your dish is far from empty.”
After placating the cat, she went upstairs to her office and turned her computer on. While waiting for it to finish opening, she eased over to the window and looked across Sugar Maple Drive to Myrna’s house. There were no lights on downstairs that she could see, and only two upstairs windows at the front of the house were lit from within. Was that Trooper’s bedroom? More than likely, she decided. She recalled Myrna saying that she tended to go to bed early and get up early.
Thinking back on her afternoon with Trooper, Carly felt a smile lifting the corners of her lips. She’d thoroughly enjoyed his teasing her about the snakes and the gator in his uncle’s lake. In fact, she’d felt totally at ease with him until they’d taken their leave of his uncle and started driving around. Then somehow tension had slipped into the relationship.
Was it due to his question about her seeming secrecy? She hadn’t reacted well, of course, but the question had struck her as coming from out of left field, and she hadn’t really known how to answer.
Perhaps that had been the beginning of the unease between them, but she was convinced his mood had really gone south when he’d discovered that a couple of his old, beloved landmarks had been razed to make way for more modern buildings.
Surely he hadn’t expected everything in Holly Grove to be the same as it had been when he’d left twenty years ago.
Sighing, she forced herself to turn away from the window. There was no use in speculating about what had happened. It was just one of those things that could be a combination of factors. In the meantime, she needed to get back to work. If she wasn’t careful, she’d get behind schedule with her current book and have to write like crazy to catch up. Sometimes she did her best writing under that sort of pressure, but she didn’t like to depend on it.
Three and a half hours later, she pushed back from the computer. She’d had a good session, turning off quite a bit of work. Of course she’d need to let tonight’s pages sit for a few days and read over them then to be sure they weren’t crap. Sometimes when she wrote at a pace like she had tonight, she discovered later that she’d done some really horrible writing.
But most of the time it was good, and she had a feeling tonight’s would be also.
In the meantime, she was too exhausted to continue. Her back was tired, her eyes burned, and her wrists were beginning to ache—all sure signs that she had pushed herself too hard physically.
She saved her work, emailed it to herself so it would be stored on a remote server, and stood. After stretching and flexing her back for a few minutes, she again made her way over to the window and looked across the street.
Those two upstairs windows were still lit. Unfortunately, that told her nothing. If it was Trooper’s bedroom, he could be awake reading, or he could have gone to sleep with the lights on, or…or anything. No way she could know. “None of your business, girl,” she murmured aloud, then turned her own lights off and went to get ready for bed.
An hour later, Carly turned her head on the pillow so she could see the digital clock sitting on her bedside table. “Four o’clock in the morning,” she muttered. She’d tried everything to get to sleep. Reading in bed hadn’t worked. Counting sheep had just frustrated her and made her feel even more awake. She didn’t own any sleeping pills or she might have been tempted to take one. “That’s what you get for taking a nap,” she told herself.
Then she heard it.
The noise was so faint that, had she been asleep, it wouldn’t have awakened her, especially now that she slept with her windows closed.
A very steady, thumping noise sounded from somewhere outside. At least she thought it was from outside. She listened more closely, then eased out of bed. The faint glow of her nightlight enabled her to see well enough to walk over to her
After placating the cat, she went upstairs to her office and turned her computer on. While waiting for it to finish opening, she eased over to the window and looked across Sugar Maple Drive to Myrna’s house. There were no lights on downstairs that she could see, and only two upstairs windows at the front of the house were lit from within. Was that Trooper’s bedroom? More than likely, she decided. She recalled Myrna saying that she tended to go to bed early and get up early.
Thinking back on her afternoon with Trooper, Carly felt a smile lifting the corners of her lips. She’d thoroughly enjoyed his teasing her about the snakes and the gator in his uncle’s lake. In fact, she’d felt totally at ease with him until they’d taken their leave of his uncle and started driving around. Then somehow tension had slipped into the relationship.
Was it due to his question about her seeming secrecy? She hadn’t reacted well, of course, but the question had struck her as coming from out of left field, and she hadn’t really known how to answer.
Perhaps that had been the beginning of the unease between them, but she was convinced his mood had really gone south when he’d discovered that a couple of his old, beloved landmarks had been razed to make way for more modern buildings.
Surely he hadn’t expected everything in Holly Grove to be the same as it had been when he’d left twenty years ago.
Sighing, she forced herself to turn away from the window. There was no use in speculating about what had happened. It was just one of those things that could be a combination of factors. In the meantime, she needed to get back to work. If she wasn’t careful, she’d get behind schedule with her current book and have to write like crazy to catch up. Sometimes she did her best writing under that sort of pressure, but she didn’t like to depend on it.
Three and a half hours later, she pushed back from the computer. She’d had a good session, turning off quite a bit of work. Of course she’d need to let tonight’s pages sit for a few days and read over them then to be sure they weren’t crap. Sometimes when she wrote at a pace like she had tonight, she discovered later that she’d done some really horrible writing.
But most of the time it was good, and she had a feeling tonight’s would be also.
In the meantime, she was too exhausted to continue. Her back was tired, her eyes burned, and her wrists were beginning to ache—all sure signs that she had pushed herself too hard physically.
She saved her work, emailed it to herself so it would be stored on a remote server, and stood. After stretching and flexing her back for a few minutes, she again made her way over to the window and looked across the street.
Those two upstairs windows were still lit. Unfortunately, that told her nothing. If it was Trooper’s bedroom, he could be awake reading, or he could have gone to sleep with the lights on, or…or anything. No way she could know. “None of your business, girl,” she murmured aloud, then turned her own lights off and went to get ready for bed.
An hour later, Carly turned her head on the pillow so she could see the digital clock sitting on her bedside table. “Four o’clock in the morning,” she muttered. She’d tried everything to get to sleep. Reading in bed hadn’t worked. Counting sheep had just frustrated her and made her feel even more awake. She didn’t own any sleeping pills or she might have been tempted to take one. “That’s what you get for taking a nap,” she told herself.
Then she heard it.
The noise was so faint that, had she been asleep, it wouldn’t have awakened her, especially now that she slept with her windows closed.
A very steady, thumping noise sounded from somewhere outside. At least she thought it was from outside. She listened more closely, then eased out of bed. The faint glow of her nightlight enabled her to see well enough to walk over to her
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