Many Blessings

Chapter Seven

Brad took point, almost catching his cock in his zipper as he stood and frantically worked to put himself together. “Blue toothbrush is mine,” he whispered. “Go!”

He headed down the stairs at a run to intercept Ellis while Mandaline grabbed her purse and ran downstairs to duck into the bathroom.

She locked herself in. In the mirror, she looked wild-eyed and…

Well, like she’d just given a guy a blow job in his attic.

Shit!

She dropped Brad’s toothbrush in the sink three times before she managed to keep hold of it long enough to get toothpaste on it. She could still taste his cum in her mouth. Not that it was a bad taste, but she didn’t want to be talking to Ellis like that.

That was no fucking illusion!

She brushed her teeth and freshened up. Before unlocking the door she took one last look in the mirror. She wore a wide-eyed look she knew wouldn’t fool anyone with an IQ over fifty, or an age over four.

Still trembling a little, she pasted a smile on her face, tried again when that one looked a tad too manic, and unlocked the door.

Ellis was coming up the stairs, followed by Brad.

“Welcome to our humble abode,” he joked. “And thank you for bringing him home. I really appreciate it.”

“Oh, hey, he bought me dinner. I’m easy like that.” She swallowed back the laugh that wanted to burp out as, behind Ellis, Brad clapped a hand to his face. “I mean, it was my pleasure. Um, it gave me a chance to look over the house to get a feel for it. And I needed to get out of the store for a while.”

Ellis looked at her a little funny, then turned to Brad, who’d managed to school his face into a mild smile before Ellis spotted him.

“Is everything okay?” Ellis asked.

Mandaline hoped they didn’t look like a couple of bobblehead dolls in serious need of Valium. “I tripped at the top of the steps when coming out of the attic. Just startled me, is all. Brad caught me. I’m fine.” Brad might not be able to lie, but I damn sure can.

Ellis’ brow furrowed, but apparently her explanation satisfied him. “So, what do you think of the house so far?”

She struggled to keep a near-hysterical laugh at bay. I think I’m losing my mind. “Like I told Brad, I’m going to bring the equipment in and we’ll see what we find. Actually, I’m wondering, based on his symptoms, if there aren’t some high EMF readings somewhere.”

Ellis frowned. “EMF?”

“Electromagnetic frequency. High levels can cause all sorts of symptoms.”

He actually seemed to brighten. “Oh. Really?”

Brad coughed. “Yeah, dude. I might really be feeling stuff.”

A little of a frantic laugh escaped her before she cut it off. “I’m not ruling anything out until we get some equipment in here.”

Yep, Ellis definitely looked relieved now. “That would be great, to know it’s something we can fix.”

“He likes fixing things,” Brad teased. “I’m going to walk her out to her car. I’ll be right back,” Brad told him.

They hurried downstairs and outside.

“Mandaline, I’m so sorry!”

She let that laugh escape. “You’re apologizing to me for the blow job that I gave you?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I thought it was another one of those…whatevers.”

“So did I.” She leaned back against her car and let out a long breath. “Holy crap.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Please, stop apologizing. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She snorted. “At least you bought me dinner first.”

He stared at her a moment before they both broke out in laughter. She let him scoop her in close for a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I feel bad I didn’t get to reciprocate.”

He felt good. Oooh, his body felt sooo good. “Next time, I’ll sit on the couch. And I’ll wear a skirt.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, you’re the first woman I’ve been with in a couple of years now.”

“Since that other woman Ellis told me about?”

“Yeah.” He looked down at her. “Are you really okay?”

She grinned. “Lucky for both of us I’m a swallower or we could have had a lot of trouble explaining that.”

He laughed with her before his smile faded. “I’m sure Ellis is going to grill me when I go back in there. I might end up spilling the beans anyway.” He released her. “Did he give you my cell number yesterday?”

“Yeah.” She fished out her phone and opened the text function, then handed it to him. “But text yourself so I have it in here and you have mine.”

He did, then handed it back to her.

He captured her hands in his and kissed them. “I’m sorry, Mandaline.” He spoke in solemn tones, his expression serious. “I mean it. I’m not sorry it happened, but I’m sorry it happened like that. I hope you don’t hate me.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t hate you,” she softly said. “I don’t know how I feel about you, but hate doesn’t even make the top hundred.” She stood on tiptoe and brushed a kiss across his lips. “How about you let me make you dinner tomorrow night? I’ll come pick you up.”

He glanced at the house. “I’d feel weird leaving him alone.”

“Bring him.” She smiled. “Hell, maybe that weird stuff will start happening with him, too.”

