Free Longing and Lies by Donna Hill Page A

against her own. He reached across the table for the file, and his hand brushed against her arm. It was like an electric shock and she jumped as if she’d been struck.
    â€œSomething wrong,” he asked.
    â€œNo I’m fine,” she snapped. “Why, is something wrong with you?”
    He looked at her from the corner of his eyes. “We’re a little testy today, aren’t we?”
    Ashley jumped up from her seat. She spun toward him, her hands on her hips. “We’re supposed to be working on this assignment, and you decide to spend the entire night out!” She knew she sounded like a nagging wife, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. She had no right to be upset. He was entitled to live his life anyway that he saw fit. She couldn’t seem to control the emotions that tumbled within her.
    â€œLook, I’m sorry about last night. I just needed to get out and clear my head. Went to see a friend.”
    Her heart pounded in her chest. A friend? She wouldn’t dare ask him who it was. She didn’t need to know. “Fine. You can do whatever you want. But we have a job to do.”
    â€œThen let’s do it.” His gaze held her in place for a moment.
    She pushed out a breath of exasperation and slowly returned to her place on the couch. “I’ve broken down the list according to geographic areas. I thought it would be a good way to get started. That way we can visit specific areas at one time.”
    Elliot nodded as he looked at her notes. He had to admit, had it been him he would’ve gone about it the same way. He admired her forward thinking. “That makes plenty of sense to me. What we need to do now is get the names of the heads of all of these organizations. That way we’ll know who we’re going to be asking for when we show up for our appointment as Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.”
    Her skin warmed at the mention of “Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.” She pretended that she didn’t hear him and proceeded to explain that she had the list of names already.
    â€œYou have been a busy bee today, haven’t you?” A small smile moved around the corners of his mouth.
    Ashley dared to look at him and she’d swear she saw admiration in his eyes. “It’s what I do,” she said, turning back to the task at hand.
    â€œI’m thinking we should start with the fertility clinics,” Elliot said.
    â€œI was thinking the same thing,” she said.
    â€œSo, starting tomorrow morning we’ll begin with the fertility clinics until we exhaust the entire list.”
    â€œI had no idea there were so many fertility clinics in New York.”
    â€œGuess there are a lot of people wanting babies,” he said, his voice dropping an octave.
    Ashley stared at the screen and thought about her parents and their twenty years of heartache. Yes, she fully understood how desperately parents can want a child, especially a child who had been stolen from them. The desire never leaves. The hole in your heart never gets filled. It’s a never-ending ache, and you wake up every day and pray that this will be a better day, a different day, and that all the days before never happened. But then you realize that it has happened. And you are powerless to change anything.
    Elliot gently touched her shoulder and felt her stiffen beneath his fingertips. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.
    She swallowed over the sudden knot in her throat. She nodded her head. “Yes, I’m fine.” Gentleness was the last thing she needed from him, the last thing she wanted. She couldn’t handle it, not now. “Let’s get back to this list,” she said, trying to regain her composure, which was extremely difficult with him being so close, touching her.
    Elliot slowly removed his hand from her shoulder. “Yeah, let’s. We’ll start with the Upper East Side clinics and work our way across town.”
    For the next hour they