Reach For Me

by Elizabeth Cole

  Piewicket mewed, and Mal said, “Good point. Protection can take forms you don’t expect.”

  Cara was still focused on the display at the top of the hill, picturing the destruction it would leave in the morning, the charred remains of the house.

  Mal bent his head to her ear. He said quietly, “I’m sorry the fire burned everything. All your work. Your dad’s tools.”

  “I’ll miss the tools. On the other hand, I do still have my dad. Or I will pretty soon, with good behavior.” Cara bit her lip. “There was a lot about that house that was beautiful.” The paneling, the carvings, the glorious parlor floor. “Unique. I’ll never get to be in a place like that again.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s ok. I don’t want to be in a place like that again. It was pure evil. It tried to eat my soul. I like my job, but not that much.”

  “What are you going to do now?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I got an idea.”

  He stood up, pulling her up with him. He told the others that he and Cara had some important something or other to discuss—he didn’t even bother to make it sound plausible. Then he took her inside the house and upstairs.

  “I think you’re overestimating my energy level,” she said when he started taking off her shirt.

  “No, I’m correctly estimating it. We smell like smoke and we both need a shower, and that’s all I’m after.”

  “Oh, that’s all?”

  “For now.”

  That was in fact all he did want, and a little while later, they lay on his bed, naked, clean, and lazy.

  “This is nice,” Cara said sleepily.

  “What is? Lying around? Getting pawed at by me?”

  “You’re not pawing at me.”

  “Crap. Oversight.” He started pawing at her, making her giggle.

  Mal kissed her. “You should stay here.”

  “Tonight? You bet. I can’t muster up the energy to move.”

  “Not just tonight. I mean stay here. With me.” He propped himself up, gazing at her seriously. “And then Pumpkin gets a solid kittenhood with good role models and stuff.”

  “You’re bringing the cat into this?”

  “I’m going to bring everything into this if it’ll convince you. Would seduction work?”

  She smiled, but pushed against his chest to forestall any seduction. “Mal, what are you suggesting? I can’t be like Vinny, learning magic to fight vampires and demons. Or like you, kicking ass and taking names. I’m a carpenter. I’m good at what I do, which is not demon-hunting.”

  “Hey, hey. Slow down there, girl. I’m not saying change jobs. I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want. But can’t we try this? I really like you, Cara.”

  “Are you serious about this?”

  “Yes. For once, I’m serious. Long-distance relationships have been known to work. You could stay here when you’re not on a job. And when you are on a job, just expect a lot of sexting.”

  “Mal!”

  “Look, before, when I said I really like you. It’s not true.”

  Her stomach clenched. She knew things were too good to be true. “What?”

  “I don’t like you. I love you, Cara. It took a while for me to figure it out because I’m a dumbass, but it’s true. I love you.”

  “You’re not a dumbass. You’re just a trilobite, sometimes.”

  “I don’t have a good track record with relationships,” he warned her. “I thought that if I never needed anyone, I couldn’t lose them. But I did nearly lose you, and that was way worse than never having you. So let me try.”

  “I’ll let you try,” she said, “but only because I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you too.”

  He kissed her nose. “As long as we’re both in love with each other, I think we can work out the rest of the details.”

  Her heart beat a little faster, fluttering in a new and unfamiliar way. What was she feeling?

  Oh, yeah. Hope.

  Epilogue

  A light layer of snow had fallen during the night. Cara peered out onto the porch. A track of cat paws was the only thing interrupting the veil of white.

  She looked up to the hill across the street. The snowfall had covered the worst of the devastation. The house had collapsed into itself, crushed under its own weight, filling up the basement. Now there was just a mound of charred rubble, obscured by snow.

  It was the first week of December, and things had been blissfully calm ever since Halloween. No more vampires, no more ghosts, no more dire predictions from cats about impending doom. Cara had been living at the Salem house ever since Halloween, with the exception of a week to visit her mom.

  Things were all going shockingly well. She had two more jobs lined up, beginning after the holidays. Until then, she could focus on the house she was in.

  Cara moved to the kitchen, starting a pot of coffee. She had a full day ahead of her.

