A Deep and Dark December(30)

“You know I’m not one to talk,” Mabel was saying, her towering strawberry blond beehive wobbling. “But did you see that new sports car Reverend James bought? If I were Mrs. Reverend James I’d’ve made him turn around and take it right on back to the dealer.” She put her hand to the corner of her coral-painted mouth as an aside. “The way I hear it, the good reverend’s been passing the plate to the Unitarian lady pastor over in Santa Maria. If you know what I mean.”

Erin bit back a groan, turning a polite smile on Mabel. “Did Graham say when he’d be down? I have to get to work.”

The door opened and swung wide, smacking against the wall. Elmer Farnsworth III shuffled over the threshold. “Sorry. Door got away from me.”

Elmer was one more way in which Keith tried and Erin failed him. Keith had thought ahead and hired a lawyer, trying to protect her, but the effort felt like another obligation she owed Keith.

“Oh, don’t you worry about that, Elmer,” Mabel said as she got up from her desk and pushed the door closed against the wind. “Happens all the time after a storm.”

“I’m here after my client… oh, there you are, Eileen,” Elmer said.

“It’s Erin,” Erin corrected.

“Right. That’s what I said. Point me to the restroom, will ya, Mabel?”

Mabel pointed. “Down the hall to your right.”

As soon as Mabel stepped away from it, the door crashed opened again. Jessica stomped, then wiped her shoes on the doormat before coming inside. “Sorry, Mabel.” She hefted the tray of coffee cups in her hands. “My hands were full. They didn’t have the blueberry muffin you wanted so I got you bran. Hello, Erin. Isn’t Sheriff Doran down yet?”

Mabel closed the door behind Jessica. “No, and I haven’t heard a peep out of him. I was just about to call up.”

“Oh, no. Don’t do that,” Jessica said, setting her burden down on her desk. “I’ll go see if he’s awake.”

As soon as Jessica disappeared from view, Mabel started up again. “That one there.” She gestured toward the direction Jessica had gone. “Is angling to be Mrs. Sheriff Doran. I bet she’s hoping to catch him in the shower or just out of it. That would be a sight, wouldn’t it?”

Erin’s mouth fell open. She’d heard the rumors about Jessica pursuing Graham. As far as she knew they were just that—rumors. Until now.

Mabel blathered on, but Erin’s mind went to what was happening upstairs. Of Graham in the shower. Naked. She lost all track of what Mabel was saying. It wasn’t like Mabel needed an audience anyway.

After last night, Erin knew she was on dangerous ground, imagining Graham without clothes. But the images were so very vivid. And then…boom. She was there. Literally in the shower with Graham. Mabel’s voice was gone, replaced with the sounds of water hitting tile and rushing down the drain. Her consciousness hovered just inside the scene, looking down.

Steam billowed, hazing her view. The scent of shampoo and soap hung in the air. Hanging his head, Graham let the water spill over his back. His dark hair was matted against his skull, water trickling down his face to drip off the clean-shaven cleft in his chin. He looked tired, worn down.

Past or Future?

Erin didn’t even try to keep her gaze from wandering over his still form or from admiring the contours of his body as the water slithered like a loving hand over his flesh. She reached out to touch, her fingers skimming through him. Neither of them was real. They were nothing more than two beams of light passing through one another. But she ran her hands over his image anyway, imagining how his skin would feel, how warm and slick it would be. How it would feel to press her body to his, the slip and slide of skin on skin.

He dipped his head back, letting the water hit his scalp. She traced a finger over the column of his throat, following it with her lips…

A door banged closed, bringing Erin crashing back to the present. She shook her head, trying to clear the images from her brain. Not again. Was her ability even hers to control anymore?

Footsteps thundered on the stairs. Mabel put a hand to her heart, her mouth open mid-harangue. Jessica barreled into the room. A door opened above.

“Don’t ever come up here again!” Graham shouted, punctuating his point by slamming the door.

Jessica skidded to a halt behind Mabel’s chair as though she was hiding behind her mommy.

“What the devil did you do, Jessica?” Mabel asked.

Her chest puffing, Jessica’s lips slowly curved into a smile that matched the wicked look in her eyes. “Answering the age-old question,” she said.

Mabel patted the ample flesh pillowing her chest. “And what in the world would that be? How to scare an old woman half to death?”

Jessica shook her head, her grin growing. “Boxers or briefs?”

“You don’t say?” Mabel craned her neck as though she could see up the stairs for herself. “And?”

“Neither. At least not when he sleeps,” Jessica answered, looking for all the world as though she’d discovered the cure for cancer or something.

Jealousy, hot and seething, burned through Erin. She wanted to smack the superior look off Jessica’s pretty face. If only she could clamp her hand over Jessica’s mouth to keep her from describing in great detail what Erin had only seen in her vision.