Color of Forgiveness (28 page)

“I still don’t know how the hell you made
such a damn delicious sandwich with just that machine,” Dylan says
as he nods his head towards the small grill sitting on her kitchen
table. “You amaze me how you still manage to cook something that
good with no counter tops, or even a stove for that matter.”

“It’s the magical power of the Panini.”

Dylan chuckles. “I don’t know what the hell
a Panini is; all I know is that it was damn good.”

“Thank you.” Myra smiles brightly at him.
“What do you want to do tonight? Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Sure.” Dylan follows her into the living
room and sits on the couch, propping his bare feet up on the coffee
table.

“What kind of movies do you like?” Myra
asks.

Dylan shrugs. “I don’t watch much TV or
movies. I think the last time I saw a movie at the theatre was…
shit, let me think…” It was some kid’s movie. Dylan can’t remember
the name, but he does remember Mel’s little hand grabbing popcorn
from the bucket that he held and dropping half of it in his lap
before it got to his mouth. He clears his throat. “I don’t
remember.”

“Have you seen
The Sixth Sense
?”

“Never heard of it…”

“What? You’ve never heard of
The Sixth
Sense?
I think my caveman has been hiding out in a cave.”

Myra puts the DVD in and Dylan pulls her
into his lap, his lips diving for her neck. “
Your
caveman? I
like hearing you say that.” He kisses and nibbles on her neck until
she finally shoos him away when the movie comes on. She curls up
next to him on the couch, and he wraps his arm around her, pulling
her tight against him.

About halfway through the movie, Dylan looks
down at Myra and grins when he sees her head bobbing sleepily. He
gently moves her so that her head rests on his chest, and he gently
kisses her forehead.

When the credits start to roll, Dylan turns
the TV off and picks Myra up in his arms and carries her up the
stairs to her bedroom. He pulls the covers back and lays her in the
bed before stripping off his clothes and climbing in next to her,
snuggling her body close to his.

“Dylan?” Myra mumbles in a groggy voice.

“I’m right here,” he whispers next to her
ear.

“There’s a man over there,” she mumbles.

“Where?” Dylan sits up and looks around
quickly.

“I like cheese.”

Dylan snorts when he realizes Myra’s talking
in her sleep.

He snuggles next to her again. “I like
cheese, too,” he whispers before chuckling. She’s so damn cute.

“Dylan… I love you,” she sighs.

Dylan’s breath catches in his throat. He
leans up and stares down at her in the darkness. He knows she was
just dreaming. She didn’t even know what the hell she was saying,
but hearing those words on her lips does something to his heart. He
wants to hear her whisper those words to him when she’s awake, and
mean them. He wants it more than he ever thought possible.

* * *

Myra jolts awake, her heart pounding in her
chest to find Dylan sitting up in bed, staring at the door.

“What’s wrong?”

“I heard something,” Dylan mumbles in a low
voice, “in the hallway.”

“Heard what?”

“Footsteps or something… I think someone’s
in the house. Stay here,” he says as he starts to get out of
bed.

“Wait,” Myra whispers as she grabs his arm.
“It was probably just the ghost.”

“What?”

“I have a ghost in my house.”

“Myra, this was no damn ghost I heard
someone walking. I’m gonna go check it out. Stay here and don’t
move.”

Myra flips on the lamp next to her bed and
grabs her gun, handing it to him. “Here, take this.”

Dylan takes the gun from her and walks
cautiously towards the door. She smiles and tries not to giggle
when she watches him creep across the floor towards the door buck
naked, with a gun in his hand, and a really bad case of bed head
going on.

After about five minutes or so, he comes
back into the bedroom frowning. “I didn’t see anything…” he says as
he sets her gun back on her bedside table.

“I told you, I have a ghost.”

“Is that why you had me watch that movie
earlier?” he scoffs as he climbs into bed.

“
No
. And I’m sorry I fell asleep. I
never
do. I hardly ever sleep. Guess it caught up with
me.”

“You know that ghosts don’t exist,
right?”

