A Betrayal at Eastwick by L.C. Warman

Author:L.C. Warman [Warman, L. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950103188
Publisher: Greenleaf and Plympton

Chapter 26

Becks was sleeping deeply.

His dreams were not unpleasant, for once: usually they involved some combination of being followed by something he could never see, going to football practice only to find the stadium empty and his head coach scowling at him with a look of hatred across his face, or (for reasons Becks didn’t know) entering a deep, dark water and being pulled down, down, down.

But now his dreams were light and cheerful. He was playing football again—anything happy involved playing football—and he was eagerly anticipating the acceptance letter from a business school that, in real life, he would never get to attend. Somehow the Gina Tiller thing had been neatly cleared up in this dream: Becks remembered someone mentioning something about the case being solved, and that Gina Tiller was actually alive, and the whole thing had been a rather unfortunate misunderstanding.

Slowly, though, the dream began to shift. Becks felt restless, even in his sleep. He had sleepwalked a few times before—had since college—almost always accompanied by more vivid dreams. The world he was in grew sharper; Becks suddenly felt uneasy. “You’re lying to me,” he told his head coach, his voice dreamy and faraway. “Gina Tiller is dead. She died.”

The coach made a face. “That’s your problem,” his head coach said. “No one believes you when you tell the truth, so no one is going to believe one of your lies.”

“It’s not a lie!” Becks protested. And then suddenly he was in another location entirely. Whitney was next to him, crying. “Whit?” Becks said, voice shaking.

“Becks!” Whitney cried. “Becks! Please, Becks! Go to bed. Just go back to bed.”

“What?”

His mind stuttered; he was yanked out of the dream and blinked, feeling unsteady, like the world was slipping sideways from him. He blinked again and saw that Whitney was indeed in front of him, clutching her arms about her loose nightgown, tears streaming down her face. “Whitney,” Becks said, taking a step towards her. Whitney flinched and took a step back. “Whitney, what’s wrong?”

“Are you awake?” Whitney said tentatively. “Becks?”

“Yes. Was I sleepwalking?”

Whitney shuddered, the movement shaking her entire body. “Yes,” she whispered. “Come back to bed.”

They went together, padding away from the kitchen (how had he gotten to the kitchen?) and back to the bedroom. Becks noticed that Whitney climbed into bed as far away from him as possible, scooting to the edge of the mattress, surreptitiously sliding a pillow between them.

Becks’ heart thumped in his chest. Maybe he was still dreaming. Why would his wife be afraid of him? He tried to say something, but Whitney, reaching out to squeeze his hand, said, “Go to bed, honey.”

When he woke up in the morning, Whitney had already leapt out of bed to make breakfast and tea. She brought him a cup as he yawned and stretched, and perched on the corner of the bed. She was in a smart turtleneck and khakis today, and looked somehow younger, eyes too bright.

“Do you remember last night?” she said carefully, plucking at a loose thread on the comforter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.