by Lynsay Sands
“Life just doesn’t come with guarantees,” Deb had said, but neither did love. No one knew what the future might bring, but Lissianna did know that the time since she’d met Greg had been the most wonderful of her two-hundred-plus years. She also knew that if she allowed fear to keep her from taking a chance on a future with Greg, the price would be giving up the opportunity for any more of those best times. Basically, it didn’t pay to be afraid to love, she thought, and decided tonight they’d have that talk about forever. She was ready to take a chance.
“Lissianna?”
She glanced up with a start at the sound of her name and found Father Joseph in her doorway. “Yes, Father?”
“There’s a gentleman here to see you,” the priest announced, then turned to wave someone forward.
No one ever came to see her at the shelter, and Lissianna was just starting to frown with confusion, when Greg stepped into view.
“Greg!” She pushed her desk chair back and got to her feet, but then paused and refrained from running around the desk to throw herself at him as her first instinct had urged. Trying to maintain a professional attitude for Father Joseph’s sake, Lissianna managed a calm tone as she asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to drive you home,” he announced. “Are you ready to go?”
“Oh.” Lissianna glanced down at her watch and frowned as she realized it was past quitting time. As usual she’d lost track of time. Her gaze slid over her desk, and she grimaced. “I need to put away the files and leave a note for the girl who has my job during the day, so she knows what calls to make and—”
“Go ahead,” Greg interrupted. “I don’t mind waiting.”
Lissianna smiled, then glanced toward Father Joseph.
“Thank you, Father,” she murmured, moving around her desk to the door. “Thank you for showing him back.”
“It’s all right then?”
“Oh, yes. He’s a friend,” she assured him.
“Oh.” Father Joseph nodded. “Good.” He hesitated, then backed away from the door as Greg slid into the office. “I’ll just…” The priest waved his hand vaguely, then turned and moved off down the hall.
Lissianna watched him go with concern. Father Joseph still wasn’t sleeping, and it was beginning to worry her. He had bags under his eyes big enough to store groceries in, and his complexion was taking on an unhealthy gray tinge. Sighing as he moved out of sight, she closed the door and turned to Greg, gasping in surprise when she found herself suddenly pulled into his arms and his mouth descending on hers.
“Mmm,” he murmured as he ended the kiss. “Hello.”
“Hello,” she whispered huskily. “Have you been waiting long?”
“Thirty-five years, but you’re worth waiting for,” Greg assured her.
Lissianna laughed softly and kissed the tip of his nose, then said, “I meant tonight.”
“You mean this morning,” he corrected. “Though it seems like night still since the sun hasn’t risen.”
“It is a bit confusing having the opposite hours to everyone else,” she acknowledged.
“Yes, it is,” Greg agreed. “And to answer your question, I’ve been waiting about half an hour. I got here five minutes early. Actually, I hit town half an hour early and stopped at a donut shop so I wouldn’t look pathetically eager by sitting in the parking lot.”
“Pathetically eager, huh?” Lissianna asked with amusement, relaxing back in his arms and toying with the buttons of his shirt. “It’s probably good you stopped at the donut shop. I doubt you’d have been in this good a mood if I’d kept you hanging about for an hour.”
He shrugged mildly. “You didn’t know I was here.”
Lissianna nodded absently, her gaze on the button she was fiddling with until Greg gave her a squeeze, and said, “I recognize that look, it’s your ‘worrying’ look. What’s up?”
“I was just wondering—”
“Worrying,” Greg corrected dryly.
“If you’d thought about what this will do to your practice,” she went on, ignoring the interruption.
“Ah,” he said solemnly. “You mean you’re worrying that it will affect my practice and I’ll resent its affecting my practice and come to resent you for turning me.”
Lissianna smiled wryly at being so easy to read. “You’re pretty smart, huh?”
“Smart enough to recognize a good woman when I see her,” Greg said easily, then pressed a kiss to her forehead, and said, “In fact, I have thought about that and it’s not a worry. Most of my clients are employed and prefer evening appointments that don’t interfere with their work. Up until now I’ve spent most of the day working on my book and updating patient notes, and the late afternoon and evening in sessions with patients.” He shrugged. “Now I’ll only take patients from five o’clock on and work on my book while you’re at work, then sleep during the day.”
Lissianna frowned. “So you’ll be working while I’m off and writing while I’m working?”
Greg blinked. “That’s right,” he said slowly as realization sank in. “You start work at eleven o’clock and I’d probably be taking patients until ten. We’d never see each other.” Now he was frowning too. “Maybe I could—”
“No wait,” Lissianna said quickly, her mind working swiftly. “You wouldn’t see clients on Saturday and Sunday, so if I changed my nights off to Monday and Tuesday, then it would only be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday that we didn’t see much of each other.”
“So I’d see you half the week? I don’t think so,” he said with dry displeasure, then blinked and a slow smile started on his lips.
“What?” Lissianna asked.
“It’s just nice to know you do want to continue to see me,” he said quietly. “I haven’t been sure where I stood. You didn’t seem to want to discuss the future.”
Lissianna sighed and leaned her forehead against his chin. “I’m sorry. I was just a little…”
“Scared?” he suggested, when she hesitated.
