Magni

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  Christine turned around.

  “That’s if you’ll have us.” Craig smiled at her, his dark eyes barely crinkling in the corners. She’d thought Craig was close to her age, but now Christine was second guessing her original assessment. By quite a bit.

  A man who made Craig’s six foot frame seem small stood stiffly beside him. His dark hair was cut into a fade worthy of any cadet and his head tipped back just the tiniest bit, as if he was standing at attention.

  Christine gave Craig a nod and forced a smile. What in the hell was she supposed to say? There was only one option. “Sure.”

  She turned to follow the hostess. Christine didn’t have to have her eyes on the stranger to know he had his eyes on her. Their intensity burned into her back as he followed behind her to their table. There was something about him that made her uneasy, even more so than his suited companion.

  As handsome and charming as Craig was, his presence in Greenlea didn’t make sense. No one came to town in a suit to hunt Bigfoot.

  It would be easy for her to learn why he was here. Who he was. But her gift was a Pandora’s box. One that never turned out to be worth opening. With one exception.

  If there was one thing she’d learned over the years it was that most people didn’t want to know what she saw. It was a burden and a hindrance. Especially for her.

  But this man made her uncomfortable in a way she couldn’t explain. Add on that he was with Craig, an unusual visitor who wasn’t the normal sort they got in town, and Christine was having a hard time justifying not feeling them out, just a little. Slowly, she let down the protective wall she kept around her gift, the thing that kept her from bearing the burden of the truth about other people’s lives.

  She had enough of that already.

  Craig pulled out a chair for her. “I’m so glad we ran into you.”

  He was telling her the truth. Christine took an easier breath as she sat down. Maybe she should have done this yesterday. It might have calmed the unease she felt around Craig that grew as the day progressed. He smiled and sat down across the table from her.

  She let a little more of him creep in, feeling around for anything that could explain his presence in Greenlea.

  What she found was surprising. Craig wasn’t as cool and collected on the inside as he was on the outside. Instead of the relaxed confidence she expected, Christine was met with unrest and turmoil. A man caught between the truth and a lie. It was close. It was personal. It explained why he felt older than he was. A difficult life had a way of aging a person far beyond their chronological years.

  But it was not why Craig was here.

  She started to go deeper. To look for a sign of what his purpose was, but those deepest parts of him were like a fortress. Locked up tight. Hidden from everyone.

  Including himself.

  She pulled back, a little disappointed for herself but mostly sad. What happened to him that made Craig want to forget so much of his life? How awful must his past be to make him want to extinguish its existence?

  He smiled across the table as Christine sat back in her chair, tugging her gift free of his tightly protected memories. But there, on the surface she skipped straight through was her answer.

  Craig carried the satisfaction of a man on a mission who found what he was searching for.

  “Christine, this is my friend Joel.” He patted the larger man on the back, his satisfaction deepening. “He’s saved my ass on more occasions than I care to admit.”

  Joel held out a large hand with meticulously clipped nails. Each one was perfectly cut into a squared off shape identical to the one beside it. Everything about him spoke of control and restraint. Christine looked at his outstretched hand. She could know everything about him with one touch. That was all it would take.

  Touching another person without her psychic shield in place was like opening the floodgates after a monsoon and after what she could see of Craig, Christine wasn’t so sure she wanted what Joel might carry.

  But he could be the key to the answers she was looking for.

  Carefully, Christine slid her hand into his. When his grip locked onto hers what she saw stole the breath from her lungs. Time stopped, dragging her back to a past she hoped would stay where it was.

  Gone.

  Christine yanked her hand from Joel’s and stood up. “I’m so sorry.” She banged her chair into the person sitting behind her as the need to flee from a truth she didn’t plan to face pushed her into panic. “I have to go. I have someplace I forgot I had to be.” Mumbling an apology to the elderly man she assaulted with her chair Christine rushed through the restaurant, dread growing in her gut with each step. She fell into her car and pulled away from the restaurant.

  What was she going to do?

  There was no way to explain what she’d done. No way to apologize enough. No way to make this right.

  And now Magni would know the truth instead of the story she let him believe.

  Her breath came in short gasps, making her feel dizzy and disoriented. Christine pulled into the nearest gas station and leaned back in her seat, trying to get her head around what was happening. She dropped one arm over her eyes and focused on slowing her breath, taking long slow drags instead of the hurried gulps of air her body fought for.

  She had to calm down. Think clearly.

  This would be okay. She could deal with this. Even if Magni hated her for what she kept from him all these years, at least now he would know the whole story. The one he refused to hear.

  Christine sat up.

  Magni didn’t know exactly what she knew. Not all of it anyway.

  As far as he knew, all Christine saw was the loss of his wife. That was all she managed to tell him before he cut her off. Made her swear never to use her power on him or his life again.

  And she hadn’t. For the most part.

  Everything would be okay. Magni would finally know the truth about what happened and he would never know it was something she could have cleared up for him long ago.

  And the burden she carried all these years would finally be gone.

  Because of Joel.

