The Healers Read online

  Leo’s arms wrapped around me until the kicks and shivers stilled. A nightmare.

  “Shhh. I’m here, nothing will hurt you.” His body locked over mine in a protective hold.

  My eyes opened to sunlight peeking through the windows. Our eyes met. Embarrassment shadowed over my cheeks. At my age, nightmares made me feel juvenile.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that sometimes I have crazy dreams.” No need to go into details. I didn’t want to scare him off the first night we had sex. I did want him to get me naked again. The lust warmed over my body. The love would come later. It had to. This man that loomed over me right now melted my heart with his gaze. The blue in his eyes shone with fire as he regarded my body covered only in his sheet.

  “Do you want to tell me about the nightmares?” I hadn’t said anything about nightmares had I? Although, I guess the trembles gave me away. I couldn’t share these with anyone.

  “No.” A quiet word, but unwilling to bend.

  “Layna.” A soft sigh escaped his mouth. “Whenever you’re ready, I’m here.”

  “I’m glad you’re here.” Leo had always been my rock. I placed a hand on his chest. It flexed from my touch.

  “Wow.” His voice lingered in my ears and the adoration in his eyes spread heat throughout the bed. He had a fair to tan complexion that balanced well with the dirty blond locks on his head. They were scattered now and his hand instinctively went up to his head to comb them out.

  I brought my body closer to his and wrapped myself around him and the sheets as best as I could. My soft ivory skin looked like a reflector next to his tan skin.

  “I can’t believe we finally did this,” he said with a mischievous grin on his face. I saw the excitement grow as the crinkles in his eyes grew deeper.

  “I’m the happiest guy on the planet right now. Do you even realize how trapped you are for life? I’m addicted now.” His words paused as his hands grabbed at my ass. “Are you going to say anything? Is this okay? I mean, you feel good, right?” The nervous questions started to spill out of his lips so I decided to save him. I didn’t think I’d ever seen this much emotion so blatantly on his face. Leo’s good looks gave him a confident air. I took a little guilty pleasure as I watched him squirm.

  “I’m just savoring this moment.” It was so simple. Really it was. Something held me back. I had told him last night that I trusted him, because, I knew everything about him. Belatedly, it occurred to me that Leo probably thought he knew everything about me too.

  He didn’t. Some things I couldn’t tell anyone.

  His gaze hovered over me expectantly while waiting for me to continue.

  “How does a girl get so lucky?” I breathed in his ear. Then I saw the joy come to his face, first in his lips as they quirked up in a smile and then in his eyes as they grew wide and serious and then got crinkles in the corners as they smiled, too. Could I ever have someone that knew everything about me?

  Our lips joined in a kiss that had guarantees of a lot more than that when my phone rang. Because of my job, I usually had to answer the phone. I never knew when a mental breakdown would require my services with the hospital or the police. A quick glance at the phone told me it was Cameron.

  “I guess you’re going to answer it,” Leo surmised, but did have a tinge of regret in his voice.

  “Hi, Cameron.”

  “So…you’re still with Leo?”

  “Yes.” I couldn’t help the smile on my face now. Of course, I was a little embarrassed because I was pretty sure he could hear Cameron, too.

  “I knew it! We all knew it! I’m so happy for you two. Do you know how long I think he’s been trying to seduce you?” I could just see how her cute little auburn curls must have bounced up and down with all the energy her voice was giving off. And when I thought about her question I realized I did know.

  A hand gently slid up and down my leg. I looked into the eyes of the guilty party and just thought it was too cute to stop him.

  Cameron’s voice brought me back to the phone call.

  “Well, now that you two finally got that out of the way I need you to come join us for brunch at our favorite French restaurant.” A purposeful sound in her voice brought me back to the phone. What was the secret?

  “Okay, but give me an hour.” I would have to get clean clothes from home first so I wouldn’t have the I spent the night somewhere else look in my outfit. Not that I worried about what my friends thought. That would probably be the majority of our discussion. I just didn’t want the other patrons of the restaurant to know.

  I hung up the phone and looked back at Leo.

  “I’ve gotta go.” My mind quickly recalled some of the words we’d said to each other last night. One three word sentence in particular stood out in my thoughts. I love you. Oh my gosh. Shock still trembled through my body as I remembered all the years of our friendship that had changed last night. Had we made the right choice? I’m just going to go with this and see what he says. I won’t bring it up.

  “I’m only letting you go if you’ll promise to have dinner with me tonight.” How could I deny anything to those baby blue eyes? His hands cupped around my cheeks and slipped his tongue right into my already parted lips.

  “I think I can put up with being fed,” I bantered back.

  Chapter Three

  An hour and a half hour later I drove to the restaurant. Of course, the girl who’d shacked up last night had to be late. I couldn’t wait to hear their comments.

  As I pulled into the parking lot, I was reminded why this was always our favorite spot to meet. The warm colored bricks and cozy colors gave it a quant but old world feel. And we loved the creamy, rich French food.

  I pulled the door open and stepped through. A decision to throw on my favorite pair of jeans that had a hole in them stopped me for a second. I knew that holes in jeans were kind of cool so I let it be. I had just earned the hole instead of paying for it.

