Chapter Eight
Once again, she fought against the temptation to request Gerard to back off. Trent was laughing as Gerard shared his bowl of yogurt with him, and Hartford was stealing glances their way. Gerard didn’t know she was watching. Lately, she’d had too much time to work, yet too pervasive an urge to miss seeing Gerard and Trent together. Their eyes crinkled up in the exact same way when they laughed, and lately, she had spotted Trent picking up Gerard’s habits. For instance, Trent repeatedly told her she was awesome. And when she paid attention, she noticed that Gerard said that to Trent very often. Not just as two words to encourage him, but there was awe on Gerard’s face every time he said it.
For the last seven days, Gerard had ignored all her protests about him playing too much and stressing out his recovering knee, and chose to spend every waking moment with Trent. Last night, when she tucked Trent into bed, he had asked the one question—about that one topic—he’d never been concerned about before. And she’d assumed, very conveniently, that he didn’t understand the concept of two parents until he said it.
“Can Gerard be my daddy when we go back home?”
She’d been ashamed while she did it, but had no choice but to evade the question. Before she gave birth to Trent, she had decided she’d be open and honest about things with her son. Gerard’s presence in their lives had made her lose her footing.
After Trent fell asleep, she’d sobbed for ten minutes in her own bed. The fact of the matter was, she could relate painfully to Trent’s desire. The same craving nagged at her all day. Like a child, she wished she could take Gerard home with her. Being around him had reminded her of so many lost things. He missed his strong hugs, his protective, crushing embrace that made her wince. She also missed the way he used to smile at her—back when he loved her.
He still smiles at you the same. He wants his name as his son’s surname, and he seems to be really interested to keep seeing him.
She tried not to remember the way he’d asked if they could have a girl together to test his word. That could only happen if they stayed together. It was the only hint she’d received that told her Gerard didn’t just want to stay in Trent’s life, but also in hers.
She peeked sideways from her vantage point again and saw Gerard feed Trent a spoonful of yogurt before taking one for himself. She couldn’t help but smile, tears making the sight blurry.
There was no way around it. Gerard was Trent’s father. No one could do for Trent what Gerard could. And Gerard seemed eager to have it all. She wondered if she should risk it all to give Gerard a chance—for Trent. But that would not be the right reason. She wanted to give Gerard a second chance, not just for Trent, but for herself.
She eyed his bare calf and let her gaze greedily, wantonly wander over his broad shoulders, his neck, and his thick hair and angled jaw. She wanted him. He had been the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on, and he still was. Sometime during the time when she cut him out of her life and moved on, she’d told herself she’d simply been too young and too besotted; Gerard wasn’t that handsome.
But God, he was. Everything about him connected to her needy body. The way he spoke, the way he smiled—even the way he acted like a douche most days. He was not replaceable. She had wasted her time trying to find a man for herself. Who could recover from someone like Gerard? He was a force, a tornado that had stolen her away. Now, she was ruined for all men.
“The bastard,” she whispered to herself, wiping away her tears, composing herself before she walked into the living room and pretended that she hadn’t been ogling them for the last twenty minutes. “What’s going on?” Her hands on her hips, she smiled down at her son.
“We’re having yogurt,” both Trent and Gerard said in unison. Then the two of them burst out laughing, and Hartford laughed with them.
Gerard met her eye, and she quickly tried to hide the absolute wonder on her face.
“What?”
She gave up. There was no hiding anything from him. He knew her long before she knew herself. She shook her head and picked up a few toys off the floor, throwing them inside a basket.
“Okay, we’re done.” Gerard put the bowl away and wiped Trent’s mouth with a tissue.
Hartford’s smile froze. It all looked so normal. So real.
“This guy here ate up all my entire yogurt,” Gerard pretended to complain.
Trent giggled, delighted, and Hartford couldn’t resist wrapping her arms around her son. “Did you?”
“Yes, I ate it all. I’m going to eat everything Gerard wants to eat.”
“Whoa. Are you sure? Gerard eats a lot,” she joked.
“Yes. Everything.” He pulled free and stood in the center of the rug, turning toward his besotted audience of two. “I’m going to eat it all and be big and strong. Then I’m going to play football.”
“Yeah!” Gerard said hoarsely and loud, and lifted his hand for a high five. Trent’s small hand landed onto it with a soft smack. “Ow.” Gerard pretended to curl over in pain. “You’re so strong already.”
