Beyond Physical

by D Pichardo-Johansson

  “How?” asked Richard, shaking his head.

  Carl answered, “That, my friend, is something that I’ll enjoy teaching you when you get better. Because now I know you’re ready. For now, I’ll say that she uses prayer as I use meditation and visualization. It helped you adjust your energy frequency to get both of you to be aligned with the Source of all energies . . . with The Universe.”

  Joy shook her head. “As you know, Carl, my relationship with The Universe is a little more personal. I, humbly, prefer to call it a different name: God.”

  Carl smiled. “I know you do, dear.”

  The paramedics arrived and took over. Two of them loaded Richard on a stretcher and wheeled him into the ambulance while two others examined Joy’s scrapes and bruises.

  Richard’s eyes met hers across the distance. She looked exhausted. Her hair was a mess, interwoven with strands of grass and leaves. His blood was all over her clothes. He was suddenly filled by the inexplicable fear that if he left her now he’d never see her again.

  With the oxygen and the fluids running wide open, he felt stronger. As the paramedics tried to load him into the ambulance, he kicked and yelled, “Let me go! I need to get Joy! Joy, come with me!”

  Joy ran toward him. “It’s okay, Richard; you’ll be fine.”

  Richard held her arm tightly and turned to the paramedics. “I’m not going unless she comes with me!”

  One of them turned to Joy. “I’m sorry, but family members aren’t allowed to ride in the back. You could go in the front of the ambulance.”

  Richard clasped Joy’s arm as if his life depended on it. She asked, “Not even if I’m doctor?”

  The man shook his head. “It’s a liability issue. You can only ride in the back if you’re a restrained patient.” He showed her a spare stretcher. “You look like you need it anyway, doc.”

  Joy looked at them, horrified, but Richard’s imploring look seemed to convince her. She climbed onto the stretcher, and they secured her and rolled them both in.

  The door of the ambulance closed, and they took off. They rode in silence for a few minutes, lying next to each other.

  Joy muttered, “When everything that has happened today clicks in my brain, I’m going to crash big time.”

  Richard held her hand. “And I plan to be there to hold you. After all, I’m your man, right?”

  She erased the smile from her face. “I’m so confused.”

  Turning to the paramedics, who were following the conversation with morbid curiosity, Richard asked, “Would you excuse us for one minute?”

  The men moved toward the front of the ambulance. For anybody else, unfastening the restraints would have been almost impossible; but Richard had been in ambulances so many times, he had his top restraint undone before the paramedics found their seats.

  He held Joy in his arms.

  “What are you scared of?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve been alone for so long. I’m exhausted from taking care of people, but I’m not used to being taken care of. I bring my scars from my time with Michael; you bring your scars from your own marriage. It feels overwhelming to begin with—even before considering that we started on the wrong foot.”

  Taking his oxygen mask off, Richard smiled. “Joy, look at everything you’ve accomplished in your life—and today. You got a murderer to have empathy for your nasal congestion, you got a gang of Dark Angels to save our lives, you neutralized my own bad karma and talked a man who wanted to kill me into helping us, you helped seal my bleeding artery and saved my leg and my life . . . You’re the living proof that anything is possible. Why do you doubt you can make this work too?”

  She was startled, as if the idea had never crossed her mind.

  “But, what if I disappoint you? What if you disappoint me? What if you lie to me again? And you told me you’re transferring to New York. What kind of relationship could we have—?”

  Pulling her toward him, Richard kissed her to make her stop talking. It worked.

  Holding her face with both hands, he smiled. “How about we take it one day at a time?”

  She smiled, too, and they kissed.

  He enjoyed the feeling of holding her against his chest for a moment, before the paramedics came reprimanding him, making him put his restraint back on.

  Then, holding hands and feeling the rocking motion of the ambulance ride, they allowed themselves to fall asleep.

  Epilogue (Prologue for Next Book)

  Joy’s Journal. July 2016

  Some time ago, my sister Hope told me, “It’s like you’re a virgin all over again.” She was right. I was a “thirty-five-year-old virgin mother of three.”

  And that night, I knew that the fine male specimen in front of me was determined to put an end to my virginity.

  Lying in his bed, Richard’s hazel gaze burned mine as he held up the blankets beside him. “Come join me, angel. I promise I won’t try any tricks. I’m just dying to hold you in my arms.”

  The sudden jolt when switching from doctor mode to a turned-on woman almost made my brain trip out of my skull. A minute before, I was the physician examining Richard’s groin stab wound in his bedroom after it suddenly started hurting so much we had to cancel our dinner plans. Now, it was taking all of my medical training to peel my eyes off his muscular legs and his tight and extremely brief, black underwear.

  He kept holding the blankets up, his eyes inviting me and hypnotizing me at once.

  Did he think I was that naïve? Even someone with such little dating experience as I’d had knew that getting under the blankets with the man you’ve recently started dating—and to whom you’re insanely attracted to—is playing with fire.

  And that’s not even mentioning that this is the man who’d been lying to me since the moment we met. He claimed he was just doing his job—lying comes with being an undercover FBI agent—but still.

  This was the man with whom I’d been secretly in love with for months, yet I no longer knew if he really existed.

  The news that Richard had been pretending to be someone else all that time hit me barely two weeks back. It’s difficult to conceive that our budding friendship, our intellectual chemistry, our stimulating debates, our unwelcome physical attraction over the past six months—all had been part of his investigation. He was searching for evidence that I’d killed my husband, Michael, two years before.

  How could I trust this man ever again?

