Free Road to Seduction (Kimani Romance) by Ann Christopher Page A

insufferably…happy. Always smiling, always laughing, always sharing secret little looks and touches with Viveca, with whom he seemed to be glued at the hip.
    As if that wasn’t bad enough, Andrew now had a wonderful family, what with Viveca, baby Andy, and their adopted son, Nathan, who was now nine or ten.
    The only good thing about the whole sickening scenario was that Andrew and crew lived in New York City, so Eric only had to endure their excruciating joy once a month or so when they came to Columbus to visit his grandmother, Arnetta Warner.
    Why Andrew’s newfound happiness felt like such a personal affront to his own life, which was pretty good, all things considered, Eric had no idea. The man deserved it, Eric supposed grudgingly, and he wanted his cousin to be happy. Even so, something about Andrew and Viveca left him vaguely pissed off. Pinpointing a reason seemed to be impossible, so he’d stopped trying months ago. He just knew that Andrew’s great life suddenly made Eric’s life seem…less. Andrew’s happiness underscored Eric’s loneliness. Yeah, he was lonely. May as well admit it. That was the nameless ache he’d been feeling for a while now.
    Watching Andrew with Viveca, seeing the way they exuded sex and contentment—there’d been one night when Eric saw them emerge from the pool house at Heather Hill, Arnetta’s estate, with messy wet hair and shifty looks, as though they’d been skinny dipping and making love—put the strangest thoughts into Eric’s head.
    Made him wonder, for the first time in his life, if having a wife and children might be as wonderful for him as it was for Andrew. If being married could be nice rather than the cut and dried business arrangement that Eric’s parents had maintained for the last forty years. If Eric, too, could be happier—if it was also his time to settle down.
    A woman’s murmuring voice on Andrew’s side of the line cut across Eric’s troubled thoughts and stretched his taut nerves. So Viveca was right there with Andrew. Of course .
    “Hang on a minute,” Andrew told him.
    Eric rolled his eyes and waited. There was a bumping and a jostling, and then Andrew’s voice came back on the line, along with the unmistakable gurgle of Andy, the world’s happiest baby.
    Something tugged, hard, on Eric’s heartstrings.
    “How’s my boy?” Andrew cooed to his laughing son, whom he was now, obviously, holding. “Huh? How’s my boy?”
    Eric had a sudden inspiration. “Put Viveca on. I need to talk to her.”
    “Why?” Andrew’s voice lost its new-father softness and assumed the faint growl it always had whenever he thought Eric was showing too much interest in his wife. “What do you want?”
    “Just put her on.”
    “You’re lucky I don’t hang up on your ass.”
    Eric supposed that was true. Chuckling, he leaned against the SUV, checked the clinic’s front door for signs of Izzy—none yet, thank goodness—and enjoyed the gentle breeze on his face as he waited for Viveca, who came to the phone right away.
    “Hey, Eric,” she said. “What’s up?”
    “You got a minute? I have a little, uh, problem.” Eric belatedly had second thoughts about confiding personal issues to Viveca, who seemed to be a pipeline straight to Andrew. But she was generally very cool and he was desperate. “It’s private.”
    “Okay.”
    The new interest in her voice gave him pause, but he plowed ahead anyway. “So don’t tell the jackass.”
    She laughed, reminding him why he liked her so well. “I won’t.”
    “So…the thing is—”
    He couldn’t quite bring himself to say Izzy wants to love me and leave me, so he decided to keep it simple. Viveca would understand because she’d once commented about the possibility of a relationship between him and Izzy. Thinking back on the comment now, he wondered at his own stupidity because he’d thought Viveca was spouting serious nonsense at the time.
    Sheesh . Could he have been any blinder? Maybe Viveca had