the hallway, then slammed the door shut and locked it. Spinning around, she faced Alec’s mom with her back pressed to the door.
She swallowed hard. “Hi.”
“You’re just as beautiful as I imagined you would be” Alec’s mother said with a warm smile. She approached Eve with arms wide and embraced her. “I’m so happy to meet you, Evangeline.”
“It’s a p-pleasure to meet you, too.. . Eve” she managed, while alarms were clanging in her mind.
Satan wanted this woman enough to give up Gadara for her. Why? And how had he known she would soon be within reach?
“I would like it if you’d call me Ima” Alec’s mother said, stepping back to study her.
They were of a height and similarly colored, but the biblical Eve was more exotic, with almond-shaped brown eyes and a luxuriously voluptuous figure.
She wore a simple linen dress that looked to be handmade, and she appeared to be somewhere in her midforties, which certainly could not be the case. She definitely didn’t look old enough to be Alec and Reed’s mother.
“Ima,” Eve repeated, her brain reeling over the fact that the mother of all humanity was standing in her living room.
“What a lovely place you have.” Ima walked deeper into the room, her head tilting back to take in the vaulted ceilings. “Cain says you’re an interior designer.”
“Yes.” Eve followed after her. “Would you like a drink? I have water and tea. Soda, too, if you like that sort of thing.”
Eve didn’t know whether the woman standing in her living room was a ghost or real. Did she eat and drink? Sleep?
“What are you having?” Ima asked, gesturing at the drinking glass sweating condensation onto the coffee table.
“Diet Dr. Pepper.”
“Diet?” Ima smiled over her shoulder. “You don’t need to diet.”
“Yeah. The whole mark thing…”
“Not because of that. You’re gorgeous just the way you are.”
“Thank you.” Eve passed her on the way to the kitchen. She hit the light switch on the wall and grabbed a cup from the cupboard. The barely there weight of the necklace felt like a yoke around her neck.
Alec’s mother pulled out a bar stool and sat at the kitchen island. “I’m making you uncomfortable.”
Pausing with the cup in hand, Eve sighed and offered a rueful smile. “No, it’s not you. I’m just surprised. I’m still getting used to meeting people I always thought were. . . mythological.”
“Didn’t Cain tell you I’m real?” The grin that accompanied the question had a touch of mischievousness that was endearing. “I saw that you’re reading the Bible. Is there anything in particular that you’re researching?”
For a moment, the rattling of the ice maker prevented speech. Then, Eve pulled a can of soda out of the fridge and turned to face Ima. She was debating whether she should talk about the whole Garden of Eden, apple, Satan incident so soon after meeting the pivotal figure in the tale, but time was short. Who knew what Father Riesgo and Gadara were going through right now? And how long could the priest be a missing person before his life was irrevocably changed?
Eve set the glass in front of Alec’s mom and popped open the can. “I was reading Genesis, actually.”
“Don’t believe everything you read.” Ima picked up the can and poured some soda into the glass. She sat with spine straight and shoulders back, elegant and delicate. Her hair was a deep chestnut curtain that fell to the seat cushion. There was a fine cluster of silver strands at her right temple, almost too faint to be noticed.
“Really?” Eve set her elbow on the island and rested her chin in her hand. “What shouldn’t I believe?”
“Well, you won’t find it in that version you have there, but that ridiculous story about my husband only liking the missionary position? Ridiculous. He’s a man. He’ll take it any way he can get it and the less work he has to put into it, the more he enjoys it. Lilith spread that tale because she’s bitter.”
Eve bit back a smile. Then a knock came at the door and she straightened abruptly.
“Stay here’ she said, rounding the back of Ima’s chair. “If something happens, run to one of the rooms down the hall and lock the door.”
A grip on her biceps stopped her.
“Unless you’re expecting someone’ Ima said, “it’s probably Adam.”
Eve blinked. Adam. The knock came again, louder and more insistent.
“Isha?” a masculine voice called.
“Isha?” Eve repeated.
“Wife.” Ima slid off the chair and moved toward the door. “He’ll be so excited to meet