“It was nothing, really. Just good timing,” I insisted into her shoulder.
“You don’t honestly believe that anymore do you? After what happened I would think you’d be a big believer in destiny.”
“Mom. Jeez,” Caleb breathed out in protest.
“Go ahead,” she waved us toward the living room, “I’ll bring you something to drink. Tea?”
“Sure. Thanks,” I answered and heard her high heels clicking on the tile as she scampered away through the throng of onlookers.
Caleb took my hand, smiled at me shyly and nodded for me to follow him into the living room, as instructed, as everyone stared, but had warm smiles and parted the way for us. I felt like a specimen in a Petri dish, but a welcome one. Caleb hadn’t been exaggerating. They were all thrilled I was there and it was plainly written all over their faces.
He brought me to a plush, brown couch in the middle of the room. The room was bright and yellow with pictures everywhere of brown haired people. I sat down and he sat close beside me but not touching. It was so quiet, like everyone was waiting for something to happen. I decided I’d show Caleb I wasn’t some shy silly girl. I could handle his family.
“I’ve always loved this house. From the outside anyway,” I said, loud enough for most to hear and some chuckled.
“Well, I’m glad you like it,” a deep voice answered back. A tall, dark haired man stepped forward and took the club chair in front of us. I saw him glance at the black handprint on my arm, frown, and then look back to my face. “This was my wife’s parent’s house.”
“You must be Mr. Jacobson,” I stated and jolted a little when everyone laughed.
“Sweetheart, we’re all Mr. Jacobson.”
I blushed and looked up at Caleb from under my lashes. He was smiling and shaking his head...and he was glowing with happiness. It took my breath away. I continued to look at him. He had a little dimple in one cheek that I hadn’t noticed before and it made me ache to look at it and not touch it.
He was wearing jeans and a yellow polo shirt today. It was a nice fit, hugging him, and I bit my lip as my eyes met his and my heart jumped. He actually blushed, as he felt what I felt, which was pretty hilarious.
He rubbed his chin and smiled crookedly at me which made me smile. I turned back to see everyone else grinning at us, which made me blush again. I ducked my head and let my hair curtain my face.
“Here you go.” Rachel handed me and Caleb a glass of sweet tea and sat on the loveseat near us. “Now, Maggie,” she leaned forward on her knees with her elbows, “tell us about yourself.”
“Mom, that’s not why I brought her here,” Caleb rescued me. “First, she needs to hear the history of our kind. She needs to understand what’s going on. Where’s Dad?”
“He’ll be here shortly. He had an errand to run, but while we wait, I don’t see why it would hurt to ask Maggie some questions.”
“Mom, why don’t we let her talk to grandma instead?” He turned to me. “Grandma is the only other living member of our clan who was human.”
I gasped inwardly and looked up searching for her. I forgot he had mentioned that there were others. I felt desperate to talk to her. To find out if what my body was telling me was real.
I saw her moving forward and she sat in the only empty chair left in front of us. She pulled a silver, oval locket out of her dress, on a long chain around her neck, opened it and thrust it forward for me to see. She, too, glanced at my arm, the handprint, before settling her gaze on me.
I took the locket gently and saw the black and white picture of a man, a handsome man who looked shockingly like Caleb. I glanced between the two several times. Caleb’s grandma chuckled.
“Yes. Caleb does look an awful lot like my Raymond did. He’s Caleb’s grandfather and you can call me Gran, everyone does.”
I nodded and she went on, pulling the locket from my grasp and looking at it longingly before replacing it.
“So, I met Raymond at a buffet.” She cackled. “I was with my parents, eating on a Saturday night out at our first buffet in town. We never ate out and it was such a treat. We both reached for a roll at the same time. Our fingers touched and that was it,” she said and smiled sadly.“So, it’s the touch that triggers this...whatever it is?”
