Chapter 23 #2
She smiled, leaned over, and kissed Gregory. “I’m used to watching what I make and recycling foods. When Kat was in the apartment next door to me, we always ate together. But once she was gone, there was only just me, so I had to learn to divide food up more.”
He took hold of her hand. “You don’t have to worry about that any longer.”
“I can’t believe I’m here with you and it’s permanent. And here you were telling me that I was after you—”
He laughed. “Yeah, I was projecting. I wanted you to be with me, permanently.”
“I’m not after your money.”
“Only when Raymond offers it.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I liked him right away.”
Gregory’s dimples appeared again. She loved seeing them. He was so cute.
“Wait, so in your nightmare or vision, did the guy strangle his girlfriend?” Gregory suddenly asked.
“No. I, well, she stopped him. She kneed him in the jewels, and he finally got over it and tried to strangle her, but then heard someone or something, and he left. I just thought it was me crying out and the bodyguards arriving in the bedroom that brought me out of the vision, but she survived the encounter. He ran out of the bedroom.”
“He was masked, so it could have been someone other than her boyfriend. The vision just happened to be of Brendan’s girlfriend.”
She thought about it. “Yeah. But why would I even have the vision of the woman? Except—” She frowned. “She had dated you, even if it was only the one time. And you had someone trying to kill you, possibly because of that. Do you have a picture of Brendan?”
“Hank, my PI, sent me a photo of Brendan and the girlfriend. But not together. They’ve broken up.”
“Again? Maybe they hadn’t made up, and when they broke up, that was it.”
“That could be. And he could blame me for the breakup. The picture of Brendan isn’t really clear. He disappeared so Hank can’t get a current photo of him, just one off a social media site. The photo of the girlfriend is from a few weeks back.” Gregory showed the pictures on his phone to Sascha.
“The vision I saw was from the perspective of the girlfriend, so I can’t envision what she looks like, only her nails as she held them up to fend off the masked man.”
Then Maria came to the table and asked if they were ready for dessert. “Chef made a chocolate cake and chocolate mousse. Which would you like to have?”
“Chocolate mousse for me,” Sascha said. “I’ll have green tea also.”
“Chocolate cake for me. And decaf coffee.”
One of the staff members cleared their plates from the table, and another brought their dessert.
“A swim after this?” Sascha asked.
“I think you were a fish in a former life.”
“Mermaid,” she corrected him.
He laughed. “Yes, for sure, a redheaded beauty.”
Once they finished their drinks and dessert, they raced each other for the stairs. She was glad she had a playful fiancé.
He ran up the stairs after her, giving her a thrill, and she knew that when they reached the top, he’d grab her up and carry her into the bedroom. Which was just what he did. She loved him for it.
He carried her into the bedroom, but he didn’t drop her on the bed because they were going to dress in their swimsuits. She loved swimming with him and then returning to the bedroom to make love.
She figured they would just strip off their clothes and dress, but Gregory was helping her out of her shirt, and then pants, while she unbuttoned his shirt and peeled the sleeves off his arms and kissed his chest.
When they were finally naked, they pulled out swim clothes and put them on, before heading down the stairs.
“Why does whoever it was who tried to strangle Brendan’s girlfriend do that?” Gregory asked, getting the back door for her.
Then he took her hand as they went outside to the pool. By the time they were in the water, Omar and Nick were on the pool patio watching for trouble.
“I don’t know why someone would try to do that,” Sascha said. "That’s the part that is frustrating about visions. There’s so much I don’t know.”
They swam out together into the deep end and treaded water.
Sascha held her finger up to him. “I’m going to try and contact my cousins and Aunt Meg. I should have given them a call. I’m not sure they’re going to ‘hear’ me, but I’ll try.”
“Okay. Want to play on the mat?”
“I sure do.”
He got out of the pool to get the big rubber mat while she tried to get hold of any of her family.
“Hey, Kat, Lucy, Aunt Meg, can any of you hear me?”
Nobody responded.
“I think we’re too far away from them, or they’re busy and don’t hear me. I’ll call them later.”
Gregory pushed the mat into the pool, and Sascha hurried to clamber up on it while Gregory jumped on it from the pool deck.
She couldn’t get over how stable it was as she got on top, both of them standing and able to keep their balance. And then he came at her, and she dove off the mat.
He laughed and jumped into the pool after her with an even bigger splash. Normally, she would have tackled him back, but she loved changing things up too.
She dove under the mat and out the other end. He took the same path and caught her foot as he came out from under the mat. She squealed and laughed.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
“You know, every time we do this, we end up needing to go to bed.”
He smiled. “I’m always ready.”
“Hey,” Kat said telepathically. “Do you need something?”
Then Sascha said, “Oh, hey, Kat. Yeah, I wondered if any of you could get a vision of a woman, the girlfriend of a guy named Brendan.” She still cuddled with Gregory, feeling like she really was a mermaid, her red hair floating around them. “Talking to Kat,” she told Gregory.
He kissed her.
“I’ll see if any of us can come up with anything,” Kat said.
Then Sascha filled her in on more details about the whole situation.
“Wow, so maybe you’re learning who is behind all this.”
“We just need to know what Brendan’s alias is. I’ll send you a photo of him and his ex-girlfriend once we’re out of the pool. Talk to you later.”
“Have fun.”
“You know we are.” Then Sascha said to Gregory, “The ladies will try to envision what they can. They’ll ask Uncle Jimmy too.”
“Good. We need as many people as we can get on this.”
Sascha rubbed against him. “I know we didn’t swim very long or play much, but are you ready to go to bed?”
Even though the days were hot, the nights were cooling down and she was feeling a little chilled, even in the heated pool.
“Yeah, I’m always ready.”
They swam toward the stairs and then got out. Omar and Henry followed them inside.
“Where’s Red?” Sascha asked. He seemed to like to wander the property, but she hadn’t seen him at all tonight.
Omar said, “He had something that disagreed with him so he’s in one of the guest rooms in the bathroom.”
“Oh, nothing we ate here though,” Sascha said.
“No. He ran out for a little while when Mr. Landry was at work and grabbed a bite to eat, but I guess it bit back,” Omar said.
“Does he need to see a doctor?” Gregory asked, taking the situation seriously.
“I asked him, but he said he doesn’t. He just needs to stay near the bathroom.”
“All right. Well, if he gets dehydrated or runs a fever, have him tell one of the staff and they’ll run him to the hospital,” Gregory said.
“Okay, I’ll check on him in a bit,” Omar said.
Then Gregory and Sascha walked up the stairs to the bedroom, wrapped in heated terrycloth robes.
They showered, dried off, and ended up in bed.
“Who all knew Raymond was taking the limo out when the truck crashed into us?” Sascha asked.