Tell Me a Desire (The Story Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

needing to pick up a bottle of dessert wine.
    Caleb turned to me. “Jackie was a partner at the law firm we used, before we named an in-house counsel.”
    “Yeah, until I had this little one.” She pushed the stroller toward me. I peered down, and there in the seat was the most perfect, rose-cheeked baby I’d ever seen. Well, that was a possible exaggeration because I’d never really noticed babies until today. But I’d seen a few while Caleb and I had been out, and I’d tried not to stare.
    I couldn’t ignore this little cherub, though, and I sighed. “So beautiful,” I breathed. “What’s her name?”
    “Annie.”
    “Annie’s being so good, sleeping through all this shopping.”
    Jackie laughed, and maybe at the sound of her mother’s voice, Annie stirred and opened her eyes. And fixed them right on me.
    I nearly burst into tears. “Ohhh.” The lump in the back of my throat made me gurgle unbecomingly, as if I’d suddenly developed a harsh case of tuberculosis. “She’s perfect.”
    Right then, Annie began to wail. I reared back and chuckled. So did Jackie.
    “See? Not perfect. Well, I need to run so I can buy wine and then feed her. It was nice meeting you, Emma. And, Caleb, don’t be a stranger. Let’s get coffee sometime. Emma, you should join us.”
    He gave her a quick hug, and she navigated the stroller toward the checkout. I hadn’t moved and instead stared down at the case of champagne and four bottles of wine in our cart. If I wanted a baby, I’d have to stop drinking. Maybe tonight would be my final night of imbibing. I reasoned that if I wanted to get pregnant, I should be super-healthy for the next three-hundred sixty-five days.
    What else would I have to change? Did I need folic acid? Where did one even get folic acid? I glanced around. Certainly not in a wine boutique. I’d ask Caleb if we could stop at Whole Foods on the way home.
    “Well, I’m glad to see Jackie got what she wanted.” Caleb took the cart from me, edging aside my hands and pushing toward a wooden table with samples of Parmesan cheese.
    “What do you mean?” I asked, hesitant.
    “Back before I met you, I dated Jackie briefly. She wasn’t my type. We weren’t compatible. Great woman, though. But when we dated, all she could talk about was getting married and having a baby. I wasn’t ready to be a father. Not with Tara and not with her.”
    Somehow I swallowed and stopped breathing at the same time. I paused to inspect a giant, three-hundred-dollar wedge of Parmesan, wishing a sinkhole would form and devour me and everything else in a ten-mile radius. If he didn’t want a child with his wife, or with a gorgeous lawyer who appeared as though she scheduled her days down to the minute, why would he want a child with me ?
    I picked up a cheese crumble affixed to a toothpick, but my stomach was suddenly too queasy to accept food. I held it out for Caleb.
    Ignoring the cheese, he stepped closer and shrugged. “You know what they say. When the time’s right, the time’s right.”
    I allowed myself to inhale and dropped the cheese and the toothpick into a wastebasket. “Huh?”
    He smiled. “I mean, when you’re with someone you’re compatible with, the idea of having children is more palatable.”
    “What are you trying to say?” Palatable wasn’t exactly the word I wanted to hear, but it did leave the door open to the possibility of a family. Didn’t it?
    He tucked a stray curl behind my ear. “Emma, is this really the time or place to have this conversation? Here? While we’re buying a case of champagne?”
    “Probably not.” While I studied him with big, crazed eyes, my heart did flip-flops. If you’d told me five years ago I’d want to talk about family planning in a wine shop with my boyfriend, I’d have rolled my eyes so hard I would have ripped an orbital muscle.
    Now? I felt like my heart was about to leap out of my chest.
    “Have you ever thought about… Never mind.” I shook my head