A Gift from the Past by Carla Cassidy Read Free Book Online

I’m not complaining about having to take care of him or anything like that,” she hurriedly added.
    â€œI didn’t think you were,” he assured her.
    She studied him for a long moment. A breeze caressed her hair, sending a strand of it flying outward. He fought the impulse to reach out and capture the shiny silk between his fingers.
    â€œHow on earth did you get into video games, Joshua?” she asked. “I didn’t even know youknew how to turn on a computer when you left here.”
    He smiled. “I didn’t.” He stretched out on his side, close enough to her that he could smell her sweet scent. “When I left here, you know I had no real skills and no education.” During the course of their marriage, he had worked pumping gas, sacking groceries, on heavy construction, whatever it took to support Claire and Sammy.
    â€œAnyway, I knew if I was going to make something of myself I needed to learn a skill, so I took out a loan and enrolled in computer programming. To my surprise, it was something I excelled at. When I graduated from the school, I had a dozen offers with companies for more money than I’d ever dreamed of making, but I had a dream of owning my own company.”
    He sat up and leaned his back against the trunk of the tree that provided the shade where they sat. “Anyway, I took out more loans, started DreamQuest and nobody was more surprised than me when the games started taking off.”
    â€œWhat kind of games are they?” she asked.
    â€œMostly adventure. Remember those stories I used to tell you when we were younger?”
    She smiled, the first real uncomplicated smile he’d seen since he’d arrived. It lit up her features with a warmth that spilled over him, and he wished he could capture it. “You mean, those storiesabout lonely Lonnie looking for his parents and having to face the perils of the city all alone?”
    He laughed. “Exactly. Little Lonnie now has three games of his own and they’re my top sellers. But there are also games about Mr. Blue, a crayon who doesn’t want to be blue anymore, a carrot named Raymond who is trying to stay out of the clutches of a hungry rabbit and a lot more. And speaking of games, we’re supposed to be brainstorming to find that treasure for you,” he reminded her.
    â€œRight.” She opened the picnic basket and pulled out a notebook. “I’ve got all the clues that have come out so far written down here, along with the places I’ve already looked for the money.” She stretched out on her stomach, the notebook opened on the ground in front of her.
    Joshua lay down next to her, also on his belly. He was careful to keep an inch or two between their bodies, knowing he no longer had the right to lie intimately close to her.
    Still, he was close enough to feel her body heat, to inhale her scent surrounding him and the combination of the two created a ball of familiar tension in the pit of his stomach.
    It was the same kind of aching need he’d always felt for her, and it stunned him to realize she still had the power to make him ache for her.
    â€œThe first clue that appeared in the paper was,‘With a scream like a banshee, the sound rides the wind. With this clue in mind, let the contest begin.’”
    She turned her head to look at him. She was so close he could see the metal-gray flecks in her eyes, the small spattering of freckles across her nose. If he leaned forward just an inch, he would be able to capture her lips with his.
    â€œJoshua?”
    â€œYeah, I’m thinking,” he replied and tried to focus on the task at hand instead of the memory of how sweet and yielding her lips had once been beneath his. “Remind me of the second clue, maybe something will click in my head if I hear all the clues together.” He stared down at the blanket beneath them, attempting to concentrate on what she was saying.
    â€œThe second