Free Save Me by Eliza Freed Page A

me.
    “I have a card to go with it.” I hand him the card.
    “Read it to me.” Can no one read their own letters anymore? I open the card and sigh.
    “Noble,
    “If I can find a way for you to experience what I feel when you look at me, I will.
    “It’s as if everything good, and pure, and fun in this world is all wrapped up inside of you and unbelievably, you’re mine.
    “I should have married you the day after you asked, but I couldn’t imagine I would be as happy as I was this weekend.
    “You somehow fill me and instead of remembering those I have lost, I’m enamored with the one person I now have forever.
    “Thank you for choosing me,
    “Charlotte Sinclair.”
    The words are barely out of my mouth before Noble has me pinned beneath him on the bed. He kisses my neck while I giggle. His lips slide to my ear and his breath there stops the laughter. It’s replaced by a heat dancing under my skin.

Prayers
    N oble opens the back door just as I pull the blueberry bread out of the oven. I laugh at him, unable to contain myself, and he stops walking and gapes at me indignantly.
    “What? Something funny?” he asks. He’s covered in camouflage. His knit hat is camouflage, his jacket and overalls are camouflage, and his face is painted with black and green camouflage paint. How could I not laugh at him?
    “No.” I shake my head and turn on the coffeepot. It’s only 8:30 a.m. and he already looks like this. “Please tell me you were hunting, though, and this isn’t your new style.”
    “I was not only out hunting, but I was also successful. I got a doe,” he says, and kisses me with his ridiculous face paint all over him.
    “Poor doe. I’m sure she was no match for you.” Noble watches me quietly, lost in his own thoughts. I’ve never seen a second of remorse from him when it comes to hunting. “Are you feeling guilty about your murder?”
    He shakes his head and ends his solemn moment. “I was sitting in my stand—well, really I was thinking about getting down and coming in—when a buck walked right by me.”
    “Did you shoot him?”
    “No. The season has a bag limit of one antlered deer and unlimited antlerless.” I can’t hide my confusion. “Bag limits” are new for me. “The first deer must be antlerless.”
    “Oh.” Oh sure, kill off the women first.
    “I was just watching this buck. I took my camera off the end of my bow and started filming him. Next thing I knew, a doe walked right up to him.”
    I pour Noble a cup of coffee and hand it to him, still listening. “And…?”
    “And I shot her with the first arrow. She fell over twitching.”
    “She’s not in the house, is she?” I really am scarred by the deer head in the refrigerator.
    “No. She’s in the back of the truck right now.” Noble pauses as if that’s not the end of the story.
    “What?”
    Noble shakes his head, thinking. “The buck came back around and just stood over her, watching her die.” A chill runs down my back. “He knew exactly where I was and he just stood there for twenty minutes.”
    “Why didn’t you shoot him?”
    “He was a six-pointer. I want something bigger and I can only bag one antlered.”
    “Right.”
    “He wouldn’t go away, though.” Noble’s perplexed.
    I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss my clueless hunter. “He wanted you to take him, too.” Noble kisses me again, but the look of confusion on his face does not dissipate. “He didn’t want to live without her,” I say, and remember a time when I wanted to die. I was hanging on a railing in Kansas, watching Jason being rolled onto a stretcher.
    “You’re quite the romantic, Charlotte,” Noble says.
    “It makes sense, doesn’t it? Next time you see him, put him out of his misery.” I cut the blueberry bread. We were very lucky in Kansas.
    *  *  *
    “You should come to church with me every week. I think you’d like it,” I tell Noble as I find my black heels in the bottom of my closet.
    “I think I’d like