Third Time's a Charm

by Michelle M. Pillow

  If she had been physically able to punch a voice, she would have pounded the shit out of his placating tone.

  “I’m not sure what there is to work out, Rex,” she mimicked his overly fake manner. “We have a contract. You offered me that contract. I took it. I want to honor it, and you want to take me to court.”

  “I don’t want to take you to court,” he said.

  She already knew that. She had one horribly long video reason why he didn’t want this to get ugly. “That’s not what Harry said.”

  She was being obtuse on purpose, but he deserved to squirm a little.

  “Harry misspoke,” Rex insisted.

  “He seemed sure. He had a folder and everything.” She drifted to the right as a giant semi-truck came down the two-lane highway a little too close to the centerline. “Three folders, actually.”

  “Viv, I’m perfectly willing to honor our original deal. I want to take care of you.”

  She opened her mouth wide and had to fight the urge to gag.

  “I’m just asking if you would please sign an amendment making it clear that we agreed to thirty-five percent of my income at the time of our divorce,” he continued. “Really, it’s to make the bookkeeping easier on everyone. That way you don’t have to worry about audits, and paying lawyers to dig around, or if I get demoted and start earning less. I’m thinking about you here. Clarity is good business.”

  Did he think she’d buy what he was shoveling right now? She already assumed he was skimming off the top. She was sure there was creative accounting going on. The irony of the whole situation was, if he’d just asked her nicely without threats or pretense, she would have signed the damned agreement locking in the thirty-five percent.

  “I wouldn’t feel right taking the same amount if you were demoted,” Vivien denied, feigning concern. “I couldn’t do that to you. Let’s keep the agreement the way it is for the sake of simplicity.”

  “But—”

  “I insist.”

  “Okay, but—”

  “Was there something else?” she asked.

  His tone lowered, losing all traces of his forced charm. “You remember that you can’t show people that video, right?”

  And there it was.

  “As long as I’m not forced to, I promise I won’t,” she said. “That video embarrasses me as much as it does you.”

  That was truer when they first split up, less so now.

  “And you’re not going to take me to court for forty percent?”

  “As long as I’m not forced to,” she repeated.

  “And the audit?” Rex insisted. “Now that I explained that Harry was mistaken, you’re not going to audit the firm, are you?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.” She hadn’t given it much thought. “As long as I don’t feel a reason to. Harry was pretty threatening. I don’t want to talk to him again without my lawyer there. Make sure he knows that.”

  She was about eighty percent certain Harry and the other partners were listening to the call. Tiny noises sounded behind Rex’s voice.

  “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with your next deposit,” he said.

  “I’m sure I will.” It only mattered because of the charities she sent monthly donations to with the funds. “If there’s nothing else, Rex, I’m about to walk into an appointment.”

  “No, there’s nothing else. Thanks for being so understanding, Viv. You looked great the other day by the way.”

  “Goodbye, Rex.” She didn’t give him a chance to say anything else as she pushed the button on her steering wheel to end the call.

  It took her several deep breaths before she could concentrate past the lines on the road. Rex was more of a nuisance than anything else. It wasn’t surprising that he’d called to make sure she wasn’t talking to her lawyer to take him to court. He knew he’d messed up. Making him sweat about it would only prolong her interactions with him.

  She passed a sign saying her exit was in five miles, and then a billboard for one of her restaurants. It looked a little faded, and she made a mental note to talk to the advertising company that handled it.

  “That’s who you married after me?”

  Vivien cried out in surprise as Sam’s voice came from directly behind her. The car swerved, and the tires ran into the ditch. Her heart leaped into her throat. She jerked the wheel to correct the car’s trajectory.

  Vivien made it back onto the road, but the overcorrection took her across the opposite lane. A semi-trunk honked a warning, and it barely missed striking her back end. She slammed on the brakes, stopping the vehicle along the wrong side of the road. Her hands shook and took the car out of gear. She took several deep breaths.

