The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

blood pumped hotter and faster, and the tightness in her chest blocked out everything but the fact that she hadn’t lost him.

“Where’d ye think I’d be?”

She nodded to Ensley and Kenzie before closing the door. “Gone.” She waited, but she wasn’t good at this—the patience part—and it had never been Elliott’s forte, either.

“In another couple of minutes, ye wouldn’t have found me.” He opened his fist, and a brooch the color of sunstone gleamed in his hand.

“What were you waiting for?”

He looked down, the long lashes hiding his eyes, and he hesitated for a moment before confessing, “A voice told me to wait.”

“Did you recognize it? The voice, I mean?”

His mouth quirked up at one corner. “An ornery cuss with a deep, booming voice.”

Meredith sat beside him, her hands in her lap and clasped so tightly together her knuckles turned white. There was an aura about him. She couldn’t see it or touch it, but she’d sensed its presence, and it stood as a barrier between them.

“Your father?” she asked, not at all doubting that he’d heard a voice.

The suggestion seemed to catch him off guard. “No, not him or my grandfather. I believe it was Erik.”

“Really?”

“Aye. I didn’t know he was going to haunt me.”

“Maybe he thought you were about to make a mistake, and he decided to intervene.”

“Protecting James Cullen would never be a mistake.”

“I tried to protect him, and it was—” She stopped midsentence and closed her mouth firmly, her time-tested method for not escalating an argument.

“Ye weren’t trying to protect him, Meredith. Ye wanted to maintain some control over him. Paul understood that.”

She let silence stretch between them for several beats while his statement replayed in her mind. “Good God! He’s my only child. What’d you expect me to do?”

“Ye smothered him, and he had to get away.”

“Did James Cullen tell you that?”

Elliott clenched his jaw, then said in a low voice, hardly above a whisper. “He didn’t have to. And that’s why I let him go.”

This argument was escalating anyway. To hell with it. “Are you saying this is all my fault?”

“Of course not.”

“That’s the way it sounds.”

“Look, we both put too much pressure on him.”

“I don’t think I did.” She put steel in the velvet of her voice. “But if James Cullen believes I did, then it doesn’t matter what I think or what my intentions were.”

Elliott crossed his legs and straightened the crease in his wool trousers, an annoying habit that showed how calm he was, but this time the comfort move was a fake. She could see it in his darkening eyes and the jerky movement of his hand.

“From the very beginning, we wanted him to be perfect. He’s brilliant and handsome—”

“—with an inflated opinion of himself,” she added.

“He believes he’s invincible, and because of that, he took on our archenemy, overestimating his abilities and underestimating their depravity.”

“We assumed they were evil, but they surpassed even that.” She stood and paced in front of the unlit fireplace that still smelled like eucalyptus, and it reminded her of the day she was here to see James Cullen.

“When I came here with you to see him, I was reminded of my late husband and how I sat at his bedside for days following his stroke. The doctors finally told me his condition was hopeless, and they recommended discontinuing life support. I thought that was what I’d have to do for James Cullen—to let him die—and I couldn’t bear to do that to my son. And I resented you.”

“Why?”

“Because you refused to see what was ahead of us and the decisions we’d have to make. And then you exiled me.”

“I’m sorry.”

She stopped walking and stood in front of him. “I’ve seen James Cullen, and I believe one day he’ll be free of his demons. But navigating the path to freedom will be difficult.”

“It doesn’t have to be. I can undo it all.”

“No, Elliott! You can’t. Sten would use James Cullen to get information from you, and then he’d kill you both. Erik would only be able to save one of you, and he would save you—the Keeper.”

“I would insist Erik save James Cullen.”

“You might not be in any condition to insist on anything.” She spotted the whisky bottle and poured herself a drink, hoping Elliott hadn’t doctored the entire bottle.

“Ye’re still angry that I drugged ye. I’m sorry I did that.”

She gave a brief, shocked laugh. “I didn’t expect you to apologize. Thank you. Emily already apologized for the part she played, but what I don’t understand is why. What’d you hope to gain?”

He swallowed, appearing puzzled by the question. “To protect the two people I love most in the world.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Ye didn’t trust me, Mere, and I couldn’t risk losing our son because of that. If ye had touched him or uncovered him, he would have died, and ye would have realized too late that Erik spoke the truth. Then ye would have spent the rest of yer life knowing ye killed him, and I would have lost both of ye.”

With their honesty, the aura that had separated them slowly began to fade. And for the first time in several days, there wasn’t as much tension between them. If they released the tail of their anger, it would fade completely.

“Elliott, I’m sorry for what I said, for how I acted, for not trusting you, and for letting my fear co-opt my love and respect.”

He seemed to think about it for a minute, and she wasn’t sure if he would accept her apology. He cleared his throat, his eyes suddenly glistening. “I have loved ye since the day I met ye, Mere. Ye’re the love of my life. Without ye, the sun doesn’t shine, and the days are dark. But with ye, every day is a new beginning.”

Her legs wobbled, and she sat down again. All she was expecting or hoping for was a blanket you-are-forgiven. Instead, Elliott recommitted to her using vows similar to his proposal all those years ago.

And then he