Hearts Entwined

by Gray, Khardine

  He straightened up against the wooden chair and looked at her. She was up to something. "What are you doing Grams?"

  "Nothing." She replied feigning innocence and looking at him with her huge light blue eyes. "It's just that it's Italy. It's a very beautiful country, and you're young. You shouldn't be cooped up in a villa with some old lady looking for her long lost love."

  Gage laughed again. "Grams you're not some old lady, and I think you'll find that I'm not that young anymore."

  "You're kids to me." She smiled.

  "Maybe. Anyway, I think Evie would prefer if someone else took her to all those places."

  "Why let someone else do it when you could?" she smiled widely. "You're going to seriously tell me you don't like her. My eyes have never deceived me, and they aren't about to start now."

  Gage opened his mouth to protest but found he couldn't. Somehow, he couldn't. "She can't stand me. And she has every reason to dislike me."

  Evie did. In fact, when he looked back and remembered how badly he treated her it was actually amazing that she was even giving him the time of day.

  "But she doesn't." His grandmother smiled with confidence.

  "How do you know?" He was interested to hear her thoughts and get some insight into her observations.

  "I just do." She sighed.

  "I gave her a real hard time when we were kids." That was perhaps putting it extremely mildly. The other day he was thinking about it, and some of the things he'd done were embarrassing to think that he was capable of. Like when he told everyone she was a man. Why would he think that that was okay? And, he did it too during that weird phase of high school when she'd was just about to start her sophomore year. Things were bad enough just being a teenager but he knew he'd made it worse for her. If that weren't true, then she wouldn't have mentioned it the other night, and she really did look at him like she believed he was the devil.

  "That was a long time ago Gage."

  "She still remembers very well. You're the only reason why she talks to me."

  His grandmother smiled and inclined her head to the side as she surveyed him. "I came back in here hours ago and left you two on the beach. Evie's a very strong willed woman. She doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do. She could have returned with me, or at the very least sooner than you."

  He guessed that was true, and she did seem to enjoy herself with him on the beach, and when they walked around Rome.

  He watched his grandmother's smile widen. "You should take her sightseeing while we're here, and for heaven's sake don't let that Giselle sink her claws into you."

  "Giselle? Grams she hasn't done anything wrong," he grinned.

  "Maybe so but I don't like her, and I do not like the way she talks and shamelessly throws herself at you with her anything at all offers." When she said that last part she sounded exactly like Evie did earlier.

  He had to laugh. Clearly, his grandmother and Evie were spending far too much time with each other.

  "Okay. Note to self, say no to Giselle." He chuckled.

  She nodded. "Yes, no to Giselle."

  The thing was, Giselle was never a problem. He was too focused on Evie.

  Chapter 9

  On Sunday Lucy was the worst Evie had ever seen her. They'd gotten word that three of the Vanessas they'd contacted had died, but weren't connected to Angelo. They'd also reached the end of their Anna list with no success.

  Although they still had three hundred Vanessas to go, Lucy was a mess. She cried all day and refused to eat, then she resigned herself to her room and refused to come out.

  Gage looked completely exhausted with worry and Evie didn't know what to do to help them both feel better.

  It wasn't until late into the evening that Lucy came out of her room, and it was only because Evie made one of her classic lasagnas. Lucy was never one to turn down a meal that had been specially prepared for her. She thought it was terrible manners.

  Gage appreciated the meal, and Evie's efforts to cheer Lucy up. He looked like he was on his last leg of ideas and she was happy to offer any support she could.

  When they finished dinner, they gathered in the lounge and Gage lit a fire in the fire place. It wasn't cold, but the place had a chill on it as it had rained earlier. He sat on the sofa while Lucy sat on the rocking chair by the fire. An idea came to Evie as she watched Lucy go into that melancholic state again.

  She went up to Lucy's room and retrieved her violin, then she went to her's to get her own. They were a bunch of musicians who played using emotion. Music always made them feel better. It certainly did for her when she was depressed. Maybe it would work for Lucy.

  When she returned to the living room with the violins, Lucy looked up at her. Tears were already forming in her eyes, now red from the crying session she'd had all day.

  "We haven't done this in a while," Evie stated handing Lucy her violin. "And I haven't seen you play once since we got here."

  Evie had never known Lucy to let a day pass without playing. Not even when she was sick.

  "I'm too sad," Lucy replied as the tears spilled down her cheeks.

  "You always said that our emotions guide the music." Evie smiled down at her.

  "I play when I'm happy, never sad. I've never tried." She shook her head.

  "I play with both. You should try it," Evie replied with deep conviction.

  When Lucy nodded Evie pulled up a chair. She noticed that Gage had straightened up and was looking over at them eagerly with keen interest.

  "How about some good old Vivaldi? Maybe Storm is in order."

  Lucy smiled at that. It was one of their favorites. They didn't need sheets for it either. They knew it from memory even though it had been years since they played together.

  "Storm is definitely in order." She smiled dabbing at her tears on her cheeks with her beige silk handkerchief.

  "On three. One, two, three..."

