Page 38 of Still Afraid

As he kissed his soon-to-be wife with as much passion as possible today, he heard footsteps quickly receding.

If he hadn’t been enjoying Chloe so much, he’d have laughed.

Chloe startled awake and sat straight up. Her breaths came in shallow, rapid succession. She must have had a nightmare with the way her heart pounded.

Poirot, who had been asleep at the foot of the bed, moseyed over and curled up against her leg and nudged her hand with his snout.

While taking slower, deeper breaths, she pet the dog’s head. A glance at her alarm clock told her she’d been asleep for a few hours but still had plenty to go.

The sound of Gabe’s snoring echoed from the living room. She was so grateful for her brother staying. Feeling a little safer, she lay back down. She quoted Psalm twenty-three in her mind until sleep returned.

She woke again when a slobbery tongue licked her cheek. Without opening her eyes, she pushed Poirot away. He let out a soft bark.

“Fine.” She opened her eyes, surprised to see the sun as bright as it was. How late had she slept? Thankfully, she didn’t have anywhere to be this morning.

The clock said it was almost ten o’clock. She hadn’t slept that late in a long time but she’d needed it.

She stretched and climbed out of bed. It felt amazing to be rested. After her regular morning routine, she wandered out to the kitchen.

Gabe sat at the island working on his laptop. He turned. “Good morning. I was beginning to wonder if I should go in and check to make sure you’re still breathing.”

“Ha. Apparently, I was tired.”

“No! Really?”

She shot her brother a stink face with a little twitch of her head.

He laughed.

She went about getting coffee and breakfast. Not that there were many choices, and now that Gabe had helped himself to her cereal she had even less. She didn’t mind him eating it at all, but she definitely needed to get groceries soon.

Twelve more days.

She let Poirot out and filled his food and water bowls, and once she had her coffee and a large bowl of cereal, she grabbed her Bible and sat next to Gabe at the island. He kept working quietly as she opened the Word and read through today’s passage.

With the final bite of cereal, she prayed God would give her peace and keep her safe. That all the wedding plans would hold together and not be stressful. For blessings on Gabe and his family.

She closed her Bible and turned to her brother. “When’s your next shift?”

“Tomorrow morning. I figured I’d stick around most of today and tonight too.”

“I’m not sure that’s necessary. Though I appreciate that you stayed last night, I think knowing you were here helped me sleep well. I doubt whoever broke in is going to hurt me.”

“Maybe. But I have to answer to Josh if anything happens when I could have been here but wasn’t.”

She chuckled. “I think you’d beat yourself up more than he’d beat you.”

“You’re not wrong. What do you have on the docket today?”

“Paperwork. Tomorrow’s busy with a closing first thing and then showings all afternoon with a couple who knows exactly what they want.” She loved being a realtor but sometimes finding just the right place for a client felt impossible.

“A unicorn?”

“Hundred percent. I don’t know if we’ll find it, but they want to see all the options. I’m praying they can lower their expectation and be happy with what we can find.”

Gabe nodded. “That is tricky.”

“Indeed. I’m going to let you continue with whatever you’re working on. I’m going to finalize the program for the wedding, while sitting in my comfy chair.”