“Yes, I know that, but there are really
weird things going on in this house. I see shadows out of the
corner of my eye and when I turn towards it, it’s gone. I hear
things being moved around, knocks on the walls and the footsteps
that you heard earlier? I hear that all the time. And when Susie
came to visit me? She swears she saw something in the hallway. None
of this started until after my Grampie died. I honestly don’t
believe in ghosts either, but I know for a fact that I’m not the
only one here in this house.”

“Well, I think most of that shit can be
explained away. This house is old and falling apart. The noises
you’re hearing are probably just the house settling. The wood
expands and contracts with changes in temperature. Plus, old piping
can be really damn noisy especially water pipes.”

Myra cocks an eyebrow at him. “So, the
footsteps you heard earlier were just the house settling?”

Dylan smirks. “I’ll admit I don’t know what
the hell that was. I swear, it sounded like heavy boots stomping
down your hallway. I was ready to put a round in somebody’s
ass.”

Myra giggles. “Just admit it… it was the
ghost.”

“There are no damn ghosts.”

Myra smiles and shakes her head.

“Come here, woman,” Dylan growls as he pulls
Myra on top of him. “I’m wide awake now, and I want you naked.” He
tugs her T-shirt off and pulls her panties down.

Myra shivers. “I’m cold,” she says as she
lies on top of his warm, naked body. “Are you going to warm me
up?”

“I’m gonna warm you up, all right. I’m gonna
make you so hot you sweat,” Dylan says in a husky voice before he
flips her on her back and covers her body with his own.

* * *

The next morning, just as Myra starts to
flip a pancake on her electric griddle, Dylan comes up behind her,
placing his hands on her hips and begins kissing her neck. She
giggles, playfully pushing him away. “You better stop or you’re
never going to get to eat breakfast this morning.”

“Fuck it. I don’t care,” Dylan mumbles. He
continues to kiss up and down her neck and nibble on her earlobe.
She moans softly, closing her eyes and reaching her free hand
behind her to run her fingers through his hair.

“You still want to go see Natalie today?” he
whispers into her neck.

“Yes, definitely.”

“She said we could spend the night with
them, if you want.”

“I’d love to.”

Dylan finally lets her go and sits down. She
hands him a stack of pancakes and sits down across from him. His
brows furrow. “Aren’t you eating?”

“No, my stomach is a bit queasy this
morning… must have been that sandwich from last night or something.
Do you have everything you need? I think I’m going to go pack.”

“I’m good,” Dylan says with a nod as he
picks up the syrup bottle.

As Myra walks towards the stairs, she frowns
and rubs her rumbling stomach. She can’t get sick right now. Not
when Dylan wants her to meet the rest of his family.

When she gets into the bathroom, her stomach
lurches, and she has to hang her head over the toilet and dry
heave. She can’t believe how horribly nauseated she feels. Once she
gets the dry heaves under control, she stands in front of the sink
to brush her teeth. But the second the toothpaste touches her
tongue, she starts gagging again. She gags and spits the toothpaste
out and grabs a cup to wash the nasty flavor of the toothpaste out
of her mouth.

She lays down on her bed, trying to get her
stomach to calm down when her phone rings.

“Hey,” she answers in a raspy voice from all
of the dry heaving she just did.

“You sound a little rough… long night with
Dylan’s long dick?” Susie asks with a snicker.

“No. Hey, before I forget, Grampie’s estate
got settled, and I want to give you some money for the boy’s
college funds.”

“What? Myra, that is your
inheritance
. You don’t even have a job right now. You need
that money to live on and—”

“No, I don’t. You know I never touched the
insurance money from when dad died so I have plenty of money to
live off of.”

“But you need it for insurance and what if
you get the C word? Remember how freaked out you were over that and
how you were worried that you wouldn’t have any money—”

“Well, I’m over that now. I was just having
a moment back then. I’m on Cobra and everything is going great. I
want to do this for you.”

“But—”

“No buts. You know how much I love your
boys. I want them to be able to go to any college they want. I’ll
get with you later on about the account numbers and such to do the
transfer.”

“Myra, I don’t even know what to say. You
have stripped me of my words. I’ll make sure when my boys go to
Harvard Law and Yale – because they take after me and are just that
dang smart – that they know you were the one that made it possible
for them to pursue their dreams.”

“No, don’t tell them.”

