“Sara,” he spoke against her lips. “I don’t know how I got here, but all I know is I am so happy that it happened. I’ve never fallen so hard or so fast for any woman.”
The guilt that oppressed her since his arrival now doubled. She couldn’t get the words out to tell him the truth. “I’m glad you’re here, too, Reed.” With that, she stepped back from his embrace. She then turned back to the soap, and lifted the knife. She felt selfish and small for not being able to tell him what he so needed to know. So for now, she would deprive herself of the affection he was so willing to give, and that she so desperately needed.
This time she was successful
If he approached her again in the same manner, she would be powerless to stop him.
***
The guilt remained with Sara-Kate.
For the remainder of the afternoon, she taught Reed how to scent and pour candles. He seemed to relish learning a new skill, and it pleased her to teach him.
But the guilt remained for not telling him the truth, putting off the inevitable yet again.
Through dinner, the guilt remained, when he kissed her in the hallway before disappearing into his bedroom that night, she felt burdened by her guilt.
All night, it continued to keep her awake. She couldn’t go on much longer without breaking down.
The next morning, she distracted herself with baking cookies for the assisted living center. She sent six dozen cookies each week, all bestowed with her special love and healing. Today, she carefully removed three dozen chocolate chip cookies from the cooling racks and loaded them into pastel pink boxes.
As she prepared to repeat the same procedure with apricot jam thumbprints, Reed appeared in the kitchen, notebook and pen in hand.
“Good morning, Sara.” He pressed a kiss against her closed lips.
She closed her eyes, and took in the heady fragrance of her mint soap mingled with the essence of his warm skin.
“Good morning, Reed. Would you like breakfast?” she asked.
“I’m just going to grab a cup of coffee, and go into the garden while the sun is shining. There’s some ominous clouds off in the distance. I think it might storm later.”
The words “ominous” and “storm” seemed to resonate through her being. The inevitable was coming soon, she knew.
One way or another.
“Do you need any help here?”
His question broke the black thoughts in her mind.
“No thanks, I’m just about finished. Someone from the assisted living center will be along in a little while to pick up these cookies.”
He shook his head. “You are so amazing. Running a business, and you still have time and desire to make cookies for other people. How did I get so lucky to find you?”
She watched him go about making a cup of coffee. With a final smile, he headed into the back garden. Obviously his question about how he got so lucky was a rhetorical one. To Sara-Kate, she knew he probably wouldn’t feel so lucky, or so warm about her, when he discovered she withheld the truth from him.
With a shrug of her shoulders, she went back to the task at hand. When the cookies were securely boxed, she carried the boxes to the foyer, just in time for the doorbell.
When she looked through the peephole, her day got a little worse. Outside her door was Dr. Andy Stark, the physician from the Fallen Oak Assisted Living facility. For the better part of the last two years, Dr. Andy tried relentlessly to convince her to go on a date with him.
In a normal woman’s life, Dr. Andy was the perfect marriage material. Straight, successful, he was not only handsome, but kind at heart as well.
In Sara-Kate’s world, he was off limits. Spirits and humans could not share a life together, romantic or otherwise.
He knew she never left the house, and in his own gentle way, he tried to convince her that he could be the man who would save her, change her. He didn’t realize he could not change what she was.
Yet, Dr. Andy Stark was a man who would not be deterred, no matter how many times she rejected his invitations, no matter how many times she would not invite him beyond her foyer.
Today, she knew, would be no different.
She turned on a smile, and opened the door. “Hello, Dr. Andy.”
His blue eyes sparkled. “Sara-Kate, always a pleasure to see you.”
Now to try to hurry him out.
“Here are the cookies,” she patted the boxes. “Chocolate chip and apricot thumbprints, fresh from the oven.”
“You know, it’s such a beautiful morning, and there won’t be too many more like today, let’s take a walk,” he suggested as he ran a hand along his perfectly coiffed blond hair.
She let out an audible sigh. Every time this man showed up at her door it was always the same thing. “I’m sorry, Andy, but you know I don’t leave the property.”
He dared to reach for her wrist, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “It’s just a walk, Sara-Kate.”
She twisted out of his grip and turned away. “I don’t go out, Andy.”
“Listen Sara-Kate, I’m a very patient man. I know you have issues—that someone in your life has hurt you in the past, and now you’ve got into a comfortable little existence in your own little world. It’s not healthy, and even though you might think you’re happy, you’re really not.”
Her anger immediately flared. “Thank you for telling me how I feel,” she snapped.
“I’m not trying to tell you how you feel, Sara-Kate. I’m saying...” he paused and gestured around the foyer. “This isn’t living...this isn’t a life being cooped up within four walls.”
“It’s still my life,” she answered.
“I can help you get over this agoraphobia you have,” he stated.
“So now you’re a psychiatrist?”
“Not a psychiatrist, but I am a doctor, and I know enough. Anyone with eyes and half a brain could
