Linda screams.
CHAPTER 2
“Darling!” Geoff shouts. “What’s wrong?”
Her hands are covering her face against the approach of the flames.
“Linda! Are you all right?”
The heat…It’s gone.
She peers between her fingers. There’s no fire. Geoff is fine. Jim and Lucy stare at her as if she were a madwoman.
And might possibly she be?
“I—I felt—fire,” she stammers.
“Fire?” Lucy asks.
The waiter has approached their table, fluttering his hands and looking anxious. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes,” Geoff says, waving him away. “Bring my fiancée some water, please.”
Linda realizes patrons at the other tables are looking at her oddly.
“I thought—I felt this heat—I thought there was a fire—”
“It’s okay, darling. There’s no fire.”
“I thought I saw it,” she says, breaking into a sweat now. “It was like a dream I had last night—”
“Maybe we ought to order some food,” Jim suggests. “When Lucy’s light-headed she gets hot flashes, too.”
“Oh, Jim,” Lucy says, smirking.
“Are you all right, Linda?” Geoff asks. “Do you want to go for a walk outside?”
“Maybe.” She touches her brow and feels the sweat there. “I’ll just go to the ladies’ room for a moment.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Lucy asks.
“No, no, I’ll be fine.”
Linda stands, hurrying across the room, avoiding the strange looks from the other guests. She pushes open the door of the ladies’ room and stands over the sink, splashing water on her face. She’s frightened by the vision. Her heart is racing. But she’s embarrassed, too. What must Jim and Lucy think? Geoff’s little girlfriend…What a flake.
But what did it mean? Had her dream so traumatized her she was now having flashbacks? What did they call it? Post-traumatic stress disorder? She’d seen it on Oprah, she thinks.
It had felt so real. Her cheeks were still hot. Maybe she ought to make an appointment with a doctor.
When she returns to the table they’re back to discussing historical theory, debating whether Ronnie Simms, whoever he is, should get the chair of some committee or another. Linda tunes out, concentrating on her salad. Geoff holds her hand under the table. She gets through the dinner with some forced smiles and again apologizes for her outburst when they’re all saying goodbye. Jim and Lucy assure her it was nothing, but she knows they’re going home shaking their heads over Geoff’s choice for a bride.
“Do you want me to stay?” Geoff asks when they’re back at her apartment.
“No, I’ll be okay.”
“You sure? Darling, I’m not going to leave until I know you’re okay.”
God, she loves him. She encircles his neck with her arms. Actually, she’d love for him to stay. To feel his strong, hard body next to hers all night. There’s nothing she likes more than waking up beside him, leaning up on her elbow to stare down at him, running her fingers through the nest of black hair on his chest. Geoff is the most exquisite lover she’s ever known. Not that she’s had all that many: in her twenty-five years, she can count all her men on one hand. But now that she’s found Geoff, she doesn’t feel the need to ever sample anybody else, ever again.
Yet as much as she might like him to stay, Josh is waiting for Geoff, and the boy always gets very upset when his father doesn’t come home. It’s a mood only encouraged and made worse by his nanny’s obvious disapproval of his father’s extracurricular behavior. Julia is an old crone who had been Gabrielle’s devoted companion, and who insists that Geoff is still a married man and shouldn’t be setting a bad example for his son. Linda can’t imagine Julia staying on with them after they’re married; she makes no secret of her disdain for Geoff’s intended new wife. But Josh is attached to the old woman, and has been ever since his mother walked out on him.
So it’s best that Geoff not spend the night. He tells Linda she needs a good night’s sleep and that if she still feels jittery in the morning, maybe she ought to give her doctor a call. She insists she’ll be fine. Still, Geoff says he’ll call her once he’s home just to say goodnight one more time.
She calls Megan once he’s gone.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, we’re just watching Letterman. What’s up?”
“Remember the dream I told you about?”
“Yeah. How could I forget?”
“Well, tonight, at the restaurant, I had it again. Except it was a daydream. We were all burning alive.”
“Sweetie, what have you been smoking?”
“Nothing. Megan, what’s going on with me?”
“You were anxious about having dinner with them, weren’t you? Geoff’s friends from the college.”
“Yes, but—”
“You ought to get your doctor to give you some Xanax. Sweetie, those little pills have done wonders for my well being.”
Linda sighs. “Maybe I have been overanxious ever since we started planning the wedding.”
“That’s all it is, sweetie. Nerves can do all sorts of weird things.”
Nerves. After she hangs up, Linda heads into the bathroom to study her face in the mirror. There are definitely lines creeping in around her eyes. Worry lines. She manages a small smile. If she tells Megan about those, next she’ll be suggesting Botox.
The phone rings. It’s Geoff.
“Imagine I’m there beside you tonight,” he whispers.
“Oh, I will. I always do.”
“Are you looking forward to this weekend, darling?”
She doesn’t want to lie but to admit how anxious she is about telling Josh their wedding plans wouldn’t do right now. She wants to prove to Geoff she’s strong, grounded, solid. “Of course I am,” she says. “I love the Sunderland house.”
“It should be beautiful. We’ll take a boat out on the lake.”
She purrs, smiling.
“I love you, Linda,”
