The Wedding Gift by Sandra Steffen Read Free Book Online

do you make me feel as if you understand me? You don’t even know me.”
    â€œI know everything I need to know about you.”
    He had her full attention.
    â€œDo you now,” she said.
    When her gaze dropped to his mouth, he knew she felt the current, too. “I know you carry a stethoscope in your shoulder bag. I know you were engaged in the fifth grade. You get drunk on three margaritas. And you make a habit of trespassing.”
    With a small smile, she said, “I was tipsy, not drunk. And I knew I was going to marry Aaron in the fifth grade, but we didn’t actually become engaged until years later.”
    â€œHow long has he been gone?”
    She swallowed. “It was a year ago last October.”
    â€œAre you seeing anyone now?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    He didn’t bat an eye. The guy had been her first love, probably her only love. Riley wasn’t looking to replace a dead man and she wasn’t ready to fall in love again. She needed what the talk-show shrinks called a transitional relationship. Since Riley only wanted her in his bed, the sooner the better, this had all the makings of a perfect arrangement.
    â€œRiley?”
    â€œHmm?” It wasn’t easy to drag his gaze away from her mouth.
    â€œDo you smell something?” she asked.
    He sniffed.
    Just then the smoke alarm shrieked. He raced to the stove as the first flames shot out of the frying pan. He smothered the fire with the lid but there was nothing he could do about the black smoke that escaped in belching clouds. He opened the window and the door then fanned the smoke alarm with a used pizza box.
    Creeping closer with the trepidation of a month-old kitten, Madeline peered with him at the charred remains of their omelets. “Does it look done to you?” he asked.
    She burst out laughing. Riley couldn’t help himself. He threw back his head and joined in.
    He roared, she chortled. It had been a long time since either of them had laughed like this, and theywound up holding on to their stomachs, eyes watering, chests heaving, laughing so hard they hurt.
    The smoke alarm stopped wailing before their guffaws quieted. In the ensuing silence, he said, “How does cold cereal sound to you?”
    It started them both laughing all over again.
    â€œThank you,” she said, wiping tears.
    â€œFor what?” he asked.
    â€œI don’t know yet.” She returned to the table and took another sip of her orange juice. Tracing another scorch mark on the table top with one finger, she said, “This nightmare of yours. Did it start after your heart transplant, too?”
    He didn’t want to talk about his surgery.
    Obviously interpreting his silence accurately, she said, “You might as well just tell me because now I won’t be able to stop needling until I know.”
    Releasing a pent-up breath of frustration, he said, “In the dream, I’m staggering blindly inside a derelict building that seems to go on and on. I have one hand over the gaping hole in my empty chest. With the other hand I’m groping the wall, searching room after room.”
    Madeline felt her mouth go dry and the blood drain out of her face. “What are you looking for?” she whispered.
    A full five seconds passed before he said, “My old heart.”
    She was in dangerous territory and had been since the conversation began. She knew she wasn’t going to like his answer, but, choosing her words carefully, she asked anyway. “Why, Riley? You have a brand-new heart.”
    He stood a dozen feet away, feet planted, eyes narrowed. She could see a vein pulsing in his neck. And even though he lowered his voice, she heard him say, “Because I liked the old one better.”
    She didn’t pretend to understand the reason bad things happened. Half the time the phases of the moon and the unwritten laws of the universe left her blank and shaken. And yet she knew to her very soul that