Wait for the Wind Read Free Page A

Hmm?”
    Jack heard her sigh deeply. She seemed to tire so easily.
    “As soon as the chemicals from the drywall and paint aren’t floating around. I don’t want either of you getting sick.” He skimmed his fingers upward along her calf and smiled when she trembled. “I wonder how he’ll react to Allie? You’re sure he doesn’t know about her?”
    “I’m sure. He’s a stubborn horse’s arse. Ryan returned every letter from Kate, hung up on every call when any of us mentioned her name.”
    “Think he’s still in love with her?”
    “I’d bet on it. And fighting the notion like crazy.”
    Jack laughed. “There’s where the storm’s brewing. I wish I could be there to see his face when he stops running.”
    “Have I told you lately how much I love you?”
    “Not in the last ten minutes.”
    “I love you, Jack.”
    “I love you more. I wonder what sort of gifts our daughter will have.” Jack laid a hand on her swollen tummy and felt his daughter kick him away. “Ooh. Super ninja kicks?”
    “She is absolutely not allowed any throwing stars until she’s sixteen. Ryan’s missed out on a lot. This is going to hurt him so much.”
    “We’ll be here for him. It’s all you can do, Liv.”
     

 
    Chapter 3
     
    Kate left Liv’s cottage and started walking in the direction of the clinic. She looked at her watch and decided to walk down to the beach for a few minutes instead of going straight back to work. There would always be time for her children, including the one that was lost.
    Her sneakers slipped a little on some of the small loose rocks that peppered the path to the sea. Finding her footing, she moved slowly, careful not to slide over the edge. At the bottom, she looked up to where the cliffs towered overhead. She could almost make out the stone dance she knew stood above this spot of shore. Barely eight feet long, and not much more than that to the water where the healer of Liv’s legend had found her mate dying on the wet sand.
    She couldn’t see the cottage from here. When she had been younger, she’d snuck away to wade in the water, or lie on the beach and look up at the dance. The legend fascinated her. She knew Briella and Daemon existed and once in a while she felt the air shift when the waves touched the sand, a kiss between the nixie and his love. It was a special place. Protected, she liked to think.
    When her father had hit and belittled her, she’d come here. It hadn’t been his fault, not really–at least that’s what he told her. How was a hard drinking sailor supposed to raise a little girl alone? So he’d said. She’d been so young when her mother died, couldn’t remember her clearly, but her face was the one she saw every day in the mirror. Kate had been four when cancer had taken her mother away. She had wanted to be a doctor because of it. Now she was, but at what cost? Had Ryan been right to blame her all these years? Had her desire to heal others taken the life of their unborn child? No. She refused to believe it. Her father had killed her baby. She rested her chin on her up-drawn knees and looked out over the water. Waves washed over the rocks onto the sand and rippled out again. Time was catching up to her. She’d have to go back soon.
    For days after the storm that took Liv’s father, she and Liv had come here to search the horizon for any sign he might be alive. Liv had been convinced if they watched long enough, someone would find some trace of him. They never had, of course. Her father was supposed to have been on the same boat, but he’d passed out drunk the night before. When he didn’t show, Michael had taken up the slack. Mick should have died, not Liv’s father.
    Kate had only shared this special place with one other. Why did you have to come back, Ryan, and complicate things? Weren’t you having the time of your life without us? He’d cut her to ribbons with his indifference. She’d been prepared for the anger, the heat of hatred. She could have