Read Gone for Free Online Page A

have two children. If we have a third, and Roger is still talking about trying for a boy, I’ll love that child just as much as I do the other two. If, God forbid, it happened to be twins, same thing. I know you’re still in love with Jack, but”—she stopped, and went on gently—“but he’s gone. You can be in love with Eric too, Nick. I’ve seen you two together. It’s good.” She grinned in an obvious effort to lighten the tenor of the conversation. “And he’s a hottie, let’s face it.”
    Yes, he was, but Jack was no longer out of the picture. He was back, bigger than life in a way only Jack could be, and she had no idea what to do.
    “Thanks for the pep talk,” she murmured as the waitress came by and swept her full plate away.
    “For what it’s worth, if Eric asks the big question, I say you tell him yes.”
    “I doubt I’m ready to make the decision,” Nicole responded and picked up the bill. An understatement. “I’m buying today. Compensation for the therapy session.”
    “I invited you,” Cadence protested.
    “Yeah, well I have a feeling I might need another one of these sessions with Dr. Cadence, so you can buy next time.” Nicole set her credit card on the slip.
    “Is there something wrong?” Cadence looked at her curiously. “You’re right, you seem very distracted today. You have been ever since I picked you up.”
    Wrong? She wasn’t sure if that was how to put it.
    Right? She wasn’t sure if that was accurate either.

Chapter Five
    Jack had gone on missions. Lots of them. Gotten the orders, been sent out over deserts and jungles, and known the enemy was there.
    Life and death for his country.
    But this was his life.
    The really stupid part of it was that it was Eric’s life too, and it might be a contradiction, but he was concerned for them both.
    A car pulled into the drive, alerting him that the dynamic was about to change. Again.
    He could deal. He was trained to think on his feet.
    Of course, he thought, a woman was a more complicated proposition than taking an enemy camp or infiltrating a high-security outpost.
    When Nicole came through the door he was in the kitchen, sitting in the same chair as when she had left, reading the newspaper. He hadn’t had that luxury in quite a while. The quiet house too, clean and cool, with its pretty furniture and pictures on the walls, was more foreign to him than a barren stretch of blistering desert.
    Getting politely to his feet, he asked, “Have fun?”
    “So it wasn’t a dream after all,” she said, her voice modulated and low, her gaze holding his. “The entire time I kept thinking that I was suffering from some sort of delusion.”
    “I’m real.” He grinned crookedly. “Maybe you remember last night.”
    “I remember.” Her return smile was poignant. “Where’s Eric?”
    “He went home to unpack. Said he’s been in Phoenix on business for ten days. Besides, we drank the two beers you had, so he is going to pick up more.”
    Her face, so achingly beautiful to him, revealed her tension, as did the set of her shoulders. She rested her back against the counter. “He’s coming back?”
    Jack nodded and tried to decide if that was a relief for her or not. “He’s not about to walk away from you, Nikki.”
    She blinked and took in a deep breath. “I keep thinking I should apologize to you for some reason, but then again, I am not sure what for.”
    He sure as hell had been thinking about the situation. “I have the advantage of expecting to walk back into a complicated mess. I’m going to guess my parents sold my car and got rid of everything else in my apartment. There’s nothing quite like being homeless and driving a rental.”
    He admired the soft swing of her honey hair as she shook her head. “I think most of it is in a storage unit. Your mother couldn’t stand to go through it. She and I tried, but…it was too hard. We’ve been putting off trying to go back to it. As for your car, your cousin Donny