Read And Then Came You for Free Online

daggers at him like no one else ever had. Daggers, hell. She’d stabbed him through the heart. And he had the scars to prove it. Deliberately then, he turned his mind away from Sam and everything she represented and shifted a look toward the adjoining room. The low-pitched murmur of the television made him smile again, for different reasons. And he remembered just what was really important in his life.
    Soon enough, this would be over and he’d be back in San Francisco. Back where he belonged. Where his life waited. Until then, the old inn where he was staying was comfortable, furnished in a style that made him think of a family summer home. The walls were covered in softly striped wallpaper and the gleaming wood floors were polished to a high shine. A wide balcony overlooked the cliff and the raging ocean some thirty feet below. The sliding glass doors separating the balconyfrom the main sitting room were open and the white sheers fluttered in the cold breeze as if dancing in tune to the ocean’s beat.
    Jeff surrendered to the restlessness inside him, stepping out onto the wooden deck and letting the wind slap at him in fierce welcome. He dropped both hands onto the whitewashed railing, his fingers curling over the cold, damp wood as he stared out at the swells rising out at sea. Froth churned on the water’s surface and then danced skyward as the waves punched against the shore below the inn. A handful of surfers rode the breakers in toward the beach, then kicked free and paddled back out to wait for the next ride. Sameness.
    There was a comfort in that. One he appreciated even more today, now that the regularity of his life had been interrupted. Squinting into the afternoon sunlight, he spotted the storm clouds hovering on the horizon. Though it was summer, he thought it appropriate for how his day was going that black thunderheads were gathering for an assault. Why not? He’d already made it through a different sort of storm at the Marconi place. Why shouldn’t the heavens open up on him, as well? Hell, the way things were going, he should expect a hurricane. Class 12.
    Seagulls shrieked overhead, and with the muted thunder of the ocean, he hardly heard the knock on the hotel room door. Probably would have missed it entirely, but for the excited, familiar squeal that immediately followed.
    “I’ll get it!”
    Turning, Jeff headed inside in time to see his own personal little hurricane racing to the door.
    “Hey,” he called, “what did I tell you about opening doors—”
    Too late.
    Like every other female in his life, this one had a mind of her own. Laughing, the little girl yanked the door open before Jeff could stop her. And then Sam was there, standing in the doorway, shock glazing her eyes.
    Sam’s heart stopped.
    She actually felt it jolt hard, stop, then start up again with a thudding roar that pounded in her ears and rattled her soul.
    Staring down into a small, smiling face with pale blue eyes just like her own, Sam
knew
. Knew without the slightest doubt that
this
was her daughter. Her child. The one she’d given up nearly eight years before. The one she’d come to tell Jeff about.
    Jeff.
    Still reeling, she forced herself to tear her gaze from the child who was a mini-Marconi and look at the man stepping into the room from the balcony. The scent of fresh flowers and the sea filled the room and a sharp, cold wind entered with him. Sam thought he looked . . . annoyed.
    Her world had just been rocked and
he
was pissed?
    “Hi, who’re you?”
    A small voice, confident, happy. Sam looked back at the little girl and wondered how she ever could have
stopped
looking at her. She was perfect. Her dark reddish-brown hair was pulled into pigtails high at the sides of her head and the ends of her thick, wavy hair hung past her shoulders. She had bangs cut just a littlecrookedly over big blue Marconi eyes and her mouth was curved in a wide smile, displaying a missing front tooth.
    Oh God
.
    Who am I?
she