Free Adam’s Boys by Anna Clifton Page B

have lost!” Abbie half wailed as she threw herself in his path and grabbed his arms to make him stop and look at her. “And I’ll never forgive myself for taking that from you all. And you’re right, I can be unforgivably stupid and selfish sometimes, but I’m trying not to be now. I really am.”
    Adam stared at her before yanking away from her grip, throwing himself onto a nearby lounge chair in an exhausted sprawl and snarling, “Now there’s a pointless waste of effort.”
    â€œAs pointless as you trying not to be the cold fish that you are?” she threw right back at him before she could stop herself. “Do you ever show any emotion, Adam? Any at all?” And horrified at finding herself in the middle of a slanging match when the best interests of two little boys were at stake, Abbie threw her arms up in the air in a gesture of hopelessness. She then announced that their conversation was over and headed for his front door.
    But Abbie could sense that Adam had leapt out of his seat and was right behind her. Before she could reach for the door handle, he’d caught her arm and turned her around.
    Instinctively she backed up against the wall, but he was right there in front of her, placing his hands on either side of her head, leaning in dangerously close. Suddenly filling her vision were those eyes of his, enticing her like the blue waters of Capri, cool and inviting but riddled with hidden caves of mystery.
    â€œYou think that I’m bloodless don’t you, that I feel nothing?” he purred icily. “You’re right. Except as a father, I don’t feel anything—not since I watched Ellen being told she was going to die, knowing she’d never see her baby grow up, knowing she wouldn’t live on in his memory. You try watching that unfold when you’re the goddamn reason it got to that point in the first place. Then we’ll see how well feeling comes out the other end for you.”
    Abbie gaped at Adam, desperately searching for the meaning behind his shocking words of self-accusation, but it was useless. The answer skipped away from her as she made a mental grab for it—then it was gone for good.
    â€œBut you weren’t cold and distant in those weeks we were together after Ellen died,” Abbie threw at him in heated despair. “You were warm. You needed people then. You needed me. But during our last days together that man disappeared. And now everything about you feels so measured and controlled and … so terribly unhappy. I get the sense that Ellen preoccupies you day and night. And although I truly believe there’s such a thing as the love of one’s life, the love of your life is gone. Surely Ellen would have wanted you to move on.”
    â€œI don’t need you, of all people, to tell me that I need to move on,” he threw at her in icy rebuttal. “But you’re right about Ellen. She does preoccupy me, especially the promise I gave her that Pete would be happy.”
    â€œPete is important, but there has to be more!” Abbie retorted fiercely, shaking her head in strident rejection of the life sentence he’d handed down for himself. “What about finding love again? If not for yourself, at least think about Pete. How will he learn to ride the roller coaster of life if you never show him how to make it through the dips and bends of a loving relationship?”
    â€œMy life with Pete is full, despite what you think. We have our friends, our family back home, and now we have Henry. We don’t need anything more than that.”
    â€œBut has there been no woman in your life since Ellen?” Abbie asked stunned. For even if Adam hadn’t been interested, he was downright gorgeous enough to ensure that a long queue of enthusiastic females would have been ever-present in his life.
    But then her pounding heart suddenly stopped beating, for he’d lifted his hands to cradle her jaw,