Burning for You (Blackwater) Read Online Free PDF

life is complete.
    Isabel swats my hand playfully. 
“Don’t belittle other people’s talents,” she tells me.  “Your own are going to
serve you well, and I’m pretty sure they’re alive and kicking inside of you
right now.”
    “You talk about it like it’s a baby,”
I say.  “So who’s my catalyst?” I ask her.  “The only person I ran into
yesterday other than my mother…well, I literally ran into them.  With my car.”
    “Your car?” Isabel asks.  “You got
into an accident?  I didn’t see any damage.”
    “What are you talking about?” I
say, alarmed.  “Betsey’s front end is crumpled like a Styrofoam cup!”
    Isabel shakes her head.  “I walked
by Betsey this morning, and since I hadn’t seen her in years, I was surprised
to see what good condition she’s in.  Practically looking better than when I
saw her over ten years ago.”
    I shove my chair back and run
toward the front door, flinging it open and running outside.  The fall air is
crisp and cold.  I’m still only wearing boxer briefs with my t-shirt and no
shoes, but I have to see what the hell Isabel is talking about.  I gasp when I
see Betsey.  Not only is the damage completely gone, but she’s shiny and clean,
without a single bump or dent or ding.  Betsey hasn’t been perfect since I took
her to Chicago and mastered the art of parallel parking in the city.  And by
“mastered”, I mean pushing the car behind me and the car in front of me with
Betsey’s bumpers to make room for myself and get closer to the curb.  “What the
hell?” I say.  “She looks new!”
    “That’s what I thought,” Isabel
says, coming up behind me, putting a hand on my arm.  “It’s cold outside, Leah,
come back in the house.”
    “But this is wrong,” I say, shaking
my head.  Were yesterday’s events just a twisted hallucination?  It can’t be
true, I remember my mother looking right at the damage with me when I pulled in
to the driveway.  I’m pretty sure she was annoyed that my trashed up car was
lowering her property value.  Still, I let Isabel turn me around and away from
Betsey and back toward the house.  “Just yesterday I pulled up to the house and
the front was bashed in, Isabel, I swear….”
    “Sit down,” she commands me and
leads me back to the kitchen table, in front of my plate of half-finished
eggs.  I shove the plate away, since I’m no longer hungry.  “Breathe,” Isabel
commands, and I realize I’m holding my breath.  I lean back and take a few deep
breaths and let them out slowly.  Isabel gets up from the table and pours me a
glass of water from the dispenser on the fridge and places it down in front of
me.  “Drink,” she commands.
    “Stop babysitting me,” I grumble, my
face fallen in frustration and confusion.  I’m completely shaken by what I just
saw.  “Isabel, I swear, I smashed into the back of a black SUV yesterday at
Emerald and Center-“
    “I hate that damn light,” Isabel
says, scowling.
    “Me too,” I say.  “Anyway, Betsey
was smashed in front.  The SUV was okay, just a small dent in the bumper.  But
I don’t understand, what the hell happened to fix the damage?  Even if someone
got Betsey fixed behind my back, there’s no way that much damage could be fixed
that quickly.”
    “Who did you hit?” Isabel says. 
“It was a black SUV?”  I nod, push back my chair and walk over to the counter,
where my purse still is from last night. 
    “He wrote down his information for
me,” I tell her.  “So I could contact him for insurance reasons.” 
    As I rummage through my purse, I
see Carlton standing at the entrance to the kitchen, little head poking around
the doorway, huge body hidden by the wall.  He must have sensed my hand was in
my purse right next to his cat food cans.  He decides to curl his fat self
around the door frame and howls at Isabel.  “Holy shit!” Isabel jumps up from
the table, knocking over the glass of water she got me.