The Sleeping Beauty Bride

by Glenys O'Connell

  That very thought shocked him to the core. He wanted to spend years getting to know this complicated, kind, courageous woman, this woman who had not been afraid to do what she thought was right in trying to find out the truth about his daughter’s fiancé when he himself had deliberately blinded himself, not only to Daniel’s innocence but to the deep love his daughter and that boy shared.

  Some psychologist you are. Refusing to see the truth because it was easier to hide behind the story that you told yourself. Were you trying to protect your daughter, or to keep her for yourself? Is that evidence of how lonely you are?

  He swallowed hard, as if he were swallowing the truth that Noelia had helped him to face. The truth about himself.

  Suddenly he didn’t want to leave her, didn’t want to go out into the cool spring night—and yet he also didn’t want to feel this need. Because needing someone, loving them, usually ended in hurt.

  But how could he think straight, with Noelia standing there, her lips swollen from his kisses, dressed in an old gray jogging suit with paint in her hair? And that adorable smudge of lavender blue on her nose . . .

  He reached for her again, and she came willingly into his arms.

  “Nate, I don’t think . . .

  “Noelia, I really don’t . . . ”

  Speaking at once, neither finishing the sentence.

  “Ladies first,” Nate said.

  “Ah, a gentleman! I was going to say . . . ”

  “No, don’t say it. It’s late, and we said we’d take things slow. So good night, my sweet.”

  • • •

  After Nate was gone, Noelia wondered whether he’d thought she was going to say she didn’t want him to leave, or she didn’t want him to stay.

  She wasn’t really sure herself which would have come out of her mouth.

  All she knew was that she was lonely without him. And her heart and body wanted him to stay.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Nate found it hard to sleep when he got home from Noelia’s. He told himself he was a fool, repeatedly, for not at least asking if she wanted him to stay. His imagination wrote alternative endings to the evening in a hundred different ways, all of them ending with him naked with that beautiful woman in her bed, and all of them leaving a glow of ecstasy.

  Except he hadn’t asked to stay. Fool, fool, fool.

  All the sexual energy he’d repressed over the past few years was now sitting up and begging for release. He swore and turned over in bed yet again, pushing the blankets back and trying to turn his mind, and his hormones, off so he could sleep.

  “Lord, I hope she’s having trouble sleeping, too,” he muttered to himself.

  Then he heard noises downstairs. Downstairs in his empty house.

  “Oh, not again, dammit!” he cursed, wondering if he should just pull the covers over his head and hope that whatever was causing the noise would just go away. Honey snored softly beside him, obviously not bothered by the dangers of either romantic thoughts or burglars.

  He sat up reluctantly. Remembering the last time there had been strange noises in his office, he knew he’d never get to the bottom of things by blocking the sounds out and trying to sleep.

  And what if there was a real burglar? He cursed as he remembered Noelia hinting that there was something ghostly going on. He didn’t want to think about the possibility of supernatural events going on in his quiet, well-ordered house. “I really can’t accept this supernatural stuff, not professionally, and certainly not personally. There must be a logical explanation, and I’m going to find it right now. I don’t believe in ghosts. What I think is that whoever broke in the last time was disturbed, and now they’re back to try again.”

  He blocked the little voice in his head that reminded him about the strange light, the self-closing file drawers, and the folders that appeared to spell out Noelia’s name.

  “Just some weird coincidence,” he assured himself as he swung his legs out of bed, grabbed the baseball bat from beside the bed, and began to tiptoe along the hall. Honey the Hound snored on.

  He peered over the stair rail. This time the wavering light was in his living room, not his office. What on earth was this burglar looking for?

  On silent feet, baseball bat clutched firmly in one hand, Nate went down the stairs and paused at the partially open door to the living room.

  • • •

  Noelia had fallen fast asleep, a small smile playing on the lips that Nate had so thoroughly kissed. She had moments of regret that she hadn’t asked him to stay, moments of anxiety when she wondered if he hadn’t asked because he didn’t want to . . . then memories of the look in his eyes and the need in his voice had sent her happily off to sleep.

