Wild Men of Alaska Collection - By Helmer, Tiffinie Page 0,92

from the comfort and love she’d found in his arms.

A cry as if his heart were being torn from his chest ripped through the tatters of space.

Gemma jerked up in bed feeling like the wind had been knocked out her. She was cold, the bed empty, and she was fully dressed in her “I Otter Be Asleep” pajamas. The same pajamas that she remembered stripping out of in front of Lucky.

That hadn’t been a dream. It couldn’t be. She knew it in her core, in her heart. But waking up in her bed made it hard to believe she’d actually made love to Lucky.

Despair threatened to swamp her. She climbed out of bed, and any doubt that she’d been with him evaporated. It had been a long time since she’d been with someone and the physical aches were a pleasurable reassurance that she hadn’t dreamt being with him. The night had been magical, what they’d shared had been out of this world.

She chuckled with the thought. Out of this world pretty much said it all.

She jumped in the shower, humming as she got ready for work. It wasn’t until she was on the way to Chinook Books that the gravity of her situation hit her.

She’d slept with her Dreamweaver, participated in astral sex, and would do so again if given the opportunity.

And didn’t she have the opportunity shut away in the drawer of her night table in the form of a baggie of little white pills her mother had supplied her?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Saturdays were always busy, and Gemma was able to lose herself in book recommending, one of her favorite things about running the bookstore. There was a steady stream of customers until about three in the afternoon.

She was in love with a man with no foreseeable way of having a normal relationship. But then who really had a normal relationship? Her parents hadn’t. They hadn’t even been married, in the legal sense. Siri didn’t believe in a legal document proclaiming them married by the government. Instead, they’d participated in a hand-fasting when Gemma had been old enough to be the flower child.

Her father had been the exact opposite of her mother, and he’d loved all the differences. Gemma remembered how he’d looked at Siri with so much love it hurt as though the definition of the Universe was held within Siri’s eyes.

Lucky had looked at her like that last night.

A bittersweet smile curved her lips. What would her father say about the situation she’d gotten herself into? Would he warn her off like Siri had, or encourage her to follow her heart?

As logical as her father had been, when it came to love he was as impractical as Siri. One thing Gemma did know, Siri had never loved her father. Not like he’d loved her.

Gemma had checked in with Rosie earlier in the day to see how Siri had fared after her stint in jail. Apparently it hadn’t disturbed her one bit. She’d still been asleep. A good sign since when this had happened in the past, Siri would go into a manic phase with days of not sleeping. Kind of like Gemma was doing. Could that be a sign she was following in Siri’s footsteps? Should she have made an appointment with Doc Walton too?

But then if she mentioned to Doc Walton that she was seeing a Dreamweaver, taking her mother’s sleeping pills, and having astral sex, he would no doubt set her up for an evaluation in the psych ward.

The bells over the door chimed, and Gemma glanced up, her customer service smile plastered on her face. Though with the direction her thoughts had taken she was no longer in the mood to endure customers.

Tern marched in like she was on a mission. Gemma’s smile faded. What now?

“I have something for you.” Tern glanced around the store to see a few stragglers in the café, Amie behind the counter cleaning up, and Callista occupied at the register with a customer. “Good, you’re not busy.”

“That’s not a good thing for someone who is self-employed.”

“You know what I meant.” Tern held up a necklace with a deep bluish-purple crystal wrapped in silver wire. “Here, you need to wear this.”

“What is it?”

“Indigo tourmaline. It will help open your third eye, the sixth chakra, and strength your ability to transcend your reality. Go ahead, put it on.”

Gemma slid the necklace over her head even though she wasn’t sure she wanted help “transcending her reality.” She jolted when the stone brushed against her