Magni

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  The part of him he tried to pretend didn’t exist.

  “You shouldn’t have come here.” No truer words ever came out of his mouth. He shouldn’t be near her and Christ knew she shouldn’t be near him.

  It made him want.

  Christine tipped her head back, chin creeping higher in the air. “But I did.” She took a slow controlled breath. “And the sooner we get this over with, the sooner I will be out of your way.” She pushed past him and stepped inside his house, leaving him standing at the front door. Lost.

  Because now she’d gone and fucked up his house for him too. Not just the porch. Not just her car in his driveway. Now his house was touched by her too. Her scent would be here for the rest of the night.

  Haunting him.

  She crossed her arms over her chest, pinning a manila folder between her arms and her body. Her eyes didn’t wander. They stayed fixed on a spot on the floor.

  Christine still couldn’t bear to look at him after all this time.

  “Hagen wants you to build cases for the gallery.” She shoved the folder in his direction.

  Magni took a slow step toward her and gently took the file from Christine’s hand. “He could have told me that himself.”

  Christine crossed her arms again, like she was hugging herself, trying to find a way to make it through the next few minutes of being in the same room as him. “They’re for me. To display jewelry I make.”

  Magni dropped his eyes to the folder in his hand.

  “I did some sketches of what I think might work.” Her gaze slowly moved to the folder. “I wasn’t sure what you could do so...”

  “I can do anything.” The boast jumped out, shoved by that same problematic tiny part of him that wondered what could have happened if things were different between them. If he knew back then what he knew now.

  Christine swallowed hard as her eyes worked their way up from the folder in his hand. Magni forced himself to stand perfectly still, resisting the urge to peacock under her gaze. It was a move he fell back on, one he knew firsthand how much women liked. He’d made one or two blush without saying a word. But Christine was different.

  She was delicate. Gentle. Fragile. And he’d broken her once.

  He never intended to have the opportunity to do it again.

  But then she showed up on his porch.

  Magni held his breath as her sea glass eyes moved up his chest, dragging over him so slow it was almost painful, until they rested on his face. She let out a slow breath, her lips barely pursed.

  They were all he wanted to look at and all he’d be able to think about when she was gone. Safely away from a man who didn’t deserve to breathe the air she breathed. One who would give almost anything to take back what he did all those years ago, even if it just eased the pain he saw in her eyes when she looked at him.

  He shouldn’t have yelled at her. Put blame on a young girl trying to spare him the pain of loss even though it would mean bringing on her own.

  But he did. Not because he didn’t believe what Christine said.

  He did. He believed what she said then and he believed it now. But what Christine told him all those years ago was his worst fear. If only he’d listened. If only he let her finish.

  If only he hadn’t taken it out on her.

  Magni looked down at the folder and opened the front flap. He would make Christine anything she wanted. He owed her that and so much more. “You did these?”

  A sketch that could have been worked up by a draftsman sat on the top of a stack of papers. Measurements were all perfectly marked, leaving no room for error on his part. Christine clearly didn’t want to come back for adjustments.

  “Yes.” The word was tight, forced. Like every interaction she’d had to have with him since the night she tried to tell him of the vision she had.

  The one where his wife was gone.

  The wife he’d chased for years, from the time they were kids. The wife he was proud to call his. The free spirit he couldn’t get enough of.

  In that moment Magni wanted someone to hurt as much as he did and selfishly, he took his pain out on a kid.

  “Will you make it then?” Christine’s chin was back in the air, the soft blue-green of her eyes sharper, harder.

  She wasn’t a kid anymore but the pain he caused was still there, plain as day.

  “I will.” Magni tucked the paper back inside the folder and let the front flap fall into place. “I’ll bring it to the gallery when I’m done.”

  And that would be it. Another twenty-five years would pass while they did their best to pretend the other didn’t exist.

  It would be a long fucking twenty-five years.

  Part of him couldn’t wait for it to start. The cowardly part of him.

  “Magni I’m sorry.”

  She blurted the words out. They were loud and forced and the minute they cleared her lips Christine pressed them tightly together as if she expected them to jump back in.

  He wished they could.

  Christine had no idea what she’d done. What she’d started coming here today.

  “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

  “I just—”

  He cut her off. “No.”

  She jumped back. “What?”

  “I said no.”

  Her skin flushed and for just a second he saw something strange in her eyes. Hope. Just as quick it was gone and Christine’s spine stiffened as her eyes narrowed, zeroing in on him. “You can’t tell me what to do. I’m not a kid anymore Magni.”

  Damn it. Why did she have to keep saying his name? Taunting him with something he would never have. “I’m still older than you are.” He stepped toward her. “And a hell of a lot bigger. I don’t want to hear those words come out of your mouth again.”

  He should have scared her. Christine should have been at least a little intimidated by him. He could scare grown men twice her size with only a look.

  Instead, the corners of her mouth twitched. Like she was ready to smirk at him. One eyebrow lifted slowly. “Then I guess I won’t apologize for the rest of what’s in that folder you’re holding.”

