He laughed with her before his smile faded. “I’m sure Ellis is going to grill me when I go back in there. I might end up spilling the beans anyway.” He released her. “Did he give you my cell number yesterday?”
“Yeah.” She fished out her phone and opened the text function, then handed it to him. “But text yourself so I have it in here and you have mine.”
He did, then handed it back to her.
He captured her hands in his and kissed them. “I’m sorry, Mandaline.” He spoke in solemn tones, his expression serious. “I mean it. I’m not sorry it happened, but I’m sorry it happened like that. I hope you don’t hate me.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t hate you,” she softly said. “I don’t know how I feel about you, but hate doesn’t even make the top hundred.” She stood on tiptoe and brushed a kiss across his lips. “How about you let me make you dinner tomorrow night? I’ll come pick you up.”
He glanced at the house. “I’d feel weird leaving him alone.”
“Bring him.” She smiled. “Hell, maybe that weird stuff will start happening with him, too.”
A playful smile quirked his lips. “I always told Ellis we needed to find one woman who’d put up with both of us.”
Tension squeezed her heart. “Let me get used to supernaturally induced fellatio first before you throw mystical ménages at me.” She stepped away as he burst into laughter.
He stood outside, waving as she turned her car around and drove away.
Halfway back to town she pulled over along the shoulder as the shakes hit. She rested her head against the steering wheel and tried to calm her pulse.
What. The. Fuck?
No, she didn’t blame Brad at all. She’d definitely been the initiator. But…
She tried to process what had happened. She was still sitting there five minutes later when her phone chirruped at her with a text message.
It was from Brad. Pls text me when u get home. Ok?
Reality calling. She glanced at the time and knew Sachi, at least, would still be at the store. She texted Sachi that she was on her way. She shifted the car back into drive and pulled onto the road.
The arched eyebrow over Sachi’s crystalline blue, almond-shaped eyes spoke volumes. “I don’t buy it. What happened?”
They were alone in the office. Kim was staying to help close up, but Sachi had cornered Mandaline seconds upon her return.
“Nothing happened!”
“Then why do you look like you’re trying to explain to your mother why you’re sneaking in the back window an hour past curfew, with a hickey on your neck, when you were supposed to be at the library?”
Mandaline’s hand involuntarily flew to her neck. There was no way she could have a hickey…could she?
Sachi grinned triumphantly. “Ha!” She dropped into the chair next to the desk and lowered her voice. “Tell me. You know damn well I won’t let you out of here until you do.”
No, she wouldn’t. “You won’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“You’re going to yell at me.”
The other eyebrow arched skyward. “Oh, then I sooo have to hear this, boss.”
Not knowing where else to start, she started at the beginning, with the basics of what Ellis told her the day before, the little zing she felt when she touched him, and then the events with Brad, ending with what happened in the attic.
Sachi blinked but remained silent.
“Well?”
She started to speak, closed her mouth, then sat back in her chair. She wore a consternated look on her face. “What do you want to happen with him?” she finally asked.
“I don’t know.”
“And you’re attracted to both of them?”
Mandaline nodded.
Sachi pondered it a few more moments before letting out a sigh. She shrugged. “Go after both of them.”
“What?”
“Hey, Libbie sent me a reading list a few months ago when I was looking for new authors. Some of those books she has on her Kindle…whew!”
“This is my real life we’re talking about, not a smutty book.”
Sachi grinned. “They say truth is stranger than fiction, boss.” She stood and patted Mandaline on the shoulder. “I say keep your options open. If Julie really is speaking through Brad, and like you I suspect he’s telling the truth, then you’re screwed regardless. She won’t give up until she’s satisfied you’re happy.”
Sachi left the office but Mandaline sat there stewing. She knew Sachi wouldn’t tell anyone what she’d revealed.
She was about to head out to help Sachi and Kim finish closing, but her phone chirruped at her with a text message. Expecting a reply from Brad to her “I’m home” text, she was surprised to find it was from Ellis.
We need to talk. Call me.
“Shit,” she mumbled.
Ellis paced outside behind his car as he waited for a reply to his text or a call from Mandaline. He didn’t know what had happened between those two before he got home, but he wanted to find out. Brad had stopped him from asking any questions by declaring he had to go upstairs to work and closing the attic door behind him.
As good as a Keep Out sign.
He glanced up to the attic, where light shone from the eastern window. He could see shadows on the ceiling as Brad moved around in there.
He suspected he’d interrupted something between them from the way her face had brightly blazed and the way Brad avoided him.
He didn’t want Brad to get hurt.
He also didn’t want to acknowledge the tendril of jealousy trying to take hold inside him. Brad deserved happiness.
But dammit, he would have liked a chance to get to know her before Brad moved in. He was tired of dating his right hand every night. Lots of women threw themselves at Brad, not that Brad paid them any attention. Why did he finally have to start paying attention to the one woman he’d felt moved by?
Stop being an ass. He deserves happiness.
And so did Mandaline. At work, he’d looked up the news stories on what had happened to Julie. How she was raped and murdered by Steven Corey before he drowned in the lake at the park.
Mandaline certainly needed some happiness in her life after losing her best friend in such a horrific way.
He almost dropped his phone when it rang. “Hello?”
“It’s Mandaline.”
“Hi. Um, thanks for calling me.”
“What’s up?”
“Yeah. Uh, listen, I wanted to talk to you about tonight.”
“Okay.” She sounded guarded.
Now he really felt like an ass.
He opted for an about-face. “Did you really mean it when you said maybe there are concrete causes for what Brad’s experiencing? I mean, it did start happening after we moved here, not before.”
Did she sound relieved? Her voice took on a lighter tone and sped up just a little. If she was a witness, he would suspect she felt she’d just dodged a bullet. “Absolutely. There is plenty of scientific evidence to support high EMF levels causing physical symptoms that would dovetail with what he’s reporting.”
“That’s good.” He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t follow through with what he’d wanted to ask. “That’s real good. I didn’t know if you were just saying that to make him feel better or not. That’s why I wanted to call and talk to you in private.”
Her tone brightened even more. “No, I really believe we’ll find something to explain what’s happening. It might take some time to rule things out, but from talking with him tonight, I think we’ll find an answer that will satisfy everyone.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
“Did he tell you I invited you both to dinner tomorrow night? My place. I’m cooking.”