A playful smile quirked his lips. “I always told Ellis we needed to find one woman who’d put up with both of us.”

Tension squeezed her heart. “Let me get used to supernaturally induced fellatio first before you throw mystical ménages at me.” She stepped away as he burst into laughter.

He stood outside, waving as she turned her car around and drove away.

Halfway back to town she pulled over along the shoulder as the shakes hit. She rested her head against the steering wheel and tried to calm her pulse.

What. The. Fuck?

No, she didn’t blame Brad at all. She’d definitely been the initiator. But…

She tried to process what had happened. She was still sitting there five minutes later when her phone chirruped at her with a text message.

It was from Brad. Pls text me when u get home. Ok?

Reality calling. She glanced at the time and knew Sachi, at least, would still be at the store. She texted Sachi that she was on her way. She shifted the car back into drive and pulled onto the road.

The arched eyebrow over Sachi’s crystalline blue, almond-shaped eyes spoke volumes. “I don’t buy it. What happened?”

They were alone in the office. Kim was staying to help close up, but Sachi had cornered Mandaline seconds upon her return.

“Nothing happened!”

“Then why do you look like you’re trying to explain to your mother why you’re sneaking in the back window an hour past curfew, with a hickey on your neck, when you were supposed to be at the library?”

Mandaline’s hand involuntarily flew to her neck. There was no way she could have a hickey…could she?

Sachi grinned triumphantly. “Ha!” She dropped into the chair next to the desk and lowered her voice. “Tell me. You know damn well I won’t let you out of here until you do.”

No, she wouldn’t. “You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

“You’re going to yell at me.”

The other eyebrow arched skyward. “Oh, then I sooo have to hear this, boss.”

Not knowing where else to start, she started at the beginning, with the basics of what Ellis told her the day before, the little zing she felt when she touched him, and then the events with Brad, ending with what happened in the attic.

Sachi blinked but remained silent.

“Well?”

She started to speak, closed her mouth, then sat back in her chair. She wore a consternated look on her face. “What do you want to happen with him?” she finally asked.

“I don’t know.”

“And you’re attracted to both of them?”

Mandaline nodded.

Sachi pondered it a few more moments before letting out a sigh. She shrugged. “Go after both of them.”

“What?”

“Hey, Libbie sent me a reading list a few months ago when I was looking for new authors. Some of those books she has on her Kindle…whew!”

“This is my real life we’re talking about, not a smutty book.”

Sachi grinned. “They say truth is stranger than fiction, boss.” She stood and patted Mandaline on the shoulder. “I say keep your options open. If Julie really is speaking through Brad, and like you I suspect he’s telling the truth, then you’re screwed regardless. She won’t give up until she’s satisfied you’re happy.”

Sachi left the office but Mandaline sat there stewing. She knew Sachi wouldn’t tell anyone what she’d revealed.

She was about to head out to help Sachi and Kim finish closing, but her phone chirruped at her with a text message. Expecting a reply from Brad to her “I’m home” text, she was surprised to find it was from Ellis.

We need to talk. Call me.

“Shit,” she mumbled.

Ellis paced outside behind his car as he waited for a reply to his text or a call from Mandaline. He didn’t know what had happened between those two before he got home, but he wanted to find out. Brad had stopped him from asking any questions by declaring he had to go upstairs to work and closing the attic door behind him.

As good as a Keep Out sign.

He glanced up to the attic, where light shone from the eastern window. He could see shadows on the ceiling as Brad moved around in there.

He suspected he’d interrupted something between them from the way her face had brightly blazed and the way Brad avoided him.

He didn’t want Brad to get hurt.

He also didn’t want to acknowledge the tendril of jealousy trying to take hold inside him. Brad deserved happiness.

But dammit, he would have liked a chance to get to know her before Brad moved in. He was tired of dating his right hand every night. Lots of women threw themselves at Brad, not that Brad paid them any attention. Why did he finally have to start paying attention to the one woman he’d felt moved by?

Stop being an ass. He deserves happiness.

And so did Mandaline. At work, he’d looked up the news stories on what had happened to Julie. How she was raped and murdered by Steven Corey before he drowned in the lake at the park.

Mandaline certainly needed some happiness in her life after losing her best friend in such a horrific way.

He almost dropped his phone when it rang. “Hello?”

“It’s Mandaline.”

“Hi. Um, thanks for calling me.”

“What’s up?”

“Yeah. Uh, listen, I wanted to talk to you about tonight.”

“Okay.” She sounded guarded.

Now he really felt like an ass.

He opted for an about-face. “Did you really mean it when you said maybe there are concrete causes for what Brad’s experiencing? I mean, it did start happening after we moved here, not before.”

