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Then, two or three nights ago, the dreams had changed. When she finally let herself sleep, she saw the man as usual but he was free. Unchained and out of the shadowy place where his only emotions had been despair and agony.
The change in her depressing dream should have elated Liv but she found herself frightened instead. Because in her new dreams the huge man with black hair and golden eyes was looking for someone—searching tirelessly. And somehow she knew that the person he was searching for was her.
Then last night, he’d found her. Liv still remembered sitting bolt upright in bed at four in the morning, her hand pressed between her breasts as if to still her pounding heart. The scene in the dream had showed the mysterious dark man staring right into her eyes and he’s spoken only one word.
“Mine.”
“What?” Sophia looked at her in concern and Liv realized she’d quoted her dream aloud.
“Nothing. What’s for breakfast?” It was a Saturday morning—the day officially decreed as off the diet and anything goes. Liv tried to curb herself the rest of the week—her curvy figure was already a lot more hippy than she liked—but on Saturday she let herself off the leash.
“How about pancakes? Kat’s coming over and bringing some blueberries from that organic farmer’s market on Dunn. Sound good?”
“Mmm.” Liv nodded, trying to look enthusiastic and failing miserably if the expression on her twin’s face was any indication.
“Come on, Liv, blueberry pancakes are your favorite.” Sophia frowned as she moved around the warm yellow and cream kitchen, getting out the eggs and flour and sugar and pulling down a frying pan from the hanging rack above the sink.
“Yummy. Can’t wait.” Liv gave her a weak smile and stifled a yawn. “Seriously, Sophie, I’m just tired. I stayed up a little too late reading.”
Sophia shot her a skeptical look. “Right. And that’s why you look like one of my first graders who’s just been sent to the principal’s office.” She taught at an affluent private school in South Tampa that catered to the wealthy and gifted children of the city and she absolutely loved her job. Since it was summer, however, she had three months off to pursue her other love—art.
Liv knew Sophia was itching to go paint and was probably only hanging around the kitchen making blueberry pancakes because she was worried about her twin. She opened her mouth to protest that she was fine again when a rat-a-tat-tat sounded at their front door.
“Coming!” Sophia beat her to the door and opened it to the beaming face of Katrina O’Connor, their mutual friend since high school. As Sophia ushered Kat inside, Liv shook herself mentally. It was time she stopped letting these silly dreams affect her so much. She was Olivia Waterhouse and she wasn’t afraid of anything.
Despite being compassionate Liv was no pushover. She had worked her way through nursing school and always stood up for herself, even to the crankiest doctors who could verbally eviscerate anyone with a sarcastic word or two. She went car shopping and to the mechanic by herself and never got screwed over. And most importantly, she never took no for an answer—when she really wanted something, she went for it. So why was she letting a stupid dream put a crimp in her personal style?
Time to get over it, girl, she lectured herself sternly. It’s just a dream and he’s not real. Let it go and enjoy your pancakes. It’s a beautiful Saturday—anything could happen. But rather than cheering her up, the thought sent a shiver down her spine. That’s right anything could happen…anything at all.
“What’s your deal, Liv? You look like you saw a ghost.” Kat’s cheery voice broke her morbid train of thought and Liv looked up and tried to smile.
“Hey, Kat-woman. Heard you were bringing some blueberries.”
“Did better than that.” Kat put a large recycled cloth shopping bag on the round kitchen table and started pulling things out of it, like a magician pulling rabbits out of a hat. “Eggs, butter, ham, chives…” She stopped to push a wisp of auburn hair behind her ear before continuing. “Some fresh shitake mushrooms, goat cheese—”
“Whoa—whoa!” Liv was startled into laughing. “What the hell kind of pancakes are we making here, anyway?”
“Not pancakes—quiche. I saw this new recipe last night on Food Network—”
Liv and Sophia both groaned aloud at this, cutting her off. Kat was a paralegal at Linden and James downtown but she had always had grand aspirations when it came to cooking. Unfortunately, she didn’t like to follow a recipe so most of her culinary creations landed in the trash—a fact that didn’t discourage her in the least when it came to trying something new. Especially if she was working in someone else’s kitchen and didn’t have to worry about cleaning up the mess afterwards.
