Page 30 of Tempting Fire

As he pulled into the garage he saw the door to the kitchen open. He was surprised that Chloe had come out of the den to greet him.

“Is everything okay?”

“You said you’d be home at four. It’s four thirty.” She had a death grip on Slayer’s collar. He held onto the bakery box and studied Chloe’s expression. He couldn’t tell if she was mad or scared or a combination of the two.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I brought a peace offering.”

“You should have called.”

Scared. She was scared. She backed up to let him into the house, and he put the bakery box onto the counter. “Can I have a hug?” he asked.

“Zarek, this isn’t going to work. The first time you leave you promise you’re going to be home at a certain time, and you’re not. I need to go home.” Her face was tense, the house was miserably hot, she’d turned off the air conditioning, and she was still wearing her ETSU sweatshirt. He glanced down at Slayer, and his tongue was hanging out and he was panting.

“Let’s get you some cold water, boy.”

“I already did,” Chloe said.

“So you realize it’s a sauna in here?”

“I was cold,” she said defensively.

“Look Chloe, I need a cool shower, then we can have a treat and talk, okay?” He really didn’t want to argue, he wanted to have a calm conversation, but if it was a hundred degrees and Chloe was snapping at him, it wouldn’t go over well.

“I’m going to the den.”

“Just be ready to talk after dinner,” he warned.

***

For the first time in forever solitaire wasn’t getting the job done. Usually it kept her brain occupied enough to block out all thought. Just work at getting the cards in place fast enough to beat her last best time. Faster and faster, just move the cards. Concentrate. Hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. Red and black. A nice hazy blur. But it wasn’t working.

She kept hearing Slayer’s breathing. Finally she got up and put him out of the room and shut the door.

“There. That should do it.”

She went back to the computer screen and tried to get into the zone. But she kept hearing Zarek’s ominous words. She didn’t want to talk. She knew what that meant. It meant thinking and feeling.

Fish or cut bait.

It had been Old Man Ayers who had told her that saying. It was relevant now. Solitaire was getting boring. She looked down at her arm and knew that cutting was out of the question, so fishing was what she needed to do. But she didn’t know how. She had a freshly minted master’s degree in physical therapy. But she also had inherited a boatload of money, so she didn’t have to work for a few years, but that was stupid.

She was stupid.

So stupid.

The haze of the computer screen and the cards was even blurrier. That was when she realized she was crying.

Dammit. She needed to get her shit together. She shoved the keyboard away and rested her head against the desk. She needed to sleep, but the bedroom was too far away. Diamonds and hearts floated past her closed eyelids as she drifted off to sleep.

***

He didn’t want to wake her up. His instinct was to carry her to bed and let her go to sleep, but he couldn’t. Wednesday, he was going to a twenty-four-hour shift and he wanted to get her some coverage before he left her. Slayer wasn’t going to cut it.

She must have sensed his hand hovering over her shoulder because her eyes opened.

“Hi.” She gave a ghost of a smile.

“Hi. You ready for dinner? I’ve got cheese sauce for the broccoli.”