  He flipped the folder open. The pages he assumed were just more renderings of the intricate plans she drew for the jewelry display were actually designs for—

  “Are these some sort of box?” He picked up one sheet of paper and held it up.

  “They’re light fixtures Hagen wants for the diner.” Christine stepped in closer than he would normally let her get. Close enough he could see the pale sparkle of shadow over her eyelids and the tiny bits of brown that cut through her almost black hair.

  Close enough he could touch her, the woman who tried to save his wife even though it would break her young heart, putting his happiness before her own.

  “It’s a wood frame with a stained glass insert on each side.” Christine reached across the space between them, her elbow barely resting against his chest as she pointed to the different aspects of the light fixture she sketched with as much detail as anyone he’d ever seen.

  Magni didn’t hear a word of it.

  Because all he could focus on was her body against his.

  Christine was right. She wasn’t a kid anymore. Hadn’t been for a long damn time. Long enough he could hardly remember the knock-kneed little girl who followed him around with wide eyes and admiration. Back then twelve years was a lot. It was the difference between an adult and a child.

  Now...

  Now the grown woman beside him was looking up at him expectantly. Christine’s gaze didn’t waver this time as her eyes studied his face. “Well?”

  Magni hesitated. Not because he wouldn’t answer. He couldn’t. He didn’t hear a damn thing she said.

  “I’m sorry.” She snagged the paper and the folder from his hands. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

  He felt the growl. Deep inside.

  She froze halfway to the front door as the sound filled the front room of his cabin. Slowly Christine turned to fac
e him. She threw her hands up “I don’t know what you want from me Magni. I tried to apologize. I’m willing to work with you on this but if you can’t stand to be around me then I should just—”

  “No.”

  She shook her head. “Stop telling me no.” Christine advanced on him. “I am not here for you to act like I’m still some young lovesick girl you can boss around.”

  Everything in him wanted to retreat. Turn and run away. Not because he didn’t want to be close to her but because he did.

  Then he would wait until she left and burn the house down to the ground so he could start over. In a place she couldn’t find. In a place he wouldn’t have a memory of Christine standing in front of him showing just what a grown-up woman she was.

  “So are we doing this or are you telling Hagen you don’t want to work with me?” Christine stared up into his eyes displaying a side of her he’d never seen. She was fierce. She was strong.

  She was terrifying.

  No way should he allow himself to be around her. Just these few minutes of being in the same room with her had him thinking all kinds of things a man had no business thinking of a woman he treated the way he did Christine. He didn’t deserve her apologies. He didn’t deserve her consideration and he sure as hell didn’t deserve the list of other things he wanted from her.

  Things she wouldn’t give him anyway. Christine knew what he was. He’d done a fine job of showing her and it wasn’t something she’d forgotten.

  Clearly.

  Magni wasn’t going to work with her. Hagen could tear him apart. Rip him limb from limb.

  It wasn’t happening.

  Christine raised her eyebrows in question. Or in challenge.

  A challenge he would have to back down on.

  Only he didn’t.

  Magni snatched the file back from the tiny woman who just handed him his ass.

  “We’re doing this.”

  4

  “I can’t believe you sold all of them.” Christine shook her head. She realized the demographic of visitors to Greenlea changed after the documentary that brought Rhea to town was released but didn’t realize how dramatic the shift was until now. “I wasn’t sure they would be popular.”

  “Are you kidding?” Rhea fingered the tiny gold footprint hanging around her neck. “It’s a beautiful necklace.” She tapped her earlobes in a not so subtle hint. “I think you should consider expanding on the idea.”

  Christine pulled a small plastic storage box from her large framed bag. “Funny you should say that.” She popped off the lid and handed Rhea a small cardboard square with a set of gold footprint studs fixed to it. “Those are for you.”

  Rhea beamed as she carefully tugged the back from one of the earrings. “You are going to sell so many of these.”

  “I hope so.” Christine pulled out four more plastic containers from her bag. “I made a crap ton of them.”

  She’d been working like a maniac, cranking out jewelry like a crazy person. Which was fair because that was how she felt. Crazy.

  And she still had a week to go before her appointment.

  “I bet we could sell all these by the weekend.” Rhea pulled out a set of hoops with the same tiny print dangling from them. She looked at them for a second before her gaze moved to Christine. There was caution in her friend’s eyes, as if she was aware they were both in uncharted territory. “I found your online store. You sell amazing things there. From the looks of it you sell a lot of them too.”

  Christine bit her lip. It was odd to have someone know about this side of her life. Around here she was mostly known for what she used to see, not what she could do. And that was her own doing. Her own choice. “I do.”

  The admission was awkward. Not because she was embarrassed but because she was a little proud of what she’d accomplished. Not many people made a living off their art and she somehow managed to do just that. A decent living too. Doing what she loved. But sharing her sense of pride with someone would be a little too much like opening up and that was something Christine knew could lead to a place she didn’t want to go. Not usually. But Rhea was different.