Did she sound relieved? Her voice took on a lighter tone and sped up just a little. If she was a witness, he would suspect she felt she’d just dodged a bullet. “Absolutely. There is plenty of scientific evidence to support high EMF levels causing physical symptoms that would dovetail with what he’s reporting.”

“That’s good.” He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t follow through with what he’d wanted to ask. “That’s real good. I didn’t know if you were just saying that to make him feel better or not. That’s why I wanted to call and talk to you in private.”

Her tone brightened even more. “No, I really believe we’ll find something to explain what’s happening. It might take some time to rule things out, but from talking with him tonight, I think we’ll find an answer that will satisfy everyone.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

“Did he tell you I invited you both to dinner tomorrow night? My place. I’m cooking.”

“No, we didn’t get that far. He went upstairs to work and closed the door to his studio. I don’t bother him when he does that.”

“Oh. Well, eight o’clock, here. Just park behind the building and knock on the back door if it’s locked.”

Maybe there’s still hope for me if she’s inviting us both. “Okay. Can we bring anything?”

“Just yourselves.”

“Sounds good. See you then.”

He hung up and stared at his phone. Chickenshit.

He started toward the side door when he thought he heard a woman’s bright, giggling laugh.

“Hello?” He turned, peering into the darkness beyond the security light over the kitchen door that illuminated the parking area.

No one.

Shaking it off as his imagination, or maybe sound carrying oddly from a neighbor’s house, he returned inside.

Mandaline felt relief so strong it started her trembling again and she had to lean against the kitchen counter for support. She’d gone upstairs to make the call, expecting an interrogation from Ellis about what had happened between her and Brad, not that.

She stared down at Pers, who sat at her feet. “What do you think?”

His tail wagged a few times.

“You’re no help.”

Kim had left and Sachi was gathering her things when Mandaline went downstairs again. Sachi paused and studied her. “You all right?”

“I’m having Brad and Ellis over for dinner tomorrow night.”

Sachi burst out laughing. “Wow. You work fast. From swearing off love to a ménage in the space of a few days.”

“I’m not in a ménage. I’m not even in a relationship. I don’t want or need a relationship. Especially right now!”

Sachi snorted. “Suuure. Keep telling yourself that. How long’s it been since you’ve been laid?”

She fumed. “Irrelevant.”

“No, it’s not.” She put her hands on Mandaline’s shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You’ve got a huge, honking void in your life. A vacuum. Basic physics. What’s the one thing the Universe abhors?”

“A vacuum,” Mandaline mumbled.

Sachi grinned. “So suck it up, buttercup. Most single women would kill to have your problem. Obviously, regardless of your opinion on the matter, you aren’t a person meant to be alone.”

“The last thing I need is a man, or men, telling me how to run my life. Or who want me to change for them.”

“Who’s telling you how to run your life? Besides me, I mean. And who says you have to change?” She grabbed her purse. “No one says you have to change. You never did have to change. With your ex, at that point in your life, that was all you. You just didn’t have the confidence to say ‘no.’ Just because someone says ‘change’ doesn’t mean you have to.”

“Relationships are a hassle.”

Sachi rolled her eyes. “Say what you want, boss. The Universe has painted a bull’s-eye on your back. You can keep running as long as you want from the truth, make all the excuses you want, but shit’s going to keep happening until you finally go with the flow and let the Universe have its way.” She hugged her and headed toward the back door. “Come lock yourself in and set the alarm.”

Mandaline followed her and locked the door, but she didn’t set the alarm. She needed to walk Pers again before calling it a night.

She headed back to the front of the store to check the front door and pull the shades in the windows and door. It didn’t feel empty to her, despite being alone. She’d never had a problem with being alone.

It wasn’t her preferred state, but she wouldn’t admit that to Sachi.

It was bad enough she had one friend trying to fix her up from the beyond. She didn’t need Sachi also setting her sights on getting her a boyfriend—singular or plural—from this realm.

She closed her eyes. “Julie, why didn’t you come to me? Why are you speaking through Brad?” Her voice sounded loud to her ears in the quiet store.

Her eyes flew open at a soft scritching sound coming from behind the counter. When she went in search of the noise, she couldn’t find anything. Then her eyes settled on the little zen garden on the counter. She would have sworn it had been freshly raked a few minutes ago. That was one of their unofficial closing rituals. Someone always raked out the zen garden.

In it, someone had drawn a smiley face with three stones marking the eyes and nose.

Her heart raced as she stared at it. Finally, she reached over, grabbed the rake, and quickly erased it before heading upstairs.