Beside a Dreamswept Sea by Vicki Hinze

in a man. And, as hard as it is to believe now, then he loved me, too.”
    “I’m sure he did.”
    Bryce’s of-course tone had her smiling. He had a way of making her feel lovable. Not that she was, or ever could be again. But the fleeting feeling was nice. “Gregory was a med student then. We couldn’t wait to get married, to be together.”
    “His family opposed.”
    “Boy, did they.” She shrugged off a memory of the ugly scene. The accusations of her using pregnancy to trap their son. She’d explained she wasn’t pregnant, but it hadn’t mattered. Only time had proven her truthful on the issue. Considering the way things had turned out, with them unable to have a child, divorced, Gregory remarried, it all seemed rather unimportant anymore. Yet it still hurt. So much . . . still hurt.
    “But you married anyway. And you were happy.”
    “For a while.” She let out a humorless laugh. “I guess I should be grateful it lasted as long as it did.”
    “But you’re not.”
    Too perceptive! “No. No, I’m not.”
    “What happened to you two?” Bryce shifted his weight and winced.
    His knee clearly was aching. He hadn’t wanted their walk to end either and, pleased by that, Cally clasped his arm, then sat down on the dew-damp ground. Even in his knife-creased dress slacks, he sank to the earth beside her, and she smiled again. “Everything was great. Gregory’s parents cut him off financially because he’d defied them and married me, so I quit college and worked designing window displays for a couple of department stores. Money was tight, but we got by.”
    “So you put him through med school.”
    “And his residency. And helped him repay school loans and set up his office. At times I thought we’d be in debt forever.” She plucked at a blade of brown, dead grass, then threaded it between her forefinger and thumb. It crackled. “I’m one of those unfashionable women who never wanted a career, Bryce. I only wanted a family.” To be the sunshine of my home. “So we postponed my dream to get Gregory’s. When he went into practice, then it was to be my turn.” She let out a self-deprecating laugh. “We were going to have lots of babies and a comfortable home, and live happily ever after.”
    Bryce’s expression turned serious. “But you never got your dream.”
    “We had to pay off the school loans, then the office setup loans, then save a nest egg. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But I finally got part of my dream—the home part.” She lifted a pointed finger. “The trouble started when I mentioned the babies part.” The wind caught a wisp of her hair, tangled it. She pushed it away from her face. “I wanted them then, and Gregory didn’t. He’d worked so hard for so long, he wanted some free time first.”
    “So your dream had to wait—again.”
    She nodded. “At first he just put me off. Then he got irritated if I brought up the subject. For a long time, I avoided talking about kids because I couldn’t take the upset it caused. Then I got irritated and, finally, I insisted.” A shaft of pain arrowed through her chest, and her voice softened. “That’s when we found out Gregory couldn’t have kids.”
    “Did you still love him, then?”
    What an odd question. “Of course.” A raccoon scampered across the path then ducked under a clump of bayberry. Cally grunted. “It was hard to accept that we’d remain childless, and I’d be lying if I denied it. But I worked through it, Bryce. I really did. And I accepted that part of my dream just wasn’t meant to be.”
    He sandwiched her hand in his, his fingers strong, yet gentle. “What about adoption?”
    “Gregory refused to discuss any alternatives.” Alternatives would occur to Bryce. Her chest went tight. But they hadn’t occurred to Gregory. How long had he stayed at the hospital the first time she mentioned adoption? Three days, or four?
    Did it matter now? She looked up through a spruce’s wind-ruffled branches. “He