Page 129 of South of Nowhere

There she was!

And what the hell was this? It looked like she was on a goddamn camping trip!

At the far end, she sat bundled up and writing in one of those stupid notebooks of hers. A small LED reading light plugged into a battery illuminated the area.

Instantly, the rage vanished. His heart swelled with unrestrained love. She was so beautiful!

“Want some company?”

A scream burst from her lips. “John! No!” Scattering cans and bottles of water and the notebook, she leapt to her feet. She charged for the cave entrance, trying to dodge around him.

But he was faster.

He stepped in front and, with a hard shove to her chest, pushed her back to her little nest. She fell but didn’t hit her head.

Her oc-cip-i-tal.

Maybe the vision idea was not such a bad one after all.

Meet my wife, Fiona. She’s blind. But what a trouper…

“John, for God’s sake. Leave me alone!” She started to cry.

Shewas upset? Look at everything she’d put him through over the past two days!

“Look, I’m begging you! Just leave me alone…”

“Why are you wearing that stupid hat? You know I don’t like it.”

“Please! I don’t love you.”

Millwood clicked his tongue. “Oh, you’ll get there, honey. You just have to try a little harder…”

57.

John Millwood felt so relieved that he’d found her—and found her alone, not in flagrante—that he forgave her.

Typical of how generous he was toward her.

Running from him, destroying his car, his shoes, his Armani jacket…

It was a sign of his wondrous kindness, forgiving her.

“Isn’t it funny—I don’t mean ha-ha funny—I mean confluential. That’s a word I made up. ‘Confluence’ like things coming together and ‘coincidental.’ ”

She was staring with an odd expression. Dismay, he believed.

He forgave her for that too. He found his lust expanding and he remembered the first time they’d made love. It was so beautiful…After, he’d just sat and stared at her, while she slept. Every inch of her body, from the pores of her hair to the freckles on her thighs. He didn’t get a minute’s sleep that night.

He was tempted to re-create that now—on the blankets she’d brought in her effort to escape from him. There would be some justice in that.

But no.

There was a time and a place for everything.

“Confluential…I don’t want to say we’re soulmates. That’s a cliché that cheapens the concept of what we have. We transcend that.”

Fiona’s voice choked. “Please, just leave!”

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