Indelible by Kristen Heitzmann Read Free Book Online

mother told me these things?”
    Not a chance. Stella was a wretched parent, punishing Tia for her own guilt—something they hadn’t known until Sarge illuminated them.
    “Or even my sis—half sister.” Her brow puckered.
    He felt the worst about that. Tia and Reba had been close, so close. This baby coming should be something happy they could share.
    “Are we informing her?”
    “She doesn’t want to know.” She raised her eyes to his. “She’d just imagine …”
    Having a child with him. As once they’d planned. “I really wrecked things.”
    She pulled a crooked smile. “You don’t get that much credit. They were pretty wrecked already.”
    He stroked her face, her skin warming in his hands, the misery melting away. Her crazy mahogany hair fell all over his fingers, her nearly black eyes and arching brows an exotic contrast. He’d loved this woman since he first saw her on the playground when he was nine and she was only five. A fierce warrior child as needing of hope and affection as he was himself.
    He slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She wrapped his waist and pressed the side of her head to his chest. She stirred when Sarge rolled slowly from his room toward the kitchen where they stood, but Jonah held her fast, then squeezed and let go. “Ready for dinner, Sarge?”
    He craned his head up from a spine curling over on itself. “What’s on the menu?”
    “Wait, don’t say it.” Tia stepped back. “I’ll take the dogs for a run while you cook. Please open the windows.” She went out with the coydog Enola—half coyote, half German shepherd—who had come to him last summer. Her yearling pup, Scout, bounded after.
    “That woman is starving herself,” Sarge growled. “She have one of those eating disorders?”
    “Yes. Morning sickness.”
    Sarge’s mouth sagged open. “That’s what you’ve been doing?”
    “A good job of it too.”
    Sarge barked a laugh.
    “Feel like steak?”
    “Anyone ever say no?”
    “Besides Tia?”
    Sarge rested his hands in his lap and looked at the door she’d gone through. “She’s a good girl.”
    “The best.”
    “I never knew.”
    “Her mother sullied the waters. I can’t blame you for listening, but why couldn’t you see through Stella the way you saw the truth about my dad?”
    “Your damage was in the flesh, clear to anyone with an eye. The things Stella said about her girl, well, you wouldn’t think a mother could make that up. Such a pretty woman, but she had a streak.” He shook his head.
    “Tia’s the best of them.”
    Sarge shot him a look. “What got into you, proposing to her sister?”
    “Hormones.”
    Sarge nodded. “Hormones got you out of it too.”
    “It wasn’t hormones with Tia, Sarge. It was soul-starved need.”
    “Paid a price for the error.”
    “Nine years.”
    “And now she’s having your baby.”
    He breathed, “Yeah,” and wondered if Sarge saw his terror. Like every good soldier, if he did, he kept it to himself.

    A string quartet played Vivaldi in the lower level of the gallery as her guests mingled among the art. In a scoop-back Donna Karan dress, onyx choker, and heels, Natalie drew a trembling breath. It was real. It was wonderful. She could do this.
    She moved through the room, greeting and thanking people for coming. She had developed the appearance of eye contact without actually focusing, the closest she’d get to looking normal. It helped that the focal point at a gallery was the art.
    Besides her sculptures, she was showcasing two bronze abstracts from an artist she’d met through a Santa Fe co-op, five of Fleur’s paintings, and three paintings each from two New York artists. Quality work from them all. The electrician had fixed a glitch in the lighting, and the display floors on both levels shone with an elegant ambience. The only thing missing was Aaron, who, more than anyone else, had made this happen.
    Two weeks since the attack, and he still hadn’t called. That was