  A short glance through the tables and I found my group.

  Jane’s words came first. “Well, what’s up, Layna? I guess Leo is. Or he was last night. I really hope he’s not still up. But, maybe.” Jane’s eyes glanced around as she, Tabitha, and Cameron erupted into giggles.

  “Real mature, Jane.” Then I decided to revel in it for a moment. “Of course he’s still up. I always leave them wanting more.” Proud of my come-back, I pulled out a chair and sat down. Now, we all laughed loudly and I noticed a few stares from older more refined ladies at other tables. I also noticed someone else. Some guy sitting all alone. It was hard not to notice that in here. It wasn’t often you saw men without women at a French cafe. At least not in Texas.

  His presence buzzed through me. I continued to stare, unable to focus on anything else.

  “You might go ask him if he wants to meet you out back.” Tabitha’s voice claimed my attention. “Tell me you’re not scoping out your next conquest already. Wasn’t Leo enough?” The sharpness of her words caught me off guard, but no one else heard her. The conversation had already gone past me and my wild night.

  A fast glance up unveiled a moment of hesitation and then she immediately shielded her face back to the girl I knew.

  “Go get your food. We’ve all already ordered.” Her voice sounded right. But, something gnawed at my brain. I pushed back my chair and stood.

  Since I was late, I had to go and order all by myself. I grabbed a tray and eyed the strawberries Romanoff. It was one of my favorite treats, so I had to indulge, since celebrating my birthday was still on the agenda. The smells of warm quiches and savory breads wafted through my senses as I traveled through the line. My fingers reached out to add a raspberry scone and some orange juice when I noticed him again. Curiosity got the best of me when I felt my magic react this way towards someone else. Could he be like me? Probably not, or at least I would never know, because I would have to be brave enough to go talk to him. What would I say?

  Hi….um, do your hands heal things? Also, I’m a sure thing if you wa
nt to go home with me.

  I could just imagine that conversation going real well.

  IHHkdjvflkdjfdvvnmjvmvmvMost times I attributed it to some kind of radar, but this sense drew me closer to him. Invoking my brain in the matter seemed wise instead of following the draw of my body to him. The loner guy sitting in La Madeleine sans a hot date. He really seemed to be absorbed in reading something on his e-reader. I wondered what he was reading. I also wondered why I had to stare. He had chocolate brown hair that fell just to his ears and skin that reminded me of someone who was at the beach a lot. I eyed his body once more and thought maybe he was a surfer. I always wanted to learn to surf. Maybe he would give me some private…

  “Excuse me.”

  My eyes quickly focused back on the line and I realized that I had caused a little dilemma for the patrons behind me who were not interested in staring at my loner guy. Without turning around to acknowledge the person behind me, who had evidently complained, I pulled my tray up to the register. I began to pay and I realized he had noticed me. Before I started to flatter myself too much, I remembered the disturbance I had created previously and decided that had probably caused him to look up. Too bad I missed seeing his eye color.

  At our table, I came upon a conversation in progress.

  “I think that he’ll propose before the year is up,” Tabitha contributed.

  “Who are we talking about?” I asked immediately interested.

  “Leo and you, of course,” Jane replied, looking at me as though it was a silly question.

  “What!” Air came short and fast in my lungs.

  “I just barely shacked up with the guy and now you have our wedding planned. You’re all crazy.” I finalized my comment with a huge bite of that raspberry scone. Such sweet bliss.

  “You aren’t getting any younger, Layna,” Cameron kindly reminded me.

  “And he’s been in love with you since you guys met back at school,” Jane added and then continued with, “Really, I’m surprised it took as long as it did.”

  “Okay. That’s enough.” I attempted all the seriousness in my voice I could muster so they would stop. Marriage was not something I wanted to talk about. I also guessed this meant I would not confess to the love vows we’d made in bed last night. Definitely not right now.

  Chapter Four

  I finally got back home and settled into a luxurious bubble bath. I knew it was the middle of the day on a Sunday, but I needed it. I just reveled in the sound the little bubbles made as they popped all around me. My golden hair sat scooped up in a bun but still had loose strands that had turned darker from the water in my bath. I couldn’t help but fill it up almost all the way with extremely warm water. It gave me pleasurable chills to just soak. This was one of the benefits of living alone. I could just stop my day and soak in the tub because I wanted to.

  As I lay back and shut my eyes I found myself lost in thoughts about the man at the bar that had caught my fall. What had happened? He had sent my body into sensory overload. Much like the man today at the restaurant. There was something there…

  There was little I knew about where I came from. From what I had gathered I was born to a young mother who had not been ready to take on a child. She kindly passed me on to the government. I spent most of my childhood in and out of different households. Most people referred to it as foster homes. Upon looking up the meaning of foster I found the following definitions: one, to bring up or raise, and two, to care for or cherish. Since neither one of these applied to my experiences, I decided to neglect the word foster when referencing my childhood. I did not feel sorry for myself. I was not even close to being the only child that grew up that way. The last time I looked it up there were over three thousand children in Houston alone who were in foster homes.

