stood taller. “This time he did. I hope your choice is to stay because as of a few minutes ago, your airplane ticket was canceled. The money was retrieved from the account in Warwick. And the apartment lease will be cancelled tomorrow. As for the cash he gave you, do whatever you want with it.”
My gaze narrowed. “You know about everything?”
“I told you. I figured it out.”
“How?”
“Does it matter?”
Did it?
“You want to stay here?” I asked. “You and Mr. Sparrow are good? I didn’t ruin it?”
More gently than before, Reid reached for my shoulders and grinned. “Lorna, the reason I know I love you is that question. Instead of worrying about the million things you could be worried about, you’re asking me if my friendship with a man who tried to send you away is all right. I’m sure through the years to come, I’ll find a thousand other reasons to love you, but right now, it’s your amazing heart and your ability to care for people who may not deserve it.”
“Does he?”
“Does who what?” Reid asked.
“Does Mr. Sparrow,” I began, hesitant to ask, but needing to know. After all, my brother had befriended him, vowed to support him, and so had Reid, yet to me he was cold and indifferent at best. My question was genuine. “Does he deserve to have people to care about him?”
Reid nodded. “He does. He’s complicated and driven. He feels guilty for what happened to Mason. One day, he’ll be able to look at you and see you and not your brother. If it takes him a while, please be patient. Remember, we have fifty or more years. He’ll come around.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am.”
“Then I trust you,” I said, lifting to my tiptoes and placing a kiss on his cheek. I again saw the suitcases. “So you weren’t throwing me out?”
“No, sweetheart, I was moving you in.”
Opening the door to his, I mean our apartment, I grinned at the one recliner and big screen television. “You’re right. This place needs work.”
“And you, the future Mrs. Murray, are the perfect person for the job.” His eyebrows danced. “If you accept, I should warn you, there is a good chance that there could be inappropriate sexual advances on that job.”
“As long as they’re from you, I promise not to file a complaint.”
Lorna
Present day
My restless sleep was riddled with images, dreams, and nightmares. I continued on, disoriented, lost, and searching as I moved throughout alternate realities. The settings in which I roamed didn’t stay the same, instead, changing like scenes in a poorly produced movie. At one moment the terrain was rough—hills to climb and obstacles to avoid—and difficult to maneuver. The world seemed without light—even seeing my hand before my face was a task. Trees and roots reached out, snagging my feet, arms, and clothes. I forged on, in search of what I wasn’t certain, only that it was near. And then the foliage was gone, replaced by a stark, dried ground. In the sky, the sun shone unrelentingly bright, too bright, blindingly bright. Even my hands couldn’t shield my eyes from the meltingly hot sun. My tired body became covered with perspiration, my mouth dried, and my exposed skin seared beneath the intense brilliance, and still I searched.
The dreams continued without end as I pushed myself beyond my own limits.
In my heart, I knew my goal was close, and yet I couldn’t remember what it was.
I fought against the mounting resistance thrown my way, each step more grueling than the last, each movement of my arms more arduous. My breathing labored as the restraint became tighter and tighter. A scream boiled in my throat, stopped from escaping like the fizz unable to escape a corked bottle.
A stinging assault came to my cheek and then another.
I tried to lift my heavy eyelids.
The scene around me was out of focus.
Sound waves warped, their meaning lost to the odd bending.
I blinked against the brightness.
My eyelids fluttered.
Reality was returning.
I tried to shield my eyes, and then clear my eyes, to rub them, to remove the sleep accumulated in their corners.
I couldn’t lift my arms.
Looking down, I blinked again, seeing the restraints binding my wrists.
One attempt to kick let me know my ankles were also bound.
My face moved quickly to the side as another blow came to my cheek.
The taste of copper filled my mouth.
I spat it away, red droplets spewing forward in the radiating light.
“Stop,” a woman’s voice said. It wasn’t that she spoke the command with compassion. It