by Jill Sanders
“Well, now, young Todd.” The father always called him “young” even though he was now in his mid-thirties. “It’s a shame, yes, sir. Her heart is broken. It is your duty as Matt’s best friend to make sure you and your family help her settle in. Such a lovely thing, too. To think she’ll be living in that old, drafty house all by herself.” The father shook his head.
Matt’s house wasn’t drafty. If anything, it was in better shape than his own. He could tell the good father was probably up to his old matchmaking schemes.
“And to think, the poor girl will be moving in all by herself, and in the state she’s in, too. She could hardly shake my hand.” Here it comes, he thought, as his gaze once again swept over to where the object of their conversation stood. She was now surrounded by half the town and looked very lost.
“You need to do the right thing by Matt and make sure his little sister gets settled in safely. God has some answers for her. She’s come halfway across the world all alone to bury her poor brother.” Father Michael shook his head. “I want you to promise me that you and your family will stop by the house often, you hear me?” he said with a sad look on his face.
Todd’s gaze swept back to the priest. He knew that look. It was the same look he and a friend had gotten in high school after sneaking in to the cemetery with the Blake girls to try to scare them on Halloween night. The father had tried to scold them, but the entire time, he had been laughing at them, instead.
“Yes, Father,” he murmured. Father Michael nodded his head and turned away to greet another group of people.
Todd looked back over at Megan and saw that she was even paler than before. He grabbed his sister’s arm as she was walking past him and nodded in Megan’s direction.
“Someone needs to go save her,” he said under his breath.
“What do you suggest I do?” Lacey said with a stern look, placing both hands on her small hips.
“I don’t know. You’re the one who’s good at breaking things…up,” he added after his sister’s eyes heated. Then he grabbed her shoulders and pointed her in Megan’s direction.
He saw Lacey’s shoulders slump a little after taking in the sight of Megan being swamped by the whole of Pride.
“Humph,” Lacey grunted and started marching towards the growing crowd. His sister may be small, but she packed the biggest punch in town.
Megan stood there as an older gentleman talked to her. She hadn’t caught his name when he’d barged to the front of the line and grabbed her hand.
“I didn’t know Matt all that well, but he was a nice young man. He always had wonderful things to say about my bar, never once starting a brawl. Broke a couple up, though,” the bar owner said with a crooked grin. “Always such a nice m-m-m,” he stuttered.
Concerned, she quickly looked up from the man’s hand, which was tightly gripping her own. Standing beside the bar owner was a pixie. Megan didn’t believe in fairy tales, but there was no other way to describe the woman. Megan had a strong urge to walk around the petite creature and see if wings were tucked under her dark purple raincoat. The woman was perfect, from the tip of her pixie-cut black hair to the toes of her green galoshes. Galoshes, Megan noted, that didn’t have a speck of dirt on them. She was shorter than Megan and very petite with rounder curves. Her skin was fair and her eyes were a crystal gray blue. She had a cute nose that turned up slightly at the end and full lips that were a light shade of pink. She also had a commanding look on her face.
The bar owner literally backed away without even finishing his sentence, then he quickly walked away without so much as a glance back. Within seconds, everyone who’d gathered around her had wandered off, all without a single word from the pixie.
“How…?” Megan’s voice squeaked, so she cleared her throat and started again, “How did you do that?”
“Well, it takes years of practice,” the pixie said with a smile. “I’m Lacey Jordan.” Her voice was smoky and laced with sexuality. “I was very good friends with your brother. I’m sorry he’s gone.”
The simple words touched something inside Megan. She could tell there was truth behind them. Lacey reached over and lightly grabbed Megan’s good arm and then led her towards a row of parked cars.
“I’m also your neighbor. Shall we get you in out of the weather and home where you belong? We’ve made some meat pie for dinner, and I’m sure by the time we get there, the whole town will be right behind us. We’ll go get my brothers and take you home.”
