She knew it hadn’t been much to prepare, since everything had been precooked, but still, it made her feel good that he made such a fuss over her. Deep down, she knew he would have to leave in a few months, but for this one day she allowed herself to pretend that was her life and always would be.
Once they had their fill, they moved over to stretch out for a customary, after dinner nap. Taking up seats on their new couch and loveseat, Michael began to snore almost immediately, being particularly exhausted due to his late night exploits. Tori watched him, his hand resting on his muscular chest, the rise and fall in perfect rhythm to the sound.
Lying across the smaller unit, her legs bouncing as they folded over the arm, she thought how different he was. When they had first set out together, she had seen him as a dead ringer for Henry. Studying him, she could see the subtle differences that made him unique.
His hair not nearly as grey, it only had a few strays from the looks of it. His face also looked much younger, having had less years and sun than his older brother. Michael had a different curve to his mouth when he smiled, which she found particularly appealing. Eventually she fell asleep as well, a soft smile planted on her velvet lips.
Pandora’s Box
In the weeks after Christmas, they completed the house, and the couple was finally able to begin on the shop in earnest. They were very pleased with the new overhead door, and made quick work of the rest of the repairs once it had been installed.
Working on the garage became a whole new set of tasks. Michael convinced Tori that she would need a vehicle of her own, and that a truck of some sort would be the best choice. Borrowing Trish’s car, they were off on the hunt, finally choosing an older and slightly worse for wear F-150 single cab pick-up. It was a brown color, or at least what remained of the paint was. The interior looked much better after they placed a cover over the bench seat, and basically it served as a work truck.
It only took Michael a few hours to teach her how to drive the stick shift. During that adventure, Tori timidly admitted she didn’t actually have a driver’s license. “The one I had before was faked. Eddie paid a guy to make it for me.”
“Well, if you’re lying low, you might want to forgo getting one,” he cautioned.
Her expression grew dark as she considered the idea of being found. She had to agree, as it would be one more way of being located, if anyone were looking.
The truck turned out to be a good investment though, as it allowed them more freedom. They took a few days to purchase tools and found a couple of old bikes that would make good projects.
After setting up the shop, Tori began to tear down one of the bikes. A ragged ’85 Honda Rebel, she intended to give it to Michael so he would have a way to get around. Being their first project, she took the opportunity to break him in on what all rebuilding entailed.
It being Michael’s turn to be the student, she explained to him step by step what she did and why. She laid out all of the parts as she took them off, repairing as she could, cleaning a great deal, and making a list of what she would need to purchase or locate. Taking her time as she worked, Tori began to relax, at home in the house, the garage, and his company.
Michael noticed how dirty her hands got while she worked, but Tori didn’t seem to mind. Her fingers moved quickly as she removed the tiny parts and inspected them. Often, she would hum while she toiled, and he liked the way she seemed quite at ease, able to focus so deeply on her main purpose of taking the bikes that were old and broken and making them look like new again.
Of course, they were not in dire need of funds yet, but it would be good to have some income soon enough, and completing bikes would be their source. They had counted the remainder of the money after Christmas, as all of the major purchases had been completed with the final addition of the pick-up. Fortunately, they still had almost $300K, and discussed where they would store it.
Eventually, they decided they would add it in small amounts to their receipts from the sale of the restored bikes until it had all been deposited into the bank, the way normal people keep money. Michael pushed aside his realization that this would be considered laundering if they were caught.
Secretly, Tori hid some of it, unable to convince herself she would never need a quick getaway fund. She wanted Michael to take some with him when he left, but so far he had refused, only accepting the motorcycle as payment, more or less, for all that he had done for her.
As the only gift he would accept from her, she put extra care into the bike she rebuilt for him. She wanted to express her growing feelings for him the only way she comfortably could, through the love she poured into the machine. She imagined him riding away on it in April, taking this part of her with him to keep, which moved her more deeply than she cared to admit.
January turned out a busy month for the couple in many ways. Their beds were delivered the first week, and they made the transition to sleeping in their individual rooms. Michael did his best to hide his sadness, as sleeping in the small bedroom felt extremely lonely for him after he had become accustomed to stretching out beside her every night.
Lying in his bed while she showered, he allowed himself to imagine the water running over her naked curves; a small consolation of sorts since he lay close enough to hear her activities through the thin wall between the two chambers. He noted that she sang often as well, but took great care never to mention the fact, afraid it would put her on the defensive if she knew of his behavior.
Michael hoped that she slept in the oversized bed they had purchased for her. He peeked into her room on occasion, and it did appear that the covers had been disturbed, a good sign, and he felt pleased she still made progress.
The new year also brought the cold, and afforded them more new experiences for the young woman; things that held joy for both of them. After the Christmas holiday, the town’s children had returned to school, but the second week of the month, they had a snow day. Basically, this occurs when two or three inches of snow falls, and locals have a few hours to go out and enjoy it before the sun and the warmth of the ground melts it away.