  ****

  “You want me to kick his ass?” Hagen stood in Christine’s living room, his long hair loose and wild, wearing a black fitted t-shirt and worn in jeans, looking as scary as a man with an infant strapped to his chest could look.

  “No. I don’t want you to kick his—” She pushed the magnifying loupes she wore while linking together tiny chains and charms on top of her head and looked down at Annabelle sleeping peacefully against her daddy’s chest. “Behind.”

  “Maybe rough him up a bit?” Hagen lifted a brow in question and she couldn’t miss the hopeful look in his eye. Even fatherhood couldn’t tame the Wolffsen men. They were pure testosterone and loved every minute of it.

  “No.” Christine adjusted the loupes as they started to slide down. “I want you to pretend like it never happened.”

  “I hope that’s not your plan.”

  Christine pulled the loupes off as they began another slow descent down her forehead. “That is one-hundred percent my plan.” The frames tangled in her hair, snagging a few strands. She winced and focused on freeing them from the tiny hinges holding the arms to the glasses. “I think it’s the best idea for everyone.”

  When she finally separated her hair from the glasses Christine looked up at Hagen.

  The jerk was grinning at her.

  “What?”

  “Let me know how that plan works out for you.”

  Christine raised her brows at him. “Is that all you came here for? Because I have things to do.”

  “I know.” Hagen peeked down at Annabelle as she jerked awake and shifted in her black jersey carrier. “How are the fixtures for the diner coming along?”

  Oh shit. She forgot about that. Mostly out of sheer will. “They’re not.”

  “Oh?” He looked up from Annabelle. “And why’s that?”

  Christine took a deep breath. “I think
it’s best if Magni and I don’t work together.” Or talk to each other. Or see each other.

  Basically they needed to stay as far apart as possible because being around him wasn’t going to do her and her guilty conscious any favors.

  Or her neglected libido.

  “I don’t see that working well for you.” Hagen turned. “But you do what you have to do.”

  Christine followed as he walked toward her front door. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He shrugged. “I’m just saying Magni might not be as willing to forget things as you are.”

  Her stomach clenched. Hagen was talking about their very public kiss, she knew that, but it only made her more certain the plan to stay away from Magni was the right decision to make. “Then I guess he’ll have to get over it.”

  “I don’t think he’s so good at that either.” Hagen opened the door and stepped onto her porch. “He’s still trying to find Lori and it’s been twenty-five years.” Hagen turned to her. “Too bad he’s too stubborn to let you see what happened.”

  Christine swallowed hard. Magni wasn’t the only one she’d deceived all these years.

  “I have to respect what he wants.” It was the same thing she told Gail whenever her friend tried to coerce her into figuring out what happened to Lori in the woods that day. It was the truth, albeit a twisted one, that worked heavily in her favor.

  Hagen’s grin was back. “You might want to rethink that when you find out what all he wants.”

  Christine closed the door in his smug face. What Magni wanted didn’t matter. Hell, he probably didn’t know what he wanted. Not really anyway. Most people thought they knew what they wanted and most people were wrong.

  Really wrong.

  Christine shoved the loupes back on her face and went to the spare bedroom she set up as a workroom. There were online orders to fill and the gallery was almost out of key chains. Again.

  It was a good problem to have, especially right now, but Christine was going to fall behind if she wasn’t careful and added stress was the last thing she needed right now. Distractions, yes. Stress, no.

  That’s why work was in and Magni was out.

  She only made it through one custom stamped necklace when her phone started ringing. It was Gail and ignoring it would only buy her three minutes of peace. Two-and-a-half if it was important or Gail was feeling light on her feet and cut time off the walk from the B&B to Christine’s house.

  Christine connected the call and tucked the phone against one shoulder, filling out the thank you card for the order as she did. “Hello.”

  “You need to come here.”

  “I don’t have time today.” Christine tucked the card into the bubble lined package and gently dropped the mother’s necklace into a small plastic bag. “I can come over tomorrow.”

  “No. Now.” Gail’s voice dropped. “I know I promised not to ask anymore but I need you to come check someone out for me.”

  Christine dropped her head back and stared at the ceiling. Of all the people in town, Gail was the most intrigued by her abilities.

  Maybe interested was a better word.

  No. Obsessed was the appropriate term for how Gail felt about Christine’s gift.

  “No.” She had to start putting her foot down years ago and Gail respected her rejection. Until now. Which was concerning. Maybe her friend was asking with good reason. There were some sketchy people who passed through towns like theirs.

  “Where’s Rhea? Maybe she’ll do it.” She shouldn’t throw Rhea under the bus like that but Hagen’s wife could feel people out from a distance, gauging their energy and aura in one quick and easy swoop, leaving all of it where she found it.

  Christine was more hands on. And invasive. What she saw was more than a simple good guy/bad guy sort of thing. She saw their past. Their present.

  Their future.

  And it stayed with her.

  Unless she dropped them like a hot potato like she did Joel yesterday.

  Once she figured out who he was, she didn’t want to know any more. For lots of reasons, the least of which being he fell under the umbrella of a promise she made.

