Adam's Daughter by Kristy Daniels Read Free Book Online

buildings and sights. The city had come back from the earthquake. Everyone was so optimistic about the future. It made me think that anything was possible.”
    “And you still think that?”
    He looked at her. “Yes, I do.”
    She laughed softly. “You’re a dreamer.”
    “I guess so.”
    “ What do you dream of?”
    It seemed suddenly strange to be sitting in the park with a girl he barely knew, talking of things as misty as dreams. He felt vulnerable. It was a long time before he answered.
    “I dream of having power and money,” he said slowly. He paused. “And a family.”
    He waited for her to laugh but she didn’t. "How do you plan to make your dreams real?” she asked.
    “Newspapers,” he said. “I’ll run one someday. Then own one. Then two , then three. I’m saving money. I have ideas.”
    He began to talk faster now, and she watched his face. “There’s so much opportunity now,” he went on. “This state is growing so fast. And I could open a newspaper in every city. I see a whole chain of them, strung out across California. And maybe more in other states. Powerful newspapers. But good and fair newspapers. Not like they’re run now. Not newspapers controlled by politicians or criminals or rich bast ards out to screw the poor. Newspapers controlled only by me.”
    H is eyes came back to her. “And my sons after me.”
    He had to look away. He didn’t know what it was about her that made him to talk this way. He had never expressed such thoughts before. But then his thoughts had never been so crystallized as they now were.
    “You are so sure of yourself,” she said.
    She la y back on the grass, staring up at the colonnade. It was nearly light and the figures atop the columns were now visible. They were Grecian women, standing with their backs outward, seeming to stare down into the tops of the columns.
    “What do you think they are doing?” Elizabeth asked, pointing.
    “Some people say they are crying.”
    “Why?”
    “They are supposed to represent art weeping at the impossibility of achieving dreams.”
    Elizabeth glanced at him. “A lesson in humility, perhaps, for us mere humans, Mr. Bryant?”
    Adam smiled. “I like to think of them simply as beautiful women who have some wonderful secret that I don’t get. Maybe if I keep coming here someday I’ll get it.”
    “Do you always get what you want?” she asked.
    He leaned over and looked at her. Her hair was a tangle of red against the green grass and the pearly morning light made her skin look translucent. He kissed her gently.
    “Yes,” he said. “I’m a lucky man.”
     
     

    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Adam stood outside the Tudor mansion, staring up at the windows. It was raining lightly, and his coat and hat were damp from the walk up the hill. He had been standing outside the house for several minutes, working up his courage to ring the bell, thinking about last night.
    He had stayed with Elizabeth in the park until nearly seven. They had talked about many things, yet nothing in particular that he could now recall. They had laughed...he had laughed, as he never had before, the feeling of lightness foreign to him. And he had kissed her, again and again and again.
    When he had walked Elizabeth back up the hill to the mansion on Broadway, the streets of Pacific Heights had been empty except for a few domestic workers slipping into back doors. Adam and Elizabeth had lingered on the porch, holding each other. She asked him to come back that afternoon. Then with a weary smile, she went inside.
    He had gone back to his room, bathed and waited. It was Sunday, his day off, and he had nothing to do. So he lay on his bed, thinking about Elizabeth...beautiful, rich Elizabeth.
    He drew in a breath went up to the porch and rang the bell.
    When the maid answered he said he had come to see Miss Ingram. He was told to wait in the foyer. He was staring up at the chandelier when Elizabeth appeared at the top of the staircase.
    “Adam! I knew you’d