Earth Enchanted Read Free Page B

sitting back in the soft leather chair at her desk amid the lushly furnished and beautifully decorated room in soft pastel colors, but he knew she would have rather been at the little bookstore on the corner of Main.
    She let out a heavy sigh at his tone, but said nothing, only waited patiently.
    “Make an excuse. Tell them I have Bubonic Plague or I’m conferring with the powers that be. I don’t know. Hell, Ellie, make up something. I’m not coming down.”
    “Don’t you swear at me! However you may think, it isn’t healthy to stay shut up in that house for days at a time. You might find yourself with something worse than the plague. Come down and look things over. That’s an order from your boss.”
    He had known Ellie a long time. She had been friends with his mother. Her husband Sam had been his captain back when he’d been on the police force. He got up to pace. If Sissy could see him, she’d have called it prowling the room and known he was spoiling for a fight . He had no one to fight with, nothing to fight against. “Ellie, don’t start. It’s the way I work. I need the isolation. I need...” Her.
    “I know. It might get easier if you would get out once in a while. See new faces. Meet new people. She wouldn’t have wanted this for you. It’s been a year since her murder. You can’t stay in this black pit you’re living in. She was a good cop, and an extraordinary person. What if it had been you? Would she be where you are? She died. Punishing yourself won’t bring her back. It’s time.”
    He plopped unceremoniously into the chair.
    “How? How do you lock away something like that and go on?” He paused, waited until he was sure his words would be steady. “Today is our anniversary, our marriage and her death. The first since…” He felt the tears roll down his face and gave up trying to stop them. Who could see them? Why did it matter if they did? Couldn’t a man grieve?
    “My heart breaks for you. I can’t imagine that kind of pain. But if you won’t help yourself, how can anyone else help you? Why don’t you come over for dinner tonight? We’d love to have company. You and Sam can play cards or watch the game, but you shouldn’t be alone tonight.”
    What he wanted to do was hide, from Sissy, from the world. “I don’t know.” Not happening. Even though he hated alcohol, when ten PM came he wanted to be well on his way to sloppy drunk. Passed out on the bed where maybe the whiskey would mask the hurt. How had he sunk so low? To just toss his beliefs out the window. Maybe he could eat a gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, mmm, and pass out with a bellyache instead. No hangovers.
    “Uh, huh, you’d rather sit there brooding over something you can’t change. I know you. You’ll get rip-roaring drunk unless you get out of the house.”
    Bingo, you win the brand new Mercedes . “All right, I’ll be there.”
    He started to hang up the phone, but she said, “One more thing, go to the store and look over your work. Honor her memory instead of mourning her death today. Take a walk in the sun and see what life still has to offer you.”
    * * * *
    Liv looked at her watch, noted the time. Had she been gone for three hours? She hadn’t gotten much farther than a few city blocks from Ryan’s. Every place she stopped in had something that caught her eye. Now she lugged five shopping bags unsuccessfully while window-shopping. Each bag held something her credit card thought she couldn’t live without. The wind chimes in the glass shop made the prettiest tinkling sound, like fairy pipes. They had butterflies etched in the glass. Ma loved butterflies. Somewhere in her arms were art supplies and a snow globe with a Pegasus inside it. Skye needed some new brushes. He had a love for horses as well as art. Then there was the glass fairy she’d bought for Ryan to add to his collection.
    She’d treated herself to three new dresses. The blue one was a little on the long side, for