The Summer of Bells: The Essences Saga - Book #2

Summer: Chapter 1

(I'm warning you now, I have not completely edited this story, so there is probably a lot of mistakes.  Let me know if you see any.)

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Chapter One

Silas opened his front door. He was barefoot again. I smiled to myself; I liked his feet. When he saw me, tension visibly drained from his face, but he hid the shift behind an elated grin.

“You're early,” he said, drawing me into his house. He took my handbag and set it on the table by the door. As always, and peculiarly, the interior of his home was spotless. How he found the time to clean this well was inconceivable to me. His job had him traveling for weeks at a time, and nearly every second of his off time was spent with me or at the batting cages.

“Mrs. Baker has an eye appointment and asked me to take her. In case the doctor won't let her drive afterward. I can only stay until one o'clock,” I replied. Mrs. Erma Baker – I still laugh at her first name – was the cook for the foster home I worked and lived in. I was in charge of caring for teenage girls who will be wards of the state for the rest of their teenage years. It was a self-rewarding job, full of headaches and heartaches, and I wouldn't change any of it for anything. Silas had been my supervisor, until our working relationship was compromised, and he transferred to another department. The permanent foster home was his pet project. Now he traveled around the state of Tennessee working with other similar programs. And I loved him. It was still difficult to resign myself to that fact: I was in love.

Silas frowned at my update; we were supposed to be spending our whole Monday afternoon together, at least until three-thirty when the girls arrived home from school. He was driving to Nashville in the morning and won't be back until Friday. And this was the last week of school for the girls. Finding time away from my responsibilities would be difficult during the summer months. Of course, Silas was welcomed, and well liked, by my charges, but six pairs – now five – of prying, girly eyes were nearly impossible to hide from. Sometimes, we just need to be alone for five minutes.

“More than enough time,” he said, disguising his displeasure behind another flashing grin. He knew better than going against Mrs. Baker's plans. The woman had a soft heart, surrounded by a granite shell, but she could be unbearable when she was crossed.

Again, I smiled to myself. It wasn't the change in plans, necessarily, that had Silas upset. Any time spent away from me had him riled. He was trying; I gave him that. Being in love with someone like me wasn't easy. He really tried to stay positive, but the strain had become more and more evident in the last four weeks. Which was one of the reasons we were having a lunch date at his house, instead of going out. He didn't like the extra attention I received when in public. Indeed, I didn't like the attention either – I never had – but Silas couldn't keep me cooped up and all to himself forever.

I promised myself that I would attempt to make this as easy for him as I could. He was the only man I had ever loved, after all. And he loved me. Not because he had to. Because he wanted to. That in itself was a feat and enough to ignore all the frowns and hard stares he directed at anybody who looked at me for too long. One word could make such a difference. He wanted to love me. There had been a time when he was unable to choose that for himself. There had been a time when I was a cursed human. Nobody could resist loving me. And it was absolutely horrid.

The last time I assessed Silas' soul, his Love continued to grow with every passing day. I didn't touch his soul; I promised that I wouldn't without his permission. But I was tempted…very tempted. I am the one person in the world that can alter a person's soul; I am the former Essence of Need, banished to the human world because of one teeny-tiny, little break in the rules. Yes, it was very difficult to be in a loving relationship with me. Silas knew I could make him do anything I wanted, just by tweaking a few essences of his soul, but he trusted me to keep my promise. So only peeking into his soul over the last few weeks, I glimpsed that Silas' Love had expanded, but so had his Jealousy.