Tags:
Humor,
Fiction,
Romance,
Paranormal,
Mystery,
romantic suspense,
amateur sleuth,
Ghost,
Near-Death Experience,
RITA,
Martha’s Vineyard,
Summer Read
of heat he'd left behind.
"I can't tell," she said with perfect honesty.
"I'm not sure you want to
keep on wearing that," he cautioned as he held the door open for
her.
"Keep up this kindness,
and I'll be forced to vote for you after all," she teased. The fact
was, she was feeling very vulnerable. Obviously the evening was
taking some kind of emotional toll. The rational thing to do was to
head home at all due speed.
But still she dallied,
there in the clear May night. "Senator--"
"We've been through our
first vocal trance together; call me Lee."
"Senator," she persisted,
ignoring the bantering request. "You didn't have to tell me all
that you did tonight. I know that." She braced herself and threw
out the next observation: "I guess I'm wondering why you
did."
"Why?" He sounded less
puzzled than incredulous. "Is that the only word you know?
'Why'?"
She'd never heard his
how-dare-you tone before. Not that she wasn't familiar with it;
most of the people she investigated eventually hauled it out and
batted her over the head with it. But somehow she wanted Arthur Lee
Alden III to be different. Somehow she was wrong.
"What I mean is, you can't
have told any but your most trusted friends and associates about
your -- your vision, or I would've read about it somewhere. Why did
you tell me, of all people?" Simple question; she thought it
deserved a simple answer.
He just stared at her, so
she answered the question for him. "It's not just because tonight
is off the record. I think it's becausee you were hoping to make me
so sympathetic to your plight, so moved by it, that I'd back off
investigating this side of your character. After all, I'm a woman;
that's what women do -- sympathize. You took a big risk, Senator.
You'd never have tried this with a man."
"Geez, you're paranoid,"
he said at last.
"Nosir. Not paranoid," she
countered, throwing an index finger up in the air. "I just want to
know why you told me."
"Fine," he said angrily,
his hand on the door of his BMW. "You want to know why?" He threw
the door open. "I'll tell you why." He got in and slammed the door.
He rolled down the window. "I don't know why. That's
why."
He turned the key, the
engine jumped to life, and he roared off, leaving Emily alone with
the strength of her convictions. Her chin was set, her breathing
coming hard and fast. She'd just reduced a United States Senator to
gibberish; it should've been a moment of triumph.
But it wasn't, and all the
way home she tried to fathom why. Eventually it all came down to
this: she thought more of him for having the courage to face her
laughter than she thought of herself for having the courage to
laugh at him.
It wasn't fair. Lee Alden
had it all, including a good-old-boy understanding with the press
not to expose his fanciful side. Even Stan Cooper left him alone.
And yet not all politicians were immune to scrutiny. She thought of
Gary Hart; she thought of John Tower. Somewhere someone had stood
up and said, "Enough is enough." So why was there this reluctance
to go after Lee Alden? Was it because when you did go up against
him, you felt rotten about it? The way she was feeling
now?
Too bad, kiddo, she told herself with grim determination. Learn to live with it.
By the time she squeezed
her car into the lone space left on her street, Emily was
bleary-eyed with exhaustion. It was well after midnight, but that
wasn't the reason she was having to force one foot up the stairs
past the other. She'd just spent a most unconventional evening, and
she considered herself a very conventional girl. This kind of thing
was more of a strain on her system than it was for Shirley
MacLaine.
She was weak with longing
for her bed by the time she slipped her key into the dead bolt of
her door. Muddled and impatient for sleep as she was, after she
turned the key to the left and right she wasn't sure whether she'd
even locked the door before dashing out that morning. Most likely
not; it wouldn't have been the first time. She
Sarah Lotz
Neil S. Plakcy
Shey Stahl
Lisa Jackson
Ann Vremont
Paula Graves
Lacey Wolfe
Joseph Wambaugh
S. E. Smith
Jaimie Roberts