Page 4 of Stone Heart
Chapter 2
Adistant offending noise filled the air. Rina fought to gain her freedom from the arms of sleep. It tried to keep her hostage along with her plush pillow and bed, and at the moment, she didn’t know why she was fighting to be free. It was quite comfortable, and her body didn’t want to move. She yawned and, sitting up, finally realized the blasted noise was her phone ringing.
“Hello?” She winced at the sound of her own voice. She rolled over onto her back, thankful her migraine had finally disappeared. Last night had been the worse it’d ever been.
“Rina, it’s Mom. Were you still sleep?” her mother’s incredulous voice came across the line.
“I’m up now,” she mumbled, not wanting to open her eyes again.
“Rina, it’s two in the afternoon. Why are you still in bed? I didn’t raise no—”
“Whattime is it?” Rina flew up from her bed, unable to believe she’d slept in so late. Her gaze flew to her alarm clock on her nightstand and confirmed the time.
“Honey, are you okay?” her mother asked, her gentle voice comforting Rina. “Chelsey called me this morning, worried. She said you were having bad migraines again.”
“I am. It was pretty bad last night, Mom,” she murmured.
“Why don’t you come home. Let me take a look at you. You haven’t been home in about a week, and I miss you.”
“Mom, I live ten minutes away, maybe fifteen depending on traffic.” Rina chuckled.
Her mother tended to overexaggerate some things, but Rina knew it was all out of love.
“Come home, let me cook for you. You can relax and put your feet up. Chelsey told me you were off this weekend.”
Rina smiled at the tempting offer. She and her mother were as close as mother and daughter could be. They had the perfect relationship, and even though it had been just the two of them when Rina was growing up, she’d never wanted for anything.
Letting her mother pamper her did sound tempting right now. She would be doing as the good doctor had ordered.
Relaxing.
Mind finally made up, she threw the comforters back and slid out of bed.
“Okay, Mom.” She laughed at her mother’s squeal of delight. “I’m coming. You won me over when you said you were cooking.”
She hung up the phone and knew her mother would have a lavish meal waiting for her. Rina and Chelsey could barely boil water. They both relied heavily on takeout, and her mother always could bribe her over with the promise of food.
Running to her mother’s for a home-cooked meal was just what she needed. Twenty minutes later, she was walking out of the house she shared with Chelsey. There wasn’t any sign of her roommate, so she’d left a note saying she was going to spend the day at her mom’s.
She looked left then right, and the same feeling she’d had the night before came over her. She glanced around the neighborhood, goosebumps spreading along her arms. A few of her neighbors were out in their yards, paying her no attention.
“Creepy figures with wings do not exist,” she muttered, getting into her car. She inserted her key into the ignition and turned it. The purr of her car filled the air. “That was a figment of my imagination during a migraine.”
The drive to her mother’s went quick but remained tense. She couldn’t help but keep a watchful eye out just like she had seen people do in the movies. She tried to determine if she were being followed, but there were no clear signs of that. She parked her car in her mother’s driveway and gazed about.
Nothing.
She blew out a deep breath and rolled her eyes. If she had a stalker, she’d be out of luck. The faint tinge of her migraine lurked at the base of her neck.
“I must be going crazy,” she grumbled, getting out of her car.
She grabbed her purse and backpack from the passenger seat. At her age, graduate school was not going anywhere. If she wanted to make a better life for herself, getting a master’s in business was how she planned to do it.
“Why must you be going crazy, dear?” Her mother greeted her from the front porch of her childhood home. Solana Smith was a vision of beauty. Rina never understood why her mother had never dated or remarried after the death of her husband.
Glancing at her mother, she assumed she took after her father, for everything that was light and fair on Rina, was dark on her mother. Rina was blonde-haired and had blue eyes, while her mother was a dark brunette with hazel eyes.
She’d seen pictures of her father and knew she was his spitting image. She just wished she could remember him. She tried to conjure a memory of him from childhood, but all that ever did was bring on her migraine.
