Love and Neckties - Lacey Black Page 0,3

with her deceased mother. I check my watch and notice this individual is approaching fifteen minutes late, assuming she was instructed to arrive at the end of the visitation. I activate the door buzzer, which allows us to hear a noise every time the front door opens. This helps when we’re off somewhere within the building, we don’t always have to lock the door.

Once I know I’ll be made aware of her arrival, I head to the family room. This is an area down the hallway where family can gather to take a break. We offer a television, comfortable seating, and mini-kitchen area. Most families will bring in food or have it delivered to the visitation. Tonight’s family cleaned up after themselves, so the only thing I need to do is take out the trash and wash down the table and counter. That job takes all of four minutes, and once it’s complete I head back to the front, turning off the lights as I go.

When the clock strikes eight thirty, I figure this Reiki quack isn’t coming. Maybe there was some sort of magical voodoo healing emergency? Flipping the lights off in the office, I step out, locking the door behind me, just as the front entrance opens. “It’s raining harder than a cow pissing on a flat rock.”

I know that voice.

And those crude words.

Exhaling, I stick my keys in my suit pants pocket and turn to the doorway. “Freedom.”

Chapter Two

Freedom

“Sammy!” I exclaim, shaking the rain from my drowned hair. It hangs heavy and limply around my face and the water flies freely around me. Samuel sighs dramatically, which, of course, is just the response I’m going for.

“It’s Samuel,” he retorts rather heatedly, and I have to fight the smile.

Reaching up, I wring my brown hair out, watching small droplets of water fall on the floor. My long, Bohemian skirt clings to my legs and my top hangs awkwardly around my shoulders. “Seriously, this rain is nuts.”

“It was forecasted,” he replies, straightening his tie and avoiding eye contact. I’ve always felt like I made him nervous, which is why I go to such extended lengths to do just that. “I was just locking up,” he adds, finally turning those blue-green eyes my way. He watches me for a few seconds, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallows. “You know, they make these great inventions called umbrellas.”

I wave my hand dismissively. “Ehh, a little water isn’t going to hurt me.” I take in the darkened foyer and ask, “Were you leaving?”

He sighs again. “Yes, Freedom, I was heading out for the evening. I have to return at seven.”

“But didn’t Debbie tell you I was coming?”

He crosses his arms and I try to ignore how his arms look with his suit stretched over his biceps. “She did, but I was under the impression you were arriving at the end of the visitation. That was more than thirty minutes ago.”

“Where’s the fire? Or did you have plans this evening?” I ask, waggling my eyebrows suggestively.

Samuel clears his throat and straightens. “I could have had plans.”

“Of course you could have. I hear the coin club meets on Tuesday nights at the library.” I give him the best, sweetest smile I possess, showing all of my teeth.

Again, he straightens his necktie, almost like a nervous twitch. There’s something about his necktie that does weird things to my lady parts. I can almost picture Mr. Anal-Retentive wearing one of his fancy silk ties…and nothing else. “I’m not a part of the coin club, but I am starting to get hungry. Can we get the weird part of the evening over with, please?”

I strut past him, my wet skirt cooling my overheated legs. He doesn’t make a sound as he follows me to the parlor, my bangle bracelets clanking together as we go. Samuel turns the light back on and my client for this evening comes into view. Technically, Debbie is the client—my client—but that’s beside the point.

When she asked me at the end of our session on Sunday night to perform a Reiki treatment on her mother, I readily agreed. I didn’t realize her mother had passed until the end of the conversation, and there was no going back—especially when she agreed to pay me twice my fee to accommodate the odd circumstance.

Have I ever performed on a dead woman? Umm, that’s be a big fat no, but the dollar signs kept flashing through my mind, and honestly, I couldn’t turn down