Hartford chuckled. Seated a foot away from Gerard, they joked with their son. It was one of the most profound, and at the same time heartbreaking, moments of her life. Trent quickly pulled out all the toys from the basket, one by one, that Hartford had just put in, and busied himself with two toy dinosaurs.
Hartford twined her fingers. With Trent occupying himself, she felt like some conversation was in order between herself and her patient. She glanced sideways. “So how’s your knee faring?”
“Perfect. I actually scheduled to go to a practice tomorrow.”
Hartford nodded. “I think you can go slow and see how it goes. But if it hurts even so much as a pinch, you come straight home and we’ll get on with the physio.”
“As you wish.”
Hartford smiled, fighting the urge to put some distance between their bodies. Gerard was right there, and he was falling in love with Trent, and she was ecstatic. She was fearful for all she’d have to deal with when she returned home, but too desperate for this normalcy and affection from him toward her son.
“Trent,” Gerard called, “why don’t you tell your mom where we’re going tomorrow?”
“Yes!” Trent jumped onto his feet and bounced ecstatically toward her. “I’m going to a real football game. With real players. They’re all Gerard’s friends.”
Hertford’s smile faded and her heart thudded to the base of her stomach. “Oh, really?”
“Yes.”
Hartford nodded and turned toward Gerard. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Taking him along?”
“It’s going to be perfect. I won’t be playing much anyway, just warming up, and I’ll get to play with him in a real field and show him how it works.”
Hartford was unsure. It was one thing playing with him in the boundary of his own house, but going out in public, especially when Trent looked so much like Gerard, seemed like a terrible idea. It was impossible not to tell that they were related. “Will you tell anyone that he’s your…”
Gerard shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t do that without running it by you first. Right now, I’ll just say he’s my nephew who’s visiting.”
“Cool.” But to Hartford, it didn’t sound cool at all. She didn’t know why, but it made her incredibly anxious.
However, the anxiety ended when Trent jumped up and down all day waiting for it. He nagged her to go to bed early because Gerard had told him that he needed to sleep well to play the game like the real football players. Once in bed, he couldn’t stop asking her questions about the game. He was too little to understand much, so Hartford was goaded into Trent’s excitement and told him all he could understand about the sport. Gerard, however, had beat her to most of it.
***
The next morning, she awoke early with Trent and brought him down for breakfast. When she was helping him put his shoes on, she glanced toward the wall clock. “Where is he?” she mumbled and spotted the housekeeper. “Mrs. Berry, could you go up and check on Gerard, please. He has practice to get to and he’s already running late.”
“Mr. Blackstone isn’t home, Ms. Roberts.”
Hartford spun around, her heart dropping to the floor. “Where is he?”
“He left early. I’m not sure where he went.”
Hartford turned slowly back to Trent.
“Where is he?” Trent already looked confused.
Hartford swallowed. “I think, uhh…” Her eyes darted over his adorable, chubby face and bright blue eyes. “Gerard had an urgent phone call last night, and he left early. He told me to tell you but I forgot,” she lied.
Trent’s face fell. “But I have to play with the real football players.”
“It’s okay. We can play football, you and I, and we can go see Mr. Poppy.”
“No,” Trent cried, and his lower lip trembled. He had wound himself into such an excitement that he wanted to do nothing else but go to the practice with Gerard. For the next half hour, he was inconsolable, angry, crying, sulking, and he wouldn’t play when she tried to distract him with a game.
Hartford finally got Trent’s mind off his unreliable father, and his broken promise, by handing him her smartphone—something she was totally against. But she couldn’t help it. She was fuming and exhausted, and she needed Trent to calm down.
She switched the TV on to get her mind off the putrid anger flowing through her veins. How dare he break her son’s heart like this. How dare he show him this side of him?
The moment reminded her of times where she’d been in a similar position as Trent was facing right now. When she was making her way to doctors’ appointments, alone, and his promises of staying by her side no matter what had fizzled out in the face of his obsession with his career. She had felt pathetic, a disposable object in his life. Now, he was showing that side of himself to Trent. When his own interests mattered, Gerard didn’t care about anyone but himself.