  “No offense, babe, but he sounds like a loser,” Sam continued as if nothing had happened.

  Vivien looked in the rearview mirror but didn’t see him. She turned around to find him lounging in the back. His feet were on the seat and his back against the door. She could see the seat through his body.

  “Sam, what the hell?” she demanded, her tone harsh after the fright he’d given her. “You can’t pop up behind me like that. You almost got me killed!”

  He reached over his head and picked at the seal along the window as if bored. His fingers had no effect on her car. “When did you get so serious? I remember you putting your hands over my eyes when I was driving. You told me to feel the road.”

  She had done that once. Those had been crazy, wild times. “That was stupid of me. I shouldn’t have.”

  Vivien studied him. His body contorted into a position that caused her back to spasm just looking at it. Sam looked so young, younger than the image she had carried with her. His handsome boyish face hadn’t gained in years, and his eyes lacked the wisdom that only came with age and experience. She didn’t get the impression that he wanted her dead, but then, their track record on the subject wasn’t great.

  “Sam, you know that I don’t want to die, right?” she insisted. “You can’t keep trying to lure me to my death.”

  “Why would I try to do that?”

  “Then what are you doing here?” she asked. “You can’t be here. I know I séanced you but—”

  “What are any of us doing here, Viv?” He stared at her as he pushed up from the door. “Let’s go to the beach. You love the beach.”

  A knock on her window caused her to jump in her seat. She spun around to find a highway patrolman gesturing that she should roll down the glass for him.

  Vivien glanced behind her only to find Sam was gone.

  “Hello, ma’am,” he stated. “What seems to be the problem here?”

  There was no way on Earth she was answering that question truthfully.

  “Bee,” she lied as she turned off the engine.

  He leaned over the look inside her car. “I’ll need to see your license, registration, and proof of insurance.”

  “Yes, sir.” Vivien leaned over to the glove box to retrieve the registration and insurance before digging in her purse for her wallet. Sam had startled her, and she forced herself to focus on the patrolman so she could read him and get out of a ticket. She handed all three items over to him.

  “Have you been drinking ma’am?”

  “Just coffee.” She smiled. “Maybe a little too much.”

  He didn’t laugh at her lame joke. “Is there a reason you’re parked on this side of the road?”

  Vivien knew this man was used to people lying to him and making up excuses in an effort to get out of tickets. All he wanted was for someone to take responsibility for their mistakes and poor judgments. Her best bet was honesty… to a point. “I became startled, nearly drove off the road, overcorrected, and ended up here. I was trying to catch my breath after almost colliding with a semi-truck. I’m just thankful that no one was hurt by my mistake.”

  He stood and glanced over the top of her car. When he again looked down at her, he said, “That seems consistent with your tire tracks. Wait here.”

  Vivien waited before he w
as away, before she said, “Sam, you can’t keep showing up. We sent you on in peace. You should be in the light. Go find the light.”

  She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she heard the faint sound of a guitar answering her. The music was cut off as a semi-truck rumbled past.

  Vivien rubbed the bridge of her nose. Checking on the restaurant properties was going to have to wait. She needed to get home and deal with her dead first husband.

  “Here you go, ma’am.” The patrolman handed the license through the window. “I will let you off with a warning but try to be more careful. These trucks can’t make quick stops. You’re lucky you weren’t badly injured or worse.”

  “I will. Thank you, sir.” She started to smile, but he turned away before she could say more.

  “Have a good day, ma’am.” His words flowed behind him like an afterthought.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sam kept trying to get her to the beach.

  He’d attempted to lure her to the water the first night. Next, he’d waved at her to follow him. He might have tried to get her there again. Now, he just flat out asked.

  What if Sam hadn’t been trying to kill her? What if her first instincts about him were right? What was at the beach that he wanted her to see so badly?

