I See You

Chapter Eight

        Emma closed the door to her bedroom after showing Cindy to the spare room. Her head thumped as she leaned back and slowly slid to sit, totally confused about the entire day. Some parts she couldn't do anything about, like her Gramps murder, the evil detective accusing her of killing him for money.

        Cody...nope, there weren't any answers there either.

        Why had she done that? After all of that talk of keeping her mind strictly on finding her Grandpa's killer, she'd kissed Cody. Emma couldn't help the soft smile that emerged, and he had kissed her back! No! She needed to stop the hormone led madness.
What was she thinking? Now wasn't the time to be starting something with anyone. Especially not with an officer trying to find her Gramps murderer. All of this was insane. Emma lightly banged her head against the door. Insanity. That's what this was! Everything was all mixed up with different emotions because of what was going on at the moment. She'd gotten overwhelmed and lost her head for a few minutes. That had to be it.

        Of course this was when her therapist would have said she was lying to herself.

        Okay. Yeah, more than likely she was. Because truthfully, she did feel something for Cody. It was simple to explain too. She was very attracted to him; Emma was adult enough to admit it to herself. And she really didn't think it was because of runaway emotions getting the better of her. Nor was it because he was helping her get through something that would be difficult for most people to handle. That kiss downstairs wasn't just a slip because of this overwhelming situation. It had been the culmination of years of fantasy on her part.

        Emma wished that she'd had the nerve to talk to him when they'd been in school. But she had been far too shy, he'd been older than her and really she hadn't felt he'd even noticed her.

        That is if her shyness would've allowed her to try and approach him. Which probably would've resulted in a panic attack in the girl's lavatory. Over the years she'd fooled herself into believing the feelings she'd had back then had been simply teenage hormones.

        If tonight was anything to go by, that hadn't been the least bit true. It appeared she'd been just fooling herself all these years. But then, as her therapist had always stressed to her, excuses were a great way to avoid looking at the truth.

        She rolled her eyes and stood. This wasn't getting her anywhere. With a soft feminine growl of frustration, Emma pulled her hair up on top of her head and headed for her dresser to find something to sleep in. A shower and then a good night's sleep would be exactly what she needed to clear her mind. Tomorrow she would just pretend that that little kiss hadn't happened. Or at least she'd try anyway, because a kiss like that?

        Not so easily forgotten.

        If she lived to be a hundred that kiss would be the single memory she'd still have. The moment his lips had touched hers she'd felt like she'd come home. Her whole body had burned with the sort of desire she'd only thought existed in books. Emma shook her head. She needed to get some sleep because tomorrow was going to come far too quickly and she needed to be rested in order to face it.

        With her mind made up she grabbed her pajamas and went into the bathroom across the hall. The claw footed tub waited, she sighed happily. Her tiny shower stall at her apartment was good enough to get clean, but not to relax in. This was something she really did miss about the house. This bathroom and its amazing deep tub. She crossed the antique tile and started the hot water running. After stripping she stepped into the tub and sank chin deep into the steaming water.

        She stared upwards as her mind began to wonder about all the things she'd have to face the next day. There'd be cleaning and organizing, all sorts of decisions that had to be made. Emma lay her head back and sighed.