  Deep in her heart she knew that things between her and Nate were going in the right direction.

  So she was delighted when the next morning her cell phone chirped, and she saw Nate’s number.

  “Good morning!” she answered, pleased that he was calling so soon after their evening together.

  “No, it’s not a good morning. I’ve been awake almost all night.”

  Cold fingers seemed to clutch at Noelia’s heart. What was wrong? Did he have second thoughts? Was there something wrong with Lydia? So many thoughts tumbled through her brain but before she could form the questions, Nate began to speak again.

  “Remember that night when I thought I’d had a burglar?”

  Suddenly Noelia knew where this was going. “The strange events? Did something happen again?”

  There was a brief silence, and then Nate, his voice shaky, told her, “I can’t talk about this on the phone. In fact, I don’t really know how to talk about it at all. Do you remember that you suggested we get together with Kelly and discuss some of the things that have been happening? Do you think it would be possible to arrange something? I . . . I know about Kelly’s apparent ability to see and talk to ghosts.”

  “Oh, my, do you have a ghost?” She’d noted he’d tried to rationalize even while asking for Kelly, and decided she’d tease him a little.

  After a short silence, Nate went on in an odd voice. “There’s weird things going on. It’s like I’m missing something but for the life of me, I can’t figure it out. If there are restless spirits—and I’m not saying for one minute I believe that—then it’s probably Jackie worrying about Lydia.”

  A whole lot of things fit into place for Noelia. Of course, the cold and sense of a ghostly presence in Lydia’s room, the displaced files in Nate’s office, the wild goings-on at Wedding Bliss when some restless spirit had left the mysterious message on the mirror. Who but a mother would come back from the grave to try to protect her daughter?

  She didn’t have much time to speculate on these things. It was Sunday morning, and time was passing. She’d better hustle if she was to get to church on time, and it was Noelia’s turn to provide some snacks for after the service. She had already baked sweet pumpkin bread and some oatmeal raisin cookies, and she knew another member of the church women’s group would set up coffee and tea. She always enjoyed these little parish get-togethers, a time to meet friends and catch up with events and news she might have missed while busy with her job, her volunteer work, and immersed in her writing.

  Of course, none of the other parishioners knew that quiet, competent Noelia Russo was also romance writer Mimi L’Amour—and Noelia wanted to keep it that way.

  Unfortunately, those little gatherings could also involve being roped in for volunteer work of various kinds or to perform favors for other members of the congregation, and Noelia was unable to say no.

  Ellie Mae had a doctor’s appointment the following Monday, and she asked Noelia if she would again do her three-hour volunteer stint at the hospital.

  “I really hate to ask you, especially after you’ve been so kind and done all those hours while I was away,” Ellie Mae said. “But you know how long it takes to get a doctor’s appointment in this town. This is just for a routine checkup, but I’d hate to let it go and
have to wait goodness knows how long before I get another one.”

  Noelia sighed. She was now convinced that there was a large flashing red light over her head, and an arrow pointing right down at her with the flashing neon sign reading “Sucker.” But she’d been friends with Ellie Mae for a very long time, since they were both young marrieds, and she vividly remembered the other woman’s kindnesses to her in the dark days following Andre’s death.

  “I would ask someone else, but you know the ropes at the hospital now, and the volunteer coordinator had such good things to say about you.”

  Well, that was a relief, after the debacle when she tried to sneak Daniel into Lydia’s room. “Of course I’ll stand in for you, Ellie Mae. But you owe me big time.”

  Her friend chuckled. “Well, feel free to call me when you need payback. And thank you, hon!”

  Noelia just hoped that she wouldn’t be given a hard time by the nurses who had been so annoyed with her for disrupting their routine by bringing Daniel in to see Lydia, requiring calls to Dr. Westbury and the security guards.