  “I’m not allowed to call her for stuff like this anymore either.”

  Christine tucked the baggie into a cotton lined box with her monogrammed logo on top in rose gold foil. “Hagen lay down the law?”

  “You would think I was asking her to sneak into someone’s house.”

  Christine sealed the package and added it to the stack she had to take to the post office tomorrow. “You kinda are.” Even if the person never knew what happened, what she and Rhea could do was still invasive.

  “Who is this you’re worried about?” Christine picked up the next order sheet. Her eyes barely made it to the paper before the dots lined up and it hit her.

  It was Joel.

  “You know what. It doesn’t matter. I’m really busy. Sorry.” She hung up on Gail.

  “Shit.” Christine stood up from her work table. It was an inevitability. Why would he come all the way here and not finish what he came for? She rubbed her sweating palms down the front of her pants, trying to talk herself out of panicking. It would be fine. She would go on lock-down until it was over and everything would be fine. There was no reason for her to be involved in this anyway.

  It wasn’t her business.

  Magni made that very clear the first time.

  Christine stood up straight. It wasn’t her business. The realization lifted the weight making her insides twist.

  It. Wasn’t. Her. Business.

  That was her new mantra.

  Magni wasn’t her business. Joel wasn’t her business. Whatever came of this wasn’t her business.

  Jewelry was her business.

  Christine sat back down at her table and took a deep breath as she picked up an order form for a sliding chain necklace.

  Someone knocked on her door. Not someone. If she set a timer, it would certainly say it had been exactly two-and-a-half minutes since she hung up on Gail.

  Christine stood up, setting her loupes on the table and pushed back her shoulders.

  It. Wasn’t. Her. Business.

  She walked toward the front door and yanked it open.

  Craig and Joel smiled at her.

  Fuck a duck.

  Craig stood casually, propped against the door frame, a dazzling, dimpled smile trained directly on her. His normal suit and tie were gone, replaced with a strikingly more casual pair of running pants and a t-shirt.

  This guy was all or nothing.

  As relaxed as Craig was, Joel was equally rigid, standing tall and tight, arms locked behind him. She tried not to stare but it was so strange to see how straight laced he was.

  Now that she knew.

  “We wanted to check and make sure everything was okay.” Craig’s voice was smooth and deep. Strong and rich. Probably also purposeful and well-practiced. “I was worried after you ran out yesterday.”

  Christine put on a smile. “I’m so sorry about that. I have been a little scattered lately and I completely forgot an appointment I had.” The lie rolled right off her tongue.

  If he could be slick. So could she.

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Craig held her gaze and for the first time Christine got the feeling he was sizing her up. Not a in a sexual way.

  As an adversary. Or maybe more like an informant. One he didn’t realize already knew every question he wanted to ask her.

  “Unfortunately I am swamped with work today so I’ll have to let you boys get back to enjoying town.” She stepped back ready to close the door but Joel’s hand shot out, holding it in place.

  An unplanned move done out of emotion instead of a carefully controlled decision. That was more in line with what she would expect from him.

  “I need to ask you something.” Joel’s voice was deeper than Craig’s. Rougher around the edges. Raw. He glanced at Craig. “About someone.”

  Christine knew what he wanted. Why he was h
ere. What he was searching for. It was all laid out nicely for her yesterday in a flash of information so quick it happened in the blink of an eye.

  She also knew it wasn’t something she could give him.

  But knowing and doing were two separate things.

  If this man was who she thought he was, who she knew he was, then Joel needed more answers than she could give him.

  “Have you boys been to the bar?” Christine tried to force a lightness into her words that masked the depth of what she was doing. Later she could try to convince herself it was only because this man deserved to know the truth about his life.

  “You should check it out.” She looked at Joel.

  “I think you’ll find what you’re looking for there.”

  7

  Magni lifted the last table, hooking the pedestal over the shoulder of his uninjured arm. He walked out the open back end of the box truck he used to bring large orders into town, down the corrugated ramp and through the open door to the diner, setting it top down on a matching table. They were done and delivered a few days early. Nothing like a woman to keep a man up at night. Restless. Edgy. Lonely.

  “You got lucky.” Hagen stepped through the open door. “I was going to kick your ass the next time I saw you.”

  Magni crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to wince at the pain in his bicep. “With a kid on your chest?”

  Hagen shrugged. “I coulda.”

  “You keep telling yourself that.” Magni lined a wayward chair up along the wall. “How’d I get lucky enough to avoid an ass kicking by mister mom?”

  “Christine wouldn’t let me.”

  The mention of her name almost made Magni show his hand. Not that Hagen probably didn’t already put two and two together. “Why’s that?”

  “Hell if I know.” Hagen glanced over his shoulder before taking a few more steps into the diner. “But I doubt my mom and Rhea will be as forgiving. They’re all wound up about what you did.”

  Magni straightened. “It’s none of their business.”

  “You fucking grabbed their friend out of the blue and stuck your tongue down her throat in the middle of the street.” Hagen shook his head like he couldn’t understand what kind of dumbass would do something like that. “In front of them.”