Read Online All of Me by Lori Wilde - Free Book Online

fresh snowflakes had started drifting from the sky.
    After another long moment, Tuck spoke. “I saw a woman.”
    “Huh? Are you dating someone?”
    “No, no. I saw a woman. In the sweat lodge. In my vision. At least I hope it was a vision.”
    Ridley tensed. His stomach knotted. A woman could be a good omen or a bad one. It depended on the circumstances. He prayed
     it wasn’t a bad omen. Evie would skin him alive if Tuck had had a vision with a bad omen. He didn’t want to push. He was afraid
     his brother-in-law would pull back in like a truculent turtle.
    “It probably wasn’t even a vision,” Tuck continued. “Probably just some weird Johnny Walker dream.”
    “Yeah, you gotta stay away from that stuff.”
    “I know. Usually I do … it’s just that … anniversaries hit me hard.” Tuck exhaled audibly.
    Ridley’s butt was getting cold, but he knew Tuck was on the verge of opening up, and he didn’t want to break the tenuous thread.
     “So this woman you saw. She wasn’t Aimee?”
    Tuck shook his head.
    “That bothered you? Seeing a woman and it not being Aimee?” He rubbed his palms together to warm them. It was cold on the
     dock, yes, but that wasn’t the only place the chill was coming from.
    “Yeah.”
    “This woman, what’d she look like?”
    “Dark hair, pale skin, tall. I mean, really tall. Close to six foot. Beautiful in a smart, high-class kind of way. Like Cleopatra.”
    Ridley grunted. Uh-oh, that didn’t sound good. Not good at all. He took a swig of his beer, afraid to ask what needed to be
     asked next.
    “And,” Tuck added, “she was naked.”
    Ridley choked on his beer. He sputtered, coughed. His braid fell forward across his shoulder.
    “You okay?”
    Ridley couldn’t stop coughing, and tears of strain misted his eyes.
    Tuck pounded him on the back. “Rid? You need the Heimlich?”
    He shook his head. Oh shit. Evie was gonna kill him dead. “I’m okay.”
    “You sure?”
    “This woman you saw,” Ridley croaked. “Was she an … um … a temptress?”
    Tuck’s head jerked up. “How did you know?”
    “The temptress is quite common in folklore and mythology,” he said, not wanting to tell Tuck what seeing a temptress in a
     vision quest really meant. His brother-in-law simply wasn’t ready to hear about that. “Did she … um … did she tempt you?”
    “It was a sex dream, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    “Were feathers involved?” Ridley asked hopefully. Feathers were a good omen. Maybe feathers could temper the ominous naked-temptress-sex-dream
     thing.
    Tuck frowned. “No, not feathers.”
    “But something?” Ridley fisted his hands. This was getting worse by the minute. He should stop asking questions, but he couldn’t.
     He had to know exactly how bad it was.
    “Veils.”
    Uneasiness took hold of him. Ridley’s blood thickened in his veins, and his breath went thin. Hurriedly, he took another swallow
     of beer. “What kind of veils?”
    “Wedding veils. Lots and lots of white lace wedding veils.” Tuck slapped a hand on Ridley’s thigh. “So, Red Deer, you’re the
     Native American here. What does the vision mean?”
    “Mean?” Ridley asked, hearing the nervousness in his voice. “Who says it means anything?”
    “It doesn’t mean anything?” Tuck sounded oddly disappointed. “I thought by the way you were choking on your beer that it probably
     meant something.”
    “Naw, not really,” he lied. “I just swallowed wrong.”
    “You’re a lousy liar, Rid.”
    “Who says I’m lying?”
    “Me. When you lie, your nose twitches. Word to the wise—stay away from poker.”
    “It does not.” Ridley put a hand to his nose.
    “Then why are you touching your nose?”
    “Bastard.”
    “So what’s the big woo-woo sweat lodge secret?”
    “No secret.”
    “Then why’d you come sit out here with me in the cold if you weren’t trying to get me to tell you about the vision?”
    “Because I’m worried about you.”
    “Ease my