Page 37 (1/2)

Edith had looked down, too

Abby’s pulse started ha the wide planking The piece of flooring was shorter here, th; it bowed slightly when Abby pressed her hands upon it and she considered trying to take the board up herself

To at original flooring If she wrecked it, it could never be replaced And yet there had to be a reason why Edith had stood just here, in this very spot

She got up frohed This was insane Besides, it was eleven o’clock at night Whatever Edith wanted her to find would have to wait She shook her head and went back down the hall to her rooown and brushed her teeth Nohad ever happened as she crawled beneath the covers

But she left the downstairs lights on Just in case And lay awake for a long tiination ran wild

Abby woke up with sweat beaded on her brow The sun was already up, streah the , and she checked her watch—seven-thirty

Her dreaes of her ather the pieces and keep them whole It felt important somehow Edith had been there, and a tall, blondand there’d been anothera baby in his ar and the man had held the baby out from his body, as if he couldn’t stand to hold it closer

That hen Abby woke up, her limbs stiff with fear Exasperated, she tried to reach into her mind for more detail What had happened next? What had she missed? What did it all mean?

The sla To of the dreaht She sat up in the bed, the sheets pooling around her hips Heard hiiven him in the lock Heard the front door shut behind him

Abby sank back into the pillows, torn between ju on to the tattered bits of the drea i to those last fewthe day

Before co face-to-face with him Her dream finally evaporated froht It was bound to be aard between theainst hers, the way he kissed her like she ater and he was aleap to fantasize about whatshe probably wouldn’t have stopped hi closer to the hard, hot length of his body

His boots echoed in the downstairs hall and she was thrown out of that delicious bit of fantasy as his footsteps sounded on the stairs

Up the stairs! And she was in her a nightgown!

“Abby?” he called “You okay?”

Dammit She was always up before he arrived Always, ever since the first tiross after her run She made sure she was dressed and had her hair tidied and her teeth brushed Now her hair was a tangledbreath and …