  Oh, well, she’d weathered worse things than a little disapproval by those competent staff members. And there was an upside to it all. She pressed a now familiar number on her cell phone contacts list.

  “Hello, Noelia.” Just hearing Nate’s rich voice sent a warm shiver down her spine. “What can I do for you?”

  She told him that she was going to be at the hospital the next day for another volunteer stint. “You know how you said Lydia seemed to respond well to Daniel’s presence? Wouldn’t it be a good time for him to visit her if I’m there to watch how things go?”

  The silence at the other end made her think she’d gone too far.

  When Nate finally spoke, his voice sounded thick with emotion. “That’s really very kind of you to think of this. I’ve got a crowded schedule tomorrow and back-to-back appointments, but if you’d like to give Daniel a call and tell him it would be all right for him to visit, then you—and he—have my blessing.”

  Oh, no, he wasn’t going to get off that easily! “I’ll be happy to keep an eye on things, Nate, but if anyone calls Daniel to tell him he can visit, it has to be you. I’ll give you his number. Maybe you could also give him that long-overdue apology if you haven’t already done so.”

  She read Daniel’s number off her contacts list and firmly said goodbye.

  That afternoon she settled down to write the next chapter of her latest sexy historical romance, and she was delighted that the words seemed to flow smoothly as Lady Lucy Lloyd met the somewhat cantankerous but very sexy Thomas, Duke Etherby, a character who bore a surprising resemblance to a certain psychologist Noelia was getting to know—and hoped to get to know much better.

  • • •

  Kelly and Nate had agreed to meet with Noelia to plan a strategy early Monday morning at Wedding Bliss before the store opened.

  Kelly reminded everyone that Brett insisted he be present if she was going to be involved in any kind of “ghostly skullduggery,” as he had put it.

  “I would never have thought my big, strong husband would be superstitious, but I think he’s learned a lot about various rituals on his travels in developing countries, and he’s anxious that we don’t endanger either my pregnancy or the growing baby.”

  “I think that’s kind of sweet!” Noelia said as she handed out cups of strong coffee and brought out an herbal tea for Kelly. Nate looked exhausted, and she guessed he’d had another sleepless night. “I think the earlier we get together and see what’s what, the better for all concerned.”

  “Monday morning is out, because Brett is on long-distance conference calls and can’t be wherever we decide to do this. And I need to catch up on the books here at the store,” Kelly said.

  “And I have therapy patients right up until Monday dinner time,” Nate added as he flicked through the calendar on his cell phone.

  “And I’ve promised to do Ellie Mae’s hours at the hospital mid-afternoon because she has a checkup,” Noelia said. “Looks like the earliest we can all make it is Monday evening.”

  “Do you think we should check to see if this restless spirit, as Kelly calls it, can also make it or if he or she has another engagement?” Nate said sarcastically. “Just what happens in this—what do you call it, Noelia? Intervention?”

  “That was the best word I could think of to describe it, Nate.”

  Kelly took over. “We’ll just put our heads together and compare experiences and ideas, try to find a pattern in the things we know that would tell us, first of all, why there is a spirit hovering around Lydia, what he or she wants and, most importantly, why Lydia isn’t waking up when the doctors say there is no reason for her not to.

  “And if we’re lucky, the restless spirit will want to chime in, and maybe we can solve the problem right then and there.”

  “I’m not sure the appearance of a dead person would be a lucky event,” Nate murmured under his breath, making Kelly smile.

  “How about we do it in Lydia’s room? Seems like that’s probably where the ghost hangs out,” Noelia suggested, remembering the cold shivers she’d felt in that room.

  Nate immediately nixed that idea. “I don’t want anything happening that might upset or hurt Lydia.”

  “I’d like to invite Daniel,” Noelia said with a cautious look at him. “After all, he is very close to Lydia.”