  There was something different about me. I had this insatiable hunger to help others. Some could argue that this was a direct result of my being shuffled around through many homes. My therapists had constantly driven this point home. But, other things happened, too. Things that made me wonder where I came from.

  I could heal people.

  Once, when I was twelve, I was in a home with four other children like me. We stayed with an elderly woman that didn’t have much interest in us and left us to our own devices. I can still remember the soap and musk smell that assaulted my senses the first time I was brought into her home. My nose wrinkled at that memory. The other children were already there and I was to be the most recent addition. I don’t remember all the other kids, but I remember Caroline and Adam. Of course, I would remember Caroline.

  Caroline and I had instantly become close and this had given us a sort of alliance, helpful when there were that many children in the house. In some ways it was similar to the behaviors exhibited in prisons. But, I’m digressing from my point. As I saw the vision in my head, it was similar to being there again in spirit and watching it all happen in slow motion. There was a tremor in my hands as they remembered the feel of that night. My hands slowly moved over her head. All I could see were dark red brown chunks where there should have been lots of shiny sun kissed brown hair. I don’t know how my hands knew what to do, but they did. In my fear, my mind left my body and my hands took over. I would compare it to the way your mind feels during hypnosis or a similar trance. Aware, but not in control over the things that occurred. I could see the fair skin in my small hands as they were positioned on what appeared to be the side of Caroline’s head, but I could not feel her head. And yet somehow, the large gaping wound on her head was closing up. Even now, years later, I could still feel it all over again. My body tingled with it. I wanted to give in to it, but didn’t know how. And then I saw Adam. His lean muscular teenage body was standing behind me looking appropriately shocked. I was shocked, too.

  The sound of my phone suddenly brought me back to my now cold bath. How long had my mind drifted?

  In my disheveled state I did not even peek at the phone before answering it.

  “Hello?” My voice croaked a bit from being lost in thoughts for who knows how long. The scent of lilies and coconut seeped through every pore in my body.

  “Well, hello there to you.” Leo’s amused voice echoed in my ear. I remembered the first flower he had ever given me, a simple white lily.

  “You sound like you’re resting. Did you not get much sleep last night?”

  I could hear the smile through the phone as he began to tease me. “I was too busy with some hot new guy I just met. He’s supposed to take me to dinner tonight.”

  “Mmmm…I wonder if he’ll get lucky again tonight.”

  Now my ear filled with his outright laugh. A smile found itself across my lips. It was kind of fun to shack up with someone that you felt comfortable enough to be silly with. Maybe this was why every relationship book I had ever read recommended being friends first.

  “That depends.” My voice warmed up to this conversation pretty fast and I think most of the memory of Caroline disappeared back into the depths of my convoluted mind at that point.

  “On what?” He quickly asked.

  “It depends on how good dinner is.” I said as I secretly hoped he would opt for a secluded dinner at home. I could feel my body going a little limp as I recalled last night. I think it all happened so fast that we needed to go back and have some more alone time.

  I heard a click on the phone as he spoke, “I need to get that, it’s work.”

  All the playfulness left his voice in one sentence. I put on my best pouty face and realizing he couldn’t see it, I said, “Call me back.”

  “I will.”

  And that was it for the next few hours. I painted my toes, put on fancy make up. I even used eye shadow primer. Seriously. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out that Leo would have to leave out of town immediately. A leak in underground pipelines in Iola, Texas. His company had been contacted by the pipeline owners to begin the cleanup process. Leo had to be on hand to oversee all the work. I’m pretty sure if the boss has to stand
and watch all the employees work it means you can’t trust your workers. But what do I know?

  My ears heard a light knock at the door. I pulled myself away from my e-mail to go and check it. At least I was still all done up from my cancelled date. I looked through the small set of wood blinds on the side of my door to see…Leo. What?

  I was still shocked as I opened the door and he scooped me up off of the ground and wrapped my legs around him. Then suddenly our lips were melting together. I opened my eyes to peer back at him gleefully.

  “Does this mean you’re not really leaving?” Hope inflated my chest for just a moment. My legs were still wrapped nicely around his waist.

  A loud sigh escaped his lips. “I’m still leaving, but I wanted to say goodbye.” He spoke lightly but something in his tone hinted at seriousness.

  My feet came down to the ground again and our hands laced together as I guided him in. My bare feet softly padded across the wood floors. I know this sounds bad, but I had to really think hard for a minute about whether or not we should go to the bed or the couch. My sweet girl side won this round as we sat on the oversized soft wheat-colored loveseat with our feet propped up on the leather rectangle shaped ottoman.

  Cute. I knew him. We didn’t have to sit on the couch stiff and nervous. Maybe there was a little nervousness. Whoa… Now that I started to think about it, what would happen if this didn’t work out? Would we still be friends? My heart started to beat faster and my face must have portrayed as much because suddenly two sea blue eyes were extremely close to my face and two warm arms wrapped around me.

  “Everything’s fine. Don’t worry. I’ll always be here for you, even if you don’t fall for all my charms.” He had to sneak in something funny to ease the tension. He also understood me in a way others didn’t. My friends were my family. “But this is right, Layna. I know you feel it, too.”