In part two of this episodic psychological thriller, Nicole Jeffords. convinced that healer, Victor Goodlove, who disappeared ten years earlier is buried under her studio, continues her search for him, contacting old patients all over Austin and dis...
When Roy came back from walking the dog, they said goodnight politely and went to their separate rooms. Janet had trouble sleeping that night. She thought she heard Roy wandering through the house, even going out to the greenhouse in the back. At the sound of his footsteps, she tensed up, half expecting him to push open her door, come in and sit on the bed, start with his many questions, perhaps lean over and kiss her, his thin, mean mouth pressed down on hers — what would that be like? Her lips fell open in anticipation and she had to lecture herself: this was not a man she would ever want, too imperious and full of himself, never would she let him near her ... those were the last thoughts she remembered before being sucked into a dark sleep.
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Sketch of a sleeping lady, DAVIDSDIEGO, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
In the morning she rose to make coffee, still in her bathrobe. She heard the sound of a shower running as she fed the dog. She made herself an English muffin, put jam and butter on the table, and then he was behind her, in shorts and a T-shirt, hair damp from the shower, and she gasped and held very still as his arms wound around her middle. They stood like that a moment, not saying anything. Then she turned so she could push him away, tell him to go screw himself, but the look in his eyes stopped her, so tender and serious, and as her gaze locked with his she knew they were feeling the same thing, not just sexual desire but a love that had come out of nowhere, that was wild, passionate, self-understood, that would likely tie them together for the rest of their lives. In that moment, as they stared into one another's eyes, she knew the whole damn thing was fated, impossible to fight. "Jesus," he said. They were both shaking. He put his hands on her face, her neck, over her heart. She leaned in and kissed him. Their mouths fit, and they stood there kissing hungrily, holding one another, unable to stop or pull their bodies apart. This was the person she had been waiting for all her life, she knew that with every fiber of her being, and she knew he knew it too, and that was why, as they hurried to remove clothing and stumble out of the kitchen to her bed, she never thought to mention the word condom.
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Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash
"It was that one time that did it," Janet said. She'd never been pregnant in her life before, didn't use birth control pills because they made her feel sick, didn't think she could conceive because she had endometriosis. Her body felt different within days. A queasiness. A tingling in her stomach that felt as if something were fermenting. A tenderness at the breasts. She took a pregnancy test a week after she missed her period. But she didn't tell Roy till the night before he was murdered.
