Page 115 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Mom, as soon as you found out, you had Harris behind bars.”
“Yeah, but he was out in two days. The bastard never even stood trial. I couldn’t get Mom to testify.”
“Hey,” Lark touched her phone. “Stop it, it’s all water under the bridge, and, and, I’ve pulled my head out of my ass.”
“More like someone got out a crowbar and unstuck it for you,” Beatrice grimaced.
Lark scrunched her nose. “Thanks, nice imagery.”
“So, Kostya, huh?”
“Yeah,” Lark sighed. “Kostya. I love him. Mom, I always knew he was a hero, I’m serious about that. But how he got there? The road he’s traveled? I just don’t know how he came out whole.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Beatrice asked quietly.
Lark shook her head, knowing her mother would respect that.
“So he’s it, huh? He’s your forever after?”
“Oh yeah.”
“What did he say when you told him you loved him?”
Lark stiffened and her mother laughed. “So my daughter who makes her living with words has forgotten to tell the man she loves that she loves him.”
“I am such a fucking idiot.” Lark pushed the blanket off and rushed to the sliding glass door.
“Honey,” Beatrice called out. Lark pulled the phone back up to her face after she was in the house.
“Mom, I have to go.”
“It’s going to be all right, Lark, I promise. He knows you love him.”
“I’ve got to go.”
* * *
She rushedto Kostya’s closet where she’d hung up some of the clothes that Amy had sent to her. There it was, the silver dress that wasn’t hers. Trust Amy to send one of her slinky little bits of fabric. It was perfect!
Lark threw it on the bed, then headed for the shower. She was midway through the shower when it occurred to her to call Ryker for the name of a restaurant to take Kostya. She wanted to pull out all of the romantic stops for tonight. She tried to think of all of the shoes that Amy had sent.
She ran naked into the bedroom and grabbed her phone so that she could call Ryker as she started to slather on lotion.
Where is my vanilla lotion?
She ran back to the closet. She’d been trying to be careful not to junk up Kostya’s bathroom, so she’d been keeping a lot of her things in her suitcase in the closet. Whenever Kostya had noticed, he’d pulled it back out of her suitcase and put it back on the counter. He was a total stinker. But he hadn’t found her lotions yet.
As she grabbed the tube of lotion she heard her phone ring. Hopefully, it wasn’t Kostya saying he was coming home early. She frowned when she saw Candy’s number on the phone. Lark put a smile on her face when she answered the phone, hoping the smile would come through in her voice.
“Hi, Candy, how are you?”
“Lark?”
Lark didn’t recognize the voice on the phone.
“Is this Candy?”
“Lark, it’s me. Candy.” Lark still couldn’t place her voice, it sounded both gravelly and weak.