School canceled for the day, the kids were all out in the swirling flakes, taking advantage of the rare occasion. Tori had never played in snow before, as the Dragons largely kept to the south when winter came, and the few times she had seen it, she had either been not permitted or not interested in exploring it. She stood in the door of the shop watching it fall in wide-eyed wonder.
Michael encouraged her to try it, taking her out to put together a tiny snowman and throw a few snowballs at one another. At first, she did not like the feel of the frost in her fingers, and had wrinkled her nose in protest. However, the smile on his face warmed her, and she soon fell into the moment with him. The couple found themselves laughing heartily while chasing each other around, and he felt overjoyed to see her pleasure at the event.
Quite unexpectedly, the pair became caught up in a rather large snowball chucking contest with a group of boys that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. When it ended, the group disbanded just as quickly; all except for one little guy, who introduced himself as Steven and followed them back to the shop to have a look around.
Christopher, his older brother, found him there a short time later. Pulling him away, the couple could hear him admonishing his younger brother for bothering them, and under duress, the young man had apologized with a shy grin. Michael hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but fate seemed insistent that these two young men would be a part of their lives, as their paths crossed constantly after that, especially when they were in the diner.
A short week later, they discovered the pair belonged to Trish, boys she had been raising alone. Their father had left when Steven was still small, preferring to drive a truck over running the diner with his wife. Of course, keeping love alive at a distance is hard to do, and the couple eventually divorced.
After the marriage officially ended, the man found more excuses why he could not make it to town for a visit, then he f
ound days when he could. That being the point where Tori and Michael came in, as the two boys had become like lost souls, which struck a familiar chord with the couple.
Trish’s sitter moved away over the Christmas break, and she had been having the boys come to the diner after school. She could have left them at the house alone, but it didn’t feel like a good option for her sons, who were only nine and twelve, and needed at least some supervision. They were good boys, and got their homework done, but after that, they had little for them to do at a diner but sit around and be bored, and being there until it closed at 8:00 pm every night wore heavily on them all.
In light of this, things fell together in such a way that seemed to work out to everyone’s advantage. Michael had enlisted Trish’s help in getting the necessary size to complete his order. She in turn gave a jewelry and lingerie party for some of the women in town, and invited Tori. After convincing the girl to attend, she discovered she wore a size eight ring, which enabled him to complete his special purchase of white gold.
When the time came for him to pick up the set, he simply told Tori he needed to run an errand. He only smiled mysteriously at her inquiries as to what, so she had let him go without making much of it, deducing he was making plans for after he left her come April. She pushed the small ache the thought caused her aside, realizing his leaving would be for the best.
As soon as he rode away on his newly completed machine, Tori made her way down to the diner for a short visit with her new friend, a cup of coffee her excuse. She hated to admit it, but she had grown to cherish Trish and her female companionship, whether she wanted it to happen or not. She arrived at the diner to find the older woman distraught and at her wits’ end, so she invited the boys down to see the shop to give their mom a break.
After having a look around at the motorcycles and tools, Tori escorted the young men into her small house. Once inside, she showed them her guitar and how to play it, enjoying the evening and their company.
Michael chuckled in surprise when he returned from picking up his special purchases to find the boys inside learning chords; this could not possibly be part of her plan to stay aloof. Taking a seat in a kitchen chair, he thoughtfully watched the three of them as they sat on the couch, a broad grin tickling his lips. The door had been opened, and like Pandora’s box, there would be no way to put back what had been unleashed; she’s really making herself at home, whether she can admit it or not.
Michael had placed the wedding bands in a simple grey pouch made of felt. As he observed the trio, he toyed with it in his pocket, rubbing the rings within. In the weeks that followed, he continued to carry them around with him, stroking them often and waiting for the right time to ask the question that burned in his mind more and more as the days went by.
The Stuff of Dreams
The days passed quickly, and Michael could feel April coming at him faster than he would have liked. Things had been going fairly smoothly for the couple, so it came as a bit of a surprise when things suddenly took an ominous turn with the beginning of February.
Their bedroom sets had been delivered the month before, and so they each slept alone in a bedroom of the small house. The transition had seemed easy enough, and Michael had been pretty sure Tori slept in her bed, not in a corner. That theory was confirmed when she began to have nightmares.
The first time he heard her cry out in the night, he had leapt out of bed and burst into her quarters. She was indeed sleeping in the bed, or had been, but something in her dreams had frightened her and she stood in the center of the room when he arrived, trying to calm her racing heart.
Seeing the panic in her eyes, he had wanted to comfort her, but she had been angry that he had come in unannounced. He left her alone and went back to bed to think about what could be troubling her, as if her past life were not enough to give anyone bad dreams.
The next day, she had made an excuse and explained that it didn’t happen very often. However, three weeks later, it had happened at least half a dozen times that he knew of, and Michael decided he needed to know exactly what she dreamed that frightened her so much. They were working in the shop when he decided the time had come to push the issue, and he gave the effort his best.
