Stealing Time: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel

by Gael, Christine

  Just watching how he treated her sister was enough to make him a fixture on her “Nope List,” but she’d suffered his presence with cool politeness.

  Not anymore, though. Now, she could openly hate his guts.

  Her sister’s trim body trembled in her arms as she wept, and Anna’s hand reflexively tightened on the knife resting there. If he was nearby, she would’ve done a lot more than butter him with it right now, that was for sure.

  Speaking of being nearby…

  “Where is the bast—where is he, anyway?”

  “I don’t know,” Celia whispered, pulling away as she swiped at her watery brown eyes. “He wasn’t here when I got home. He left a note—”

  “A note?” Anna demanded, hot rage coursing through her. “He left a freaking note? What kind of person…” She trailed off at the sight of her sister’s devastated face and tried to hide her anger.

  Going off on Nate wasn’t going to make Cee-cee feel any better right now. And for all she knew, this was another phase in his ludicrous mid-life crisis, like the Porsche and that stupid goatee. Temporary insanity. If they got back together, anything Anna said now would become a wedge between her and her sister. So not worth it.

  “You won’t have to deal with him much,” Cee-cee said with a sniffle. “You’re leaving soon for your next assignment in Bolivia.”

  Anna swallowed a sigh and shook her head as she took Cee-cee’s hand and squeezed. “Not going to happen. I’m going to be here for as long as you need me.”

  Even as she spoke the words, she felt the invisible shackles closing over her, tightening with every breath. She’d only come back because she’d heard the tension in Celia’s voice the last time they’d discussed Pop’s declining mental health. It was meant to be a short visit. Long enough to give Celia a much-needed break, but short enough that she wouldn’t become like her sister in the process, giving and giving to everyone else, until there was nothing left.

  They’d watched their mother do it all their lives, until she was nothing but a dried-up husk of a woman. So insubstantial that even her death from breast cancer had been unremarkable. She’d just faded away, her heart growing weaker until she was gone, like a puffy, white dandelion in the breeze.

  It had been so hard on all of them, although it had hit Stephanie, a real Mama’s girl, the hardest. Of course, Stephanie had suffered other losses, too.

  Anna wondered if Celia had actually processed their mother’s death—she’d seemed so intent on healing the rest of them she’d shortchanged her own grief.

  Anna cleared her throat and refocused on Celia, who was already shaking her head vehemently.

  “Sis, you don’t have to do that. It’s fine—”

  “Shut up, Cee-cee,” she snapped, jerking back to glare at her sister. “It’s not fine. And it won’t be for a while. Just once in your life, can you put your own wants and needs first? Geez Louise, your husband of thirty years just left you, you’ve got Dad to deal with, and it’s going to be a long, ugly summer. Let me help you. Can you do that?”

  Celia wet her lips and nodded slowly as she raked a hand through her long, chestnut hair. “Yeah. Okay, I can do that.”

  “Perfect. First order of business, where is this note?” she asked, her tone pure acid.

  “Upstairs. I didn’t even read the whole thing, to be honest. I was so…”

  “I understand. You make us some tea or something. I’m going to go up and get it, and we’ll figure out where to go from there, all right?”

  Celia nodded again and managed a tiny smile. “Thanks, sis.”

  “That’s what sisters are for.”

  By the time she got back downstairs with the note in hand, though, her whole body was tense with unchecked fury.

  “Tea ain’t gonna cut it,” she said as she stepped back into the kitchen, resisting the urge to shred the note into a million pieces so her sister never had to read what it said.

  Dear Celia,

  It breaks my heart to do this to you this way, but I know how strong inertia is and how easy it would be to fall back into our normal patterns if I tried to do it in person. I love you and always will, but I’m not in love with you anymore.

  I’m sure we’ve both felt this growing distance between us, so this can’t be much of a surprise. For what it’s worth, the past thirty years with you has been my honor and I will always think on it fondly. I hope you will too…

  Because this town is full of gossips, I wanted to be the one to tell you that, while I’ve continued to honor my vows to you, I’m ashamed to admit I’ve been having an emotional affair with Amanda Meadows. We plan to move our relationship forward now that you’re aware.

  P.S.

  Since you weren’t home and Amanda has a cocker spaniel of her own, I took Tilly so she wouldn’t be lonely. We can talk about sharing custody of the dog once you take some time to process and get into a good, healthy place with our new normal.

  Everlasting affection,

  Nate

  He took.

  Her dog.

  The dog he hadn’t even wanted and barely gave the time of day.

  Anna barreled around the kitchen, opening cabinets and slamming drawers in search of liquor. No hard stuff, but eventually she found an unopened bottle of champagne chilling in the wine cooler and a jug of orange juice in the fridge.

  Morning mimosas. How utterly sophisticated. Nate would approve.

  On that note, she pried the cork from the bottle, slugged five gulps straight from the opening and handed it to her sister, who watched in wide-eyed silence from her perch at the kitchen island.

  “You’re going to want to guzzle about half of that right about now. For medicinal purposes.”

  She expected Celia to argue, but to her credit, she accepted the bottle wordlessly and did as she was told.

  Then, with a silent prayer, Anna laid Nate’s letter on the countertop in front of her sister. She couldn’t watch. Instead, she paced the kitchen floor and waited.

  It didn’t take long.

  “Amanda Meadows…our realtor?” Celia gasped.

  The realtor who had sold them the very house they were standing in.

  The house that was supposed to be their forever home.

  The bitter irony wasn’t lost on Anna, but she kept her expression inscrutable as she studied Celia’s devastated, tear-ravaged face, which crumpled before her very eyes.

  For the next ten minutes, she just let her cry it out. Ugly, wracking sobs that had her doubled over. Sobs that the Cee-cee of three days ago would’ve never allowed herself to indulge in. Then, once she had quieted and caught her breath, Anna squatted at her sister’s feet and forced her chin up to lock gazes with her.

  “I know you’re hurting right now. I can’t even imagine how difficult this is. But you need to redirect that sadness and get angry. He left you after thirty years and was too much of a chicken to do it to your face. Honey, he TOOK YOUR DOG! What kind of man does that?”

  Celia sniffled and, for an instant, Anna caught a glimmer of the old, spitfire Cee-cee, B.N. as she wiped away her tears.

  “He did, didn’t he?”

  “He sure did. Let phase two of sister-helping commence,” Anna announced. “We’re going to that homewrecker’s house and getting your damned dog back.”

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