Free What He Didn't Say by Carol Stephenson Page B

Emma-Lee kissed and hugged Sandy at the door. She hadn’t spotted his surprise yet. Anticipation unfurled inside him. She turned, took one step down from the portico and halted. Her eyes widened and then her smile bloomed.
    The sunny day couldn’t compete with the warmth of her expression. He knew he would do about anything to keep that smile on her face. All the last-minute scrambling had been worth it even if it had meant rousting Ted on a Sunday morning.
    Satisfied, he waited as she hurried down the walk to the driveway.
    â€œOh, man.” Her voice was reverential. He stepped aside so she could check out the gleaming black-and-chrome monster of a motorcycle.
    â€œBut how, when? We drove here in a car last night.” She trailed a finger along the fender.
    â€œWhile you were taking your sweet time getting ready—”
    â€œI was not getting ready.” Emma-Lee crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “Sandy needed to speak with me.”
    â€œAnyway, while Jeff and I were twiddling our thumbs, I called Ted and had him bring the bike in exchange for the car. I thought it was too nice a day to spend riding cooped up in a car.”
    With that he thrust one of the helmets toward her. Grinning, she put on the helmet and cinched the strap. Holt straddledthe bike and held out his hand. She climbed on. He kicked up the stand, turned on the engine, and with a roar of pure power, sped down the driveway.
    The cool morning air contrasted with the warmth of Emma-Lee’s body pressed against his. Buildings whipped by as Holt drove through Charlotte. Soon they were on the interstate cutting through the rolling countryside. The bike answered his call for more speed and surged forward.
    Tomorrow he would wonder why his whole life had shifted in the kitchen when he had seen Emma-Lee with the toddler and had wanted it all. In the sanctuary of his room he would analyze why his clear-cut plans now revolved around having a family.
    With the wind in his face, he let his mind empty of all thought, uncertainties and memories. There was only the now. The blue sky above, the powerful motorcycle beneath, the gorgeous woman behind and the shimmering highway before him.
    When Emma-Lee removed her hands from his shoulders, he turned his head slightly. She threw up her arms and laughed with sheer pleasure.
    Then she wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing even closer to him until they were one and shouted, “Faster!”
    He covered her hands with his and knew he would always remember this moment. Then he leaned forward and gunned the motor.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    P ENSIVELY , H OLT LOOKED OUT at the once carefully mapped formula of his life. The vision of Emma-Lee holding the toddler on Sunday had thrown new data into the equation, irrevocably changing him. If he was being brutally honest with himself, his life had changed from the moment he had caught her at the New River Gorge.
    His concession came Wednesday as around him his marketing team continued their projections of the expected sales of his new computer game.
    Seated in the conference room for the Atlanta office of HF Enterprises’ latest venture, he gazed broodingly into the sleek laptop’s screen as if it were a crystal ball, searching for answers that his computer for once couldn’t give.
    He’d spent most of his life in the painless, clear world of computerized data. There was no past or future, only the present for him to deal with black-and-white facts and figures.
    However, now instead of numbers he saw only the image of Emma-Lee’s smile. Rather than the game wizard’s voice announcing the player had reached a new level as Holt checked the game for any flaws, he heard only her laughter.
    Face it. After yet another sleepless night he knew he had it bad when he had stood on the balcony of his hotel room watching the sunrise and wishing she was with him.
    He was sure she would know some fascinating fact of how daybreak in Atlanta