“Oh, please, I don’t want to be a bother. I’ll be fine.” Megan felt compelled to follow the small woman who still had a light hold on her arm and an air of command that surrounded her.
“Nonsense! It’s no bother at all. Plus, if you turn down dinner,” she said with a slight smile, “my brother Iian might get his feelings hurt. It’s not every day he makes the family’s famous dish.” She continued walking towards the row of cars. “Come on then, let’s get you out of this rain.”
Megan looked up at the skies and at that exact moment, it started to lightly rain. Her mouth fell open in shock, but when a big fat drop landed on her bottom lip, she quickly closed it. Lacey was still lightly holding her arm and pulling her towards the parked cars near the side of the small white church.
Having not eaten before her flight to Portland, Megan felt her stomach growl. Exhaustion was settling in, and she felt a chill come over her bones. She wasn’t sure what meat pie was, but if it had meat in it, she knew she could tolerate it.
“Oh! I’m sorry.” She stopped walking, and Lacey turned and looked at her. “I forgot to mention that I have a rental car over there.” She pointed slightly with her injured arm towards a small white sedan that she’d hastily rented at the airport four hours earlier.
“Give me the keys and my brothers can drive it over to the house for you,” Lacey said, waving towards a man who had the same rich black hair. He’d been standing towards the back of the buildings in the shadows, so far back that Megan hadn’t even noticed he was there.
As he stepped out, she saw that his hair was longer than his sister’s. The man strolled over, appearing to be in no hurry, and he looked like he rather enjoyed the nasty weather and his surroundings. To say that he was tall would be an understatement; he must have been six and half feet and it only took him a couple of strides to reach where they stood.
Megan had to crane her neck to look up into his face, and she noticed that he had the same light eyes as his sister. His chin was strong with a tiny cleft, and his lips held a lazy smile that made him look rather harmless. Lacey handed him the keys to the rental car, then waved her hands in a sequence of patterns in front of her.
Lacey turned back to her. “Megan, this is my brother Iian. He’s hearing impaired and uses sign language to communicate, but he can also read lips really well,” she said while continuing to sign. Then turning her face away from his she said, “He likes to eavesdrop, so be careful what you say while facing him.”
Smiling, Megan turned back to Iian in time to see the quick flash of humor in his eyes as he signed something to his sister. She gestured something back to him and hit him on the shoulder in a sisterly way.
“Come on, Megan. Iian will take care of your car.” They began walking towards the cars as the rain came down harder. Groups of people without umbrellas were quickly sprinting to their vehicles. Others with umbrellas were making their way more slowly.
When Megan sank into the passenger seat of Lacey’s sedan, chills ran up and down her spine. Lacey got in behind the wheel and started the engine. She turned the heater on full blast, and as it started to warm the inside of the car, Megan felt she could happily fall asleep right there.
They pulled away from the small church and the now-empty cemetery. The windshield wipers were clearing the rain from her view with a soft squeak, but Megan still felt like she wasn’t able to see much beyond the path that the headlights were cutting through the fog. Then she sat up a little straighter and looked over at Lacey, who had her eyes on
the road. Realizing she had just gotten into a stranger’s car, she tensed. What did she really know about this small woman?
“You don’t need to worry,” Lacey said, not taking her eyes off the road. “I’m not going to kidnap you.” She turned her head slightly and smiled. “We’ll deliver you to your brother’s house before everyone else gets there. I hope you don’t mind, but we invited a few close friends over for potluck. It’s what Matt would have wanted, something small. Your brother was very well liked around town, and people will want to bid him goodbye in this manner.” She smiled sadly.
“Of course.” She relaxed a little and rested her head against the window, enjoying the soft hum of the engine and the gentle beat of the wipers. By the time they pulled off the main road, the sky was dark; the sun hadn’t come back out before setting for the night.
“Here we are now.” Lacey parked the car so the headlights hit the house full force. “Matt spent most of the first year remodeling the place. I think you’ll like what he’s done with it.” Lacey smiled at her.
