Baile Siochanta (Southern Vampire Mysteries)

Chapter 41 - Making Pleasures Small

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Something had changed. As they drove home, Eric held her hand. He rubbed his thumb across the top, lifting it and pulling her toward him. He kissed her fingers. She was speaking. They were talking. Encouraged, he started to tell her how he'd figured out what the Sheriffs were doing.

Sookie smiled, she laughed, but, for some reason, as she looked at her perfect husband, she was reminded of an incident from her childhood. There was a boy, Tim, who lived next door. She was young, just starting first grade. Her family had moved there recently, another in a long line of first years in new homes, and Tim was her first friend.

He had older brothers, and they teased him, and her. When May Day came, she opened her front door to find a little paper basket hanging on the doorknob. Her name was scrawled on the side in pencil, and there were dandelions tucked in, already fading just a bit. She felt so flattered. It was the first time she felt that odd prickling feeling you get when you realize someone thinks you're pretty. She brought the basket inside to proudly show her mother. "Look!" she'd exclaimed.

And her Mother had. Inside the little paper basket, where Sookie hadn't looked, Tim had loaded it with worms. She figured out later that his brothers put him up to it, but she never looked at Tim the same way again. 'I've found the worms,' she thought, and she felt that from this point forward, things between her and Eric could never again be quite so perfect.

"Älskade?" he was asking, his cornflower blue eyes watching her.

"I'm sorry, I was just looking at the stars," Sookie lied. "I'm so happy for you."

"For us," he corrected, and she knew that now, he could feel it, too.

They walked into the utility room and Eric stopped her. He wrapped her in his arms and she responded. He was working the fastenings on her dress and he slipped it from her, encouraging her to step away as it puddled around her feet. He opened the cupboard, the one she'd noticed before with all the towels, and removed a large one from a top shelf. "Why don't you head upstairs?" he smiled, cupping her cheek. "Take a shower. I'll join you in a minute."

"What are you going to do?" she asked. He was lifting her dress, dropping it into the covered bin.

He pulled his shirt over his head, not bothering to unbutton it and dropped it in the same bin before advancing. She almost took a step back, but forced herself to stand her ground.

"This is part of our life now," he was saying. He wrapped his arms around her. "What happened is something that is past. It may not seem that way now, but it is a good thing."

"They're dead," Sookie found herself saying again. The other words she'd said earlier, 'You killed them,' hung in the air between them.

"I think we should take a bath instead," he said. He took her hand and Sookie followed. When he stopped at the door and fell to his knees to remove her shoes, she held onto his shoulder for balance. Even though she knew he didn't need lights, he turned them on anyway, allowing her to see the rooms of their beautiful house and the perfect roses he'd bought her in their perfect vases.

'Is he the Robber Bridegroom?' she wondered, thinking of a dark tale from Grimm's stories and for a moment as they climbed the stairs, she felt a bubble of panic start to rise, threatening to break open her chest and consume her.