the engine once or twice for good measure, and replied in a droll voice.
“At home, waiting for lunch.” Her eyes dropped to his cart. It took all her might not to openly sneer when she saw two twelve-packs of beer and a stack of Hot Pockets freezer boxes.
Challenging him was likely a mistake, but she did it anyway, knowing full well a couple of dozen beers was probably his nightly normal. “Having a party?”
Bracing herself for his expected defensive comeback, she belatedly realized the corner she was in.
“Party for two. Wanna come over and hang out? There’s room on the sofa.”
Mentally shuddering and wondering if he had a lockdown room for his victims, Summer squared her shoulders and pulled herself upright. This was one time when she needed every millimeter of her height to matter.
“We both know that’s never going to happen.” She said the words quietly but with notable precision and just the hint of a threat. This wasn’t a game, and she wasn’t a fool.
Aware of her purchases moving on the conveyor belt, she stood her ground nonetheless until she was sure her expression, words, and tone had the desired effect. When Todd shuffled his feet and looked away, she stood down.
Pussy.
Even though she pretended to ignore him while she checked out, Summer was actually monitoring Todd’s every move. After swiftly bagging and paying for her haul, she didn’t give him the satisfaction of a closing remark and ignored his presence on the planet by whirling away and pushing her little cart from the store.
The second she cleared the automatic doors, Summer all but ran, tossed the groceries into the back seat of her car, and got the hell out of there as fast as she could. Worried about a driveway confrontation, she hurried to beat Todd home. She just knew the guy was going to be a problem.
Unusually jacked up and unable to reel himself in, Arnie employed judicious surrender rather than chance ending up wrapped around a telephone pole. Recognizing his unfitness for operating a vehicle, he called a car service to haul his unwilling carcass from the city out to Connecticut for the annual Wanamaker week from hell.
Putting himself in the unfortunate position of being without a car was the price he paid to stay alive. The past twenty-four hours left him deeply unsettled in an extrasensory way. Something was in the air, but try as he might, none of the powerful means he had in his intuitive tool kit helped clarify the situation.
Mildly desperate, he called Dr. Ortoma. Hadley rocked Arnie’s world when he answered, saying, “I was wondering when you’d surface, Darnell.”
Their hour-long chat was one of the most serious conversations he’d ever had. Hadley was aware of the strange energy around Arnie and somehow also knew of his unsuccessful attempts to see what lurked in the shadows.
“What you face is not an audition,” said the man he trusted to steer him in the right direction. “This is a test of your worldview. It’s not unusual for clairsentient individuals. We’ve spoken about this before. Do you remember?”
Of course Arnie remembered. His training included psychological counseling and guidance. Someone in his position needed to know what his triggers were. It took a considerable amount of digging to get there, but in the end, everything circled back to one thing. Losing his mother during their initial bonding time ripped his heart open. To go from all-encompassing love to soul-killing emptiness left a hole inside him. A Grand Canyon-sized hole. This experience determined his worldview. He had known great love only to lose it. The loss broke him and left an unfillable emptiness.
His entire life, until now, had been about this emptiness. It was easy to cram it full of jokes and questionable behavior. For a time, he lived on the edge and filled it with danger. He also filled it with detached, unemotional sex.
Not anymore. Not since he was blinded by a ray of sunshine.
As soon as Hadley said the words, Arnie knew. No, this wasn’t an audition. The test he faced was quite simply the most important moment of his existence. If he failed, the hole inside him would forever remain unfilled. But if he persevered and didn’t lose sight of what was important, he’d end up the luckiest son of a bitch to ever live. Summer filled the emptiness. She was the breath of life he’d yearned for from the moment his mother’s heart stopped. Summer healed his wounds—all of them—and she was