Chapter 20

For Glenna, the week dragged on forever. She’d spent Monday night with Harry again just talking and kissing and getting to know each other. But by Tuesday she still couldn’t get the thought out of her head that maybe he didn’t really love her. He’d married her just to keep the Gladstone Legacy alive. They’d never talked about it, and she didn’t want to bring it up now, because it would once again show Harry she didn’t trust him.

Why couldn’t she trust him? She didn’t understand. So, by the time dinner came around she had told Harry she needed some time alone to think about everything that had happened. His face had fallen in disappointment, but he’d told her he understood. He had stayed away since then. She got two texts a day from him. One first thing in the morning. “Good Morning Goddess. I love you. Know I’m thinking about you today.” Then one every night “Good night my love, sleep sweet and dream about me as I’m dreaming about you.” He never pushed, never asked her what was wrong. Never even tried to impose on her beyond the texts.

But nothing had cleared her head. She’d went to see her dad on Friday and they’d talked about her trust issues. Her dad had asked her hard questions and made her think, but even though she knew in her head Harry was trustworthy and had married her out of love. She couldn’t get the doubts out of her way. It was Saturday now and Lucas Hart would be checking out in the morning. Harry would want to know if he could move back in, even if it was just to sleep and hold her close.

If her mood hadn’t been bad enough, it had started raining on Wednesday and had kept raining all week. Today was cloudy, but it looked like they were breaking up. Glenna decided to do something that used to help her order her thoughts during high school. When she’d needed to get ready for a debate, she’d always gone for a run through the woods on the far side of Phantom Horse Bridge. She’d stopped when she left for college and massage therapy school, but hadn’t picked it back up when she came home. Today, getting out there in the woods might help order her thinking. Shoot, maybe she’d bump into Old Grandpa Harold’s ghost and he’d give her some secret insight into herself now that she was a Gladstone.

She grabbed her cross trainers, put on her workout clothes, then drove over to the park. Her heart sped up as she passed the Gladstone Estate and saw Harry and Lucas sitting by the pond talking. She needed to get this worked out. She wanted to be with her husband and to do so without reservation.

She parked and put her cell phone in the glove box. She didn’t want to take the chance that it would fall out as she ran. She did, however, grab her keys and a small can of pepper spray. She’d heard of too many women being attacked by some guy in a mask in the park, and, as part of the City Council, she knew it wasn’t just rumor. Trent Gibson had come to ask for more men several times to patrol the park better, on the chance of catching and stopping the freak, but Hal and the Good Ole Boys had always voted it down as an unnecessary expense. That was one of the first things she planned to address as the new Mayor. And she would be the new Mayor.

Once Harry’s name was off the ballot, Hal had tried to have his put back on. However, Bernie and the City Council had all agreed doing so was a violation of the City by-laws. So, Glenna was running for Mayor unopposed. Granted a write in vote could still beat her, but she’d been talking to citizens and everyone was very positive about her running. She needed to do some town hall style meetings, but she’d have to pay to rent the auditorium at the high school or to use the churches and she didn’t have the budget. She knew Harry would pay for the space if she asked, but until she could resolve this trust issue, she didn’t want to ask.

She started walking toward the bridge and then onto it. She increased her speed in the middle to a fast walk, then into a jog by the time she hit the far end. She was sprinting, but not at top speed by the time she hit the woods and turned right to run through the woods instead of beside the highway. She stopped thinking about anything as she pushed herself closer to her top speed.

This was how it used to be. She’d push the thoughts cluttering her head aside and focus on eating up the ground, and when she got back home she would be clear headed and able to sort through what she needed to, so that she could come to the right decision.

As she ran, her thoughts drifted away, but instead of seeing herself defeating Harry Gladstone and getting his attention, she kept seeing him standing in her bedroom removing their clothes to make love to her. That threw her out of sync and she quickly stopped and moved over to the side of the trail standing just on the edge of the drainage ravine. She was so caught up in trying to purge the sight of Harry’s naked body from her mind, she didn’t realize the ground beneath her feet gave way, weakened by the recent rain. It wasn’t until she was tumbling down the side of the ravine that she knew she was falling. She smacked her temple against one of the large rocks in the drainage field, causing the whole world to spin. She just laid there trying not to throw up and unable to move from the pain that seemed to start in her head and run through her whole body.

She tried to sit up but that made her dizzy again. She lay half in the drainage field and her workout clothes quickly became soaked. She was worried and starting to panic when she heard a sound like an electric spark, and then saw a man holding the reins of a black horse with the whitest mane and tail she’d ever seen.

“Hey there, little lady, are you okay?”