Reason To Believe by Kathleen Eagle Read Free Book Online Page B

her. Another power.
    She unfolded the flowered sheet, then flipped it across the bed. He caught it by the corner, and together they tucked it under the corners of the mattress. It was their original bed and the first piece of furniture they'd bought. It seemed small now, but they'd had a small room then, and he'd assured her that anything bigger than full size would be a waste, as close as they slept together. When they'd moved to Bismarck, they'd bought a new set of bedroom furniture, four matching pieces with a queen-size bed, so that his feet wouldn't hang so far over the end. But the new bed had given them more width than they'd needed. Most of the time.
    She smoothed out the top sheet, worn soft by their bodies during so many nights that were so long past. He followed her lead. She watched his hand, inches from hers, caressing the cotton as though in his mind it covered a woman's thigh. Hers, maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe his fantasies were less specific than hers, or, rather, more specific and less pure.
    Stop it, Clara. Either way, you absolutely could not care one whit less.
    But she took a martyr's pleasure in testing herself, letting her hand linger close to his. His wide gold wedding band looked almost delicate on his big brown hand. He had marvelous hands. Skilled in so many things. Masculine. Incredibly masculine. It gave her pleasure to see hers next to his and think of them as partners.
    It had once given her pleasure, but enough was, surely, enough. She snatched the top sheet off the dresser and snapped it open, letting it fly across the bed, hoping to catch him off guard and make him flinch. But she didn't. He caught it, smiling as though he'd heard her silly thoughts. She glanced away quickly, her face hot.
    "I can get a room somewhere if it bothers you."
    "If what bothers me?"
    "Havin' me sleep here."
    "It doesn't bother me at all." It wasn't a lie if she willed it hard enough to be true. She tossed him a pillowcase and decided to let him finish the job himself. She jerked the cord on the blinds and made them thwack shut. The plant she'd hung in the window captured a hank of her hair in its droopy leaves. She reached for its greenhouse hook.
    "You takin' that out?" He chuckled softly. "I promise not to breathe on it or anything."
    "You always complained about too many plants. It's getting to be a jungle in this house, you said."
    "I was just teasin' you, mostly." He moved closer, eyeing the plant with newfound fondness. "I kinda got used to having them around. Bought myself one of those spider things like you've got in the living room, but I must not've watered it enough or something. Finally threw it out."
    "You might have given it too much water. Most people make that mistake."
    "Yeah, maybe."
    "This one doesn't seem to be getting enough light here." She made a production of studying wilted leaves and steadfastly ignoring his warm proximity as she prattled on. "Anna gave me this years ago. It was just a tiny thing. So was she. Her teacher gave her some cuttings, and she started it herself." She pinched off a sad-looking stalk. "Every time it gets spindly like this, I start to throw it out, but then I just cut it back. It always comes back to life."
    "You always had a way with plants. You still got the kind you used to put on all the cuts and insect bites?"
    "Aloe?" She nodded. A glimpse of the bulge in the pocket of his blue chambray shirt reminded her of the time she'd used aloe juice to soothe a cigarette burn on his arm. He'd been a little drunk, a little silly, as she recalled. "I still have aloe. Maybe I was an herbalist in a past life. A simpler life. Maybe I was a cook, or maybe I used herbs to doctor people up."
    "Maybe you were an Indian. You like all that old Indian stuff so much."
    She looked up and found his eyes doting on her. She felt warm in the face.
    "The ol' man says you have an Indian heart," he told her.
    "He said that?"
    "Not an Indian head, mind you. You do think different."
    "From you?