But the more he drank, the more he turned into just another drunk at the bar on a Friday night.

“Good night,” she whispered as she gave him back the kiss he’d placed on her cheek.

“Don’t go.” His words were soft as a prayer as she moved away. “I don’t want to be alone.”

She looked back. His eyes were closed and she doubted she was the one he was talking to.

“Don’t leave yet,” he mumbled as if the pain in his dream was far deeper than the scrapes on his body. “Stay with me for a little longer. Let me sleep thinking you’re near.”

Tuesday fought back a sob as she remembered so many times she’d had the same wish. Not for the lover who left her bed, but for the one she wished had been there instead of the stranger. No man who ever made promises at midnight remembered them come morning.

Silently she tugged off her shoes and climbed into his bed. She sat with her back against the headboard and cradled his bandaged head in her lap. Slowly, softly, she combed her fingers through his hair.

He rolled closer, warming her with his body. Tuesday looked out the tall windows. The back of the warehouse faced a black river and a shadowy valley beyond. She couldn’t see Honey Creek thirty miles away, but she could see tiny lights blinking through the trees along the hillsides. Farms and small ranches were no more than a firefly’s light in the distance.

His breathing slowed. His arm rested around her almost like a kid holding his stuffed animal.

Tuesday drifted into sleep.

Saturday

Saturday

Chapter 4 - Benjamin

Chapter 4

Benjamin

Dr. Benjamin Monroe preferred to spend his Saturdays working on his father’s farm. It was spring after all, and the farmer blood that ran through him told him it was time to put his hands in dirt.

But Miss Clark insisted they start on their project. “The Chemistry of Mating” was about the dumbest title for a research paper that he’d ever heard. He was sure she’d never be easy to work with. Since the day they’d been introduced, he’d had a vague feeling he’d seen her before. They’d both gone to the University of Texas years ago. Maybe that was it. Maybe they’d had a class together or met at a party, though except for a few crazy weeks before his second semester at grad school, Benjamin had spent his days studying.

When he’d graduated with a 4.0 GPA, he could have gone anywhere to teach, but he wanted to come back home. His roots were here and they grew deep.

Yet the feeling that he’d met Virginia Clark somewhere before haunted him. Maybe she simply reminded him of someone.