Free Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series by Alexandrea Weis Page B

there?”
    “ North of Lake
Pontchartrain doesn’t flood. Mr. Cole stores a lot of things out of
the city. It’s the only way to make sure everything isn’t destroyed
in case another Katrina comes along.”
    To Melinda, it seemed like every
resident of New Orleans lived in the shadow of Katrina. There were
moments when she thought she couldn’t stand hearing another story
about the storm and its horrible aftermath. But then she would
unexpectedly find herself being moved, yet again, by another
version of those god-awful events. Since relocating to the Big
Easy, Melinda had learned recovery was not something that took a
few years to achieve, but it evolved over the course of a lifetime;
because sometimes it took a lifetime to forget about all the
pain.

Chapter 6

    The fading evening light was streaming
through the picture windows as Melinda sat on her living room floor
and went through the pile of boxes gathered around her. She had
spent most of the morning going back and forth from the moving
truck and pulling out things she wanted to keep. It was well after
noon when the three moving men left The Shallows and headed for
Nathan’s storage facility.
    As she unpacked a collection of framed
photographs of her brothers, Melinda felt an excited tickle. This
was a new sensation for her, experiencing such luxurious
accommodations. She giggled with delight as she pictured the coming
days and weeks working with Nathan Cole.
    However, her celebration was
short-lived when her thoughts crept back to Jack. She wondered
where he was and what he was doing. Taking in the red fingers of
light stretching through her windows, Melinda surmised it was about
the time when they would have been packing up from a day at Jackson
Square. Jack would then walk her home, and sometimes they would
grab a bite to eat along the way.
    A sudden knock at the front door
brushed away all of her warm memories. To Melinda’s happy surprise,
Nathan was standing in her doorway holding a bottle of La Grande
Dame Champagne in one hand and two crystal flutes in the other. In
jeans and a white, long-sleeved shirt, his thick brown hair was
damp and he smelled of some exotic cologne. When his eyes traveled
over the curves of her ratty blue jeans and faded gray House of
Voodoo T-shirt, Melinda blushed.
    “ Nathan, what are you doing
here?”
    “ I thought we would
celebrate your moving in. Since you liked the champagne at The
Grill Room …” He held up the bottle and glasses.
    She waved him inside. “That was very
kind. Thank you.”
    “ I should be the one
thanking you, Melinda. You don’t know how happy I am that you’re
here.” He went to the kitchen as Melinda closed the front door. “So
what do you think of my building?” He placed the bottle and glasses
on the breakfast bar.
    “ You mean your haunted
building?”
    Nathan’s grin was intoxicating. “You
noticed.”
    Her hands in the back pockets of her
jeans, she strolled across the living room to the bar. “Was this a
test?”
    Nathan began opening drawers in the
kitchen. “It wasn’t a test. I was just curious if you would feel
them.”
    “ So you wanted to see if I
was a medium, too?” She frowned at him as he searched through the
drawers. “What are you looking for?”
    “ A towel to open the
champagne.”
    “ I’ll get one from the
bathroom. I haven’t unpacked my kitchen stuff yet.” Melinda trotted
along the short hallway.
    Before she stepped inside the
bathroom, she noticed the metal door to the storage room at the end
of the hall was slightly ajar. Ignoring her urge to go and close
it, she went into the bathroom and removed a hand towel from the
pile she had neatly stacked in the linen closet. As she exited the
bathroom, she looked once more to the storage room, only to find
the door was now closed.
    “ I thought women always
unpacked the kitchen first when they moved into a new home,” Nathan
remarked when she returned to the kitchen.
    She handed him the towel. “Where