She was skimming through channels when her blood ran cold. She shifted forward on the couch and switched back to the news channel where she’d thought she’d seen…
It was him. Gerard, wearing a blue button-down shirt and black trousers, chatting to a sports analyst about his injury, his comeback, his plans.
She switched off the TV and stood up, glancing at Trent and cringing when he seemed to be engrossed in her smartphone. Where Gerard’s career was concerned, he didn’t give a shit about anyone else. He hadn’t cared about her, after all the time they’d spent together, and he hadn’t cared about Trent.
Secretly, she was glad. No, she was ecstatic. Now, she didn’t have to live in a delusional world of fantasies where all three of them were a family. Now she could easily tell Gerard to stay away from her, and then she could go back home without a second thought. Because Gerard wasn’t worth it. He was selfish and self-centered, and he’d never been there for either of them.
Why she ever assumed Gerard would come through for Trent was shocking. He’d left her much worse. The wounds had taken years to fill in and still throbbed. She still had the chance to spare her son the same tormenting pain.
***
Trent was playing by the fenced pool with Mrs. Berry when Hartford heard the car pulling up into the driveway. She looked up as the front door opened, and Gerard stepped inside.
One look at Hartford’s face and Gerard drew in a deep breath. “I can explain.”
Hartford’s temper, which she’d tried to rein in while she waited for him, ignited. “You can explain?” she hissed, standing up slowly. “You can explain? Do you have any idea how upset he was?”
“Jesus…” He peeked past her. “Where is he?”
“Don’t!” Hartford kept her voice low so that Trent wouldn’t overhear the argument. “Don’t you dare try to spend time with my son, and bond with him…”
Gerard reeled from the force of her fury. “Hartford… you don’t mean that.”
“I mean that. Why wouldn’t I? When all you’ll do in the end is screw him over for your career?”
He froze on the spot, his shoulders visibly tense. “I got a last-minute call. I’d forgotten I agreed to the interview, and I left in such a rush—”
“I don’t care!” Hartford cried. “I don’t care, all right? Because sometimes, Gerard, it’s not about you. The world doesn’t revolve around Gerard Blackstone, and his contracts, and his interviews and his games and his plans. There are other people in the world, and I’ll be damned if I let my son bear the heartbreak that I bore at your hands.”
He reached for her arms, but she pulled back. “Don’t touch me. You don’t ever touch me again. And feel free to call your friends over from tomorrow, throw the parties with those ridiculous naked women. Go back to your life. No need to pretend that Trent means anything to you.”
“He does mean the world to me,” Gerard said slowly. “Where is Trent?”
“Words aren’t enough, Gerard. You can say that all you want… but your word is good for nothing. Unless it’s about football, in which case you’ll trample everyone you pretend to love to get to it.”
Gerard looked at the ground, his hands tightening into fists and releasing.
Hartford waited for him to argue, to shout back accusations at her. They both knew this was about more than him flaking on Trent. This was about the past and her experience with him. Hartford’s tautened shoulders relaxed as she gaped at Gerard’s face. The expression adorning his sexy face was novel. She’d never seen him look so desolate. He looked like he was trapped, and regret marred his face.
She cursed herself for caring about Gerard’s feelings. It seemed that the problem lay as much with her as it did with Gerard. Why couldn’t she change? Why couldn’t she be vindictive and bitchy and hate him with her heart and soul? He certainly deserved it.
But Gerard was saying nothing. The proud, enigmatic man stood there with shoulders bowed, as if the pressure of the moment was too much to bear. As if he was heartbroken.
Tears glimmering in her eyes, she looked away and drew harsh breaths to keep from crying. Clenching her eyes shut, she turned her back to the man who had once been the most important person in her life. “Trent’s playing by the pool.”
Gerard’s sigh of relief resounded in the tensed silence. “I’ll go talk to him, then?”
He was still asking for permission, giving her the right to choose after she’d barred him from seeing Trent barely a minute ago.
“Yeah.”
She watched him stride toward the doors leading out to the back. “By the way…” She waited until he glanced at her. “He cried.”
Gerard’s jaws clenched. “He did?”
He looked stricken, and Hartford was taken aback. “Yeah. He was pretty angry.”
Gerard drew in harsh breaths, holding her gaze. Clearly, Trent’s broken heart made both of them ache.