“I’m not trying to pry,” he explained his intentions, “But it’s not going to get any better if you don’t let it out. Just talk to me. I promise, I’m not going to judge you. I want to help you.”
Leaning over the motorcycle, hands working diligently, Tori tried to come up with another excuse why she should keep the anguish to herself. His pushing her made her defensive, as it should have been clear she didn’t want to discuss it. She cut her blue spheres at him, not wanting to face him squarely, expecting him to be angry. The look in his eyes took her breath away, as they appeared hurt and sad, almost in tears.
“I’m not good at talking about things,” she admitted in a meek voice with a small shrug, shifting her gaze away.
“I know,” she heard him whisper back.
She turned to face him fully, his features grim. Damn it. Why does he look at me that way? Doesn’t he know he isn’t supposed to care? Drawing a deep breath and exhaling it slowly, she allowed their eyes to lock for a full minute as she considered what sharing the dream could mean. You are letting him get too close, and it’s going to hurt like hell when he leaves, she scolded herself with a clenched jaw.
Laying her tools aside, Tori relented, “Let’s go to the diner then. Get an early dinner and have a long talk.”
Making their way down the street, Michael stole glances at her, noticing the tension that drew the beautiful lines of her face into an almost angry scowl. He hoped the sharing would ease her suffering, as seeing her that way, the dark puffy skin beneath her lower lashes that meant she wasn’t sleeping, tore at him mercilessly.
Taking seats in their usual booth, Michael noticed that Trish’s boys were at the café again that evening. It felt odd how their lives had become entwined with the people of the small town, even though Tori had not wanted it to happen, and he smiled to himself thinking about how it had been her that caused it.
Seeing his grin, Tori glanced over to note the boys herself and shook her head. She had no idea what had possessed her the day she first invited them to come over, but like lost puppies, they didn’t take long to steal a piece of her heart and a spot in her life. Tori had begun to think she was simply no good at being alone.
Looking at the young men, a sad twinge touched her core as she recalled that she would never have children of her own. Perhaps that’s what had motivated her to extend the invitation; like she would always have to make do with borrowing other people’s families and lives.
Glancing at Michael, she realized the time he would be moving on lay in the near future, and she hoped he would find a woman to share a real family with after he left her. He deserved the chance, and the realization that he would have it brought her a small amount of peace.
Ordering their dinner of small steaks and vegetables, the two ate in an uneasy silence. Tori felt anxious, not eager to share what disturbed her sleep, the horror of it too real for her to make light of.
However, as soon as the food had disappeared, Michael gently reminded her of the story she had promised him; sharing what the nightmares were all about.
She sat staring at her empty plate and collecting her thoughts. When ready, she took a deep breath and dove in, “I’ve been having the same type of dreams as long as I can remember; ever since I was a child in the bush camp.”
“I’m not sure what has caused them to flare up this badly,” she gave a small shrug. “I mean, I’ve had basically the same dream from time to time, the same exact dream. But something about this place, or something else, I don’t know, has caused them to come much more frequently and to be much more intense.”
“I’m not even sure exactly what the dream is about. It’s only a small segment of time, like two or three minutes worth. I’m sitting in a car sometimes, in the back seat, with a man and a woman
in front of me, but other times I’m outside of the car, watching it.” Tori drew a ragged breath, “There are people screaming and the car burns. Like literally, how a house would burn, and there are flames coming out of it all over. And that’s it. When I see it, I’m petrified, and I don’t know anything else.”
Folding his hands in front of him, Michael studied her pained features. Obviously hard for her to describe, he postulated because she didn’t really understand it. He had become accustomed to her quiet and controlled manner, but this was something she could not control, and she hated it.
Looking down at her hands, he noticed the scar that ran across the back of the left one. Without thinking, he reached over and ran his fingers gently across the top of it.
Tori jerked the hand back away from him as if she had been burned and his eyes snapped up to meet hers in surprise. Jaw dropped slightly; he apologized, “I’m so sorry; I don’t know what came over me.”
She stared at him blankly for several seconds, almost in a state of shock and unable to reply. Drawing several breaths, she recovered but said nothing for a few more seconds. Then whispered, “There’s a diner in the dream. Just a glimpse of it; like this one. Before the car burns.”
Her breath had become shallow and quick with excitement. “I never remembered that before.” Gazing over at the two boys, she felt guilty at befriending them. She had intended to come to that place and live like a hermit. Becoming attached to other people placed them in danger.
“I think the dream is a warning,” her voice had become tense, “I should never have made friends here. I should never have allowed you to stay here.” She looked back at him; her eyes turned to crystal blue pools, and for a moment she feared he could see her feelings for him in their depths.
Michael shook his head, “It can’t be a warning if you dreamt it before you came here. More likely it’s a memory, perhaps from before you were taken by the Dragons.”
A New Life Series - Starter Kit Page 41