Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set Read Online Free PDF Page B

for it. After all, their mom’s su r prise trust fund took care of the bills.
    “ I have to drop something off for Remy so I can give you a ride home,” Heather said, flipping another glossy page.
    “ Um, no thanks.”
    “ Don’t tell me you’d rather ride the bus.”
    Sadie shrugged.
    “ Don’t be silly. In this heat?”
    “ It’s only eighty - eight today.”
    “ I swear, if it were anyone else offering, you’d say yes.”
    “ That’s not true.” Sadie loved her sister and disliked confrontation, but the bus ride home shed the ick dissecting her life troweled upon her. She would fight for it. “I like taking the bus.”
    “ That’s bizarre, Sadie.” Heather tossed the magazine aside. “And I don’t believe you.”
    Sadie glared at Heather who was scowling into space instead of at the magazine. Some bangs would do wonders to hide all those forehead wrinkles. Twenty-one going on forty.
    Sadie crossed her ankles around each chair leg and fingered a lock of hair forward. Winding the length again and again into a coil, she asked, “How’s Remy?” She liked her brother-in-law, Remy. He kept Heather’s smothering in check.
    “ Fine,” Heather said, eyeballing her watch.
    The receptionist’s phone beeped. Sadie’s stomach clutched. It was time.
    Taking a breath, she rose. Focus on work. On getting more shifts. Ask about lowering her dosages again, omitting the fact that she already had. Nothing about Elijah or secret messages. Or any of the canvases three paintings deep in the garage, to be safe, because that would scare Heather and might then lead to who she’d been painting. Sadie’s heart palpitated just thinking of losing her job, her room at Jen’s, her garage studio.
    Her normal.
    She was normal again. A fleck of ultramarine paint under her forefinger nail snagged her attention. Crap. The disaster with Elijah had made her forget to scrub them again.
    Had Heather noticed?
    “ Good afternoon, ladies.” A fish tank bubbled quietly from the right. A brass and rock fountain gurgled to the left. Dr. Meyers, center, settled her slender fingers onto the pad on her lap. Her elegant eyebrows rose with her smile, as always.
    Sadie took her usual position on the sofa. Heather took the chair. The scented plug-in job had been refilled. Clean linen? Dr. Meyers remained silent. Heather followed suit. Sadie deplored these silences most. They gonged at her brain. Who would talk first? She would. She always caved first. And Dr. Meyers would lull her and charm the secrets from Sadie’s lips, no matter how hard she pressed them together.
    She stared at the fountain, blocking out memories of ultramarine eyes and gossamer wings. His mouth grazing her neck, her pulse beating so hard, two gauzy blue wings creating a canopy over their naked entwined bodies — no! Back to reality. She ignored the shiver in her belly threatening to travel too far below. Reality was the water, the fountain, Heather’s impatient foot. At least Elijah hadn’t had wings in real life.
    She’d come in half expecting him to. They’d been that real.
    “ Sadie?”
    She sat up straighter. “Yes?”
    “ You painted today?” Dr. Meyers asked.
    “ Painted?” Sadie hid her nails. A sane, functional person did not go about unkempt, unwashed, or with gobs of oil paint under her fingernails, artist or not.
    Dr. Meyers gestured a finger down her cheek. Automatically, Sadie followed suit. A rough and flaky texture met her fingertips. “Oh, that.”
    “ Oh, that, Sadie?” Heather said. “You’re painting again and you know we have reason to be concerned over it. Acting like it’s nothing will not take away the truth of the matter—“
    Dr. Meyers held up a quieting hand. “Yes, Sadie. That.” She smiled patiently. “It’s blue.”
    The light over the tank glared like a spotlight, too close, exposing her. Sadie scooted over a little. “I’m not manic.”
    Heather shook her head, rolling her eyes.
    “ I’m not. I painted a little