When Gerard made his way to Trent, Mrs. Berry quickly made herself scarce, finding her way to the kitchen. Hartford spotted Gerard walking toward Trent and Trent running over and wrapping his arms around Gerard’s legs. Kids. They never hold a grudge.
Gerard lowered himself to Trent’s height and wrapped his arms around his neck to talk to him. Hartford stepped outside, wanting desperately to hear the exchange.
“What did you do today, buddy?” Gerard pushed a strand of hair off Trent’s forehead.
“I played football with Mommy.” Hartford bit back a smile. He didn’t seem very happy about it.
“Whoa, did you teach her what I taught you?”
“She can’t play very well.”
Gerard smiled and Hartford bit her lip as a laugh bubbled in her chest.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here this morning when you got ready for the game.”
Trent toyed with Gerard’s shirt collar. “Where did you go? Mommy said you told her that you had to go somewhere else but she forgot to tell me. I was so mad at her.”
“Did she tell you that?” He stole a glance toward the door and saw her. Hartford didn’t move. She crossed her arms, and his gaze lingered on hers. What she saw in them made her heart stop. Tenderness, respect, love.
The air escaped her lungs in a harsh rush, and she fought back tears. They weren’t for Trent and how upset he’d been. The tears burned their way out in mourning for what she had had with Gerard and lost.
He’d been perfect, and then he hadn’t been perfect. He’s still the same man you loved for four years. He’s still the same man who went out of his way to make you happy. He made a mistake. If you forgive him, you could have a chance at this.
For the first time since she’d landed at Gerard’s house, her subconscious didn’t argue. It too was ecstatic with the possibility. Hope flared in her heart. And that’s when Gerard pulled his gaze away from hers as if it took considerable effort and dragged Trent into his arms.
Hartford blinked back tears and turned away, giving Gerard his moment with his son. They looked beautiful together. And for Trent, he’d finally gotten to see that his father may make mistakes, but he knew when he’d done wrong.
She recalled how dejected he’d looked when she’d thrown the past in his face. He was full of remorse, and maybe, just maybe, he could step up to the plate next time. He could be a better man.
She wiped her tears furiously when she heard shuffling sounds from the dining room, and Mrs. Berry appeared to inform her that dinner was ready and served.
“Umm, did you set out a place for Gerard as well?”
“No, I’ll do that.” Mrs. Berry smiled at her, and Hartford felt like the housekeeper was already onto her.
The knowing, friendly smile made her blush. She turned back to the pool and sniffled, smiling as she opened the door wide. “Okay, boys, it’s time for dinner.”
***
Trent was full of stories to tell Gerard at the dinner table, and even though Gerard still looked incredibly guilty, it was clear that he was having a good time. Hartford served Gerard more chicken without him asking for it, and he gaped at her in confusion. Clearly, he was also surprised at how friendly she was acting. She was too.
After dinner, Hartford went through the routine that she’d managed to follow while at Gerard’s. She gave Trent a bath and put him to bed, kissing him on the forehead before she left his bedroom. When she stepped out, Gerard was waiting for her, his back against the wall, his face a picture of regret.
Hartford smiled and stepped forward, feeling nervous and giddy around him. The last time she’d felt unsure about his feelings for her and hopeful that he’d like her, the two of them had been in high school. “It’s all right, Gerard. He’ll forget. Kids are good that way.”
“I’m really, really sorry. I can’t even…”
She reached forward and clutched his forearm, her fingers tingling from the feel of his skin, every pore on her body alive and responding to the touch. “It doesn’t matter. You apologized. He’ll get over it.”
He drew in a deep breath and held her gaze. “And you? Will you forgive me too?”
She shrugged. “Well, you didn’t really wrong me, and so Trent’s forgiveness should be enough.”
“No, not that.”
She blinked repeatedly to avoid responding to his meaning. But he wasn’t letting her get away with it.
“Can you forgive me for not being an adult back then, when you told me you were pregnant?”
Hartford froze, and he reached forward, taking her hands. His forehead rested against hers, he drew in deep breaths. She was shaking, and he ran his hands along her bare shoulders, his uneven, ragged breath telling her she wasn’t the only one aroused by his nearness.
“Tell me.” His fingers digging into her arms, kneading her, he drew her closer.
She couldn’t fight it. She was melting in his arms, beneath his touch. The scent of him was around her, inside her, and she was drowning in it. She did not want to be saved.
