A Trespass in Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

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                That night after work, Heidi and Hugo talked Ella into going out for drinks to commemorate her first day on the job. During the course of the evening, she let two calls from Rowan go to voicemail because it was too noisy in the restaurant to talk. And by the time she got back to her apartment, she was just too exhausted from her long full day to call him back.
               
                When she had been gone for two weeks, Rowan began to see the cracks in their plan. For Ella, those two weeks were weeks of exciting, interesting events that chocked her days full and left her tired and often unavailable in the evenings. For him, not so much. He was due to go back to Dothan tomorrow. Truth be told, he had been ready to go back as soon as Ella left but he knew his folks were counting on him staying the full time with them.
                It was Thursday evening. While Ella didn’t seem to need a Friday or Saturday evening to spend the evening clubbing, he knew his chances of catching her at home were greater during the workweek. He opened up Skype on his computer and typed in her number. Their arrangement had been for him to call the same time every evening but sometimes she didn’t answer, or if she did, she often could only talk for a few minutes. Lately, when he sat down to call her, he started to get a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. And not good queasy either.
                Rowan sighed and drank from a bottle of Lone Star Beer at the desk in his father’s den. He watched the digital clock on the computer and waited. He didn’t usually consider himself the OCD type. It occurred to him that his waiting—after all, what did a few minutes on either side of the allotted time matter?—was just his way of putting off what was inevitably coming. It stood to reason that she would create a new life over there, one that didn’t include him.  He understood that. Hell, he’d expected that. It was different with him. His life was his work. There was room in it for her, but without her presence—either physically or emotionally—his work would just fill the vacuum.
                He logged on and listened to the connection ringing.
                “Hey, Rowan.” She picked up straightaway and Rowan felt his heart lift. Not since the first few days over there had she answered so quickly. She must have been waiting for him. Immediately, he tensed. Why had she been waiting?
                “Hey, beautiful,” he said. “You’re letting your hair grow long.”
                “Yeah, it’s the style over here,” she said, patting her long dark hair. He noticed she had it down around her shoulders instead of twisted up in a bun or pinned up somehow. Up meant the office. Down meant she was going out.
                “Looks good. So how you been?” He hated these damn Skype calls. He wasn’t sure where he was supposed to stare. If it were up to him he’d talk to her on a regular phone while he was on the back porch where he could just close his eyes and imagine what she looked like. Naked, would be good.
                “I’m okay,” she said. “The work is pretty dull but I’ve been meeting some great people.”
                Not what he was hoping to hear, he had to admit.
                “Yeah? That’s great. How’s your German coming?”
                “Crappy. Everyone I’m hanging with speaks English so I just speak English.”
                “I can see how that’d be tempting,” he said.
                Was it his imagination or were these calls becoming positively painful?
                “How about you?” she said. “You still in Atlanta?”
                “Going home tomorrow,” he said. “Then it’s doing all the usual Marshal shit. Transporting, guarding, cleaning up the FBI’s