Kora offered her the box. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Annie took it and tucked it under her arm. “Thanks.”
“Oh, she told me to tell you not to open it.” Kora headed toward the desk, her boots treading hard on the basement floor.
Annie closed her eyes and threw her head back toward the ceiling, slapping her forehead. “Like mother, like son?” she muttered. Unbelievable!
“You mean Eric?” Kora asked, lifting the skull on the desk and re-lighting the candle.
Annie moved toward her. “You know Eric?”
“Oh, yes!” Kora watched the flame, a small, secret smile on her lips. “We all know Eric.”
“Is he here?” Annie leaned over the counter as Kora knelt behind it to pick something up off the floor.
Kora put some papers back on the desk, using the edge of the skull as a paperweight. “I thought he was supposed to have clients here today. Check in the office upstairs. Do you know where that is?” Annie nodded, already heading for the door. Her heart was racing.
“Thanks for your help!”
Annie glanced up as the door opened, half rising to meet him. It was a stocky bearded man with glasses and a goatee. He glanced at her, his eyes moving over her blouse and skirt and heels. She felt out of place here. This guy was the most average-looking person she had seen walk through the door yet.
The tattooed, long-haired biker guy just before him had eyed her, too, and then asked a lot of questions at the window about a Reiki class. This stocky guy wanted an application for something he called the “Medical Intuitive Program.” He sat in the chair across from Annie with a clipboard and filled it out while he hummed. Annie glanced at the clock again and sighed. The woman at the window, a patient redhead named Polly, had told her he was due in any minute.
That was almost an hour ago.
The box was heavy in her lap and she wondered what was in it. Her mind wandered as she traced the pattern on the box again, like some grooved finger labyrinth. The trials of the week had exhausted her: meeting Dita, the spilling of the beans, Virgil and the killer bees, Herman and the secret monastic sect, the old man and the Black Death, and now this strange odyssey into The Elysian Fields. The thought of seeing Eric again, the object of every action she had taken lately, made her stomach clench. What would he say? Would he welcome her?
Would he want her?
Annie swallowed hard as she recalled Kora’s smile when she spoke of Eric. Had he been with that little goth-girl? She wouldn’t doubt it, at least not from the impression she got from his mother. Do you believe her? Annie felt dizzy and looked at the clock again. She hadn’t eaten since the honey cake. She couldn’t imagine eating now, anyway. She was nauseous at the thought of facing Eric.
Dita. The image of Eric’s mother laughing made Annie cringe. There’s a woman who needs therapy. She smiled at the thought. The box seemed to grow heavier in her lap and she shifted. She wondered again what was in it. Dita had said beauty cream. This didn’t look like a box for lotion. It looked like a box for jewelry.
The stocky guy carried his clipboard to the window. Annie listened, still tracing the pattern, as Polly and the man talked, their voices just a distant murmur. Don’t open the box. Kora’s words made Annie’s face burn. What was she going to find-snakes? Annie glanced around. The room was empty again.
No one was at the window.
Why not? She lifted the latch, using it to pull the lid up. Nothing. Just a red velvet inlay and a little mirror on the inside of the lid. Frowning, Annie felt along the bottom to be sure. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and then did a double take.
As a beautiful woman, she had always been praised for her appearance, but today Annie didn’t recognize the reflection that stared back at her. It was the same face, the wide, dark eyes, the pale skin, the long dark hair. Annie lifted the box closer, incredulous. Her cheeks were rosy, her hair slightly disheveled from the day’s wanderings, but it was more than that.
She looked soft and open. Her lips parted in wonder. All the places where she had been cool, sharp, or angular, seemed to have melted, softened, smoothed. She touched her cheek, feeling the heat of the radiant flush there. Is this what they mean by rosy glow?
Something had changed in her as she had continued her search for Eric.
The shallow beauty of her physical form had somehow been transformed into something deeper. There was a radiant light that seemed to come from within, and it wasn’t just the secret she was holding fast in her belly. There was a spark in her eyes, some fire lit and growing there, that went beyond her physical appearance. Annie was looking at herself, ageless, timeless, and could finally see the deep beauty that radiated outward from deep within.
She felt unsteady and closed her eyes for a moment, fighting another wave of nausea. Her urgent search, the pain of her own denial, the sudden gravity and weight of her life, all hit Annie with such force that she went reeling, the world spinning around her as she dropped the box and slid to the floor into darkness.
CHAPTER SIX
“Annie.” His voice was calling her and she came out of the darkness into heaven with her head lying in his lap, his fingers massaging her hair. She snuggled instinctively closer.
“Eric! I found you!”
“Yeah. You did.” His hand moved down her neck and shoulder, massaging. “How’s your head?”
“Deja vu,” she murmured, opening her eyes to look up at him. She was lying on a low cot, with her head in his lap. The nurse’s office? He was leaning back against the wall.
“I know.” He grinned. “I remember.”
“Do you?” She struggled to sit and he helped her.
He brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Yeah. I’ve only thought about it every day since.”
“Eric, I’m sorry. I know I promised—” she started, but his fingers and eyes went to her lips, and then his mouth went there, too, and it was like he had moved into her, set up house, and decided to stay. “Mmm… oh, god, Eric… are we alone?” she gasped, glancing toward the door and sliding her hand up his thigh.
“Here?” He grinned, glancing down to the V of her blouse. “No, we can’t… not here. You’re incorrigible.”
“I missed you,” she breathed, rubbing his lower lip with her finger. “And I’m so, so sorry…”
“Annie, don’t. I’m the one who’s sorry,” he apologized against her neck, pulling her into his lap. “Asking you to promise something like that…” She smiled and breathed into his ear, “It doesn’t matter. We’re together now.”
Her mouth met his and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in tight. I can’t believe I found him! After months of searching, and the runaround of the past few days, it felt like a dream. Eric’s mouth was real, though, his tongue sending electric shivers down her spine, his hands kneading her hip and lower back.
“I looked for you,” she whispered against his cheek as they both gasped for breath. “From the minute you disappeared. I was so afraid you would never want to see me again, after I promised, and then…”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” Eric sighed, nuzzling her neck. “I know it was foolish, crazy, even…asking you to make that promise. But when you broke it—”
“I should never have listened to my sisters.” Annie shook her head. “I was the foolish one.”
“Listen to me,” he said, cupping her face in his hands. “I need you to understand.”
Annie searched his eyes and found that connection they’d had since the moment she met him. She nodded, waiting for him to speak.