Love Realized Read Online Free Page A

brown eyes gazed at Gillian and then smiled, suddenly relaxing and said, “Rachel.” Gillian smiled back; she was a cute kid, probably close to five or six, and it certainly was not her fault that her mother was a slimy whore. That could not be held against her. Thankfully, the kid was a spitting image of Adam so there was no concern whose kid it was. Dodged that bullet Logan! Gotta look for the silver lining here, people. “Well Rachel, I sure hope you brought your bathing suit because all the kids are in the pool. Can you swim?” The little one nodded to Gillian and then begged her mom to allow her to get in the pool.
    And that is when Gillian heard, in person for the first time, the voice of “the other woman.” Gillian had heard it once before, over a year ago when listening to the voicemail she had left for Logan. It sounded different in person. It was painful to hear and sliced right through Gillian. Like nails down a chalkboard. That was the voice that Logan listened to, the voice that left him messages, the voice that whispered in his ears when Gillian had no idea it was even happening. This was the voice that Gillian always feared he would want to hear instead of her own.
    Suddenly, shame and humiliation enveloped Gillian, filling her with the need to run, curl up in a ball, and pray for this to not be happening. NO! No, dammit! How dare she have that kind of power? She could not let this happen again. Feeling the sudden burst of energy course through her body, she squared her shoulders and turned to Logan, glared at him and said, “Logan, baby,” in a sickly sweet voice that he would know was her I’m-pissed-and-putting-on-an-act-voice, “this is Adam. He recently started in the radiology department at the medical center, and this is his family. I'm sorry, what was your name again?” she said as she looked to Jody. And since she had to put on a show, she put out her hand in an offer to shake. Jody responded with a timid handshake and said, “Jody. Thank you for inviting us; you have a lovely home.”
    Gillian had a quick image flash through her mind of using Jody’s hand, which she currently held, to hold her in place while simultaneously pounding on her with the other. Of course, she also managed to visualize her girlfriends jumping in the mix, too. She knew they would have her back, if only they knew what the hell was going on. The image in her mind of beating the crap out of this woman made her feel a little bit better and brought a smile to her face. An evil smile, but it was a smile nonetheless, which was appropriate, considering she was supposed to be smiling. Remembering she needed to respond to Jody, “Why thank you Jody. This is my husband, Logan; he and his partner remodeled it and can take credit for it.” Gillian watched as Logan appropriately extended his hand out to shake Adam’s, and then Jody’s, hand. She was once again filled with anger at the site of the brief contact of Logan’s skin against Jody’s, causing her to stiffen. Logan picked up on it, and immediately pulled Gillian into his side, with his arm securely holding her in place against him.
    The front she was trying to put on was beginning to collapse, though. The contact with Logan made it weaker as she thought about the enormity of this situation. She could hear the muffled rumbling of Logan’s voice as if it were coming from somewhere in the distance. “Welcome to our home, please come on in, relax. It already appears that your daughter is comfortable with her surroundings since she’s already in the pool. Beer is at the bar, soda and juice is in the cooler. Please, help yourself.” As soon as he rushed to expel all of that, he turned his attention toward her and said, “Where did the bee sting you? Was it on the hand? Let’s go check it out, and put some ice on it.” Then turning back to Adam and Jody, he said, “Please excuse us.” Logan then quickly took the tray from Adam with his free arm and handed it to