Page 89 of The Missus
‘The Scarred Widow,Devil’s Creek… Oh my god,The Wolf’s Tombwas my favourite!’
‘That’s not possible,’ Keira said. ‘I’m obscure.’
‘You arenot.’
‘Obscure enough thatyoushouldn’t have heard of me, anyway.’
‘Well, I have. Alice Baker, I meanyou, is my go-to when I’m tired of dry textbooks.’
Keira sat down on the edge of the bath to steady herself. ‘Sweet Jesus. I never wanted to tell you who I was because I thought you’d think my books were, I don’t know, a bit silly, I guess.’
‘They’re not silly. They’ve brought me light when I needed it.’
Keira started laughing. ‘This is crazy.’
‘Totally and completely.’ Alanna paused. ‘So, um…’
‘What?’
‘When’s the next one coming out?’
Keira rolled her eyes. ‘Have you been talking to my publisher?’
Alanna perched on the edge of the bath next to her. ‘Maybe you could just slip me a chapter or two?’ she asked. ‘Just to keep me going.’
Keira grinned at her. ‘It’s almost finished. I’ll send you the whole thing in a week. How about that?’
Alanna punched the air. ‘Score! IknewI was right to fall in love with you.’
They smiled at each other.
‘You still feel that way even though I murdered the protag from theInSheep’s Clothingseries?’ Keira asked with a raised eyebrow.
‘I forgot you did that,’ Alanna said, suddenly irritated. ‘I was livid.’
‘It was right for the story,’ Keira said.
‘I know. But I was still livid.’ She half smiled. ‘I forgive you, though.’ She stood and slipped her eggy cardigan off, letting it drop onto the floor. Her top went next. Keira watched, frozen. Alanna let her. This wasn’t about her imperfections or her insecurities anymore. They were in love and they were going to touch each other. Nothing about that could go wrong.
She went to the shower and got it running at a comfortable temperature. She climbed in and let the water run down her body. She turned around, and Keira was still fully clothed. ‘Are you getting in?’ Alanna asked.
Keira swallowed and nodded nervously. She began to undress. Alanna watched her. She was just as beautiful as Alanna had known she would be. She stepped into the shower, and they kissed, long, deep, close. Steam wasn’t just coming from the showerhead.
Alanna felt she’d waited her whole life to be in that shower. Somewhere she wanted to be, asked to be, deserved to be.
Thirty-Six
A year later
‘Wait!’ Keira said quickly before disaster could occur. ‘You’ve got it in reverse.’
‘Are you serious?’ Alanna cried, taking her hand off the wheel and putting it in first. ‘I’m taking my test today and I’m still makingbasicerrors like that?’
‘You’re just nervous. But you’ve got it down. You’ll do it right when you need to,’ Keira told her easily. It seemed to calm Alanna down and she began again.
She started the car up with no problem this time. ‘How do you think the test giver would react to you coming along and giving me pep talks from the backseat?’
‘Look, you passed your accreditation last week. What’s driving a car compared to driving people?’ Keira asked.