“Imprinting. Yes, touch is what triggers it. Now granted, I felt some attraction to Raymond before that, as I’m sure you did, but after that it was impossible to stay away. I was human too, so it made it doubly worse. Humans aren’t prepared for the changes that occur. We aren’t knowledgeable and understanding of what’s going on. We have a most difficult time. His parents of course knew but my human parents did not. We were both twenty two. I was in college and so was he, in another city. My parents thought I was smitten and silly and made us leave right then, forbidding us to ever see each other. We were separated for a week before he was able to find me, get to me and sneak past my parents to make it back to me.”
I remembered this morning. The strange flu like feelings and aches I had and how Caleb took them all away with one touch this morning. I looked up curiously and she nodded.
“Yeah, think about what you went through this morning but everyday, all day, non stop for a week.” I hugged myself while she shook her head. “My parents thought I was crazy, that I’d have some kind of breakdown and were thinking about having me put into an institution.”
“Wow.”
“So, you see why we are all so concerned for you two, especially you, dear. You are human. You have human parents who will not understand your need to be with Caleb, among other things. Plus you are so very young and not yet legal, the youngest I’ve ever heard of being imprinted in all the clans. I am worried about causing problems between you and your family.”
“Well,” I started. “I graduated already.”
“Yes. Kyle told us. Skipped a grade?”
“Yes, ma’am, but even if I hadn’t, my parents won’t cause any problems, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“What do you mean, child?” she said with a scowl.
I felt so uncomfortable. I did not want to hash out my sad sob story in front of these twenty or so people, all with their waiting eyes. They wanted the dirt and life story of the strange girl who had been thrust into their lives. I did not want their sympathy. I licked my lips nervously.
Then I felt a hand on mine and it all went away, like wind blowing fog to clear the air. I only felt calm and warm when I looked up into those blue eyes. He was rescuing me again, with a little encouraging smile to boot. So I told her what she wanted to know.
“My mom left last summer. It’s just been me and my dad and he’s depressed and a little...bitter. I barely see him. I don’t have any other family except one adopted brother who lives in New York. No grandparents. No uncles or aunts. No cousins. Just us.”
I waited for the onslaught of ‘ahhs’ and ‘you poor things’ but they didn’t come. His grandmother just nodded. “That’s hard. But if nothing else it’ll make this a lot easier on you. Do you have a plan for college or anything yet?”
“Um, no. Not yet,” I said and picked at the fabric of my jeans.
“Well, we’ll talk about that later.” She glanced meaningfully at Rachel and Mr. Jacobson, the one I’d talked to, and then back to me.
“What do you mean it’ll make it easier on me?”
“Well, honey, to be blunt, you can’t live without Caleb.”
Chapter Five
“Gran!” Caleb’s hand released mine as his hands flew in the air. “This is not the way I wanted to explain things,” Caleb said and I could feel how exasperated he was.
“It’s gotta be done. It’ll be worse on her if we don’t get it all out in the open. We all know it. She’s human. The deed is done. Nothing can be changed now. We can pretend all we want to that there’s another choice, but the girl will have to be with you.”
“I have to be with him,” I repeated before Caleb could say anything else. “You mean with him physically around, like all the time, or I’ll get sick like I did this morning?”
“Yes. It’s worse in the beginning, but it fades some. You will always need each other. After you ascend, things will be even more different than now, in a good way. I know it’s scary right now-”
I cut her off. I wasn’t scared. I was feeling an eclectic rainbow of emotions, but scared wasn’t one of them.
“I get all that. Don’t worry, I’m not scared. I’m not upset. I’m just not sure how to make it all work. This is...” I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes for just a few seconds. “Crazy. I mean, yesterday I was a nobody seventeen year old who graduated high school and had normal problems like everybody else.”
“Look.” She leaned forward and patted my hand. “I know this is a lot to take in but you wanted the facts. I’m not a baker, so I’m not about to sugar coat it for you. The thing is, there’s a reason this happened. You are the first imprint in twenty years in our clan. That’s a big deal. The fact that you’re human and incredibly young has to mean something.”
“This isn’t just because I saved him, is it? Some miss-fired imprint false alarm or something?”