Sandy placed a hand at the small of her back, offering her some calm. With a long deep breath, she slowly dropped back into her chair and moved the phone to the other ear. “For the record, I love that kid. You just remember that. He was here, a daily part of my life for weeks while you were off doing your thing. I love him and yet you just showed up and bundled him back up and disappeared into the night just as quickly as you appeared. You’re so selfish, Rhetta. Didn’t you even once think about me?”
Silence filled the apartment for a long time. Sandy’s hand was still there, rubbing little circles and working magic calm into her muscles. “You should come visit us,” Rhia finally said. “We’d like to see you and Remy. And meet Pete, if he’s still in your life.”
Now Rhetta was weeping again softly on the other end, “We’d like that. All three of us would like that.”
After she’d hung up the phone she turned to Sandy and smiled tenuously, “Well, they’re okay.”
“I heard.”
“Hungry?” She started to stand but halted when he took her hand and held her there.
“You know what you just said to Rhetta, about trusting you. About her running off and not letting you help her?”
Rhiannon nodded, brow furrowed in confusion.
“I need you to remember that with me, Rhia. I know I don’t have vampire super speed. I know I don’t have werewolf super strength. But I can get in there and fight with you. If we’re going to be a couple, I need us to be partners.”
A lump settled at the base of her throat, and her heart was pounding like a snare drum in her ears. “I never meant to cut you out, Sandy. It’s just that... I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He brought her hand to his lips. “I know that. And I understand, but I need you to understand me, too. It’s bad enough that I walked in on you naked with that freaking Alpha devouring every inch of you, but you shoved me aside. You assumed I couldn’t help you and maybe I couldn’t, but I didn’t deserve to be pushed out.”
She nodded, squeezing his hand. “Okay, I understand.”
“Good.”
“And I love you, Bartholomew.”
“I love you too, Rhiannon.”
Things are getting easie,r I guess. I still miss Remy like you wouldn’t believe, but Rhetta’s been video conferencing us so at least I get to see him every once in a while. They’re traveling Europe right now, and Rembo’s getting so big you wouldn’t believe it. She sent me this super cute pic of him and I’m going to keep it right here with you.
And so there’s still this weird thing with Sandy. I thought we talked out the whole “let him be a man” thing, but I still feel like there’s some disconnect between us. He says there’s nothing wrong, but I just can’t quite bring myself to believe him. Lynlee’s protégé Rolayna is having a housewarming in a few days, and we’ll all supposed to be there. I’m looking forward to it, but I think I’ve caught some kind of bug or something. Curses aren’t contagious, are they?
Trivia from Olivia
In March, 2014 while excavating for the Crossrail Project in London, workers uncovered 25 bodies. The bodies were determined to be those of Black Death victims from the 14th century. “The Great Pestilence” arrived in Britain in 1338 and is estimated to have killed as many as 75 million people throughout multiple waves of the pandemic.
Though records said that Londoners buried the dead from the plague in two mass graves, the actual locations were a mystery. The discovery of the 25 14th century bodies led archeologists to believe one of those graves might be nearby. In order to determine whether there were more graves, the University of Keele used ground-penetrating radar to conduct a geophysics survey. The scan detected other apparent burials across London’s Charterhouse Square.
Forensic archeologists extracted samples from the corpses for testing. They discovered that the DNA of the plague bacteria was similar to an outbreak recently in Madagascar. The particular bug, called Yersinia pestis, can be either bubonic or pneumonic. Researchers hope to continue to map the DNA of the plague bacteria, and some believe it might be the “grandmother” of the plague that still exists and kills as many as 2,000 people per year.
Many of us grew up believing that the Black Death was a result of the bubonic plague, which is transmitted by the fleas of rates. Researchers have determined that the 14th century plague must certainly have been pneumonic in order to account for the huge death tolls. Instead of being spread by fleas, that plague was airborne and much more easily transmitted.
The year I graduated high school, the movie Outbreak was released. I can’t say how many times I watched it, but I was fascinated by not only the plot, but the manner in which the disease was tracked and spread. The 2011 movie Contagion took that theme even further in its creative method of following the disease by the number of days from the first point of infection. Also fascinating about both of these movies were the subplots of government involvement in cover-ups related to the outbreaks. My friends and family know I’m a self-described “conspiracy-theorists.” Give me time and possibly some wine to loosen me up, and I’ll probably tell you all about my current conspiracy machinations.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26770334
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2592566/How-Black-Death-Londoners-just-cosmopolitan-Analysis-14th-century-remains-shows-four-10-victims-grew-elsewhere.html
About the Author
When Olivia Hardin began having strange movie-like dreams in her teens, she had no choice but to begin putting them to paper. Before long the writing bug had her and she knew she wanted to be a published author. Several rejections plus a little bit of life later, and she was temporarily “cured” of the urge to write. That is until she met a group of talented and fabulous writers who gave her the direction and encouragement she needed to get lost in the words again.
Olivia’s attended three different universities over the years and toyed with majors in Computer Technology, English, History and Geology. Then one day she heard the term road scholar and she knew that was what she wanted to be. Now she “studies” anything and everything just for the joy of learning. She's also an insatiable crafter who only completes about 1 out of 5 projects, a jogger who hates to run, and she’s sometimes accused of being artistic.
A native Texas girl, Olivia lives in the beautiful Lone Star state with her husband, Danny and their puppy, Bonnie.
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TROUBLE doesn’t end here! Check out ALL of the Lynlee Lincoln Series in this suggested reading order:
The Trouble with Holidays (A Lynlee Lincoln Prequel) Amazon Link
Trolling for Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Series – 1) Amazon Link
The Werevamp Diaries: Moon Dust (A Lynlee Lincoln Bonus Short) Amazon Link
Tangled Up In Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Series – 2) Amazon Link
This Spells Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Series – 3) Amazon Link
Reaping Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Series – 4) Amazon Link
The Werevamp Diaries: Moon Beam Dreams (The Lynlee Lincoln Series – 5) Amazon Link
The Trouble with Vows (The Lynlee Lincoln Series – 6) Coming Soon Amazon Link
The Werevamp Diaries: Moon Beam Dream (The Lynlee Lincoln Series Book 5) Page 8