Andrea Kane
The Line Between Here and Now
The second book in the Forensic Instincts series, 2012
To Myrna and Bob, who helped me bring the Hamptons to life,
who acted as consultants extraordinaire for the year it took me to
create this novel, and whose love and support mean the world to me.
CHAPTER ONE
December
Manhattan
Amanda Gleason gently rocked her infant son in her arms.
A new baby was truly the reaffirmation of life. If she didn’t know that before this moment, she knew it now. He was her child, her miracle.
Her responsibility.
She hadn’t planned on facing motherhood alone. In fact, when Paul had disappeared from the picture, she hadn’t even known she was pregnant. Maybe if she had, maybe if she could have told him, things would have turned out differently.
But they hadn’t.
And now the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Decisions had to be made. Pressure she’d never even imagined. And a bittersweet pain that came every time she held Justin in her arms.
She touched his downy head with one finger, stroked the peach fuzz of his hair. As she whispered softly to him, his eyes opened wide and he stared at her intently, visibly fascinated by the sound of her voice. She gazed into those eyes-Paul’s eyes-and her chest tightened. They were a lighter brown than Paul’s, probably because they had yet to mature to their true color. But the shape, the lids, even the thick fringe of lashes-those were all Paul’s. As was his nose, a tiny version of Paul’s bold, straight nose with the slender nostrils. He even had the dimple in his cheek that was Paul’s. Other than his golden-brown hair color and small, pursed mouth-both of which he’d inherited from her-he was very much Paul’s son. And even at three weeks old, he was developing a personality-easygoing like Paul, inquisitive like her. He spent hours staring at his fingers, opening and closing them with a fascinated expression. And he was always looking around, seemingly transfixed by the world.