AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Beautiful.” He lowers on top of me and treats my mouth to the most tender kiss. I wrap my arms around him feeling sated and loved to the very center of my soul.
The sun is slowly creepingin when I wake. Mick had spent the night with me nightmare-free. We’d both been exhausted, using what energy we had left to shower, eat, and crawl into bed. It’s still rare to wake before my trusty sex-alarm clock that is Mick, but I take advantage of the early hour and gingerly slip from his arms. Reaching over to the nightstand, I pull out my journal and prop myself up against the pillows. I turn to a clean page and make a line down the middle. One side I label Bullshit, the other I label Truth. I complete the BS list in no time at all. The Truth list has me biting the end of my pen.
“What’s got you thinking so hard?” Mick’s voice, raspy from sleep, breaks my concentration.
I look over at him. He’s tousled and drowsy, and very appealing.
“My homework from Dr. Roland,” I say, having told him about it over dinner. “I’m working on my positive messages list.”
“That’s easy.” Beneath the covers, where I sit with my knees bent, he skims a hand along the underside of my thigh. “I could fill up the whole book. Want me to give you the rundown?”
“No.” But I smile to show my appreciation. “I have to do this myself. And stop that.”
“What?”
“Distracting me,” I say of the tingles radiating from my left quad and spreading to my center.
He slides his hand away. “I know this is important to you. I just hate to see you struggle with something that’s so obvious to me.”
“It’s okay for me to struggle through it. That’s part of the work. I’ll get there and then watch out, I’m gonna want to be naked all the time.”
“God help me when you do.” He laughs. “You’re already wearing me out.”
“Yeah right.” I roll my eyes. “You’re like a machine.”
“Trust me, baby, it’s all you.”
“Aw…” I lean over to press my lips to his. “I love you.”
“Love you too, beauty. I’ll go put on the coffee.” He pushes out ofbed and I take a moment to admire the muscular lines of his naked back as he pulls on a pair of joggers.
Mick has never had a self-conscious minute in his life. Not about his body. But he has his own cross to bear that makes coming up with positive body messages pale in comparison. I’m painfully aware of what this day holds in store for him.
Tonight he’s going to face Malcolm again.
I put down my pen as a shiver of another kind runs through me.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Micah
At 9:00, I enter thebar with the bill of my cap pulled low. It’s Wednesday night, less than a handful of patrons occupy the grungy place. Likely regulars. I order a Coke to prevent being hassled for taking up space without paying. I drop a $20 bill on the sticky surface. “Keep the change.”
The bearded barkeep grabs the money without a thank you and slides across a filmy glass. This isn’t the kind of place you come to for cleanliness or customer service.
I take a seat in a booth where the fake brown leather has foam poking through the cracks and the scuffed table has seen better days.
I casually glance out the window at Victor’s rental car, and test the device, “Can you hear me?” The brake lights flash twice for yes.
Then I wait for Malcolm, staring into my untouched drink. I’d expected that hard knot in the pit of my stomach. He always put it there.
I need to be free of him. Free to move forward. When this is over, I intend to walk out of here, leaving the fury and the guilt behind. To let the memory of my mother rest in peace and to find some for myself.
Malcolm is nearly thirty minutes late when he finally strolls in. He’s wearing a cap too. This one not identifying him as Sheriff. He goes straight to the bar. When he has a tumbler of whiskey in hand, he saunterspast the two pool players and slides into the booth across from me. His face still carries the marks from Friday.
“This better be good.”
“Wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