  Evie closed her eyes as they began. With this piece she never had to try. Her mind and body knew it, and it poured out from her soul. Her soul would take over and guide the bow in her hands and the notes from her brain. It was one of the pieces that transported her to a higher plane of existence of transcendence and she no longer existed in this world.

  But something else happened. Her mind would have usually drifted and gone long ago, but for the passion she heard as Lucy played. It reminded her of that day so long ago when she'd first heard her. Her eight-year-old mind had been consumed with the music because it sounded like something from a fairytale. It was magical then, just as it was magical now. Except that Lucy was playing with sadness.

  This was what it sounded like when she played with sadness, and the thought got to Evie in a massive way. The music was beautiful, mesmerizing and spellbinding, but it gripped at her heart and she felt sad too.

  How many times had she heard Lucy play this piece? How many times had she heard it at school, college, at concerts? But never like this.

  Evie played on, but it was more like she was backing Lucy up rather than accompanying her. As they hit the finale, Lucy took it to another level. Evie stopped and gave Lucy the honor of finishing. When she did, she lingered on the last note as if she were holding on to the thought, no... her belief that Angelo was alive. That got to Evie even more.

  Lucy actually laughed when she finished, and Gage was clapping.

  "That was incredible." He was saying, but Evie couldn't take her eyes off Lucy.

  "My dear Evie," Lucy began, reaching across and cupping her face. "You are amazing. You cannot be the little cherub who lived next door. You can't be that little eight-year-old girl who I taught." She looked so proud of her. "Truly, the student has surpassed the master." She smiled.

  Evie shook her head. "No Lucy. You were never just a master. You're a legend. You can't surpass legends." She meant that from the depths of her heart. She truly did.

  Her words seemed to have taken Lucy by surprise because she stared at her in complete awe. She pulled her in for a hug
and said, "thank you. I needed that. Thank you for being so dear to me."

  She gave Evie a soft kiss on her forehead as they parted. It was then that she saw Gage looking at her.

  He was staring at her in that transfixed way as if he could see something that fascinated him. She looked at him too and found herself once again lost within the depths of his gaze. Her heart expanded and glowed, and this time she didn't have to touch him to hear the music. The whole symphony was there, in his eyes, all over him, everywhere.

  "Let's do another one." It was Lucy's voice that broke the trance.

  Evie looked back to her and smiled against the swirl of emotion that rushed throughout her.

  She was normally so in control of everything around her, but it was the first time she'd ever felt out of control. As if some ethereal force had consumed her, and it happened to her every time she was with Gage or in his presence.

  * * *

  Evie swung the pendulum shaped crystal across the entire map of Italy just like they did in that show she used to watch when she was in College. Charmed it was called, and this little trick of hers was scrying. The show was about three sisters who were witches, good witches. They'd always do this first when they were looking for someone or something. It was a magical way of searching or getting answers to serious questions. The crystal would swing until it stopped or pointed out into a certain direction. That would be where they'd find whatever they were looking for.

  Evie was hoping for the same results here. One time she was certain it worked. She'd been looking for her friend's dog that had gone missing for two days. They'd searched everywhere and only found him when they scryed. Granted he was found at one of his usual hang out spots they'd missed the first time they looked, but just maybe scrying pointed them back in that direction.

  "What are you doing?" Gage asked coming up behind her in the lounge.

  "Shhh." She hissed at him.

  "What are you doing?" he whispered. "It's midnight."

  "This works best at midnight," she retorted.

  "What?"

  "Witchcraft." She simply answered. Gage looked at her with narrowed eyes and burst out laughing.

  "Evie, what the hell?"

  "This is what you call trying everything, and I'm going in big. I'm not just looking for the sisters I'm going to find Angelo."

  He only laughed at her even more. "With a crystal on a piece of string and a map."

  "Yes."

  "Okay have you also prayed."

  "Of course I have, God's working on it. I'm just helping things along. Like I said I'm trying everything here."

  He pulled up a chair making it screech against the wooden floor. She shushed him again.

  "Evie, this is ridiculous." He was still laughing.

  "Gage, you're messing with the energy in the room. If you don't keep it down, I will tape your mouth shut and turn you into a toad."

  And he laughed even more. "Both?"

  "Gage." She said his name more insistently this time. "I'm serious."

  "Alright. I'll just sit here and watch then, like an owl." He smiled. She looked him over. His hair was a little messy and had that playful look. He also had a five o'clock shadow that made him look more rugged. "Thank you for earlier. You really cheered Lucy up."

  "I just wish I could find Angelo. It's Sunday Gage." She shook her head remembering it was just after midnight now. "Monday morning. We've been on this hunt for over a week. We have nothing."

  She lowered her hand to the table and dropped the crystal. It was ridiculous. This whole thing was. They'd come to Italy with nothing but faith, and so far that was all they still had.

  "What do you think we should do?" he asked.

  She was surprised he was asking her.

  "I'll keep looking." Of course she would. She would do all she could.

  "And when we get to the end of the list? What if we're still at square one?"

  She didn't want to think of that.

  He pulled in a breath. "Or what if he's dead? What if the reason we can't find anyone is that they're all dead?"