“Hell to the yeah, I’m going to tell them.
That’s my one stipulation. You have to let me tell them but of
course not until they’re older. Way older like the day they leave
for college.”

“Well, we’ll see.”

“Thank you, honey. Thank you so so so much.
I love you dearly.”

“I love you too.”

“I have to tell you about this dream I had
last night.”

“Oh boy...”

“Yeah, it was crazy… and raunchy. And it was
about Desmond of course. We were on this crowded subway and
suddenly he was naked. And then somehow my clothes vanished and I
was naked too, but thankfully no one started screaming or tried to
throw themselves from the train. That’s how I knew it was a dream.
Anyway, everyone was staring at us, but it didn’t bother me one
bit. I looked up and Desmond’s eyes turned black, and he had blood
dripping from his lips. I should’ve been scared or grossed out, but
I just kind of wanted to lick it.”

Myra raises a hand to cover her mouth,
stifling another gag.

“Then the next thing I knew I was on top of
the Empire State Building still naked, with a ton of people still
staring at me, and Desmond started stalking towards me, and he
looked like he wanted to eat me. Then out of nowhere, King Kong
suddenly appeared and grabbed Desi away from me. Then all of a
sudden I felt good. Like
really
good… I woke up and realized
that it was Jeff perving on me in my sleep. At first I was really
pissed and wanted to beat him upside his head for waking me up out
of my sexy Desi dream, but because of our talk the other day, I
jumped his bones instead. Aren’t you proud of me?”

Myra chuckles and shakes her head.
“Maybe...? I’m not really sure because you kind of scared me with
that dream.”

Susie laughs. “It was scary. So are you two
still going to meet the family today?”

“Yeah, but…”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I woke up this morning not
feeling so good, but I can’t cancel on him. This is like a
huge
thing for him to want me to meet his family. But I
don’t want to get Natalie sick or anything.”

“What kind of sick… sore throat or the
scoots?”

“The
scoots?
”

“Yeah… You know, when you have to scoot to
the toilet every few seconds to shit your ass off.”

Myra giggles. “The things you come up with…
No, I don’t have the scoots, but my stomach is really queasy. I
think I might be getting a stomach bug or something or maybe it was
something I ate last night. I just tried to brush my teeth and
gagged.”

Myra frowns when the phone goes quiet. “Are
you there?” she asks, thinking they got disconnected.

“Oh my sweet baby Jesus on a can of tuna, I
totally remember gagging on toothpaste too. You’re pregnant, Myra,
you’re pregnant, pregnant,
pregnant…!
I knew all of that
sexing with that Greek god was going to knock you up. I’m going to
be an auntie! It’s a girl; I just know it. I’m tapping into my
psychic abilities right now, and I can feel it. I’m finally going
to get to spoil a girl! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my
god…!
”

For a moment, Myra feels like she can’t
breathe. “Susie, I’m not pregnant!”

“You have to go take a pregnancy test right
now. Go to the store. I’ll stay on the line with you the whole
time,” Susie squeals. Myra can hear her clapping in the
background.

“I can’t. Dylan’s here and he won’t let me
go anywhere without him because of the stalker thing. Besides, I
don’t need a pregnancy test because I’m
not pregnant
!”

“Shit. I forgot about Dylan the Guardian.
Okay, I’ll FedEx you one. Let’s see… this is Saturday so you should
get it by Monday. And that way you can sneak it into the bathroom
while he’s not looking, and we can take it together.”

“I don’t need a pregnancy test.” Myra takes
in a deep breath and blows it out. “Now seriously, what should I do
about this weekend? Should I still go with him? What if it’s the
flu? I can’t get Natalie sick in her condition.”

“Are you running a fever?”

Myra frowns and feels her forehead; it’s not
overly warm or clammy. “No.”

“Do you have body aches?”

“No.”

“Have you been tired?”

“Yeah, I fell asleep on the couch last
night.”

“Are your tits sore?”

“What?”

“Give your tits a little squeeze and see if
they’re sore.”

“Oh my god,” she groans. “I can’t believe
I’m doing this,” she mumbles as she squeezes her breast. She’s
stunned to find that they are in fact tender.