Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
She was afraid that Lizabeth was in for a rough time but she promised herself she wouldn’t leave her friend’s side for a single moment of it. Not one moment.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Vicky waited and waited but the only people who showed up at her door were her two daughters, Jodi and Melinda. Of course she was extremely happy to see them—she loved them more than life itself—but she couldn’t help keeping an eye on the door. And with every hour that passed without another knock, her heart sank a little lower.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” her oldest daughter, Jodi finally asked, pushing a sheaf of long black hair over one shoulder. She had Vicky’s coloring with her mother’s green eyes and dark hair while Melli looked more like her father, with tousled honey-blonde curls and big blue eyes.
“Wrong? Why would anything be wrong?” Vicky said, trying to sound nonchalant.
But apparently her attempt failed because Jodi paused the movie they were watching—Moonstruck, an oldie but a goodie—and looked at Vicky with a hand on her hip.
“Don’t give us that—we know when something’s wrong with you—the same way you always know when something is wrong with us,” she told Vicky.
“Yeah, Mom—something’s up,” Melinda chimed in. “You know Jodi’s right—we can always tell if something’s bothering you.” She put a hand on Vicky’s arm. “Are you…are you missing Dad?” she asked in a low voice.
Vicky almost laughed at the thought. Miss Kevin? After she’d actually found out what a real man was like? A man who cared about her and her pleasure?
Only maybe he doesn’t care quite as much as you thought, whispered a pessimistic little voice in her head. Otherwise he’d be here, right?
Vicky tried to push the voice to the back of her mind and concentrate on her girls. She hadn’t told them about her little space adventure, preferring to keep up the convenient fiction that she’d gone and spent a couple of days with her friend, Kathy, on the other coast of Florida. So there was no way she could explain that she was hoping—wishing—that the handsome, much-younger-than-her Kindred warrior she’d gone off with on Valentine’s night would soon come knocking on her door.
If Chain actually showed, she could explain then. But it seemed like a bad idea otherwise. After all, she wouldn’t want her girls acting like she had—running off with a strange man in the middle of the night to a whole other planet. It would be setting a really bad example.
So she tried to smile and play off Melli’s question.
“Girls, I miss your father like I’d miss a skunk that sprayed me,” she announced, hoping to make them smile. “I’m sorry I’m out of sorts tonight—maybe I’m just thinking of getting back to school and teaching tomorrow after my little mini-holiday is over.”
“Yeah, that’s right—you took off some time so you could really enjoy Valentine’s Day, didn’t you?” Jodi raised her eyebrows suggestively. “I forgot to ask you—how was the date?”
“It was…really nice,” Vicky said, careful not to give anything away.
“Well, great!” Melli said enthusiastically. “So is he cute? Are you going to see him again?”
Vicky thought of Chain’s chiseled features, charming crooked smile, and big muscular body.
“Oh, he’ll do,” she said. “And I don’t know if I’ll see him again or not but right now it’s looking like not.”
“But why not?” Jodi demanded. “If you like him, you ought to—”
Her words were cut off by a solid thump from the kitchen.
“What in the world?” Melli frowned. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” Vicky frowned too. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach all of a sudden. A very bad feeling.
“Something probably just fell off the counter,” Jodi said. “Melli, I told you to put that bag of flour away instead of leaving it out.”
“But we’re going to make chocolate chip cookies after the first movie!” Melli protested. “What’s the point of putting everything away when you’re just going to get it out again?”
Vicky sighed. This was a constant bone of contention between her girls. Jodi was a neatnik and Melli was a mess. It was one reason the two of them could never share an apartment, even though they both went to USF.
“I’ll go check on it,” Melli said. “And if it fell off, I’ll clean it up,” she added, making a face at Jodi, just as she used to when they were kids.
“No, wait—” Vicky put out a hand to stop her daughter, but Melli had already jumped off the couch and was walking around the corner towards the kitchen.
It’s nothing—it’s probably nothing, Vicky told herself, her heart beating loudly in her ears. It’s what Jodi said—the bag of flour fell off the counter. That’s all. That’s—
And then Melli was racing back to them on tiptoes, her face white and her eyes wide and fearful.
“Mom,” she whispered, putting a hand to her heart. “Mom there’s a thing in the kitchen.”