A Gift of Time (Tassamara) by Sarah Wynde Read Free Book Online

changed.
    He caught the lobe of her ear with gentle teeth. “Boy or girl?” he whispered.
    She froze. The words ricocheted in her mind like bullets hitting the memories of the times he’d asked the same question, teasing, silly, a joke. Lying by the lake at sixteen, in their first shared bed at twenty, and then the last time, the very last time, the day before he told her good-bye.
    She pushed herself off him, shoving with enough force that he took a couple of steps backward, and she reeled away and into the edge of her desk, almost onto her computer. The heat of passion was gone, lost in a wave of such searing anger that her tensed muscles quivered with it.
    Fists clenched against the urge to hit him, to hurt him like he’d hurt her, she grated out the answer. “We are never having children. Because we are not a couple and never will be again.”
    He put a hand on his chest. Maybe he was touching where she’d shoved him, maybe he was covering his heart. She didn’t know and she didn’t care. “Nat.”
    She glared at him.
    “I’m not going to die.”
    “Apparently not. Congratulations.” She turned away, feeling tears well up in her eyes and not wanting him to see them. She’d told herself years ago that it was stupid to keep hating him. That she needed to let go. Maybe not forgive, maybe not forget, but move on with her life. But she’d always known this night was coming. She’d been waiting for it, even if it hadn’t ended the way she’d expected.
    She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, making a conscious effort to relax her muscles and clear her mind. 
    “I’m not dying,” Colin repeated.
    She turned back to him, in control again. “No, you’re not.” She managed a tight smile. “But that doesn’t change the past. It doesn’t change the fact that when you thought you would, when you thought you only had a little while to live, you chose not to spend that time with me.”
    He opened his mouth as if to protest, but she raised a hand and snapped, her tone fast and furious. “Don’t. Don’t even start. I don’t want to hear what you have to say. I don’t care what you have to say. I’m glad you’re alive but that doesn’t mean anything between us changes.”
    He ran a hand through his hair, “Everything changes, Nat.”
    “Not us. We don’t change. You dumped me. And I don’t forgive you.”
    In the other room, a phone rang. His. It rested with the other items from his pockets on a small table next to the scanner. He glanced in that direction automatically, then looked back at her and started. “Nat—”
    “You should get that,” she interrupted him, voice cold, expression colder. “It’s probably about the girl. Maybe they’ve found her parents or know who she is.”
    He didn’t move.
    A rustle behind her told Natalya the girl was sitting up. She tried to school her expression, to not let the anger seething under her surface show, but her hands were trembling as she turned toward the child, taking the two steps that put her next to the pile of cushions. She crouched down. “Hey, sleepyhead.”
    The girl looked fearful, eyes wide.
    “Don’t worry.” Natalya reached out and put a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You fell asleep in the car and we carried you down to my office. But you don’t need to be afraid. We’ll get you home.”
    The phone was still ringing. With a muffled sound falling somewhere between a sigh of resignation and a growl of frustration, Colin went to answer it.
    The child still looked scared and Natalya let her hand drop to her side. Poor kid. Natalya’s anger faded, lost in guilt and sympathy. Bad enough to be lost and alone without waking up to strange adults screaming. “Did I wake you up by yelling at him? I’m sorry.”
    The girl blinked, but the stiffness in her body didn’t ease.
    “I’ve known him for a long time, since I was a little girl. Littler than you.”
    The girl’s eyes narrowed slightly, a tiny movement, but her