As usual, she had pushed the voice away and, for a wonder, her wish came true. Despite Hank’s best efforts, she hadn’t caught pregnant again. After playing for the high school for a while, she’d been invited to play for the local Baptist church as well, when their organist retired. And after that, some of the parents that went to the church asked her if she gave lessons.
Hank was reluctant every step of the way to allow Mia the freedom to take these opportunities. He always said he wanted her “all to himself” and didn’t like sharing her with anyone else. In fact, Mia never would have done any of it if Kaylee hadn’t been there on her side.
Kaylee would always come around, smiling and cheerful, and hint to Hank that the community would think less of him if he didn’t let his wife play for the church and give lessons to the kids. And since Hank cared what people thought of him, it almost always worked. He was, after all, an up and coming deputy who might make Sheriff someday—he couldn’t let people think he “kept his wife locked away and wouldn’t let her use her God-given talent,” to use Kaylee’s words.
But all that was before Kaylee left, Mia thought sadly, as she watched the minivan with her last student drive away. It had only been a month ago that her long-time best friend had been called as a Kindred bride and things had gone downhill ever since.
It was something Mia never would have foreseen happening. Despite her beauty and her bubbly personality, Kaylee just couldn’t seem to find anyone to suit her. Also, though she had been registered for the Kindred Bride Draft, as all eligible, unmarried women were required to be, they lived hours away from the nearest Human/Kindred Relations building. The closest one was in Tallahassee and somehow Mia had never dreamed of her friend being swept away from her on the arm of a Kindred warrior. It was something you saw on the news—something that only happened in big cities—or so she had thought.
Of course, it didn’t matter that the HKR building was hours away or that neither she nor Kaylee had ever seen a Kindred warrior except on TV. When the tall, blond Blood Kindred had walked into the choir room, Kaylee had given him one surprised look and then screamed with joy and jumped into his arms.
It didn’t seem to matter that he was seven-feet-tall, incredibly muscular, and had long, shining fangs like a vampire—Kaylee was instantly and completely smitten.
“It’s you!” she’d exclaimed, looking into the warrior’s piercing blue eyes. “I can’t believe it—I thought it was all a dream! I thought I was dreaming you!”
“You were, little one,” the Blood Kindred had rumbled. “And I was dreaming of you. We were Dream-Sharing.”
Which turned out to be a thing that happened when a woman’s mind aligned with a Kindred’s. According to Talon, anyway, which was the huge Blood Kindred’s name. He and Kaylee had been dreaming of each other for weeks and he had taken her away that very day, the two of them so in love they couldn’t look at anything else except each other.
Of course, Mia was happy for her friend. But without a choir teacher, there was little need for an accompanist. The school was looking for someone new but in the meantime, Hank had decided it was best that she “take a break” from her job at the high school.
It didn’t take long for him to decide she needed a break from the church, too. And soon after that, he had concocted the story about Mia having fibromyalgia and had canceled every single one of her piano students.
Mia thought ruefully, that she hadn’t realized how much having Kaylee around had kept Hank in check. Though her friend had never said anything directly to him about the occasional bruises that Mia sometimes sported, she would often talk about how, now that he was the town Sheriff, people expected him to uphold a certain standard. And, more importantly, she let Hank know that she was watching.
“I’m wondering if maybe Mia needs glasses—she seems to keep running into things,” she would say lightly. “Or, my goodness, Mia, you’re so accident prone! You’d better be careful or people are going to get the wrong idea about your sweet hubby!” right in front of Hank, where he could hear it.
Hank might scowl, but he wouldn’t say anything and for a while, he would keep his fists to himself.
Of course, Kaylee had a lot more to say about Mia’s marriage when they were in private together. She’d tried to get Mia to leave more than once, but Mia was too scared to go.
“You have to get away from him!” Kaylee had exclaimed, after Hank had sprained Mia’s wrist and she couldn’t play for a week. “You can’t keep putting up with this, Mia! You can’t be his punching bag for the rest of your life!”