  Pumpkin leapt up onto the kitchen island. The orange cat had grown a lot over the weeks, well-fed and spoiled rotten. Cara kissed the top of his head. “Morning, sweetheart. You’re so cute.”

  “Thanks.” Mal’s voice caught her by surprise, and she turned around just in time to get soundly kissed on the mouth.

  “Not you, trilobite,” she said with a laugh.

  “What’s happening today? You finished the floor.” Mal gestured to the sunlight slanting across the wooden floorboards. The morning glow turned the hues of the woodgrain to amber and honey, warm and homey. Cara had made everyone help her move the furniture last week so she could “tidy up a bit,” which meant replacing a dozen broken boards and then sanding and refinishing the whole surface of the first floor.

  The smell of orange was in the air, thanks to the oil she used to seal the wood before she waxed it to the soft sheen it had now. She stayed up until one in the morning for five nights in a row, utterly uninterested in lazing around until her latest project was done.

  “Pretty nice, huh?” she said, giving the floor a professional once-over.

  “Very nice.” Mal wasn’t looking at the floor as he spoke.

  It took Cara a moment to register it—he leered just a bit so she got the hint—and then she laughed. “You doofus. What’s for breakfast?”

  “I was thinking of making pancakes.”

  “Mmm, perfect. And then I can get to work on the side of the house. We need to get that done before the real cold sets in.”

  The fire had completely consumed Egan House, but it hadn’t leapt to the supply of new lumber that the workers stored in the shed. After the conflagration, Cara liberated the supplies and even hired Jalen and Reyes to help cart the lumber across the street to the Salem house. No sense in wasting materials, and it seemed unlikely Morningside would ever cut her final check.

  An hour later, Cara was up on the scaffolding, hammering at the edging of the window. She was delighted to be working again, to be improving a home with her own hands and her own tools. She especially loved solving a problem.

  “Oh, that’s what happened. Some idiot put up the waterproofing layer wrong!” she yelled down to Mal, who was assisting. “That’s why you kept getting mold in this room, and why all the wood’s rotted.”

  “How can we fix it?” he asked, tipping his head up. Pumpkin mewed in agreement, also looking up. The kitten generally wanted to be in sight of Cara, whether she was in the house or out of it.

  “Easy peasy. I’m just going to ditch the old siding, and then we rip off the bad paper and put up a new layer the correct way.” She paused. “Might need to reframe under the window. Depends on whether the supports got too much moisture. In fact, I’ll reframe anyway, because the new wood is treated to be termite resistant.”

  “What about that is easy? Or peasy?”

  Cara smiled down at him. “Cheer up, Mal. We can get this done in a week!”

  Catching movement in the corner of her eye, she looked up at the hill. For as long as she stayed here, a part of her would always be d
rawn to where Egan House once stood.

  Against the white snow-covered hill, a black shape was descending.

  “Is that Mr. B?” she asked, pointing.

  Mal shielded his eyes with his hand. “Looks like. But he’s not alone.”

  Indeed, the massive black cat was going slowly, accompanied by a small creature with a bright gold coat, like if a palomino decided to turn into a feline.

  Cara scrambled down the ladder, curiosity overtaking her.

  “Who’s our new friend?” Cara asked when they reached the house.

  Pumpkin mewed excitedly, giving the new kitten a sniff and then head-bopping it. The newcomer responded enthusiastically, and Mr. B looked on like a proud parent. Pumpkin looked from Cara to the new kitten and back again, virtually demanding that she introduce herself.

  She bent down to get a closer look at the little kitten. She was surprised to see that it wore a collar. No, not a collar. Just a silk cord, from which a little enameled decoration was hanging. She lifted it and saw the outline of a saint, with Gertrude written underneath.

  Cara’s jaw dropped.

  The kitten mewed and bumped into her hand.

  “It’s Marigold,” Mal said stunned. “But Behemoth says we should call her Goldie.”

  She picked up the little cat. It looked like a cat, felt like a cat, and purred like a cat. “Well,” Cara said, “it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve encountered lately.”

  “Oh, stick around.” Mal smiled. “Things will get so much weirder.”

  “You promise?”

  He gave her a kiss. “Cross my heart.”

  * * * *

  From the Author

  Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed Reach For Me. Please take a moment to leave a review. It helps independent readers like you find independent authors like me.

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