Looking through the car window, Megan saw a large, white two-story house. Long green shutters sat on either side of picture windows that lined the whole front of the house. The front door was bright red with a brass knocker, and there were stained-glass windows on either side of the door. The windows seemed to glow brightly in the night.
Following Lacey’s lead, she opened her door, and together they raced for the front porch through the light rain. Standing on the huge, brightly lit covered porch, she watched Lacey open the front door with a key from her own key chain. As they crossed the threshold, Megan’s rental car pulled up in the driveway and parked next to Lacey’s sedan.
Watching from the doorway, she saw Iian step out of the car along with the silver-blue-eyed man she had seen in the cemetery. Both men looked up to the front door and nodded to her and then stepped behind the rental car and started pulling her overnight bags from the trunk.
“They’ll get those. Come on inside out of the cold,” Lacey said. She walked towards the back of the house, leaving Megan standing alone in her brother’s doorway.
Even though her brother had lived here for several years, she’d never visited Oregon before today. There had always been a reason not to visit him. Looking down at the cast on her arm, she realized that this was the reason she’d put off the last visit. The broken arm had been one more thing she had hidden from her brother, and she wished that she hadn’t postponed that last trip.
Quickly turning into the house, she tried to avoid thinking about her brother and her regrets. Lacey was walking back towards her from the back of a long hallway, rubbing her hands together for warmth.
Just then, both men walked onto the front porch and shook their heads like dogs, shaking the rain from their hair. They wiped their feet on the wire mat before crossing into the entryway.
Megan noted that their faces were very similar, yet she could see subtle differences in the men. Their height and weight for one. Iian was slightly taller, with a broader build. And although the brothers shared the same gorgeous eyes, it was the depth of the one brother’s that captured her attention again.
“Megan, this is my older brother, Todd,” Lacey said from behind her.
Todd nodded his hello and looked at her, causing warmth to spread throughout her.
“It’s chilly in here. Will you please start a fire in the living room before the guests arrive?” Lacey asked him.
Again, a nod was his only reply, and then he turned and went into the dark room to the right without saying a word.
“Iian,” Lacey said and signed along, “please take those up to Matt’s room and start a fire up there.”
Lacey walked away, turning on lights as she went. Iian jogged up the curved staircase that sat to the left of the entryway. He had her suitcase in one arm like it weighed nothing and had thrown her overnight bag over his shoulder. It had taken all of her strength to drag those two bags through the airport that morning. His hair was still dripping wet and he was humming to himself. Humming? Megan thought.
As everyone bustled around, starting fires and turning on lights, Megan stood in the main entryway. She felt useless all over again. Here she was standing in her brother’s home, letting strangers take care of her. Hadn’t she promised herself that she would take care of herself from now on? But she was so tired. She didn’t think that letting these people help her out for one night would hurt.
Lacey came back into the entryway. “Come on, let’s get you out of that wet coat.” Lacey reached for the rain jacket as Megan flinched away. Slowly Lacey’s hands returned to her side.
“I’m sorry,” Megan began, looking down at her hands, not wanting to look Lacey in the eyes. “I’m just a bit jumpy and tired I suppose.” She tried to smile. How could she explain she didn’t like to be touched?
“No need to apologize,” Lacey said, warmly. “You must be overwhelmed. I’m sure a bit hungry by now, too. At any rate, people will start arriving any minute, and I’m sure there will be lots of food.” As Lacey finished those words, the doorbell rang. “Go on in and have a seat by the fire. I’ll take care of this.”
Lacey pointed Megan in the direction of the two French doors that Todd had disappeared through earlier. Slowly walking towards them, Megan listened as Lacey greeted a group of people. Not really wanting to deal with anyone yet, she slipped inside the softly lit room and sighed as she rested against the wall.