  Her eyes slid to Rhea as the warm feel of her friend’s energy crept across the space between them.

  Rhea straightened. “Sorry.” The feeling disappeared instantly.

  It was sort of an unspoken rule between them. No using their gifts on each other. It was better that way, especially once they realized their combined energy could short out the whole town’s wifi. Christine straightened. She studied Rhea for a second.

  What if she did let Rhea feel all that was crashing around inside? All the fear. The anxiety. The uncertainty about what was in her very near future.

  “It’s okay.” Christine took a deep breath. If there was anyone in the world she would trust to know what was going on in her life it was Rhea, but that would mean blurring the lines protecting her even more. Lines she hadn’t crossed in years. They used to make her feel safe but now felt restricting, squeezing her like a binding instead of a hug.

  “I don’t mind.” A little bit of the constant tension bunching across Christine’s chest eased. Maybe she didn’t have to be as alone in this as she thought.

  Rhea’s energy crept back forward, curling around her. It was soft and careful and comforting. Her friend’s brown eyes sharpened. “Christine. What’s going on?”

  The sound of the gallery’s electronic door sensor dragged Rhea’s attention from her and directed it toward the front of the store. Christine followed her friend’s line of sight.

  Her breath caught.

  “Afternoon.”

  Magni stood in the doorway, his big body eating up every bit of space there was. The man was a veritable giant. Wide shoulders. Broad chest. Arms as big around as her... As her. But that wasn’t what stopped Christine from breathing.

  “What in the hell did you do to your hair?” Rhea took the words right out of her mouth.

  Maybe not the exact words that came to Christine’s mind but close enough.

  Magni stepped inside and pushed his hand through what was left of his hair, leaving rake marks in the coffee colored waves that immediately dropped back down to curve against his temple, barely covering the corner of one eye. The sides were all but gone, clipped in tight to his skin. Even his beard was shorter. Shaved into clean lines on his neck and his cheeks. “It was in my way.”

  Rhea walked around him in a slow circle, staring up at him. “You look like a different man.”

  Magni wasn’t paying a bit of attention to Rhea as she continued to marvel over the drastic and unexpected change in his appearance.

  He was watching Christine.

  And for the life of her she couldn’t help but watch him back.

  Magni was always strikingly handsome. Darker hair than the rest of the men in his family with strong features and piercing blue eyes that burned with an intensity she never saw in another man.

  Not that she hadn’t done her share of looking. Maybe even tried a few on for size. Not one of them made her blood heat like the one staring at her now.

  Damn him.

  “I finished your case.” Magni continued to ignore Rhea’s eyes as she stared up at him, a look of honest disbelief on her face. Instead, he focused only on Christine. As if she was the only one there. “I brought it for you to look at.”

  Christine nodded silently, praying he took her lack of words as she had nothing to say to him instead of the truth which was that he left her speechless.

  Rhea’s eyes left Magni and moved across the room to stare at her. Then slowly back to Magni. “Why don’t you bring them in then?”

  He finally turned his cool blue gaze to Rhea. He gave her a curt nod then turned to leave, sucking the air out of Christine’s lungs as he went.

  Rhea turned to her. “Uhh.”

  Christine held one hand up, stopping her friend in her tracks. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Rhea’s jaw dropped in protest. “Seriously?”
/>   The door dinged back open and Magni eased through the frame, carrying a blanket covered load. He gently set it on the ground before carefully unwrapping the quilted cover tucked all around it. He pulled the last bit of fabric loose and stepped back, wadding the protective mat in his hands and tucking it under one arm.

  “Magni.” Christine looked at the case, then up at him. “It’s beautiful.” She reached out to touch it, pulling back at the last second, curling her hand into a fist as she remembered the promise he forced her to make all those years ago. “It’s perfect.”

  It was more than perfect. It was impeccable. He’d taken her design and brought it to a whole new level of beautiful.

  Rhea dropped down to take a closer look at the intricate design in the trim running along the edge of the shadow box style top. She ran her fingers over the detailed cuts and smooth dips. “This is amazing.” She leaned back. “Is that walnut?”

  “Uh-huh.” Magni scratched at the back of his neck, tugging at the ribbed neck of his worn in t-shirt. He shifted on his feet as Rhea continued to inspect the case.

  Christine watched, wondering what she would see if it was her hand touching the case. Would she see him rushing to complete it? Hurrying to have it out of his way. To have her out of his way.

  No. She wouldn’t.

  The realization stuck in her gut and brought a shiver of fear down her spine. Blurring the lines with Rhea was one thing. Blurring them with Magni...

  He stepped closer. Close enough the scent of cut wood and pine needles wafted through the air around her. “Is it what you wanted?”

  She licked her lips, trying to focus on something besides the low timbre of his voice as Magni all but whispered the words in her ear. He was so close. Their bodies almost touching. What would it be like if he touched her?

  Christine looked up at him and felt a slow heat creep over her skin.

  If he touched her it would be bad. Very bad. He was a man who could wipe away all those lines with one brush of his hand.