Child of Her Dreams. Joan Kilby

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СКАЧАТЬ and reached for her nephew. She cuddled the baby in the crook of her arm and stroked the back of her finger down one soft cheek. “Hello, gorgeous.”

      Magazine publishers paid thousands for Geena’s smile, but to her, Erik’s toothless grin was priceless. His innocent blue eyes, so trusting and sweet, stirred her maternal instincts. Would her wish—and her mother’s prediction—come true?

      “Do you want chocolate or vanilla ice cream with your cake, Geena?” Erin asked, holding the scoop poised above the tubs of Sara Lee.

      “Nothing for me, thanks.” She’d already pigged out on green salad and half a grilled chicken breast.

      “What? Not even cake?”

      “I’m going back to modeling once I’ve recovered completely. I can’t afford to gain weight.”

      “But, Geena,” three-year-old Tammy said. “You’re skinnier than a Halloween skeleton.”

      Kelly, who’d taken over serving the cake, frowned across the table at Tammy. “Shh, honey, that’s not polite.”

      “It’s okay, Kel. She only wanted to make me feel better. Didn’t you, sweetie?” she said, stroking the girl’s long blond hair.

      Geena saw her sisters exchange glances, and an awkward silence fell over the group. What the heck was bugging everyone?

      Nick swallowed the last of his cake and pushed back from the table. “Hey, Max, want to go shoot a few hoops?”

      “Sure thing.” Max, Kelly’s husband, set aside his empty plate. “It’s been a while since I whupped your ass.”

      “Take your cake outside to the picnic table, girls,” Kelly said, shooing her brood through the back door.

      Miranda, Erin’s stepdaughter, hovered in the doorway. At thirteen she often got lumped with the other kids when she wanted to be one of the women. She had auburn hair and a tiny stud in her nose.

      “Come and sit down,” Geena said, patting the chair next to her.

      Miranda, who was into clothes and adored her supermodel aunt, threw her a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

      Erin set Erik in his car carrier seat and found a rattle to amuse him. Gran took up her knitting from the sideboard, and Kelly, never one to sit still for long, started to clear away dishes.

      “Relax, Kelly,” Geena said. “I’ll do that later.”

      “I don’t mind,” Kelly said, stacking plates in the dishwasher while the water ran in the sink for the pots from their barbecue lunch. Geena, realizing that Kelly wouldn’t sit down, got up to help.

      “Have you seen the doctor yet, Geena?” Erin asked, spooning up the last blob of chocolate ice cream from her plate.

      Geena searched the drawers for a tea towel. “No, I’ll make an appointment with Dr. Cameron tomorrow.”

      “Dr. Cameron’s in Australia till Christmas,” Miranda informed her dolefully.

      “Dr. Cameron’s son, Oliver, is a good friend of Miranda’s,” Erin explained to Geena. “She misses him.”

      “Just don’t get too serious, too soon,” Kelly warned Miranda over her shoulder as she vigorously scrubbed the potato pot. “Or before you know it, you’ll have kids and you’ll wonder where your girlhood went.”

      “We’re just friends,” Miranda protested. “Anyway, you and Uncle Max were childhood sweethearts.”

      “Exactly.” Kelly rinsed the pot and handed it to Geena. “I hear the new doctor is quite a hunk. Indiana Jones with a stethoscope.”

      Miranda snorted disparagingly. “Dr. Matthews is way better looking than Harrison Ford.”

      “I’ve spent enough time around doctors lately, thanks very much,” Geena said. “Not that I’m not grateful to them for saving my life.”

      “What actually happened to you in Italy, Gee?” Erin asked. “You’ve hardly told us anything. It was a heart attack, right?”

      Geena wiped the pot dry, marveling that she could take pleasure in mundane chores. “My heart stopped. Apparently I was clinically dead for two minutes.” Laughing, she rapped her skull with her knuckles. “No brain damage—at least, not that I can tell.”

      Kelly shivered. “It must have been awful.”

      “Not entirely,” Geena said slowly, looking from Kelly to Erin to Gran. She hadn’t told them about her near-death experience. She wasn’t sure what their reactions would be. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. The experience had changed her in ways so subtle she hadn’t yet fully grasped their significance. Every morning she woke up with a great gladness to be alive. And sometimes she stopped in the middle of whatever she was doing and looked, really looked, at what was around her. As if the world was brand-new. Or she was.

      But something in her voice had captured the others’ attention, and now all eyes were on her. Geena took a deep breath. She might as well tell them. “I had a near-death experience. I went to the other side and came back.”

      “What!” Erin and Kelly exclaimed together.

      At the abrupt sound, Erik awoke with a jerk, one hand flung quivering in the air. Miranda’s eyes went round. Gran’s eyebrows rose above the wide plastic frames of her glasses, and the click of needles fell silent as she paused, yarn looped around her index finger.

      Erin picked up her baby. “Don’t cry, honey,” she cooed, then turned to Geena. “Do you mean, as in flying through a tunnel toward a bright light?”

      “Yes! It was so amazing I can hardly describe it.” Words tumbled from her lips at the relief of finally sharing her experience. “I didn’t know what was happening at first, not until I saw my body lying below me. There was darkness and I was moving through a tunnel toward a light. Everything—past, present and future—was there in the tunnel. All around me was a noise, a kind of icy sizzle, like moonbeams hitting water, if you know what I mean.”

      Their blank stares told her they didn’t. Geena frowned, frustrated at the effort of describing something that couldn’t be described in words. “The light was brighter than any sun,” she went on. “As I got closer to the light I experienced an intense feeling of peace and love, joy and rapture and gladness and…” Her arms were uplifted when she ran out of breath. “Bliss. Pure bliss.”

      “Were you…on anything at the time?” Erin asked carefully.

      Geena dropped her arms. “What do you mean?”

      “Were you taking any…medication?”

      “I’d been on diet pills,” Geena admitted. “I use sleeping pills occasionally. And sometimes pills to wake me up.”

      “Pills to make you feel good?”

      Geena crossed her arms over her chest. “No. I didn’t have this experience because I was drugged.”

      Gran tugged some yarn loose from the ball on the СКАЧАТЬ