Rekindling the Spark by Cynthia Dane & Hildred Billings

Author:Cynthia Dane & Hildred Billings [Dane, Cynthia & Billings, Hildred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barachou Press
Published: 2023-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Despite the sun’s best efforts, Paige did not immediately awaken as soon as it was high enough to shine past the nearby mountains, through the opened window, and right into her face. It wasn’t until her skin heated up so hot that she was forced to turn over and acknowledge that her wife was no longer right next to her.

They had gone to bed after spending the rest of the evening on the front porch overlooking the lake. Herbal tea that had been graciously left by the cabin owner was the perfect “drag me down” after an intense dinner and board game that had amounted to nothing. I don’t even remember who won. Must have been Rhea. Paige assumed her wife was now either in the kitchen or in the shower. Or maybe she was taking a late morning walk around the property without Paige, who had mentioned going for a light hike if Rhea was up for it. She didn’t go without me, did she?

Paige rubbed the back of her neck as she sat up and stretched. The humble cabin bedroom was heating up enough that she was driven out of the bed and into the attached bathroom, where she faced the uncomfortable truth that she might be alone in the house.

“Rhea?” Paige crept through the silent house out in the middle of nowhere. If she were the type with an overactive true crime imagination, she might automatically assume that her wife had been kidnapped by a crazy neighbor or had abandoned her here in a cruel jest. Yet the car was still in the front driveway, and there were no signs of a struggle anywhere in the cabin. Including the kitchen and dining area, where Paige finally found a note.

I stepped out for a short while. Breakfast is on the table.

Sure enough, Rhea had set out a bowl of cereal and a cut grapefruit, both protected by saran wrap in case Paige slept in later than anyone anticipated. She absentmindedly threaded her fingers through her tangled hair as she grabbed some milk from the fridge and fired up the coffee maker. A dirty cup was already in the sink.

“Where the hell did you go?” Paige sat down to her breakfast. “Whatever.”

She scrolled through her emails as cereal crunched between her teeth and the grapefruit taunted her tongue with the promise of more acidity. It wasn’t how she would have prepared one of her breakfast staples, but she didn’t fault Rhea for being thoughtful enough to do something. It wasn’t until Paige picked up the empty cereal bowl that she realized there was another note beneath it.

Now that you’re done with breakfast, you’ll find a surprise in the shower.

All right, this was getting weird. Fun weird, but weird, nonetheless.

“As it so happens…” Paige left her dirty dishes in the sink to wash later. “I was about to take a shower.” Those night sweats and the heat from the morning sunlight were exactly the kind of things to make her rinse off before officially starting her day.

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