  The idea wouldn’t leave her, so she determined that there must be a reason she kept coming back to it, like an itch that needed to be scratched. Heather always said that ghosts were often confused and had trouble communicating. Sometimes their messages were hard to hear and decipher. Sam had a substantial amount of morphine in his system when he died. What if that lingered in death? What if that was why Vivien had felt pill drunk, as Lorna has so eloquently put it?

  Vivien drove slowly with both hands on the wheel. She kept the music off, refused to answer her phone, and continuously glanced over her shoulder to see if Sam would come back. Once, she even pulled over to let a caravan of semi-trucks pass. Intentional or not, the series of near-death experiences had left her jittery.

  When she finally turned off the engine in the driveway of her home, she took a deep breath of relief. She sat for a moment, staring out the windshield toward the path that would take her to the beach. She wasn’t sure what she’d find, if anything, out there.

  Fear whispered that she shouldn’t go. She needed to be smart and safe.

  Psychic intuition told her Sam would never try to hurt her.

  Her growing magical powers warned that she didn’t have enough information on what was happening.

  Logic said, if she were going to go to the beach, she needed to take Lorna and Heather with her. They could watch in case she acted strangely.

  She couldn’t ask Troy. How in the world did she explain to her new man-friend that she was being haunted by her dead husband from twenty years ago? Oh, and furthermore that she was the one who’d summoned him, so it was her fault that Sam was hanging around? Or that her family legend dictated she had only one soul mate and sorry, it could never be Troy because she’d already had Sam?

  “Sam? Are you here?” She glanced at the empty back seat. He didn’t answer.

  Vivien looked at Troy’s house. She wanted to see him but knew he was probably filming his teaching segments. Images of him played in her mind—holding the coffee cup out to her in the morning, the questioning smile bathed in the sunlight coming through the car window as they drove to the taco truck, the worry on his face after he’d pulled her from the water, his shadowed features while he’d slept.

  Troy had lived. He had experiences and wisdom that shone in his eyes and were etched in his handsome face. She couldn’t say where the relationship was heading, but she wanted to find out.

  “There is only us.” Sam’s voice whispered through her thoughts, and she wasn’t sure whether it were real or just the same memory that had haunted her since his last breath. Was it meant to make her feel guilty about the feelings she had for Troy?

  “Only our hearts,” she answered the thought.

  “I’ll be watching you. Save your heart for me. It’s mine.”

  “Okay, Sam, okay. You win. I’ll go to the beach.” She opened the car door. “But I’m not going alone.”

  Vivien grabbed her purse and her cell phone. Her fingers moved automatically to call Heather. Her friend answered before she made it to the front door.

  “Hey, I was just thinking about calling you,” Heather said. “I’m not sure why. I just felt… I don’t know. Something. What’s up?”

  “I need you to come to the beach with me. Sam’s back. I think he wants to show me something.” Vivien stuck her key in the lock, but the door opened before she could touch the knob.

  “You’re home,” Lorna said before she saw Vivien carried a phone. She covered her mouth as if to stop herself from interrupting further.

  “It’s Heather.” Vivien turned on the speakerphone. “Heather, Lorna’s here too. We’re at the house. Can you come?”

  “Good, stay with Lorna. Let me tell these guys I’m leaving and I’ll be there in fifteen.” Heather hung up.

  “What’s happening?” Lorna asked. She stepped aside as Vivien came inside the house.

  “Sam showed up in my back seat when I was driving. He startled me and I nearly ran into oncoming traffic.” Vivien tossed her purse and cell phone on the couch cushion. “I think we had it wrong. He’s not trying to hurt me. I think in his confused spirit way, he is trying to get me to go to the beach. Maybe that’s where he wants to say goodbye.”

  The smell of pastries filled the home, catching her attention.

  “Did you bake?” Vivien automatically moved toward the kitchen.

  “I had William run me by the grocery store and I stocked up on a few things for us.” Lorna followed her. “I made an apple pie. It just came out of the oven.”

