Time to give the good doctor what he’s ached for.
For a brief moment, her thoughts strayed to Reed. The moment was fleeting. Reed was on his own, and no matter what she felt for him only a few hours earlier, their love, their relationship, their bond, was now broken.
She knocked lightly on the door and waited.
The only man she was concerned with was the warm body on the other side of this door.
There was a rustling noise behind the door, followed by a light flooding above her. A few seconds later, the lock snapped, and the door opened.
Dr. Andy stood barefoot and bare chested, his light hair tousled as if she roused him from bed. A look of disbelief gleamed in his eyes.
“Sara-Kate, what are you...”
Before he could finish the obvious question, she covered his firm lips with her own. His body was warm and inviting. He didn’t resist her advances. One hand caressed her face, and the other pressed against the mall of her back, pulling her closer to him.
As their kiss deepened, Sara-Kate was strangely unfulfilled. She was the in the arms of a beautiful, kind man, and yet she felt nothing, and no real desire.
Finally, their lips parted, and she inched away from his face.
“Sara-Kate, can you give me ten minutes to rearrange a few things, and then I’ll come to you?”
She was dumbstruck by the request. Rearrange what? she wondered.
“Andy, who the hell is at the door this time of night?” A woman’s impatient voice called from inside the house.
Then it all became so crystal clear.
Dr. Andy had a woman in his home, most likely in his bed. Sara-Kate shrank back from his touch.
“I...I’m so sorry,” she stuttered, continuing to back away from him. Her face heated with humiliation.
“Sara-Kate, please don’t leave. I...I love you!”
She turned away and picked up her pace. She stumbled, her ankle turning, and she caught herself before falling onto the ground. Once she regained her balance, she sprinted down the driveway and onto the road. From behind her, she could hear Dr. Andy plead with her to come back.
Her momentum carried her to the next street, and she did not stop until she reached the darkened playground she passed on her way to Dr. Andy’s house. Finally, she allowed herself to slow down, and entered the playground and took a seat on the wooden swing.
Reed, the man she truly loved, hurt her beyond belief, and Dr. Andy, the man who thought he loved her, just humiliated her.
Yet, she couldn’t blame Dr. Andy. What did she expect? That he would wait around, year after year, pining for her love? Of course not. He found himself a lover. Now she probably complicated his relationship. Although she professed to herself that she did not care, she knew she did. She didn’t want to hurt him. He thought he loved her, but she knew in truth, he was attracted to what she was—a spirit, no longer human.
Two tears slipped from her eyes, and she didn’t bother to wipe them away. The pain she felt was so stark, so acute. Before Reed arrived at her home, her life had seemed so settled. Now, her tidy, orderly little life was blown apart.
Now what?
She had no real idea where she was in relation to her own home. There was no one on the street to ask for help. Maybe, if she could wait it out a few hours until daylight, she could find her way back home, or at the very least, catch someone on their way to work and ask for directions.
Somehow, she would put her never-ending life back together.
CHAPTER FOUR
Reed wasn’t sure how many hours passed since Sara delivered the devastating news that he was no longer alive. Not as he knew it, anyway. That somehow after dying in the car accident, he passed through dimensions and ended up in a new world very much like his own, where he was a stranger with nothing, and no one who knew him, or even cared about him.
That wasn’t exactly true.
He had one person—Sara-Kate. The loveliest, most warm and generous soul who accepted him into her world without question or hesitation. The woman he loved more than anything or everything in his past life, or present spirit.
And he destroyed that love.
Now all that remained was an empty, hollow feeling of pain and despair. Where would this new life take him now? He was truly alone, without friends or possessions. Without Sara-Kate. He could accept losing everything else, but not Sara.
It was so cold outside, and even without shoes and socks, he barely felt it. The intense emotional pain burned inside him.
Beneath a street light, something shiny on the ground caught his eye. He bent down and lifted the metal circle into his hand. It was a coin, but unlike any coin he ever seen before. It was all true, everything Sara-Kate told him. Everything had changed.
As he passed house after house, a light suddenly appeared on a porch. He turned toward the sound of a door opening. A woman in her thirties stood shivering in a robe on her front porch. A tiny dog stood off in the distance sniffing at a bush.
He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, and nodded an acknowledgement to the woman.
“Hello,” she called out.
“Hi,” he answered.
“Cold out tonight, isn’t it?” she asked.
He stopped and turned to her. “It sure is.” He wasn’t in the mood for a conversation with a stranger, but he didn’t want to be rude, either.
“I was just about to make a cup of tea. Would you...would you like to come inside?” she asked.
He was startled by her request. She was inviting a total stranger off the street into her home. Then it dawned on him. Sara-Kate told him that what he was now was extremely attractive to humans. He could use anyone, anytime, for his own gain. This woman
