that gotten worse ever since the time he’d laid eyes on her again in the city square a few months back.
    He couldn’t help her.
    She was going through something he couldn’t even imagine and he couldn’t do shit to help.
    Except bring some books for Roger and offer to help out at her store as much as he could, and that didn’t count for much of anything. He couldn’t take this pain from her, he couldn’t fix Roger—as fucking jealous as he was, he’d fix the man in a heartbeat if it was in his power, but he couldn’t.
    All he could do was stand by and watch as two people he loved suffered.
    The door swung open and the smile and speech he’d rehearsed faded away into nothing as he found himself staring at Zoe’s face.
    “Chase, hi.”
    Forcing himself to smile, he held out the bag. “Hey. Wanted to bring this by. And I promised my dad I’d come by and check on things.”
    She might have barred him from coming in but he edged past her, forcing her to back up unless she wanted him brushing up