The Falstaff Vampire Files Read Online Free Page B

issues.”
    “I didn’t really mind when they gossiped about us being together. But now—I feel like a fool—an old fool.”
    He sighed. “As a middle-aged gay man, I wouldn’t know anything about that. If you think your client will accept a referral, I can send you a list of good local therapists who don’t know you.”
    “Thank you.” Larry’s address book was legendary, and he gathered affection and admiration wherever he went. “I don’t look forward to telling her.”
    Larry sighed. “You need to let her know that she’s engaged to a guy whose screwing around, and there may be others. I’d get tested—seriously.”
    “You’re right. I hadn’t even thought of that.”
    “She’s going to hate you. She may not want to take a referral from you, but I’ll email you a list anyway. Anything about her that would narrow the field of potential referrals?”
    “Body image around her weight.”
    “Just like almost every woman and gay man in America.”
    “Vampires figure on her list of fears.”
    “Now there’s a coincidence. No wonder you were chatting so cozily with Bram.” He patted me on the shoulder. “You’re not ready to joke about it yet, are you?”
    “Not yet. I left a message on Hal’s voice mail, but we still need to have that last conversation.”
    Larry shook his head as he walked me out to the door. “I wonder how he was going to tell you about his engagement. Perhaps slipping a wedding invitation under your pillow. You’re going to get through this, Kris. Call me any time. Look at the bright side—at least you weren’t sleeping with one of your patients.”
    “Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.”
    Oddly, it did.

Chapter 9
    Hal Roy’s spoken notes
    silver flash drive/voice recorder
    August 4th
     
    Meeting Mina gave me the courage to think I could take control of the situation. Now she’s going to marry me and I think she’ll keep me on an even keel even when I gain the power I need.
    Dad was a diplomat and Mom was one of those diplomatic wives who did whatever it took to help Dad. The bottom line is I need a wife who can help me with my work. Mina is all of that.
    Wandering the night with Jack has given me a taste for robust, intoxicating women, and I keep putting off ending the affair with Kris. She’s warm and funny, sexy and exhilarating, but she could never be part of the life I want to make, the power I need to find. She’s too old, too big, and maybe even too smart to be an ambitious man’s wife. If Kris really thought about it, maybe she might figure out for herself that our affair never had a future. After all, I never gave her a key to my place, told her about Jack or introduced her to my friends.
    It’s different with Mina. I want her to be a part of all of it.
    Mina’s perfect—beautiful, voluptuous but elegant, and sensible. Maybe too sensible.
    She might save me, if I can just hold onto her. I tried to explain about Jack, and she refused to meet him. But she didn’t run away either, even after I told her what I wanted. My only hope is that she can love me enough to see me through the change.

Chapter 10
    Kristin Marlowe’s typed notes
    August 4th continued
     
    On the way home I checked my voicemail—nothing from Hal.
    I walked through the garden where a violent snip-snip sound led me to Violet wielding garden shears on some hydrangea bushes. Vi was short and wiry with a wild mop of mostly gray curls and sharp green eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. She and her ex-husband bought the house with its garden and cottage in the 1960s, when such things were possible. When they divorced, she got the house. They had painted it blue, and Vi planted morning glories, blue hydrangeas and a small vegetable garden. She lived in the house, rented the cottage to me, and did a bit of bookkeeping for hire to make ends meet. Some of Vi’s vampire books had been published and brought her a little money. Her other passion was cats, but the cats don’t bring in any