He sighed happily and placed his arm around me, his hand brushing my arm making us both shiver. I noticed a tattoo of a half circle or moon on the inside of his wrist.
“Me, too, Maggie. Me just a little bit more than you, I think.”
I giggled silently and felt him shake with a chuckle. “So, was that one of your abilities or can we always do that?”
“We haven’t ascended yet. All significants can do that with each other, among other things.”
“Healing,” I chimed.
“Yep. Healing. What we just did is called memory transfer. I know. Sounds romantic, right?” I laughed again. “But it’s useful sometimes to figure things out, to get another point of view of something. We can also find each other. And if you are ever in trouble or extremely anxious or distressed, your body calls to me and I can find you anywhere and you, me. I can also feel your pain or if you’re uncomfortable.”
“Mmm. That’s...”
“Freaky?”
“No. I was going to say neat, but I was looking for a less dorky word.”
He laughed just as our food came and Mrs. Amy gave him a knowing smile as she topped off our sweet tea. I tried all his favorite foods. Corn nuggets, beef brisket on garlic bread and baked sweet potato with cinnamon butter. Then for dessert we had blueberry cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream.
I was stuffed and felt happier than I had in a very long time.
We finished up and made our way up to the cash register to pay. Then back out to his motorcycle. He started to put his helmet on, but stopped and looked at me.
“I’m not ready to take you home yet.”
“I’m not ready to go home yet.”
Chapter Nine
“Well,” he grinned, “there’s a pond in back. People fish and swim in it during the day, but it should be quiet tonight. There’s a walkway and benches. Do you want to go sit with me for a while?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Good. Here.” He reached under his seat, got the leather jacket and once again reached around me to wrap it around my shoulders. “It’s getting a little cold.”
“Thanks.”
He held his hand out to me and smiled crookedly. I slipped my hand into his and felt the familiar calm wash over me. He started to pull me with him, but I stayed my ground and looked up at him. “Caleb.”
“Yeah?”
“I thought you were pretty great, too, before all this. I was disappointed when I thought I’d never see you again. I just wanted you to know that it’s not just the imprint to me either.”
He came closer and took my face in his hands. For a second I thought he’d kiss me. But he just looked at me for a long time, smiling, so I just stared up at him. Finally he spoke. “Thank you, Maggie.”
He kissed my forehead. It burned a good heat where his lips touched me and my eyelids fluttered. Then he took my hand again, and led the way to the path and benches. There were a lot of them lined up on the boardwalk under dogwood trees and the moon was casting a hazy glow on the water.
“Wow,” I said as I sat and looked up. “You can see every star out here.”
“The darker it is with less city lights, the more stars you can see.”
“Wow,” I repeated as I leaned back to get a better view. “Thanks for dinner. I really like this place.”
“It’s my favorite. Mrs. Amy is an old family friend. We’ve been coming here since as long as I can remember.”
“And does she know about your family?”
“No. We don’t ever tell anyone.”
His pocket buzzed and he pulled out his phone.
“So, I can’t tell Rebecca?” I knew the answer but felt the need to ask anyway.
“I’m afraid not. Sorry,” he said as he typed something into his phone and then slipped it back in his pocket. “Sorry. My friend, Vic, texts me like a jealous girlfriend.”
I laughed. “No. It’s ok. And I kind of figured that I couldn’t tell anyone, but it didn’t hurt to ask.”
He stretched his legs out beside me, not touching me, and crossed his ankles, laying his head back against the seat as if he was settling in for a long haul talk. I smiled to myself. “So, how long have you known each other? You and Beck,” he asked.
“Birth.”
“That right?”
“Yep.”
“And what about your brother? Where is he?”
I told him about my parent’s adoption of Bish, how he moved to New York and I never see him anymore but we text all the time. That he left for school before mom left so he missed all the drama.
“So,” I asked, “what about Jen? I don’t remember seeing her husband there this morning. Where did she meet him?”
“Uh.” He sat up slowly, setting his elbows on his knees and looking uncomfortable. “Well, remember we told you that no one has imprinted in a long time.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
He waited, watched me and I thought hard because it seemed he wanted me to figure something out. Then it clicked. His sister couldn’t be but a few years older than Caleb. So, she couldn’t have imprinted with anyone if no one has in twenty years. Yet she had a daughter. Hmm.“Yeah, I remember you said that. So, if she didn’t imprint and didn’t get married what happened, if you don’t mind my asking? Is Maria adopted?”
“No, she’s not adopted.” He turned to look at me and smiled sadly. “That sweet little girl is the product of a crazy end of the summer party and the date rape drug.”
I gasped and covered my mouth with a hand.
“It’s ok,” he assured me.
“Caleb. Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry for her.”
“Don’t be.” He scooted closer and placed his hand on my elbow to draw off some of the anxiety that had my heart racing. “She was angry, extremely angry, for a while. She was a different person and dropped out of school, which was understandable. You see, there is usually more than one of us from the family at Tennessee together, we watch out for each other. It just worked out that her first year she was alone. Remember I told you there is still a lot of family that you haven’t met. Well, we’ve never had any problems, except that one year, that one time. This is why we stay together. This is why they want us to go to school and work together and live near each other. Because things happen and it’s just easier if we’re all there to help each other or prevent stuff from even happening. I know it happens to humans too, but we have so much to hide. And things like that could expose everyone.”
“Yeah. So, she had the baby anyway.”
He scoffed and chuckled. “Of course she did. The police told her they couldn’t find out who did it and she should just have an abortion and even set her up an appointment at the clinic before telling her. Well, you don’t tell Jen what to do. She dropped out of school, came home and sulked and was a zombie for nine months. Then Maria was born and that was all it took, one look. Maria was born with a full head of dark curly hair.” He smiled remembering and I picked up bits and pieces from his mind but mostly just listened. “She was herself again after that. She said as morbid and twisted as it seemed, she was happy, because she wouldn’t have imprinted and never gotten a chance to have a baby otherwise. That she considered it a gift and wasn’t angry anymore.”
“Wow.”
I couldn’t imagine that. But Maria is pretty adorable. And I’m sure his close knit family made a huge fuss over her and cared really well for them both. It made me smile.
“Yep. So, don’t feel sorry for her. She doesn’t regret it. In fact she went back to school two years later and finished her two year degree and then started work at the firm with everyone else. She loves it.”
“Your parents didn’t try to make her have an abortion?”
“No, they wouldn’t anyway, but I think they understood her point of view; that she’d never get the chance for a baby otherwise and if that’s what she wanted, they’d support her for it.”
“Wow.”
“That’s like your favorite word, huh?” he teased and chuckled.
“Oh, yeah.” I bet I sounded so young and stupid. “I just can’t believe that she-”
“I was just joking.” He put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me to him. “It’s cute. I like it, a lot actually.”
“Cute?” I said, playfully incredulous.
“Yep. Cute.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” I said and leaned away in mock distress.
He grinned and followed me as I inched away laughing. He inched closer. “Oh, it’s a compliment.” I came to the edge of the seat and stopped. But he didn’t. He smooshed right up next to me and smiled deviously down at me. “Where you gonna go now, cutie?”
“Um. Away.” I bolted from him and took off down the boardwalk.
I heard him chuckle and then footsteps pounding behind me on the wood planks. The moon was bright and there was plenty of light to see him. He chased me and was fast but so was I. I was on the track team for crying out loud.
“Hey! Jeez, you’re fast.”
“I’m sorry you can’t keep up,” I yelled as I ran backwards. “I figured a big bad swimmer could handle a little jog.”
“Ooooh,” he feigned anger. “You are so going to get it now!”
“You have to catch me first, slow poke!”