Until I Saw Your Smile by J.J. Murray

Author:J.J. Murray [Murray, J.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2014-04-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Matthew woke a few hours later.

Angela was screaming.

“What’s . . . what’s wrong?” he asked breathlessly.

Angela sat bolt upright and rigid next to him, tears streaming down her face, her breath coming in staccato bursts.

Don’t touch her. Just . . . talk. “What’s wrong?” He followed her eyes to the window and only saw sheets of snow. Is someone out there? “Angela? Is there someone out there?”

She turned her head slowly toward him.

“Is there?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Bad dream?” Matthew asked.

She nodded.

I want to hold her so badly. He touched her hand. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

Angela threw off her blanket and leaped out of the booth, wiping her face and stumbling backward toward the counter.

Matthew left the booth, tossing his blanket behind him. “You okay?”

Angela stared outside.

He moved carefully to her side. “Angela?”

Angela folded her arms in front of her, her hands gripping her shoulders tightly, her lower lip and jaw quivering.

“Bad one, huh?” Matthew whispered.

Angela looked away from the window.

“Is it one you’ve had before?” Matthew whispered.

Angela nodded once, and more tears flowed from her eyes.

I don’t want to ask this. “Was it a dream about something that really happened to you?”

Angela looked up at Matthew and nodded.

It wasn’t a dream. She’s just had a flashback. Matthew wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of his right hand. “Something that made you put all those locks on the doors.”

Angela grabbed his hand. “Yes,” she whispered.

Oh God! “When did this happen?

Angela’s eyes traveled to the window.

“When it snowed before like this?” Matthew whispered.

Angela nodded, her breathing slower, her body still trembling.

During a blizzard, maybe the one four years ago. We haven’t had one since. Did this storm trigger the flashback?

Matthew got her blanket, wrapped it around her, and guided her back to the booth where she sat facing him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Matthew said.

Angela shook her head.

“Can I . . . may I hold you?” Matthew whispered.

Angela nodded.

Matthew pulled on her shoulders gently until she turned and lay stiffly against his chest, her arms tucked under herself.

I wish I could say something, anything to heal her pain. What happened to her?

After a long silence, Angela whispered, “Thank you.”

Matthew held her more tightly. “For what?”

Angela burrowed her head into his chest. “Just . . . thank you.”

Angela soon fell asleep, her breathing steady, her body relaxing.

Matthew rubbed her shoulders and upper back.

He didn’t think he would ever sleep again.

Something happened here.

Someone hurt her during the last snowstorm, maybe attacked her, maybe even—

I don’t want to think about that happening to this gentle, sweet woman.

She rarely goes out, but when she does, it’s as if she’s trying to escape from someone. She’s a virtual prisoner in her own shop and her own apartment. She knows a psychiatrist who makes house calls and who’s a “friend of the family,” only the psychiatrist really doesn’t know her family. She’s been watching the world go by that window, maybe for years, so worried that La Estrella would put

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