Fearless - Fern Michaels Page 0,37

kiss was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”

For the next half hour, Clara guided Anna’s feelings about that night. Her guilt, her shame, and her more positive feelings underlying them. When Anna returned her attention to her surroundings, she could feel a slow burn, from the pit of her stomach, up her neck, and up to her cheeks.

“Wow” was all she could say.

“Here.” Clara handed her a small cup of water. She hadn’t realized the woman had even moved, she was still so focused on what she’d remembered. She drank the water, then set the cup on the glass table. “I can’t believe this happened.”

“The mind is a very powerful tool when we know how to use it. How do you feel?”

Anna struggled for the right words. “Content but incomplete. Does that make sense?”

“It does.”

“So where to go from here?” she asked.

“That’s up to you. We can schedule another session later if you’d like to,” Clara said. “It’s your choice.”

“No, not yet. I need to think about things; maybe later,” Anna said. She felt so relaxed, as if she’d had a Xanax without the sleepy side effects. “Do you work with clients who have panic attacks?”

“All the time. Some say it’s helpful, that they no longer need to use anti-anxiety medications; others have said it didn’t help at all. I believe that its success or failure depends on the individual and is impossible to predict in advance. We can try a session or two if you’d like,” Clara said.

“I might, later,” Anna said.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“I’ll see,” Anna said. “Guess I’d better get Mona out of that shop next door. Who knows what she’ll come home with?”

Anna paid for her session, then headed to the soap shop. Mona was outside sitting on a bench, a huge pink decorative bag clutched in her hands.

“Looks like a lot of soap,” Anna said.

“They got other stuff besides soap. You finished up?” Mona asked.

“I am.”

Anna spent the next half hour listening to Mona explain in great detail the process of making the soaps and the candles she’d purchased. She’d agreed to think about doing a segment on the topic in the future as soon as she’d researched the process.

Back at home, after she had settled in, and Mona had said her good nights, Anna returned to her laptop, this time with a plan. She remembered most of what had taken place in her cabin, and she’d really given Ryan Robertson a raw deal.

She used his e-mail address from the university, hoping he’d check in sooner rather than later. Before she changed her mind, she wrote a short e-mail. She left him her cellphone number, and the option to reply to her e-mail or call. As soon as she clicked SEND, she had second thoughts. What if he thought she was looking for something he wasn’t? As in a permanent relationship? That was the farthest thing from her mind. She didn’t know Ryan very well, though she knew that if she were given a second opportunity, she would give him another go-around. And it was not because his kiss was so . . . perfect.

Closing her computer for the night—it was after nine, and the breakfast she’d consumed was long gone—she went downstairs to the kitchen and made herself a turkey sandwich and a glass of sweet tea.

Satisfied with herself and not so mortified now, she rinsed her glass, placed it in the dishwasher, and returned upstairs. Knowing it was probably too soon to check her e-mail, she did anyway.

She opened her e-mail account and was amazed when she saw a reply:

Hi, Anna,

My wish has been granted! Was hoping you’d look me up. So sorry you were ill. I haven’t heard of any illnesses among the passengers, so you probably had a bad bug! I’m so sorry you left early. I’ll call you as soon as I return.

XOXO,

RR

“That was fast,” she said out loud.

In her e-mail to him, she’d explained how she’d been sick and had gone to the emergency room. Knowing what she knew now, she felt silly. Ryan was a nice, decent man, and like her, he was a single parent trying to fill the role of not just a father but a mother as well. She knew from her own experience that it was an enormous undertaking, but for her, it was also her greatest accomplishment.

Before she could change her mind, she replied to his e-mail:

I’m happy to grant your wish! I’m so relieved to hear the passengers are healthy. I was worried. I’ll