Dreams for Stones Read Online Free PDF Page A

number and, saying it was the hospital, went to the
bedroom and closed the door. For the next twenty minutes, only the
intermittent murmur of his voice was audible.
    When he came out, she looked up. “An
emergency?”
    “Yeah.” His hair was standing up at odd
angles as if he’d spent the entire call pulling on it.
    Noticing his strained tone, she set her book
down. “You need to go in?” She wouldn’t even mind too much if he
had to spend the night at the hospital after having him to herself
all day.
    “Yes. . . no.”
    “You don’t have to go in?”
    “It wasn’t a case.” He sat in the chair next
to the couch, rubbing his hands on his thighs.
    She sat up, put her feet on the floor and
leaned toward him. “But it was a problem.”
    “Yeah. You could call it that.”
    “You want to talk about it?”
    He closed his eyes, then opened them and
turned away. “I need to tell you something.”
    His expression and the tone of his voice
were scaring her. Her heart began thudding in a dull, heavy rhythm,
and her stomach swooped as if she were in a free-falling
elevator.
    “. . . didn’t plan it, Kit. Julie and me.
We, well we just. . . clicked.”
    She shook her head. The words he’d spoken
rattled around inside, like a handful of pebbles that needed to be
sorted out and lined up before they made any sense.
    “I don’t understand.” Her mouth was almost
too dry to form the words.
    He gave her an anguished glance and started
wringing his hands. “I know. I know. I should have told you right
away. No excuse. Stupid. Julie told me to.”
    The elevator jarred to a halt as the words
made sudden, awful sense.
    No! You can’t possibly love someone else.
We’re engaged. You’re marrying me!
    The words piled up, broke free. “Why didn’t
you tell me not to come?” Not what she thought she was going to
say. Surprising her even more was the calm, detached manner in
which she’d said it.
    “I thought it would be easier. Better, if I
told you in person.”
    “You slept with me. Twice!” Her control
slipped as the words lurched from her mouth.
    He sat back abruptly, as if he’d been
slapped.
    Now there was an idea. Although she didn’t
believe in violence, right this minute, she understood why it
happened—could almost feel the relief a hard physical connection
between her hand and his face would bring. Except. She didn’t want
to touch him. Ever again. Or let him touch her.
    She wrapped her arms around herself, holding
on tight as he shifted around like a man with ants in his pants.
Nasty, stinging, fire ants if the choice were up to her.
    “I still have. . . feelings for you.” He
gave her a pleading look. “I wasn’t sure. It’s been confusing, you
know?”
    No, she didn’t know.
    “I had to see if what we had. . . If it’s
over.”
    “And is it?” She almost choked on the words,
overwhelmed by the sudden, vivid memory of him swinging her around
this afternoon, the two of them laughing with the joy of being
together. Or so she’d thought.
    He nodded.
    She clamped her lips shut to keep the
whimper clogging her throat from emerging. A sudden pain made her
realize she was digging her fingernails into her arms. Fingernails
she’d splurged to have manicured for this trip. Probably he hadn’t
even noticed.
    She pushed back against the sofa cushions to
get further away from him, fighting the temptation to leap up and
rake her perfectly shaped nails across his beautiful, deceitful
face. Carefully, she loosened her grip, slid her hands together in
her lap, and took a breath. When she tried to speak, she found she
had to stop to clear her throat. “I expect you’ll want your ring
back.”
    “That’s okay. You can keep it.”
    And let him think he’d bought her off?
Absolutely not. “Here. I obviously have no use for it anymore.” She
slid the ring off and laid it on the end table next to him, then
re-clenched her hands in her lap.
    She didn’t know how she was managing to sit
on the couch as prim