Rachel Goddard 01 - The Heat of the Moon

side of her hand to brush the cracker crumbs into a tiny brown pile. For some reason I thought she was going to ask me about Luke, why I was seeing him again. I braced for that, and what she actually said caught me off guard.
    “Rachel—” She hesitated. “I don’t understand why you wanted Theo instead of me to hypnotize you. And I won’t ask you to explain. But I know I can help you with your memories more than Theo ever could. As soon as I’m rid of this silly machine, I want you to let me hypnotize you.” 
    Everything in me recoiled. I tried to clamp down on the panic, but it surged through my blood and set my heart racing. If she’d made me forget in the first place, what would she do to me this time?
    Unable to meet her eyes, I traced the grain in the wooden tabletop with a remarkably steady finger. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”
    “I really believe it would be the best thing for you.”
    She reached across to close her fingers around mine. Our two hands, so much alike. Her gold wedding ring bit into my knuckle.
    “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “I’ll be with you. I won’t let it go too far. I’ll be in complete control.”
    I snatched my hand away so quickly that hers was left suspended above the table.
    “Let me think it over.” I rose, meaning to rinse my glass and tuck it into the dishwasher, but instead I plunked it down hard on the counter.
    “Rachel, let’s talk—”
    “Not now. You need to get some rest.”
    She sighed, a faint exhalation. “I’ll go up in a minute.”
    I fled down the hall, up the stairs, into the cocoon of my room.
    When I slept I entered another world, of shadows and far-off voices. Kathy, my imaginary childhood friend, took me by the hand and led me first into a tangled wood, then across a blazing desert, then down a street to a rain-swept playground where a jungle gym loomed like a skeletal monster, its empty swings creaking in the wind as a child cried somewhere nearby.

Chapter Seventeen
    “I miss you,” Luke said, his breath against my ear. “How long do we have to wait?”
    We were in his office at lunch time, with the door closed. Tucked into a corner, we couldn’t be glimpsed even through the window. He pressed his mouth to mine and I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer, as close as he could get, not close enough.
    A long moment later I broke the kiss, gasping. “Patients,” I said.
    He nuzzled my neck. “I don’t think I’ve got enough patience to last.”
    I laughed. “I meant the four-footed type. It’s almost time.”
    Groaning, he stepped back, ran his fingers through his sandy hair and rubbed a hand across his mouth. “How much longer is this going to go on?”
    I leaned against the wall and shut my eyes for a second, giving in to the fantasy of going home with him now, this minute, staying in bed with him until we were both exhausted and sated. 
    Opening my eyes, I met his steady gaze. “She seems to need us home with her every night. I think this episode with her heart really spooked her.” I paused. “Last night she said she’s updating her will.”
    “Oh, for God’s sake,” Luke said, half-laughing, half-amazed. He shook his head. “Rachel—”
    “What?” I didn’t understand his reaction.
    “She’s playing on your guilt feelings. She’s also trying to keep you away from me, but what really worries me is the way she’s twisting your emotions.”
    I sat on a corner of his desk and rubbed at my eyes. So tired. I’d been awakened over and over during the night by my own dreams. “Don’t you think I can see that?”
    “Then why are you letting her do it?”
    “I think she’s genuinely afraid of dying.”
    “Even when she knows damned well she’s not?”
    “It doesn’t have anything to do with what’s rational. She knows something’s wrong with her heart, and I think it terrifies her, even if she won’t admit it.”
    “I’m still not convinced she has a real problem. I’d have to see her sonogram and EKG before I’d believe it.”
    “I talked to her doctor, Luke. He confirmed what she told Michelle and me. It’s not life-threatening at this point, but it’s real, and her condition has deteriorated in the last few months.”
    Luke let out a long breath and stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the floor.
    Before he could say anything, I went on, “She’s got this look in her eyes all the time. I don’t know how to describe it. Haunted, maybe. She looks haunted and