“Yes, maybe. And a little overwhelmed too, I think. It’s all happened so fast.” She lifted her head and assured him, “We’ll talk about it all when we get home; us, our hours, everything. We’ll figure out a way to make it all work out.”
“Okay.” Greg hugged her, then he pulled away and gave her bottom a slap. “Go on, get your note written so we can get out of here. The sun will be coming up soon, and I’m already hungry again. I shouldn’t be, I had a bag of blood before I left the house.”
“You’ll be hungry a lot for the next little while,” Lissianna said sympathetically as she slipped from his arms.
“Yeah. Your family has been warning me about all the things to expect,” he murmured, watching her reclaim her seat and pull a notepad in front of her. “Thomas has also promised to show me how to hunt some night while you’re at work, so I won’t be completely clueless if there’s ever an emergency, and I need to feed off the hoof.”
Lissianna stiffened and peered up at him to ask archly, “He has, has he?”
“Why, Lissianna, my love. Is that a touch of green I see in your eyes? And here I thought they were silvery blue.”
Lissianna scowled at his teasing. “It would seem to me you know how to feed off the hoof. You’ve certainly practiced on me enough.”
“How’s that letter coming?” he asked with a grin.
Mouth twisting, Lissianna turned her attention down to her note and continued writing.
“I’ll make a deal with you,” Greg said as he watched her write.
“What’s that?” she asked absently.
“You promise to bite only other women from now on, and I’ll promise that when Thomas takes me out to teach me, I’ll bite only another man.”
She glanced up with surprise at his suggestion and found he was frowning at his own words.
“Or, maybe I’ll change that to I promise only to put the whammy on other women and not actually bite them,” Greg decided. “As you say, I can practice the biting p
art on you, and I’d really rather not get that close to another man.”
Lissianna grinned with amusement as she finished her letter and stood. “But you don’t mind me getting that close to other women?”
“Hmm.” He considered it briefly, looking torn, then sighed. “Okay, so amendment number two, I’ll cure your phobia so that you don’t have to bite anymore at all, and I—”
“Greg,” she interrupted gently and he paused to glance at her questioningly. Lissianna moved to collect her purse and coat, and said, “We can discuss this when we get home too, but right now we need to get moving, the sun will be up soon.”
“Yeah.” A crooked smile curving his lips, he caught her hand and walked her to the door.
Father Joseph was standing at the end of the hall when they left her office, and Lissianna slipped her hand self-consciously from Greg’s when she saw him. She had barely done so when the priest glanced their way.
“All set?” he asked, as they approached.
“Yes.” Lissianna smiled as they reached the door, then commented, “I’m surprised Kelly isn’t already here. Has she called in sick?” While Claudia filled her position on those evenings Lissianna had off, Kelly was the girl who filled her position during the day shift. She was usually there before Lissianna left.
“No.” Father Joseph shook his head. “I told her you had someone in the office with you, so she went down to the kitchen to fetch a cup of coffee. She should be along soon.”
“Oh, okay.” Lissianna smiled. “I guess I’ll see you tonight, then.”
“Yes. Have a good day,” Father Joseph said, then glanced at Greg, and added politely, “It was nice meeting you.”
“It was nice meeting you, too, Father,” Greg answered, then opened the door for Lissianna.
“Where’s the Jeep?” Lissianna asked, as they crossed the parking lot.
“You mean Thomas’s Jeep?” Greg asked with surprise.
“Yes. Didn’t you borrow his Jeep to come get me?”
“No. I brought my own car,” he said, then explained, “We picked it up when Thomas took me to my apartment to pack a suitcase. He drove back in the Jeep and I followed in my car. It makes me feel less like—”
“A prisoner?” Lissianna asked softly when he cut himself off.
Greg grimaced, but nodded as he led her to a dark BMW. He unlocked and held the front passenger door for her to get in, then closed it and walked around to the driver’s side. Lissianna leaned over to unlock the door for him, then sat up as he got into the car. She did up her seat belt as he stuck the key in the ignition and turned it, then raised her eyebrows when nothing happened. Frowning, Greg tried again, but the engine wasn’t even turning over.
“What the—?” He pumped the gas pedal a couple of times and tried once more, then cursed with frustration when nothing happened.
Lissianna bit her lip as he tried again. “Maybe we should call a taxi.”
“It was working fine on the way out here,” Greg muttered, trying once more, then a tapping sound on the window made them both jump and glance out at Father Joseph. The priest stood on the pavement outside the driver’s door.
Greg rolled down the window when he gestured and the man asked, “Problem?”
“It won’t start,” Greg muttered, trying again.
Father Joseph watched him turn the key, and frowned when nothing happened. “It must be the starter. It isn’t even turning over.”
“No, it isn’t,” Greg agreed, sitting back in his seat with a sigh.
The old man hesitated, then said, “I was just going to pick up some supplies. I could give you a lift. Where were you going?”
“Oh, that’s sweet, Father, but it’s probably way out of your way,” Lissianna said, then mentioned the area her mother lived in.
“Oh!” Father Joseph exclaimed, brightly. “That isn’t far from where I’m headed. It must be providence. Come along, I’ll have you home in a jiffy.”
