“I watched you from the window.”
If I could’ve smacked him, I would have, but since I couldn’t, I slumped back against the bed and buried my face into the pillow. “That’s so mortifying.”
“Don’t be embarrassed.” He laughed.
I shifted away from pillow and peeked up at him. “Easy for you to say.” As much as I could have died from embarrassment, I decided a better strategy was to get the attention off me. “Watching someone through a window makes you some kind of sick pervert, you know.”
“That’s the thing with you, I can’t help myself. The morals I lived by no longer apply when it comes to you. You make me want to break all the rules.”
His words eased the blush away from my cheeks and the warmth of his tone centered right in my heart, among other places. “And why do you think that is?”
He smiled so sweetly, as if he had the answer to it all. “Love at first sight, of course.”
A feeling I never once thought possible, but now my views had entirely changed. “I think you’re dead right about that.”
He laughed boisterously. “I bet I am.”
“You know, I never thought destined love could happen.” I shrugged. “Probably because I’d never been in love before, not in the sense of what I believed it meant. Like what it meant for my parents, who were devoted to only each other and loved despite each other’s flaws. I always thought love happened over time and was built on a lifetime of memories. Now that theory, of course, is a total flop. There’s something between you and me. It’s been so instant for me. I’ve never felt like this with anyone.”
“Neither have I.” Kipp smiled.
I stared intently into his eyes. “So where does that leave us?”
“I’m not sure what it all means, but all I know is fate intervened here and I’m not about to fight it. No matter what our circumstances are and how strange this all is, we were brought together for a reason, and even if we only have a short time together, I’m h
appy to have had it at all.”
What could I say to that? Short time together was saying it lightly, but I wouldn’t point that out now and would simply enjoy him; no need to put a damper on an already somber reality. Talked out, beat from our steamy escapade, silence fell around us while our gazes remained locked on each other.
For the first time in so long, everything seemed perfectly right and I hadn’t been this happy since the car accident.
Although a drop in the room temperature made my peace vanish. As if on cue, Hannah’s soft voice came from the doorway. “I’m sorry to interrupt you.”
I yanked the blankets up to cover myself and sat up as Kipp did the magic bit and covered his body with clothes, which was a shame. I shook my head to think outside myself and focused on Hannah. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry to intrude on your…” She hesitated, and smiled as she obviously decided to ignore what she’d seen. “Anyways, I’ve been thinking about what you asked me, about where I’m buried.”
What an odd statement to hear coming out of someone’s mouth. Instead of laughing as I wanted to, I bit my lip and kept my mouth shut.
“You remembered something?” Kipp asked.
“Yes, I remember when…” she wiggled her hands in a spooky manner, “I rose from the dead.”
I laughed.
Hannah did too and no sound had ever been so lovely. To witness the little flicker of the woman who once lived, the happiness that used to exist in her eyes, was a wonderful thing.
Kipp’s stern look told me to behave before he glanced back at Hannah. “Do you remember where you were?”
“Well, you see, after I gave up trying to find Percy, or whoever he is, I walked around a while. It felt good to be out of the house. I ended up walking for a long time, and it just so happened that when I stopped walking, I ended up in the place I woke up after I died.”
I glanced at Kipp, waiting for him to say something, but he didn’t. The suspense ate at me. “Where were you?”
“Meeman–Shelby Forest,” she replied. “It all came back to me in a flash—the blossoms, the sound of the lake nearby and the clearing. I think I can show you on a map where I’m buried. I don’t want to be there, though, when you…” Her eyelids lowered with sadness and she frowned.
Kipp stood up from the bed and pulled Hannah into a hug. “You don’t need to go with us, just pointing out the way is good enough. We’ll find out who killed you. That is a promise.”
Hannah backed away from his embrace. “Us. You’ll find out who did this to us. He hurt you too.”