Protector(107)

It was even more difficult to determine whether anyone in their respective clans was particularly happy about hers and Alex’s burgeoning relationship. Her visions hadn’t gone away — she’d woken up one night after having a nightmare about the hillside beneath Rory Lightman’s house giving way, and phoned her mother immediately. Tricia McAllister had passed on the warning, and Rory got his family out before half the house slid down the hill. At least the incident had proved that Caitlin was willing to do her part as the clan seer, even when off at college in Flagstaff, but she had a feeling they really wouldn’t be thrilled if she announced that her relationship with Alex Trujillo was getting serious and that she might not be staying in the northern half of the state for very much longer.

She wouldn’t make that announcement, though, because she didn’t know for sure if their relationship really was that serious. Sure, he’d come up and spend a weekend here and there when he could make the time in his schedule, but she really couldn’t count that as an extreme escalation of their relationship. And she couldn’t even reciprocate, because her ancient Toyota could barely make it back and forth between Flagstaff and Jerome. No way could she drive the poor thing all the way to Tucson and hope to have it survive.

On Memorial Day weekend, Alex made the slog through traffic to see her, since it was her birthday that Sunday. They had a large, noisy lunch at the Haunted Hamburger with as many family members as they could squeeze in amongst the tourists, but after that Alex took her back to Flagstaff. He seemed unusually quiet on the drive home, but Caitlin didn’t want to make anything major out of that. A few hours spent around her relatives would be enough to wear anyone down, even someone who was used to being part of a large extended family himself.

After they got back to the apartment, though, and Caitlin got them some iced tea, Alex asked, “So what are you going to do about this place?”

“What place?”

“The apartment.”

“Oh.” She handed him his glass of tea and settled herself down on the threadbare sofa. It seemed Alex had finally decided they were going to have “the talk,” and she wasn’t sure what she thought about that. Or maybe it was more that she did know what she thought…what she hoped for…but didn’t want to admit it to herself. “Well, I can afford to stay, if I decide that’s what I want to do. My parents aren’t thrilled about the whole thing, but no way am I going to bail out with only a year of college left.”

He appeared to absorb that remark, dark eyes thoughtful. Instead of coming to sit next to her, though, he went over to the sliding glass door and looked outside. The view was about the only decent thing in the apartment; you could see pine trees and a glimpse of Humphreys Peak off to one side. But Caitlin had a feeling Alex wasn’t really looking at the view, no matter how pretty it was.

Turning around so he could face her, he said abruptly, “I want you to come to Tucson and move in with me.”

“What?” Even though she’d been halfway hoping he might make such a proposition, now that it had come, she felt blindsided.

“You heard me.” He moved from the window and stood in front of her, a pleading expression on his face. “We’ve been trying to make this work, but God, Caitlin, you live four hours away from me, and that’s on a day with good traffic. Besides, this place is a dump. Wouldn’t you rather live in my house?”

Tone wry, she asked, “Oh, so now you’re trying to save me from living in a shithole apartment, Mr. Protector?”

“Of course not.” His mouth twisted, and before she could even register what he was doing, he’d gone down on one knee in front of her and was pulling a box out of his jeans pocket.

No — he couldn’t. This was ridiculous. They hadn’t even known each other for three whole months.

But Goddess…she wanted this. She wanted him. She wanted to be with him.

Obviously, Alex didn’t think it was ridiculous, even if he did look adorably silly, perched there on one knee in front of her. Voice earnest, he said, “I want us to be together, Caitlin. I want you to come home with me. I want it to be our home. I know you only stayed there for a few days, but the house still feels empty without you.” He opened the box. The ring inside was white gold, with a glittering round-cut diamond in the center surrounded by smaller diamonds.

It was beautiful. It was perfect. But still she could only sit there, staring at him, all the words she loved so much suddenly deserting her.

He paused and stared up into her face. “Is it — is it too soon? I’ve been trying to make myself wait, at least until you were done with school, but Caitlin, I don’t want to wait anymore.”