Learning to Breathe Again

Published by

Kelli Heneghan

This is a work of fiction, Names, characters
places and incidents either are the product of the author’s
imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely
coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without the written
permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

Copyright © 2016 by Kelli Heneghan

Edited by Nathan Squiers for Literary Dark
Editing

Cover art by EmCat Designs

For the one who gave me the courage to
BREATHE…I love you.

Again, I have to say a huge Thank You to my
family for all the encouragement and support.

To my friends who made sure I kept both feet
on the ground. Laura, I promise, one of these days, you’ll be on
the cover!

To Nate and Meg: you two are the greatest!
Thanks for sticking with me and helping me get this thing done!

And to all of my readers, THANK YOU! You’ve
made my dream come true!

BAYLEIGH MORROW
STARED
at her phone in disbelief. How in
the hell did it only have two percent battery life left? She had
forced herself to keep the damn thing turned off during her
overnight layover in New York just so she’d have a full battery
today. Damn smart phones always needing a signal. The fact that
this one was way over-due for an upgrade wasn’t helping the
matter.

Gritting her teeth, she turned her phone off
and slid it into her backpack. Like everyone else in the free
world, she didn’t keep phone numbers written anywhere. She and her
brother didn’t talk to each other often, a fact she wanted to
change with this visit.

Her flight from England to New York had
gotten in too late last night to make any connecting flights to
Texas. She’d stayed at JFK all night and slept upright in a chair
with her feet propped on her luggage, her brief attempts to doze
interrupted by departure calls and announcements. She’d thought
luck was on her side when they were able to get her on a flight to
Austin that left New York at six that morning.

But no, her plane had been late arriving in
Austin and the line for car rentals had been unbelievable. The
coffee stand she’d tried to get breakfast at burned the bacon for
her breakfast sandwich and there hadn’t been time to wait for
another one. And to top it off, the traffic in Austin had been
hellacious. After an eleven- hour flight across the Atlantic,
having to sleep in the airport, and then the delays here, she had
thought that would be the end of her troubles. But, no. The damn
phone had to go and die on her.

Now she was two hours outside of Austin,
filling up her gas tank with a credit card she hadn’t used in at
least three years. She gave a mental fist bump when the card
worked. Next up on her list, finding her stupid car charger for the
cell phone.

She leaned into the back
seat and started rummaging through her bags.
I know I packed the damn thing. I took it to Europe and never
needed it there. Figures I need it the minute I step foot on the
ground here.

“
Where the hell did I put
it?” She muttered, digging through the suitcase for the third time.
She stood up and huffed out a frustrated breath, blowing her hair
out of her eyes. She remembered throwing the charger into the
suitcase. Hadn’t she? She closed her eyes, picturing the apartment
back in London. She’d kept it in a drawer because she never drove
anywhere in Europe. She was positive she’d pulled it out of that
drawer. Her phone only needed to be charged once a day or so
because she kept it turned off most of the time. There weren’t many
people in Europe who needed to call her cell phone.

Short of dumping everything out of the
suitcases and her bags, she wasn’t going to find it. She shivered
as she stared at the diner attached to the gas station. Despite the
sun shining, it was still February and the wind was cold. She
decided she might as well get a snack and something to drink for
the road since she’d had to stop for gas. Maybe someone inside
could tell her if there was an electronics store nearby.

Moving her car so she wasn’t blocking the
pump, she pocketed the keys and walked up to the double doors,
eyeing the almost empty tables and the two waitresses drinking
coffee at the counter. She felt like she’d just stepped back in
time into a diner from the 1950’s. There were ten booths, and even
from the door she could see the cracked vinyl seats. Most of the
booths were along the windows, with one large one in the back
corner. A few smaller tables scattered around the middle of the
diner, and plenty of seating up at the counter for people who were
alone, such as herself.

With every intention of just ordering a cup
of coffee and asking for directions, she slid onto a stool at the
counter. The aroma of hamburgers and French fries and fresh baked
pies had her mouth watering and her stomach grumbling, reminding
her she hadn’t eaten a real meal since leaving London
yesterday.

“
Hey, there. Do you know
what you’d like to order?” The younger waitress set a glass of ice
water down in front of her.

“
I’ll take a cheeseburger
and fries, and a Coke. But could you put the Coke in a to-go cup?”
Bayleigh smiled at the waitress.

“
Of course, doll. Be happy
to. It’ll just take a few minutes to get that going for you.” The
waitress gave her a wink and stepped up to the window between the
kitchen and the dining area and called out the order to the cook in
the back. Bayleigh watched the banter between the cook and the two
waitresses while she waited for her food.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. Time
was of the essence here and she really needed to get back on the
road. The cook and the waitresses seemed to think she had all day,
though. They weren’t moving very fast behind the counter. Maybe she
shouldn’t have ordered anything. But man, oh man, did the smell of
those burgers and fries get her appetite to wake up.

“
Here ya go, hon. You just
let me know if you need anything else. My name is Tory.”

“
Well, Tory, I do have a
question for you, if you’ve got a few minutes?” Tory turned back to
her and glanced around the diner with a wide-eyed dramatic
stare.

“
Gee, hon. Not sure my
customers can be put off,” she teased as she leaned a hip against
the counter across from Bayleigh. “Whatcha need?”

“
Directions to an
electronics store. My cell phone is almost dead and I need to get
to Waketon before it dies,” she bit into her burger, almost moaning
in appreciation. European burgers just weren’t the same. Now
this
was a
burger.