Dream Keeper Read Online Free Page A

Rissa tried again. “James, you said you had something important to talk about. You want to tell me what it is?”
    “You don’t have to keep calling me James,” he said. His eyes went back to his coffee and he picked up the cup, turning it between his palms. “That sounds too formal. Could you call me Jimmy? I’d like it if you did.”
    “Okay, Jimmy it is.”
    He passed one hand over his close-cut hair and nodded. Rissa could see the creeping path of an almost too youthful blush climbing his bronzed throat and clean-shaven cheeks. Opening and closing his mouth, he made a couple of false starts. “Okay,” he finally said. “You met my mother. She’s all about support, doing things right, you know?”
    Now, where, Rissa wondered, is this going?
    “Well, she doesn’t take, uh, disappointment too well. Right now, she’s kinda disappointed in me. She doesn’t think I’m ready to take on marriage.” His shoulders pulled up around his ears and he sat a little lower in his chair. “That and Sierra.”
    “Sierra?” Rissa knew that the obvious question was all over her face.
    The name infused Jimmy with new energy and he set the coffee on the table and shifted to pull his wallet from his pocket. “Here,” he said, pulling a small photo free and offering it to Rissa. “This is Sierra. She’s pretty, huh?”
    “Very,” Rissa agreed, looking down. A young and beautiful oval face remarkable for its knife-sharp cheekbones, almost feline long-lashed eyes, and red-touched ebony skin smiled up at her. “Your girlfriend?”
    Smiling, the boxer nodded as he passed his hand over his head again. “Yeah, my girlfriend and my problem—part of it, anyway. The other part is my mother—she thinks Sierra is good enough for a girlfriend, but not a wife. Especially not for my wife.”
    Rissa passed the photo back. Now it was beginning to make sense. “You want to marry her, in spite of what your mother has to say.” He nodded, just as she’d known he would, and she straightened in her seat. “Jimmy, look, I’m your agent and my job is to do what’s good for your career—not your love life. You’ve got looks, talent, a very defensive and supportive mother, and a problem that I can’t fix. Who you marry is entirely up to you.”
    “See, I know that, but there’s more. Sierra’s pregnant.”
    “Does your mother know?” Rissa folded her fingers in her lap and waited. When Jimmy’s eyes darted away, she knew the answer. “You haven’t told her yet. Why not?”
    “Because…I don’t know. Maybe I don’t want to hurt her feelings.” He shrugged and slid lower in his chair. “She already thinks I’m too young to be a husband. I don’t know what she’ll say about my being a father, but it won’t be good. I’m all, maybe not all, she’s got, but she’s invested so much of herself in me. I don’t want to hurt her. And Sierra, she says she won’t marry me. We’ve been together since we were sixteen, just kids, and I thought she loved me enough.” He finally let his eyes find Rissa’s and shrugged. “I know I sure do love her enough to last me for a lifetime.”
    “You look miserable.” Rissa scooted into the chair next to him and softened her voice. “Why did she say she wouldn’t marry you?”
    “Because she’s pregnant. Does that make sense? She said I waited too long. What does that mean?”
    “It means that she doesn’t want you to marry her because she’s pregnant.” Tickled, Rissa tapped Jimmy’s knee and smiled. “Jimmy, honey, are you really that young? Don’t you see, she wants you to want her . She wants you to marry her because you love her , because you want to build a life with her , because she’s the only woman in the world you can see as being the mother of your child. You should definitely love the baby, too, but she doesn’t want her only identity to be as the mother of your child.” Something that would never happen with Dench , she didn’t say.
    Confusion was deep