To Begin Anew (Blue Jay Romance) by Eliza Gerard Read Free Book Online Page A

removed himself from Debra’s table, inhaling the scents of her cooking to hold him for the road, and said, “You’ll have to excuse me, but I’ve got to get to work.”
     
    David and Danny, their sandy heads bobbling so that they could get a good look at him, smiled as they left the table to hug him goodbye. Together, they said, “Have a good day at work, Daddy.”
     
    Eric hugged his boys, smiling, and out of nowhere he looked up at Debra and smiled at her too. There was a brief flash of pain before the exchange was over, as well as the private memory that had been attached to it, and he let go of David and Danny. As was the morning ritual, he said, “Have a good day at school, and behave yourselves.”
     
    Debra watched Dr. Nelson leave, breathing easier as he disappeared past her front door. Breakfast with him had been too normal, too easy, and before long she could envision the meals she’d cook, the menus she’d run up just so she could see all of their happy faces as they enjoyed her cooking. And it had to stop right where it started.
     
    She told herself it wasn’t going to happen, that she wasn’t going to entangle herself with anyone ever again. Her freedom had been too hard won to lose it all again. And as much as she was beginning to like David and Danny, their father was another story and she couldn’t - wouldn’t - allow herself to like him too. No, it wasn’t going to happen.
     
    She redirected her attention and thoughts to the twin sets of eyes leveled at her. “You two, come help me in the kitchen. I’ll wash, and you two can help each other rinse.”
     
    After they were done with the dishes and Debra was pleased that they had done a good job, she had each of them grab their school bags. When she’d piled them into her little cherry red four-door, she gave each of them a blueberry muffin for their hard work. They were sweet, the blueberries she’d used in the mix hand picked from a gracious neighbor’s greenhouse. Debra had to smile all the way to the elementary school, loving the sounds of their mmm-hmms and smacks as the pair of them relished their reward.
     
    As she pulled into the drive, a circular-styled drop off, she stopped the car, turned off the engine and hopped out with the boys as they bounced up and down. She couldn’t understand why they were so eager to get to school, knowing that she’d never been the type to enjoy the confines the institution demanded.
     
    “Trevor’s gonna be here!” David sang.
     
    Danny chimed in after him, “Yeah, he said he would meet us up front with his mommy!”
     
    Debra had just enough time to look upwards as she saw a boy, his dark hair swishing in the wind as he ran across the school yard and, winded, shouted, “Hey! There you are!” She started to smile, but then her eyes noticed the boy’s mother and the blood rushed from her face.
     
    Trevor, Danny and David wandered off from the front of the school, and Debra didn’t even have a chance to shout a goodbye at them all before she was ambushed.
     
    “Well, look who’s playing mother. Again.” The voice was mocking, snide, and irritatingly familiar.
     

Chapter Five
     
    Eric strolled into the hospital, not bothering to glance at the nurses that gathered in the halls to gawk at him, and after visiting the locker room to put on his white coat, he moved to his office to look over the patients he would be seeing for the day.
     
    A nurse poked her head in, but when he didn’t pay her any attention, she frowned and unstuck her head from the jamb of the door. Eric sighed in her wake. It had been like this - the constant look-sees - since that stupid news stunt was pulled. He wondered briefly if this was what deer felt like when they saw the hunting signs.
     
    It wasn’t that he was through looking for a woman - he knew in his soul that Tina would have wanted him to be happy, that she would have wanted him to stop wallowing in his grief over her and look for someone to fill