  “Let’s see how he gets on with visiting in the afternoon while you’re there. The first sign of any problems and we pull the plug on him being anywhere near Lydia. And I’m still not entirely convinced that he won’t upset her just by being there,” Nate said. “Besides, I don’t think she’s ready yet for a crowd.”

  “Wasn’t the evidence that her brain waves increased but there was no suggestion that she was stressed or frightened when he was there?” Noelia pointed out.

  “And if he is a problem and the spirit shows up, and it is Lydia’s mother, she can whack him over the head a few times to sort him out.” Kelly grinned.

  Nate shrugged. “I know that Jackie wouldn’t hurt her, but we don’t know what is behind all this—and it might still be that it’s human mischief and nothing supernatural.”

  Kelly and Noelia looked at each other and rolled their eyes. The guy was in deep denial. In the end, they chose to meet at Nate’s house. After all, that’s where the events he was upset about seemed to be happening.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Noelia had arranged to meet Nate for a quick lunch at a seafood place on the pier and crossed her fingers that the store would be safe in Sasha’s hands until Kelly returned. The boss was expected within a half hour or so, and Noelia doubted even Sasha could wreak too much damage with any unwary customers who came in before Kelly was back.

  She’d asked Kelly how she got on with talking to Brett about her ghost-hunting involvement. “Umm, let’s just say it’s a good thing I took ‘obey’ out of the marriage vows,” was her response.

  “What did he say to that?”

  “He laughed and said even with that in the vows, he doubts I’d ever obey him unless I wanted to. And then he did the little wiggly thing with his eyebrows.”

  Noelia was smiling at the memory of that conversation when she arrived to meet Nate for lunch.

  Nate was already in the restaurant, sitting at a window table and chatting with the waitress. Noelia paused for a moment at the door, just looking at him. Her pulse jumped at the sight of him, and she couldn’t help the smile that carved itself onto her lips. Pure pleasure, just from seeing the man.

  And by the look on his face and the warm, welcoming smile he gave when he saw her, she knew that he was reacting in the same way. He introduced her to the waitress, a silver-haired woman with a straight back and narrow waist, who smiled at Noelia and welcomed her to the restaurant. She handed them both menus and said she’d be back in a moment with their orders of iced tea.

  “Sheila is a neighbor of mine. She’s worked here for years,” Nate explained. “She’
s raised two lovely daughters by herself.”

  “Something I can relate to—raising children alone is no easy task,” Noelia replied, remembering the hard times and the good times with her two boys after their father’s death.

  Nate gave her hand a sympathetic pat, and his fingers laced with hers. She looked up and the expression on his face made her heart melt. “So what were you smiling at when you came in?” he asked.

  “Oh, just something Kelly said, something about vows to obey that were made to be broken.”

  “I’m not sure I want to hear any more,” Nate said. “I have really enjoyed the time we’ve spent together, Noelia—even if it has been a bit fraught with problems that aren’t of your making. I hope that we can somehow solve whatever is happening with Lydia, and then have some time to explore whatever is happening between us.” His words were so sincere that Noelia was breathless.

  “I hope so, too, Nate. You’re the first man I’ve even had lunch with in the years since Andre died. It seems hard to get used to, and yet I really would like to get to know you better.”

  “I’m sorry to have involved you in my troubles,” Nate said. “I can’t help thinking that this messing around with the restless spirits and things could be dangerous.”

  “So now you believe?”

  He chewed his bottom lip. Noelia wanted to kiss it instead. “I can’t honestly say I do. The scientist in me—and psychology is a science—says that it’s not possible. But the other part of me says that when you dismiss all possible explanations, the one that’s left, even if it’s unlikely, must be the truth.”

  “Isn’t that like something Sherlock Holmes said in one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories?” Noelia teased.

  He grinned. “I was a total devotee of Sherlock Holmes and Doyle’s work when I was a boy. Maybe some of it has rubbed off on me.”

  “I bet you were a really cute little boy, short pants and a cowlick!”

  “And you were a pretty little thing with a cheeky smile and pigtails!”