Todd was across the room, bent over a pile of wood in the fireplace, blowing on flames that had started on some crumpled papers. He’d removed his leather jacket, and she noticed that he was wearing a white dress shirt that was stretched taut over his muscular arms. Powerful was the word that came to her mind. She was nervous around powerful, so instead of walking over to the warmth of the fire, she turned back towards the doorway and watched Lacey greet everyone.
She was about to walk out to the hall and try to find the kitchen, when she felt hands lightly placed on her shoulders. Out of reflex, she jumped and spun around, her hand raised in defense.
“Easy,” Todd murmured. “Let me take your coat; you’re soaking wet.” He held his hands out as one would to a wounded animal.
Blushing, she said, “I’m sorry. You startled me.” She hung her head and turned around so that he wouldn’t see her face turning red. Her heart was racing and her hands started shaking. It still affected her, being touched.
Gently, he helped her out of her jacket, being extra careful around her right arm. He hung it next to his coat on an oak rack by the door. When he noticed Lacey watching from the doorway, he said to her, “She can eat by the fire. She’s frozen.”
Lacey nodded in agreement. “There’s a TV tray over in the corner. Go on, I’ll bring a plate of food in once it’s heated.”
Father Michael had just walked into the house and was standing in the doorway with a few other people. Todd nodded to them then quickly walked her back into the living room under several watchful eyes. His hand gently cupped her good elbow.
Megan followed him back towards the fireplace where the room was warmer. She held her hand out towards the fire. She hadn’t realized how freezing she was until the warmth hit her, causing her hand to tingle.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how cold I was until now,” she said nervously to the room. She knew Todd was still behind her but didn’t wanted to turn and look at him just yet. Closing her eyes, she let out the breath she’d been holding since he’d touched her. She was nervous around him, around men. When he touched her, however feather light it was, it was like a power surge rushing through her body. She’d been avoiding getting close to anyone for so long that she knew she was out of practice. Taking a deep breath, she turned to the quiet room.
“You have his eyes.” He interrupted her thoughts. He stood right inside the doors, his hands buried deep in his pockets as he watched her.
Megan was about to say something, anything, but just then Iian came into the room with a smile on his fac
e. He stopped and took one look at his brother and then at her and signed something quickly to Todd. She wasn’t sure what he said, but Todd gave his brother a frustrated look and then walked out of the room without saying a word to either of them.
Iian walked over to her and took her hand in his and said in a rich, warm voice, “Megan, I am very sorry about Matt.”
Gasping, she realized she wasn’t aware he could speak.
He smiled slightly. “I can speak. I lost my hearing in an accident when I was eighteen. I don’t do it very often; my brother and sister say I have the most annoying voice.”
She could hear the little blunders he made with his voice, as if he was out of practice. But he had such a rich, deep voice, so much like his brother’s.
Speaking slowly and making sure to keep her face directed at his, she said, “You have a wonderful voice, rich and warm. Thank you for taking care of my luggage and starting a fire upstairs.”
He smiled, while still holding her hand in his warm one. “You’re chilled. Come over and sit down.” He pulled her towards a dark-colored couch near the fireplace. “Lacey is still greeting people, but I’m sure you’ll have a plate of food in front of you in no time. I’ll sit with you and keep you company until then.”
Back in the kitchen, Todd was helping his sister with the food, but his mind was back in the living room. He’d guessed by the look in Megan’s eyes and the way she had jumped at his light touch that someone had hurt her, and recently too. The look on her face was heartbreaking, and he didn’t care to see it on Matt’s little sister. He was glad she’d turned away when she had, so she couldn’t see the sadness and anger that had come into his eyes. Had Matt known this was going on? What she’d been going through? He didn’t think so, but that didn’t keep him from wanting to hunt someone down for the pain they had caused her.
His sister had seen the look on his face; she always saw everything. She had shaken her head at him and discreetly signed to him not to look so serious, that he might scare her. He’d quickly dropped his eyes and hidden it. He’d been so concerned about her, he hadn’t even realized that his face had shown it.
