The Goddess Rules by Clare Naylor

Author:Clare Naylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345478726
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2005-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

When Kate arrived home, having left Tanya at the hospital when Robbie arrived to sit with her, she went inside to lie down and cool off. The air was thick and muggy and she felt as though she’d spent the entire day in traffic, inhaling blue hazy fumes, her skin getting stickier and grimier by the second. She had no plans for the evening except to take a cool shower and maybe do a bit of work on one of the portraits. Suddenly she had more work to do than she could handle, which was not something she was going to complain about in a hurry. As she glanced at the floor she noticed that there was an envelope lying there behind the door. She wasn’t sure she could muster the energy to pick it up, but eventually she unpeeled herself and practically crawled toward it. She saw immediately that it was Jake’s handwriting. With surprisingly little curiosity she tore it open and found a CD with a pale blue Post-it note attached. It read:

Have dinner with me tomorrow, angel?

Kate hadn’t fostered enough cynicism toward Jake yet to think how predictable it was for him to be making more moves on her than he’d done in as long as she could remember. In fact, more moves than he’d ever made on her. Instead she turned over the CD case, which he’d scratched three large XXXs on, extracted the CD, and slid it into her stereo. She climbed apathetically back onto the bed, thinking that it’d be one of Jake’s compilations that he made for his friends every so often. But instantly she recognized the voice that drifted out as Jake’s. He was singing softly and sweetly the words of a song she loved, “Magnolia” by J. J. Cale. She closed her eyes and listened as he filled the room with words of love.

Magnolia you sweet thing . . .

Got to get back to you, babe. . . .

Inexplicably a tear coursed its way heavily from the outside corner of her eye down into her hair. This song reminded her of how much she had yearned for Jake not so long ago. In fact, not so long ago it would have been simply too achingly painful for her to listen to. Now it was just incredibly sad. The man who had opened so many doors in her life—and slammed so many in her face—was gone for good. Because this time she’d shown him the way out. But now as she cried it was different from the other times. This time there was a faint pleasure in the feeling of loss. She’d loved Jake but now she was free. Though clearly he wasn’t aware of that fact. She picked up her phone and sent him a heavyhearted text.

You know that I can’t. Kxx

Then she fell asleep on the bed, clutching her phone as Jake’s voice spun endlessly in her stereo.

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