a compromise to living a high-rise lifestyle, she had furnished the interior with antiques and hung lacy curtains at the windows. She had pulled up the carpet in the living room and replaced it with hardwood floors, then covered them with floral rugs and painted one of the walls a soft shade of rose. The bedroom was done in a floral print and she had bought a canopy bed.
The apartment was homey, nothing like the house in her dream, which, she had noticed last night, appeared to be a large custom-built, beige stucco tract home with fancy brick trim. She had only gotten a glimpse or at least remembered only enough to get the feeling the area was fairly exclusive, the children nicely dressed and obviously well cared for.
Autumn sighed as she grabbed her purse and headed for the elevator in the hall. She was meeting her best friend, Terri Markham, at Starbucks for coffee before she headed over to her summer job at Pike’s Gym. One of the things she liked best about living in the city was that everything was in walking distance: museums, theaters, libraries and dozens of restaurants and cafés.
The grammar school where she taught was only a few blocks away, the gym just up the hill and Starbucks—her favorite—sat down on the corner.
Terri was waiting when she arrived, twenty-seven years old, the same age as Autumn, a brunette who was slightly taller and more voluptuously built than her own petite, five-foot-three-inch frame. Both women were single, both career women. Terri was a legal secretary at one of the big law firms in town. They had met five years ago, introduced by mutual acquaintances. They say opposites attract and maybe that explained the friendship that had grown between them.
Autumn pushed open the glass door leading into the coffee shop. Terri shot to her feet and waved from the back of the room.
“Over here!” she called out.
Autumn wove her way through the tables that were packed with morning coffee drinkers and sat down in one of the small wrought-iron chairs, gratefully accepting the double-shot, non-fat latte that Terri shoved toward her.
“Thanks. Next time it’s my turn.” Autumn took a sip of the hot foamy brew that was her favorite morning drink and saw her friend frown above the rim of her paper cup.
“I thought you were staying home last night,” Terri said.
“I did.” Autumn sighed, catching the concern in Terri’s glance. “But I didn’t sleep very well, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Honey, those dark circles are a dead giveaway.” She grinned. “I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, myself, but I bet I had a lot more fun.”
Autumn rolled her eyes. Everything about the two women was different. Where Autumn was interested in sports and loved being out of doors, Terri was obsessed with shopping and the latest fashions. And when it came to men, they couldn’t have been more opposite.
“I thought you stopped seeing Ray.” Autumn took a sip of her coffee. “You said he was dull and boring.”
“I wasn’t with Ray. I’m through with Ray. Last night at O’Shaunessy’s I met this really hot guy named Todd Sizemore. We really clicked, you know. We had this, like, incredible karma or something.”
Autumn shook her head. “As I recall, you said you were going to reform. No more one-night stands. You said from now on you were going to get to know the guy, make sure he wasn’t just some deadbeat.”
“Todd’s not a deadbeat—he’s a lawyer. And the guy is terrific in bed.”
Terri always thought the guys were great in bed the first time they made love. It was after she got to know them that the problems began. Autumn’s emotions were too fragile to handle casual sex, but Terri was far more outgoing and spontaneous. She dated as many men as she could fit into her busy schedule and slept with whomever she pleased.
Autumn rarely dated. Except for her two teaching jobs—one at the grammar school and the other at exclusive Pike’s Gym where she gave classes in rock-climbing, her passion in life—she was kind of shy.
“So I know why I didn’t get any sleep,” Terri said. “What about you? You didn’t have that weird dream again, did you?”
Autumn ran a short, neatly manicured nail around the rim of her cup. “Actually, I did.”
After the second time it happened, she had told Terri about the dream, hoping her friend might have seen or read something that explained the occurrence.
“Was it the same? A little girl named Molly gets into a car and the guy drives away?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“That’s weird. Most people have recurring dreams about falling off a cliff or drowning or something.”
“I know.” She looked up, a tight feeling moving through her chest. “There’s something I’ve never told you, Terri. I hoped I wouldn’t have the dream again then I wouldn’t have to worry about it.”
Her friend leaned across the table, shoulder-length dark brown hair swinging forward with the movement. “So what haven’t you told me?”
“This same thing happened to me once before—when I was a sophomore in high school. I began having this nightmare about a car wreck. My two best friends were in the car. And another kid, a new kid at school. I dreamed the new guy got drunk at a party and drove the car into a tree. It killed all three of them.”
Terri’s blue eyes widened. “Wow, that really was a nightmare.”
“Back then I didn’t say anything. I mean…it was a dream. Right? I was only fifteen. I thought if I mentioned it, everyone would make fun of me. I knew they wouldn’t believe me. I didn’t believe it myself.”
“Please don’t tell me your dream came true.”
Autumn’s chest squeezed. She never talked about the nightmare. She felt too guilty. She should have done something—said something—and she had never forgiven herself.
“It happened exactly the way I dreamed. The new guy, Tim Wiseman, invited my friends Jeff and Jolie to a party. Tim was a year older and apparently there was liquor there. I guess they all got a little drunk, which Jeff and Jolie had never done before. On the way home, Tim was driving. It was raining and the streets were wet and slick. Tim took a curve too fast and the car slid into tree. He and Jeff both died instantly. Jolie died a couple of days later.”
Terri stared at her in horror. “Oh my God…”
Autumn glanced away, remembering the devastation and overwhelming grief she had felt back then. “I should have said something, done something before it was too late. If I had, my friends might still be alive.”
Terri reached over and captured Autumn’s hand. “It wasn’t your fault. Like you said, you were only fifteen and even if you’d said something, no one would have believed you.”
“That’s what I tell myself.”
“Has it happened again anytime since then?”
“Not until now. The first time, before my friends died, my mom had been killed two years earlier in a car wreck, so I figured maybe that’s why I dreamed the dream, but now I don’t think that was it. I keep hoping this