  She didn't want to think that either, although it was starting to look that way. There were other reasons, but with such a huge time gap that was the most glaring possibility. "I have to believe that their not. Well, at least Angelo. If Lucy says he's alive, then that's enough for me."

  He gave her that look of adoration again, the one she was readily growing accustomed to.

  "Miss Evie, you really are something else you know that?"

  She smiled at him as he took the crystal from her.

  "I guess I am."

  "Look what you have me here doing? You'd better not breathe a word of this to anyone. Football meets witchcraft." He chuckled and started swinging the crystal around. "Am I even doing it right?"

  "No," she shook her head. "You have to do it with some oomph." She took it from him and flicked her wrist swinging the string out so the crystal would have some momentum, but she did it just a little too forceful, and it slipped from her fingers. To her horror, it went straight in Gage's face.

  "My eye." He yelped springing from the chair and covering his right eye.

  Dread filled her as she watched him. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry." She moved over to him and tried to move his hand away from his eyes.

  "My career is over. You can't play pro football with one eye." He wailed.

  "Let me look at it." She felt terrible. In the past, she'd imagine hitting him with something several times, but this was ... well, it was just terrible.

  "Oh the pain." He moved over to the sofa and sat, still holding his eye. "The terrible pain." He winced.

  She kneeled next to him and reached out to touch his face. "I'm going to call the ambulance."

  It was only when she said that that he started laughing and she realized that he'd been messing with her the whole time. He moved his hand away from his eye and laughed even harder when he saw the irritated look on her face.

  "You jerk." She scowled smacking his chest. "I can't believe you just did that to me. I thought I blinded you." Now she was annoyed. She grabbed one of the cushions and hit him with it several times as he continued to laugh.

  She moved to get up, but he swept her up, weightless and held her before him, gazing at her. "Not so fast. You still got me."

  "It serves you right," she snapped.

  "I wasn't doing anything to deserve that. Look, it got me here." He pointed to just under his eye. The crystal hadn't even left a mark. "The impact could poison me, or something."

  "Poison?" She had to laugh.

  "Yes, poison. Some strange things can happen sometimes. Then just imagine it. All my hopes and dreams of playing football for the rest of my life would get dashed by the wayside. I'm not talented enough to do anything else in this world." Talk about dramatic. Gage was wallowing in it. "If only there were something you could do to keep that from happening to me."

  "Okay Gage, I'll get some antiseptic wipes." She moved to go again, but he pulled her back. This time so close she had to press her hands against his chest to stop herself from falling on to him.

  "That won't work. I need something much stronger. Like..." He paused for effect, and his blue eyes grew wild as he took her in with appreciation.

  "Like what?"

  He ran his fingers along the edge of her waist making her skin tingle and her nerves scatter.

  "A kiss," Gage said. His eyes clung to hers, analyzing her reaction, searching her face, reaching her thoughts.

  A kiss.

  That should have made her run a mile, it should have made her cringe from just the thought but as she stared at the beautifully handsome man before her, that looked like he'd stepped out of some fantasy her heart skipped several beats, and she found herself paralyzed by the magnetism of his smile.

  "Kiss," she said, more to herself than him.

  "Yeah, a kiss would do the job." His mouth curved with tenderness.

  Nervously, she moistened her lips and lowered towards
him to kiss just under his eye where the crystal hit. "There all better."

  "No, that did nothing. You have to kiss me properly."

  It may have seemed easy, but she didn't know if she could. Nerves got the better of her, and she froze.

  "It's just -" before she could finish he pulled her into his lap and smoothed his hands behind her head to bring her straight down to his awaiting lips.

  The minute his lips touched hers a shock wave coursed throughout her body, emptying her brain and engulfing her entire being. It awakened every single cell within her body and made her feel alive as if she hadn't lived until this moment. It was like everything she'd felt before now was nothing, and this was everything.

  He caressed her lips with his, teasing her to surrender to him, and surrender she did, giving herself freely to the currents of desire that heated her mouth with burning fire from his passionate kiss.

  Her lips actually lost heat when he pulled away.

  "Evie." He said her name on the edge of a breath, and as she looked at him realization dawned on her, and she moved back.

  "No." She couldn't. It was too much, and she didn't know how to deal with the emotions that coursed throughout her. She got off his lap and stood up to rush up to her room, but he took hold of her arm stopping her. The mere touch of his hand sent a warming shiver throughout her.

  "Why?" he searched her eyes.

  "I'm not supposed to like you." The answer sounded so silly, but yet it was true. Things were simple in the world where she didn't like him, but they were beautiful and fascinating, musical and mind- numbing even in the world where she did.

  "Newsflash. I like you too." He smiled, then he did the sweetest thing. He leaned forward and brushed a kiss across her cheek. "I like you too." He repeated. "Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as you think." The tenderness in his expression amazed her.

  Evie gazed up at him as he backed away and left the room, leaving her to her thoughts and feelings. She placed her fingers to her lips that were still warm and moist from his kiss.

  What on earth was she supposed to do?

  * * *

  He wasn't there when she woke the next day. Lucy said he went into town from early.