Love's Awakening by Kelly Stuart Read Free Book Online

list of blah blah blah. Trouble sleeping. That one I have. My doctor says to give it time.”
    “You’re dealing with a lot. My dad and all.”
    “Can you sleep? What’s your trick?”
    “No trick.” Oliver indicated the bruises under his eyes. “You think I go around looking like this for the fun of it?”
    Celia laughed. “I’m up all night. Either pacing and thinking, waiting for the baby to cry, and then trying to calm him down, or wondering how your grandmother can snore so loud. She’s a bulldozer. An artillery tank. A machine gun.”
    “It doesn’t bother Granddad?”
    “He sleeps on the couch. The pull-out.”
    “Oh,” Oliver said thoughtfully.
    “Yeah. So at night, I can’t even go down and veg on the couch or watch TV. I’m stuck in my bedroom. Ahh. I don’t mean to talk negative. Shirley is at the hospital a lot of nights, and Richard sleeps in the spare bedroom then. So I do have plenty of opportunity for crappy late-night TV. Your grandparents are a great help. Wonderful with the baby.”
    Oliver offered a tentative smile. “Good. That’s good.”
    Celia pictured Oliver again, pictured his sweaty, heaving, glistening chest as he cut wood. She pictured snug jeans, the bulge in his crotch. No, no. This won’t do.
    “Look, Oliver,” she said briskly.
    “Yeah?”
    “Why am I here?”
    Oliver blinked. “Uh, to have pizza. Which is getting cold.”
    “Bull. You have an ulterior motive.”
    Oliver sighed. “Yes. But do you want to eat first?”
    “Let’s get this over with. Was your dad leaving me?”
    Oliver licked his lips. “He, uh, Dad uh…”
    “He was cheating,” Celia supplied. “He was leaving me for another woman. Do you know her name?” Celia attempted a bright, helpful smile. “It’s okay, Oliver. You can tell me.”
    “Dad was transgender,” Oliver mumbled.
    Celia was sure she misheard. “Pardon?”
    “Dad was transgender. He told me six months ago that he was a woman in a man’s body.”
    Celia stared at Oliver a long moment, took in his thick, curling eyelashes. He shared his father’s dark, alluring lashes. Then she moved her focus to Oliver’s windows. Out his windows. The sky was darkening, and Celia became vaguely aware of Oliver moving closer to her. She dropped her gaze to Oliver’s hands. His fingers were long and slim. David had thick, blocky fingers. Their hands had fit perfectly. Key word: had.
    Transgender.
    Really? No way.
    The revelation burned and scorched, but Celia was too shocked to do anything. Transgender. Transgender. The word bounced off the windows and off Celia’s nonabsorbent brain. “Transgender,” Celia echoed stupidly. Like Oliver had said David was an orangutan, or a time traveler, or the secret king of England.
    “Transgender,” Oliver said morosely.
    “Transgender.” The word was a lumpy, alien object on Celia’s tongue. She wanted to peel it off and hide it in the pizza box. Orangutan. That word was better.
    “Transgender,” Oliver repeated. Continuing their word tennis.
    Transgender, transgender, transgender. “Really?”
    “Yes. Really.”
    Celia wondered what she should be feeling. Outrage? Betrayal? Because right now all she could think about were orangutans. Their reddish hair and shiny eyes. Their scampering.
    “Celia,” Oliver said.
    “Orangutan.”
    “What?”
    “Orangutan. Like a monkey. I don’t think they’re monkeys, though.”
    Oliver frowned. “They’re not.”
    David a woman? Transgender?
    “Do orangutans eat pizza?” Celia asked.
    Oliver gripped her hand. “Celia—”
    Celia snapped her hand out of Oliver’s. “Answer me,” she demanded. “Do orangutans eat pizza?”
    “I doubt it. But pizza beats leaves and shoots or whatever the hell they do eat.”
    “Can you spell orangutan?”
    “Can you?” Oliver shot back.
    Pain. Exquisite pain in Celia’s breasts.
    “Six months? You’ve known six months?”
    Oliver gave a helpless, despairing sigh. “If I could do it again, I’d tell