“I don’t know…” Because she didn’t know. Half of her wanted to let go of the past, give this another shot. He clearly wanted it. But the other half of her relived every moment she’d struggled and fought to have his child, to raise him, to give him a good life to the best of her abilities.
“Please, Hart.”
His words sounded like a heartbroken plea. Hartford gasped and a sob broke free from her lips. She clenched her eyes shut and lifted her mouth. When she opened her eyes again, he looked like he was in unbearable pain. He looked utterly dejected, and his hands slid over her shoulders, up to her neck, to the sides of her face.
“Jesus…” he hissed breathily. “I’d forgotten how soft your skin was.”
Hartford curled into his touch, her body turning to jelly as she let him hold her face inches from his. His thumbs stroked away the tears that had escaped her eyes, and his gaze dropped to her mouth.
Hartford caved.
It was she who caught his lips in her mouth. She slid her hands up his chest, clutching handfuls of his shirt as she yanked him closer. A groan escaped his chest and it rumbled beneath her hands. Overcome with greed to have all of him at once, she pushed a hand through the collar of his shirt, and her palm burned from the touch. He pushed his hands through her hair, grasping it gently, and slanted his mouth over hers.
Hartford was insatiable. She wanted more, all of it at the same time. She pressed her lower body against his and parted her lips, giving him access to her tongue. He didn’t need any encouragement. He took it, sliding his tongue along hers, letting them tangle. Their breaths mingled, and he caught her lower lip between his teeth, biting softly, before sucking the subtle sting off it.
His hands traveled down her back, reaching the hem of her top, and then his hands were sliding up. She crooned into his mouth, her legs shaking as her knees threatened to give way. The arousal was incomprehensible. She couldn’t process anything but the touch of his hands, the taste of his lips, and the eagerness of his tongue. She slid her hands up his neck to grip his nape, and his groan resounded through her senses. His head slanted determinedly as he deepened the kiss. Every slide of his lips over hers was soft, caressing, as if he were trying to form a mental mold of her lips, memorizing every crevice.
Breaking the kiss for merely a moment, his fingernails dug into her back. She gasped out his name and opened her eyes, and what she saw made her insides clench invitingly.
His face had hardened into a dark mask, a sight that she’d all but forgotten. It had been too dark to see his face the eve of the party when he’d kissed her, but now she could see his lust in all its glory. It adorned his face, a muscle moving spasmodically in his jaw. He looked like a man on a mission. Greedy, almost vicious, and then his lips slammed onto hers again.
She cried out as he slammed his teeth against her upper lip, only briefly, then dragged down the side of her cheek. Her head fell back as his lips trailed a wet path to her ear, where his tongue plunged inside. She clung to him, clutching his shoulders for balance as his moist lips marked her down her throat. His teeth gently biting, he dug his fingers into her back, holding her up.
When he shifted away from her, she clung to his shirt to keep him right where he was. Belatedly, she realized that he wasn’t going anywhere. All he meant to do was push his hands to the front of her body.
“Gerard!” she cried out, and he caught her lips in his again.
Hartford moaned into his mouth, and he swallowed the sound. His hands cupped her breasts, squeezing them tightly, before he caught the nipples between his fingers and rolled them around.
A streak of pleasure, electrified and hot, shot from her nipples, leading straight down to the wet, burning space between her legs. Her sex clenched, eager to be filled, eager to be stretched open by his shaft, which she so clearly remembered. High on the taste of him, the touch of him, she let herself be pushed against the wall. When he yanked her top higher and bent his head, her heels lifted off the floor. Her head slammed against the wall behind her. His mouth, warm and wet, closed around her nipple.
“You taste so good…” he mumbled against her nipple.
She looked down, panting and moaning. His tongue slid greedily over the hardened nipple. His face so close to her breast, his hands gleaming on her ebony skin, brought back memories of being his. In his bed. In his life.
Gerard was in her blood. She had been fooling herself when she argued that she could survive the loss of him. Fate had brought her back to the sight she’d thought she’d never see again.
He bit her breast, his free hand claiming her left breast when his mouth tended to the one on the right. Hartford pushed at his shoulders, her hand delving down between their bodies, and she closed her hand over his crotch.
He grunted but didn’t pull back, and covered her mouth with his once again.
