Change of Heart (Edilean 9)

In these last days she’d come to remember the good and bad of being with someone who knew her so well. With her past boyfriends, all she’d had to do was look good and that was enough. If she was upset about something, they never even noticed.

But Eli wasn’t like that. He knew that under her woman’s body was the girl he’d known since they were kids.

After she’d dropped Abby off at her house—and Chelsea had taken care not to be seen—her mother called her. Since Chelsea was going to be late to her meeting with Pilar, she didn’t want to pick up, but she knew her mother wouldn’t send the dress if she didn’t explain.

“Hi, Mom,” Chelsea said in her most cheerful, nothing-is-wrong voice. “I’m sure you want to know about the dress. Well, you see, this kid I met through friends doesn’t have anything to wear to her school prom, so I thought—”

“Screw the dress,” her mom said. “I want to know about you and Eli.”

Chelsea rolled her eyes. Trust her mother to go for the throat. “We’re fine. Great. Couldn’t be better. We’re getting married next month because I’m three months pregnant with Eli’s child. It’s going fast because he did it all through some genetic hocus-pocus he’s experimenting on for the government. I’d explain it but it’s Top Secret. He—”

“Chelsea!” her mother said sternly.

“Sorry,” she said. “Eli is fine and so am I. I have to go.”

“Why? What’s so urgent?”

Chelsea grit her teeth as she looked at the dashboard clock. She didn’t have time to concoct some polite lie. “We think there may have been a murder connected to something Eli and I are looking into it.” Instantly, she knew she shouldn’t have said that! Her mother would probably call the police and—

“That’s wonderful,” her mom said. “Really great. Fabulous.”

“Mom,” Chelsea said in disbelief, “Eli and I are sticking our noses into what could be a murder!”

“I heard you, dearest. It’s just like when you and Eli were children. You’re helping some deserving girl go to a party, and there’s someone else who I’m sure is a victim of a great injustice. Oh, yes! It all sounds very good. It’s so much better than hearing you talk about what Clive and Nigel said to make you cry. I have to tell your father about this. I think we’ll break open a bottle of champagne. Give my love to Eli, and I do mean that. Love. Bye, my darling child.” She hung up.

As Chelsea tossed her phone onto the passenger seat, she shook her head in bewilderment. Were her parents normal? Shouldn’t her mother have been worried at the mention of murder? And what was all that about her past miseries? Didn’t they care about what those men had put their daughter through? Infidelities. Emotional cruelties. Such profound insensitivities to her needs that they were like knife wounds. Didn’t her parents—

Chelsea looked at the clock. She didn’t have time to ponder her past problems. Pilar had asked to talk to her and to keep it secret from Eli, and that’s what Chelsea was doing.

As Chelsea drove back to the house, she was thinking about her meeting with Pilar and all they’d talked about. Chelsea had been given a great deal to think about. Maybe there could be a future that didn’t involve how she looked. They’d met at a little restaurant, sitting across from each other and keeping their voices down so they wouldn’t be overheard.

“I was wondering about something,” Pilar said. “We all knew that Eli’s heart was already taken—and broken. Are you going to put it back together?”

“I might,” Chelsea said, smiling. “So tell me your ideas for our future.”

“When Eli finds out what you and I are thinking about doing . . .” Pilar shook her head.

“Let me handle him,” Chelsea said. “Now tell me how you think I can change my life.”

When Chelsea entered the house and heard the shower running, she straightened her body and her face. The last thing she wanted was for Eli to ask her questions about what she’d been doing for the last few hours. But then, she knew exactly how to distract him.

As she went through the bedroom she flung her clothes off so that by the time she reached the bath she was nude. She opened the steamy shower door and stepped inside.

Eli picked her up, her long legs going around his waist, and instantly entered her. “I thought about you all afternoon. I wanted to finish what we started.”

“Me too,” she said, his lips on her neck.

The hot water beat down on them as Eli’s long, slow strokes began. Chelsea leaned back against the wall, her body slanted to give him better access. His lips touched her body, his hands running over her.

Their lovemaking was intensified by a yearning from having been started and then interrupted.

Afterward, they held on to each other, the water still coming down, the shower even more steamy.

“I missed you,” Eli whispered, his bare chest against hers.

She was too busy kissing him to answer.

He set her down, then soaped his hands and began washing her. “What did you find out?” he asked.