  “So you did.” Vivien went to the fresh pie on her stove and leaned over to smell. The warmth drifted up to her face. Lorna had cut little decorations in the crust. “This looks as good as any bakery I’ve been to, actually better.”

  Vivien went to the fridge and peeked inside. Lorna had completely stocked it. “You weren’t kidding.”

  “I’m not sure it’s safe for you to go to the beach,” Lorna picked up the conversation as if Vivien hadn’t been sidetracked by the smell of food. “We should try summoning Sam here, or at the theater.”

  “I think it needs to be at the beach.” Vivien shut the fridge door. “I can’t explain how I know, but I just feel it. He keeps trying to get me to follow him there. If you don’t want to come, I’ll understand. I don’t want you to put yourself in danger.”

  “There is no way I’m letting you go without me,” Lorna denied. She went to the cupboard and pulled out three plates and set them on the counter close to the cooling pie. “The three of us are stronger together. I owe you and Heather so much.”

  Vivien pulled three forks, a knife, and a pie server out of a drawer. She handed them to Lorna.

  “Heather gave me a job when I had nothing.” Lorna cut the pie into equal slices. “You gave me a place to live when I couldn’t remain in my apartment. Without both of you, I would still be locked in misery over Glenn’s betrayal. You helped me say goodbye to him, and I was able to then let go of the past.”

  Lorna dished up the three plates and carried them into the living room, overlapping the edges of two of the plates so she could carry them with one hand like a waitress. She set them on the coffee table. Vivien followed her.

  “You encouraged me to say yes to William,” Lorna continued, “and I have never been happier. After everything you have done for me, there is no way I will abandon you when it’s time for you to find your peace. Whatever you want, whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

  Vivien nodded, touched by Lorna’s words. Her voice was soft as she answered, “I want Troy.”

  Lorna smiled and nodded. “We know. We felt it after you came home with tacos.”

  “Part of me feels like I should feel guilty, you know?” Vivien continued
. “But I don’t, so then I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. Somewhere along the way I’d become stuck on the idea of Sam. I’d been told my entire life that women in my family only get one shot at love. If that love died, then we were cursed never to have it again. I really believed that, but then I met Troy and…”

  “The world shifted?” Lorna supplied.

  Vivien frowned. “Why did you phrase it like that?”

  Her grandmother had always described meeting her true love in those terms.

  Lorna shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. It was the only way I could think to describe the feeling I picked up from you.”

  “I never thought it was possible, but maybe Heather is right. Maybe you can have more than one love of your life. Sam will always have a place in my heart, but Troy, he’s…”

  Lorna gently rubbed Vivien’s upper back. “I know.”

  Vivien didn’t know how to finish the sentence. Troy was here. He was her age and maturity level. He gave her something she’d been missing for years. He was the future, possibilities, her next chapter. Maybe the feelings weren’t meant to be put into words.

  “But Sam is…” Vivien lifted her hand helplessly to the sides.

  “I know,” Lorna said. “I think you’re trying to come up with a simple answer in a complicated situation, but I will say you are allowed to be happy.”

  The door opened, and Heather rushed inside. “What did you mean when you said Sam is back, and are you all right?”

  Heather looked around the home as if she could find the answer about Sam for herself.

  “Yes, I’m all right,” Vivien assured her. “I think I know what he wants me to do.”

  “She needs us to go to the beach with her,” Lorna put forth. “There is no way she should go alone.”

  Vivien explained all that had happened, so everyone was on the same page.

  Heather nodded. “I should have insisted you stay home today.”

  “I should have stayed home with you,” Lorna added.

  “Have you ever known me not to live my life?” Vivien asked, more of Heather since Lorna was a newer friendship. “I’ve followed my psychic instincts since the day I was born. I honestly didn’t feel like Sam wanted to harm me. If I stop listening to the signs and start living in fear, that is when I’ll really be in trouble.”