  At the same time, I would trust—I had trusted—this man with my life. Literally.

  The guilt of knowing he’d been so close to dying while rescuing me last week—the wound I’d just examined providing proof of it—still haunts me. Nightmares, reliving the moment the warm blood splashed my face—the blood from the man he killed inches away from me to save my life­­—still wake me up.

  “Come on, angel.” He smiled weakly. “I promise I’ll behave better than Friday—I’m in too much pain to try to seduce you tonight.”

  His words brought another rush of guilt. Two nights before, we’d engaged in mind-numbing making out on his couch, and he tried to move things to the next level several times; but I didn’t allow it. I accepted his passionate kisses and his sweet words whispered in my ear, yet I fiercely fought his attempts to undress me and stopped his hands short every time they’d wandered to forbidden places.

  I knew it wasn’t fair. We’re adults, not high school kids. He had needs, and so did I. Yet, I couldn’t give him what he wanted or needed. I just wasn’t ready. And I didn’t know how long it would take me to be.

  My first time—with Michael on our wedding night­­—was horrible, traumatic. It was the first proof I ever had of his instability. Honestly, it didn’t get much better after that. When the first, and only, man you knew in your life spent more than a decade chipping away your self-esteem and damaging your ability to trust yourself, it’s difficult to open up again. Being a psychiatrist didn’t help at all.

  The sincerity in Richard’s eyes was tempti
ng. In that moment, I convinced myself that what moved me was the inexpressive mask on his face and his irregular breathing, giving away that he was making an effort to not show how much pain he was really in.

  But maybe, in that critical moment of my life where I had to choose one path in that fork in the road, a part of me which had survived the years of psychological damage with Michael gave me the nod to do what my soul really wanted to do.

  Reluctantly, I joined him under the covers.

  Exclusive Bonus Scenes!

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  Joy’s Point of View: In this novel, we saw all the events through Richard’s eyes. What was Joy thinking?

  “I still have a crystal clear recollection of the first time my eyes met Richard’s. I remember the brief flash of approval in his hazel eyes, quickly covered by a mask of cool indifference…”

  First Night Together: Would you like to read the continuation of the Epilogue? The full version is part of the book “Just for Joy” to be released later in 2018.

  “Finding myself surrounded by his arms felt wonderful. The warmth of his chest was delicious against my skin, which was already turning cold from the glacial temperature he keeps his AC set at. My tension relaxed.”

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  Note from the Author

  Dear Reader:

  It is an honor to me that you took the time to read this story. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

  My goal is to write romance stories which are not only entertaining, but also enriching for the soul. Striking a balance between those two objectives is sometimes difficult, as it is to decide the right amount of sexy-spice to add into the mix.

  I’d love to hear from you. What did you like in the story? What did you not like? What would you like to see more in future books? I would really appreciate if you could take the time and leave a review at Amazon, Goodreads, your blog or any other venue of your preference.

  Please visit my website and sign for my email list for free short stories and sneak-peeks in future releases- Newsletter Sign-Up

  Please also feel free to email me at pichardojohanssonmd@gmail.com – I’m a busy lady, but I’ll do my best to answer all emails.

  Thank you again for reading me.

  Love,

  Diely

  About This Book Series

  You know an author is unusual when you need a diagram to understand the sequence of her books!

  If you enjoyed Richard and Joy’s love story and would like to see them get together for good, stay tuned for my upcoming book “Just for Joy” which is scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2018.

  The book “Just for Joy” belongs to a slightly different series/genre. “The Sunshine State series” is more geared toward Romance, (meaning that it’s a little spicier—but not too much). Those books are written with a more lighthearted tone and contain splashes of comedy. For example, check out the first book in the series “Hope for Harmony: Baby Makers Vs. Peter Pans.” The book “Just for Joy” will also contain mystery, but it will be lighter on Carl’s teachings.

  If romance is not your priority and your favorite parts of the book were the mystery and the spiritual teachings, you may prefer to wait for the next book in this series (immediate sequel) “Beyond Light and Darkness,” tentatively scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2018. This book will also follow the romance story, but it will continue Carl’s teachings and will focus more on the growth of the main characters as they become each other’s spiritual masters—It’s Joy’s turn to face her own demons.

  I’ve done my best to minimize mystery spoilers, so the reader has the freedom to decide which books to read first, without ruining the story for the next one or the previous one. So you can always read “Just for Joy” first, and then return later to “Beyond Light and Darkness.”

  Did I confuse you? Check my website for more clarification and a visual aid.

  And don’t forget to join my e-mail list for further information about these two and other upcoming books: Newletter Sign-Up

  About the Author

  Dr. Pichardo-Johansson is a Board Certified Hematologist-Oncologist practicing in Florida. Writing medical mystery and romantic comedy started as her outlet to avoid the burnout from oncology and eventually became her obsession.

  She is a mother of four children, including twins and a child with special needs. She lives in Melbourne Beach, Florida with them and her Soulmate Husband, a reformed eternal bachelor turned into happy stepfather.

  Dr. Pichardo-Johansson is a self-proclaimed “Expert on Finding Love Against All Prognoses.” She’s also firm believer in the body-mind-spirit connection and the healing power of laughter. Her motto is that The Best Health Booster Is Wanting to be Alive. For that reason, she only writes positive stories, uplifting for the heart.

  In spite of her busy life, she absolutely loves to get emails from readers and welcomes feedback. You can always email her at pichardojohanssonmd@gmail.com

  For more information, and to learn about upcoming releases, visit her website.