Free Sometime Yesterday by Yvonne Heidt Page B

sensual; Natalie increased her own pressure and tempo until she was gasping for breath. She cried out loud when the orgasm overtook her. Her eyes closed for a moment.
    Natalie woke to the sound of heavy footsteps in the hall. Damn it. She could also still hear the echo of Sarah and Beth making love. The dream was so real. The noise in the hall stopped and Natalie held her breath, waiting for the door to open. She let it out slowly when nothing happened. She wondered briefly if she should ask her mother if she heard the footsteps and run to her bedroom as she did when she was a child. The silence was almost as unnerving as the footsteps.
    A voice in the room whispered. “I will love you forever.”

Chapter Ten
     
    Natalie smelled bacon frying. She found her mother in the kitchen making breakfast and her laptop open on the table. “You’ve been busy this morning.”
    Her mother looked up from the stove. “Good morning, sleepyhead. I’ve been up for hours. Sit. I’ll bring you some coffee.”
    “You don’t have to wait on me, Mom.” Natalie sat anyway, knowing it was useless to argue with her. “How did you sleep?”
    “Oh,” her mother said nonchalantly, “I slept fine.”
    Natalie had a moment of trepidation and hoped like hell her mother didn’t have any sex dreams. Oh. God. Now the image was stuck in her head. “Please tell me you didn’t have any dreams.”
    Her mother patted her hand. “No, no funny dreams. Honestly? I felt the dark energy pacing the halls most of the night. How about you?”
    Natalie hesitated. “I had dreams that were very vivid. I felt as if I were in the same room with them.”
    “Who?”
    “Sarah and Beth.”
    Her mother’s eyes widened. “Who’s Beth?”
    “Apparently, she’s my doppelganger. The first dreams I had, I was looking out of her eyes with my thoughts.” She shivered. “It’s more than a little creepy.”
    Natalie told her mother about witnessing Beth paint the portrait of Sarah, currently hanging above the fireplace. She left out a great deal of the details, but told enough to convey the depth of love they held for each other. She finished her story with how she woke up to the footsteps in the hallway.
    “Well, that almost validates my theory that I had about them being trapped.” Her mother looked thoughtful and tapped her chin.
    “Right before I went back to sleep, I heard one of them say, ‘ I’ll love you forever. ’Mom, it was so real and Beth looked so much like me, it was uncanny.” Natalie felt hopeful. “It can’t be that simple, right? The connection, I mean.”
    “One thing I know about spirits, honey, is that it is almost never simple. We can go to the courthouse and library today to search the old-fashioned way for past owners of record.”
    “I think I know an easier way.” Natalie pulled the laptop closer to bring up the online listings for Bayside. She found the number she was looking for and dialed.
    “Stan?”
    “Yes, this is him.”
    “Hello. This is Natalie, the one who bought the Seeley place?”
    There was a pause on the line. “Yes, Natalie. What can I help you with?”
    “Stan, I was hoping you could tell me the names of the previous owners.”
    “I’m sure that Karen—”
    Natalie cut him off. “Please, Stan. You told me yourself how the gossip mill grinds.” At this point she was thinking that if Karen hadn’t been forthcoming before she bought the house, Natalie didn’t trust her to be now. “I just need a name. They did such a tremendous amount of renovation here; they must have come into your store a thousand times.”
    Another long pause had Natalie wondering if he hung up on her. Then she heard the rustle of papers.
    “Okay,” he said. “Beecher, Brad and Tina. That’s Beecher with two e’s.”
    “Thank you, Stan. I appreciate it.”
    “Yeah, well. Just don’t tell ’em where you got it.” His voice was gruff. “Later, Miss Natalie.”
    “Good-bye,” she said to the click.
    Her mother checked