Hartford’s lips lay stationary beneath his demanding ones. She memorized the hard, pulsating length trapped in the crotch of his pants. She squeezed it and he grunted, thrusting into her hand.
She lost all semblance of restraint. She wanted to drag him to her bedroom. She wanted to lie naked on top of the bed and wait for him to come take her swiftly. She wanted to spend all night awake, with his body pumping inside her repeatedly until the hot friction scalded her insides and she couldn’t sit without wincing for two days. She wanted his naked, large body crushing hers with his weight. She wanted his mouth between her legs so she’d reach the orgasm that had evaded her for so long and he was so skilled at giving her.
Gerard’s shaft jerked beneath her touch, and she slid her fingers higher, mindlessly trying to undo his belt, his fly, anything so she could reach the soft satiny skin covering the hard granite of his manhood. She didn’t succeed, and Gerard released her breasts, his thumbs tugging at her waistband. Forcefully, he slid his hand down her thigh and up her skirt.
She lurched and lifted onto her toes again, half of her wanting to escape the sweet assault, while the other half leaned toward it. Breaking the kiss, she shyly opened her eyes as he slid his fingers into her panties and then dragged along the drenched place between her legs.
“You’re so wet for me.”
Hartford fought the instinct to stop him. She wasn’t done. Her brain was fried and she couldn’t think. She was helplessly lost in a sea of mindless pleasure, as he made his way up along her slit and spread the lips apart wetly, before flicking across her clit brutally.
“God!” She gasped and jerked, and Gerard bit her lips unendingly. All the while, he rubbed her clit in vicious, harsh circles designed to get her off. It was clear that he wanted it to be rushed. He wanted it to be hurried and fast, and he didn’t want to wait. Even though Hartford knew this was enough, she couldn’t deal with thinking of the heartbreak if he left now.
She was falling for him again. After seeing what having a family could look like, she was completely besotted with the idea.
Her thoughts stalled and she panted, thrashing in his hold, as her clit became the only thing she felt. She could taste the waves of crazed orgasm. Almost there, a loud moan erupted past her lips, and then she came.
Gerard abandoned her mouth and clutched her shoulders with his free hand as he unashamedly watched her face as she orgasmed. Hartford was past feeling shy or ashamed for her inexcusable response to his mere touch. Her knees buckled lightly and her toes tautened, pushing into the thick carpet beneath her feet. She shuddered and shook and fell forward in his chest.
Just like she remembered, he didn’t give her any time to recover. His hands were rough, and his crotch dug into her navel as he took her hands and slammed them against the wall above her head. His fingers twined through hers, his right hand still wet from the abundant juices of her orgasm, and he plunged his tongue aggressively into her mouth.
Hartford was spent, the arousal dissipating momentarily to give her a clear head. Moaning she pushed him away.
Everything stopped. He stood two feet away like a deranged man. His eyes were wild, his hair mussed, and his arousal pushed at the front of his pants, clearly fighting to be freed and unleashed upon her. She shook her head. The urge to take his hand and drag her inside her bedroom was too great. The urge to feel his hips undulating beneath her heels as he cleaved her body with his manhood was too consuming.
“No, no… no,” she mumbled as she opened the door to her bedroom and closed it behind her. The last thing she saw was Gerard swallowing and his hands pushing through his thick hair.
She leaned her back against the closed door, her eyes clenched, still breathless, still reeling from the waves of her orgasm. He could bring her to orgasm so swiftly, it was ridiculous. On wobbly legs, she made her way to the bed, where she fell facedown.
Shutting everything out but the ache in her sex, the want to be full and hurting consumed her. She wished to be stretched wide between her legs and wrapped around Gerard’s manhood.
She was setting herself up for the perfect, most devastating heartbreak. There was no doubt in her mind that she wouldn’t be able to recover after it happened again.
Gerard Blackstone was a fantasy now, an unreal fantasy that could never give her what she wanted. He had left her once, and he’d leave her again. Gerard was never going to be hers, and she wouldn’t allow him to penetrate her life any more than he already had. She couldn’t wait for the designated time to be over, just so she could go back to Maryland and leave Gerard behind. It was survival, and to survive this man, she had to be as far away from him as possible.
But even as she planned her escape and tried to look forward to it, her heart throbbed in agony to be around him. If only for a few days, she wanted to savor the opportunity to have a complete family.