When Darkness Falls(31)

Her body is white hot and sometimes she clutches him and sometimes they fight. He hears her cry out. He bites her lip, tastes her blood, feels her scratching his chest and back, and in the midst has a sudden frightening certainty that this is no dream. The sensations are too strong and too real and it is too late.

Too late.





Chapter Thirteen


The waitress came by with shots of an orange-flavored liqueur on the house. Tom passed, since he was driving, but Haley had one, and then another. She found herself telling Tom how she’d been frustrated with music in the last year or so with Brian and had started thinking about what else she might want to do with her life.

Tom pushed his beer glass aside and leaned forward. “So what would you do? If you went back to school?”

“I might get an MSW. Or a PsyD, though that would take a lot longer. I like the work the therapists do at the counseling center, and I was a psych major.”

Tom kept his eyes on her as she talked. It gave Haley a little rush. Lately Devon stared at the floor and held his index finger on his opposite wrist all the time, monitoring his pulse while they spoke. Half the time he didn’t remember what she said.

“So what’s stopping you?”

“How to pay for it. And what to do about insurance. Devon doesn’t have any of his own, and he’s been having health problems. Which also means he’s not playing as much or making much money. So I’d need to keep a full-time job while I’m in school, and I don’t know if that’s possible with grad programs.”

“I know people who went to law school that way,” Tom said. “At night while working forty hours a week.”

“I’m guessing they didn’t do anything but work and go to school the whole time. Which I could do,” Haley said. “I juggled a lot getting through college. But I’m not sure that’s what I want.”

“Because it’d leave no time for music? Or for your husband?”

“Both, I guess.” Haley drank the last swallow of her wine. Tom motioned the waitress, and she brought another wine for Haley and a seltzer and lemon for Tom.

“It’d be temporary,” Tom said. “Probably a few years temporary, but you have a lot of life ahead of you.” He squeezed a lemon slice into his glass, put the rind to his lips, and sucked on it.

“I used to do that before I sang to clear my throat,” Haley said, trying not to stare at his lips. “But not with a drink.”

“I kind of got to like the taste.” He held out the other lemon slice. “Want one?”

Haley laughed. “No, thanks. I never got to like the taste.”

“It’s good to see you smile.”

Haley glanced toward the window beyond the stage and saw her own reflection staring back. She looked pale. “I haven’t been having a lot of fun lately.”

“You’re too young to not have fun. You need to wait until you’re at least my age.”

“I’m not really sure how it got this way.” Haley’s voice caught in her throat, and she flushed, embarrassed to be sharing so much with a man she’d just met.

Tom reached across the table and touched the back of her hand for an instant. It sent sparks along her arm. “It’s okay. Marriage is tough sometimes. I know.”

“I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. I love Devon, I’m happy I married him. It’s that his health problems are really stressing him. I try to be supportive and do whatever I can, but I can’t fix it. I don’t know what else to do.”

“Maybe take care of yourself. And keep in touch with your friends. They can help you through things, no matter what happens.”

Haley wasn’t sure she liked the “no matter what happens.” Maybe Tom guessed that. He began telling her a story about finagling to get a job at Milwaukee’s Riverfest, then another about how he’d gotten started in music, making Haley laugh again. At midnight, they collected their guitars and walked into the night. The wind had shifted, and Haley shivered.

“Thanks, this was great,” she said, thinking how long it had been since she’d enjoyed herself.

“It was. Listen, I’m heading over to a used CD store downtown tomorrow to check out the latest selections. You can join me if you want, and I can drop you at the train station after.”

Haley felt tempted, but Tom was a little too much fun, and being near him felt a little too good. During her years of playing with Brian, she’d often had men interested in her. Not because of who she was or how she looked, but because simply being on stage made her attractive even on those days when she’d gotten no sleep and felt like everything about her hair and make-up was wrong. She’d learned to limit the opportunities for infidelity.

“I’d love to, but I have plans with John and Anne.”

On the drive to John and Anne’s house in Germantown, Haley asked how he knew Devon.

“Through Jake Zetlin.”

“The songwriter?” Haley had seen him the first night she’d gone to The Underground.

“Yeah. We jammed a few times when I was visiting Chicago and Devon joined us.”

“That’s it?”

“Is that bad?” They’d reached the Beudels’ rambling three-story house. Tom put the car into park.