If You Loved Me Read Free Page A

canceled dinners."
    "You make it sound like a recipe for a sensible dinner." She withdrew her hands. "What about mad love and undying passion?"
    "Affection and comfortable lust are better."
    She'd liked him from the first time she met him, but perhaps never more than in this moment, as he watched her with humor in his eyes and waited for her answer. If she said no, he'd be disappointed. She didn't want to disappoint him.
    In the silence, a beeper went off and her hand went to her waist.
    "Mine," he said, "I'll call."
    He went into the next room and picked up the phone. Mechanically, she finished tearing lettuce for the salad. Chris would call tonight, or he'd call tomorrow to say the weather was foul and they'd been fogged in somewhere, huddling in their tent with the kayaks high on a beach. Everything would be fine.
    Alex returned to the kitchen carrying his jacket in one hand.
    "E.R. One of my babies came in with a high fever. I'm sorry."
    Dinner would have been pleasant. Now she'd be alone with too much salad, worrying needlessly about Chris.
    He touched her hair and brushed a light kiss on her cheek. "I do care about you, Emma. I think we could make a decent job of being married."
    "Yes," she agreed. "I will marry you."
    * * *
    Alex called at ten to say he'd admitted the baby to the hospital and to ask if she had heard from Chris.
    She hadn't.
    "Shall I come keep you company?"
    "I'd better sleep."
    "So long as you do. Remember, overdue doesn't mean lost."
    "I know. Thanks, Alex."
    She called Jordy's father at eleven and they agreed the boys were probably fine. If Chris hadn't called by morning, Emma would call the Coast Guard.
    She drank a pot of tea with the music on low so it wouldn't mask the ringing of the telephone. The night would have passed more quickly if her beeper had gone off, but the little black box remained silent.
    She couldn't possibly wait until morning.
    At two-thirty, she called the Canadian Coast Guard to report Chris Garrett and Jordon Sanger overdue in Prince Rupert. She made the call with a pen in hand, writing down details about Coast Guard procedure. A radio notice would go out to mariners, describing the boys, the kayaks, and their planned route. By morning it was possible someone would have responded with information.
    She drank part of a cup of warm milk, then poured the rest into a dish for Marmalade. Somewhere near dawn, she managed to sleep for half an hour.
    She'd been a single mother since Paul's death three years ago. Chris had always been an adventurous child, and she'd spent other nights worrying. She knew the images of storms and marauding bears playing out in her mind were probably just fantasies.
    She remembered another night when Chris hadn't come home, hadn't called. He'd driven into the mountains with Sherry Adamson for an afternoon's skiing. Sherry's mother had been certain they'd crashed the car, and Emma hadn't slept, either, because Chris was always so good about calling when he was late.
    Morning had come, and at ten Chris phoned to say that he and Sherry had driven down a side road on the way home, exploring a frozen creek. Afterward, they couldn't get the car started and had wisely decided to camp in the car until they could walk out in the daylight.
    Emma got up at six, showered and forced herself to eat two pieces of toast and drink a glass of orange juice. She had patients, surgery this morning. No matter how worried she was, she must be alert and steady in the operating room.
    She called the Coast Guard again.
    "They're probably just behind schedule," a young serviceman said. "There's a lot of coastline in British Columbia, with villages few and far between. It's remote country with very few telephones. Don't worry, we'll keep the notice to mariners on. If they don't turn up soon, we'll start a full search."
    She got out the map on which she'd marked Chris's planned route. Miles of coastline and so few settlements. She needed to do something, but she didn't know the