Free Second Chances by Kathy Ivan Page B

room dip dramatically.  Watching Ryan’s face, she saw a satisfied smile cross his lips before he opened his eyes.  He wrapped his arm around her, pulled her close against him, letting her snuggle.  Pulling the rumpled bedding from beneath them, Ryan spread the sheet and velvet spread across them both. 
    Her fingers tangled in the line of dark hair sprinkled across his chest, leading down his firm muscled stomach to arrow toward his groin.  This was part of the loving for her, the closeness after the lovemaking, the silent communion of shared hearts. 
    When he’d agreed to come to the mountain lodge, the place his brother and sister-in-law had spent their honeymoon two years before, she’d been apprehensive at first.  They’d been killed by a driver who’d plowed into them going a hundred miles an hour on ice-coated roads.   The driver of the car was killed along with Terry and Sharon, the two people they both loved—killed instantly, right at the beginning of their lives together. 
    She loved Ryan, so if this was where he needed to be, so be it.  They’d come and maybe he’d get a little closure, a little peace with his loss. 
    When they’d arrived and checked in earlier that afternoon, they’d gone their separate ways.  Pampered and treated like a queen, she’d spent the afternoon at the spa while Ryan went for a long walk outdoors in the newly fallen snow.  He’d seemed different when he’d returned.  Whatever happened while he’d been out communing with nature had done him a world of good.  More like the Ryan she knew and loved. 
    Later they’d dressed and gone to dinner at the lodge’s main restaurant.  A lovely meal, a bottle of champagne, and dancing.  The perfect romantic evening, even if she couldn’t drink the champagne because of the baby.  Everything felt right, like those first days of their marriage all over again.  
    While they were dining he’d asked her to do something unbelievable.  No, make that impossible.  Unrealistic.  Looking deeply into the depths of his honey-amber gaze, seeing the seriousness of his suggestion, she hadn’t hesitated.  How could she?  If there was a chance in a million to get back the Ryan she’d fallen in love with, she was willing to do anything.  Whatever he wanted, if it would bring him respite from the grief he’d felt since his brother’s death, if it was within her power, consider it done. 
    "I love you.  You know that, don’t you?"  His quietly uttered words stole her breath, focused her back on the here and now.
    "I love you, too.  Until the end of time and beyond.  I will always love you."  She returned his words, a warm glow encompassing her as she snuggled closer.  The only sounds in the room were their breaths and the crackling of the logs in the fireplace. 
    Lifting her eyes to his, she noted Ryan no longer looked at her but at the foot of the giant bed.  Following his gaze, she raised a hand to stifle her scream at the two figures standing just beyond it.  They were hazy but distinguishable; one male, one female.  The forms coalesced and came into sharper focus as she watched until she recognized them.  Ryan’s brother Terry and his wife Sharon stood in their room.  Although stood wasn’t exactly the right word—floated better fit the bill.  Oh my goodness, we really did it!  
    Ryan’s deep voice filled the silence.  "Was it everything you wanted, bro?"  Terry’s vision nodded, a smile curving his translucent lips.  His arm encircled his wife, and Rose watched Sharon slide her arm around Terry’s waist and lay her head on his shoulder. 
    Rose hadn’t believed it possible when Ryan asked her to let his brother and his wife possess their bodies for the night.  The thought was preposterous. . .wasn’t it?  He’d told her about the dream he’d been having for the last several months.  How his brother had come and asked him, begged him, for one last chance to make love to his wife.  Their time