Scarlet Nights (Edilean 3)

“I hadn’t thought of that, but possibly. I have another set in my suitcase. You can go through them while I take a shower—unless you’d like to join me, that is.” She fluttered her lashes at him.

“I want to see the cards now. You should have told me what was on them last night.”

Sara gave a melodramatic sigh. “And ruin my twelve-hour honeymoon? How could I have been so selfish?”

Mike didn’t smile but his dimple showed. “Take your shower then we’ll go get bagels.”

“With or without flaxseeds?”

“Go!” he ordered.

Sara was in the shower when Mike came in with the cards.

“You’re going to have to tell me who most of these people are.” He held up a card, but she couldn’t see it through the foggy glass. He stepped closer to the shower and she moved nearer the glass.

“That’s Mr. Frazier, Shamus’s father. Mrs. Frazier,” she said to the next one.

“And I know these three oxen are Shamus and Ariel’s brothers.”

“Your beloved Ariel. Think she’ll like this apartment?” Sara had her eyes closed as she washed her hair. When she turned around, he was naked and in the shower with her.

“Need some help?” he asked as he put his hands in her soapy hair and massaged her scalp.

“Always,” she replied.

22

WHILE THEY WERE having bagels and orange juice Mike began to have second thoughts about letting Sara hear all that he’d found out in Edilean. For one thing, all the DNA samples they’d taken had come back negative, so they were no closer to identifying Mitzi than they had been. He was concerned that telling Sara this might frighten her.

“What’s made you so quiet?” she asked.

“I’m a very quiet person.”

“Unless you’re making me do something I don’t want to do, then you have a lot to say.”

“You liked the gym and you were good at yoga,” he said.

“I most certainly did not! All those girls were drooling over you. What fun was that?”

“I saw you in there with Megan, and I could tell that you enjoyed it, and you got into every position perfectly.”

Sara looked at him over her juice. “You didn’t answer my question about what’s bothering you. I’m beginning to learn that when you don’t want to answer something, you digress.”

“Digress, do I? Maybe you could explain the meaning of that word to me. I didn’t have the advantage of a college education, as you and Tess did, so forgive me if I have trouble keeping up with you two.”

“College doesn’t change a person’s intelligence.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re thinking about something really hard and I want to know what it is.”

“No more digressions?” he said, showing that he very well knew the word.

“None!”

He put down his bagel. “I found out some things while I was in Edilean that I don’t think you should know.”

“Why shouldn’t I know? Because the knowledge will put me in danger or my feelings will be hurt?”

“Feelings,” he said.