Turning away without waiting for a response, he walked to the van with the shelter’s logo on the side, and Greg glanced at her in question.
“It is getting late,” he said. “And I could call the garage and have them take the car in to have a look at it while we sleep today.”
Sighing, Lissianna nodded and unbuckled her seat belt.
“I hope you don’t mind, but as it’s on the way, I thought I’d just stop at the suppliers on the way out.”
Lissianna glanced toward the front of the van at Father’s Joseph’s words, then out the window as he turned off the highway. By her estimate, they were less than five minutes from her mother’s house.
“I suppose it would have been just as quick to stop on the way back, but I could really use a hand loading the supplies, and as you wouldn’t be with me on the way back…” He sent an apologetic glance toward Greg. “You wouldn’t mind, would you? I can turn around if you—”
“No, of course not, Father,” Greg assured him. “We appreciate the ride. It only seems fair to help you with your supplies.”
Lissianna smiled faintly at the polite words. She knew Greg well enough to recognize that while he was disappointed at the delay, he felt it would be rude to refuse to help when the man had saved them the price of cab fare to her mother’s.
“Here we are.”
Lissianna glanced out the window, frowning as he started up a long driveway leading to a large white house. There were no signs anywhere that would indicate it was any kind of business. It was also in the middle of nowhere from what she could see as she glanced around. There were no neighboring houses in view. Lissianna began to feel a bit uncomfortable all of a sudden.
“This is the lady who embroiders our logo on all the towels, sheets, and pillowcases, Lissianna,” Father Joseph announced as he parked in front of the house. “She’s one of my parishioners, a very sweet old lady.”
“Oh,” Lissianna murmured, and felt herself relax.
“It does take a little longer than a mechanized place would,” he went on cheerfully as he turned off the engine and undid his seat belt. “But she’s a widow and needs the money, so I bring all the sheets and towels to her whenever we get a new batch.”
“That’s kind of you,” Greg murmured, unbuckling his own seat belt.
“Actually, I’m glad to have you two with me,” he babbled on. “She often tries to get me to stay for tea, and I’ll have an excuse not to stay with you two along.”
Lissianna murmured politely, then undid her seat belt as Father Joseph opened his door and got out.
“He seems a nice old man, but he’s pretty chatty, isn’t he?” Greg muttered once the door closed and they were alone.
“He’s been suffering insomnia the last week or so,” Lissianna explained apologetically, but wasn’t at all sure the man wasn’t chatty whether suffering insomnia or not. He worked days, she worked nights. She really hardly knew him.
“Well, the sooner we grab those sheets, the sooner we get home,” Greg said, reaching for his door handle, then he paused, and asked, “How much sunlight can I take at this stage of the game?”
Lissianna glanced toward the skyline, noting that the first fingers of dawn were creeping up the sky. She shook her head. “I’m not sure. But this shouldn’t take long and we’re only five or six minutes from home. You should be fine.”
Nodding, Greg opened the door and got out, then held the door open and offered her his hand as Lissianna climbed out of the bench seat and scrambled over the passenger seat to get out.
It was obvious that the sweet old lady who embroidered the linen had been waiting for them, the door was already open and Father Joseph was entering the house by the time Greg closed the van door. They hurried to catch up to him and heard him speaking as they approached, then he paused and glanced back at them as they started up the porch steps.
“She says they’re all done, and she was just packing them away,” he informed them as they reached the door. “She’s gone back to put the last of them in the boxes. It’s
this way.”
Lissianna closed the front door so all the heat didn’t escape, then followed the men down the hall. At the end of the hall, Father Joseph paused to open the door and held it to usher them in. Lissianna murmured, “Thank you,” as she followed Greg into a small dark room, lit only by a tiny lamp on a table by the door. She nearly stepped on Greg’s heels when he suddenly halted.
“Go on,” Father Joseph said, and Lissianna glanced back, then froze at the sight of a gun in his hand. She stared at him blankly for a minute, confusion reigning in her mind, then turned back and stepped to the side of Greg to peer around him. She wasn’t at all surprised that there was no little old lady who embroidered linens in sight. Lissianna was surprised, however, when she recognized the man standing in front of them, pointing a second gun at Greg’s chest.
Chapter 21
“Bob.” Lissianna peered at the man with surprise.
“Dwayne,” he corrected with irritation, and she recalled that she’d wanted to call him Bob that night in the parking lot, too, and he’d had to correct her.
“Do you know this guy?” Greg asked, easing to the side and drawing her with him as he repositioned them so that they faced both men, rather than having a gun at the front as well as behind them.
“Yes,” Lissianna answered absently, her concentration on trying to infiltrate Dwayne’s thoughts as she watched him shift closer to Father Joseph’s side so they both stood blocking the door. Unable to get past his alarm and wariness, she sighed, then realized what Greg had asked her and how she’d answered and grimaced. “Well, no, not really.”
“Which is it?” he asked dryly. “Yes, or no, not really?”
Lissianna shrugged helplessly. “Sort of?”
He rolled his eyes, then glanced at Dwayne, as the man said, “I was dinner last Friday.”
