Mad About You

by Alyssa Dean

  "That was a mistake," Dan observed. "Didn't have much to do with commitment, though. You just didn't love her."

  "I did love her," Kent insisted. No, he couldn't have. Wizards don't fall in love. "At least… I thought I did."

  "Did you?" Dan scuffed his shoe in the dirt. "Why did you think that?"

  "I… uh…" He couldn't talk about that now, not while his heart was shredding bit by bit. "I don't know," he muttered irritably. "Avril said—"

  "I figured as much!" Dan interrupted, scowling. "Avril told you that you were in love, didn't she?"

  Kent bent his head in silent agreement. That was pretty much how it had happened. Kent hadn't been positive, but Avril had been so insistent. "I didn't have to listen to her," he admitted.

  "No, you didn't, and you shouldn't have! For pete's sake, Kent, that marriage doesn't prove anything! You didn't want to be married to the woman, you didn't love her, and you made no effort to make the marriage work. It was doomed from the start, not because you're incapable of keeping a commitment, but because you didn't make one!"

  Kent stared at him. Dan was right. He hadn't made a commitment to that. He'd known it wouldn't work even while he was doing it. He had made other commitments, and he'd followed through on them. Perhaps he didn't have to share all the characteristics of a Wizard, just because he was one. After all, he was also a MacIntyre, and that certainly didn't mean he shared all of Aral's bad habits. For one thing, he didn't go around arranging her life for her.

  Dan squinted down at him. "Do you love that little gal up there?"

  Did he? He imagined her little person, standing in the Denver darkness, kneeling in the forest, sitting in her kitchen telling him stories, examining his body, desperately making love in a dark shed. He remembered how he'd felt when he thought she'd perish, and he thought about how he felt now. "Yes," he said slowly. "Yes, I love her." He watched his hands clench into fists. "But… it will pass."

  No, that wasn't right. He was a Wizard. When a wizard falls in love, it's forever. Forever. Forever…

  She came.

  He'd been certain she would. However, when she finally stepped around a bush, an hour after she'd left him, Kent breathed a sigh of relief.

  A slight fog accompanied her, winding around her as if to hold her back. She had changed into a pale brown dress, and she looked exactly as she had when they'd met at this spot before. Her face was drawn and sad, her steps heavy. She was carrying a large bag made of some brown material, and when she saw him, she stopped dead, squeezed her eyes shut and opened them.

  "Hi, babe," he drawled.

  She glanced around, then closed her eyes again. "K-Kent?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "What… uh…" Her tongue came out to touch her lips. "What are you doing here?"

  "Me?" He pushed himself to his feet. "I'm waiting for an Ayaldwode. I understand one pops by here every so often."

  "Kent, I—" she shook her head"—I wish you hadn't come," she whispered. "This is so hard for me. We—"

  "I had to come," he interrupted. "Otherwise, we'd be having this little chat with an audience, and I'm nervous enough, as it is." He frowned at a squirrel who'd stopped to watch. "You don't need to be here, do you?"

  The squirrel gave him a reproachful look and departed. Faye turned after it. "There's nothing left for us to say."

  "Don't try to run off, babe," Kent warned softly. "I saved this forest, remember. It's on my side." To confirm that, a tree bent in a gust of wind, almost as if to block Faye's path.

  She sighed and faced him. "Kent…"

  He stared at her across the small space between them, his eyes looking directly into hers. The haze appeared to thicken, and Kent realized his heart rate was up in the danger zone. He was nervous, all right. Hell, he was scared half to death. He breathed deeply, and tried to control the tremor in his voice. "I love you. I want you to marry me."

  Faye dropped her bag, and her silver-blue eyes got even larger in her already pale face. "I can't. I told you. You'd…"

  Kent took a quick step forward and wrapped his fingers around her arms. "You told me a whole bunch of stuff I should have ignored."

  "You can't ignore it," she argued. "You're a Wizard. You can't stop being one."

  "I'll take pills," Kent muttered. He took a breath. "Look, I might be a Wizard, but that doesn't mean I have all of their genetic characteristics. I love you, Faye. I am quite capable of making a commitment to you and keeping it."

  "Oh, Kent." She stroked his cheeks with both her hands. "I know you mean that now, but a Wizard gets restless…"

  "Do you have any other reason, besides this Wizard stuff, to think I'll do that?"

  She blinked. "No, but…"

  "Then, if you really loved me, you'd give me a chance to prove that I can be different."

  "I do love you." Her eyes filled with tears. "I love you and I always will. But a Wizard—"

  "No Wizard insults Faye!" Kent insisted. "I know my track record isn't the greatest, but this is not the same. I am not going to get restless and break your heart. I wouldn't do that to someone I love, and I love you. That is not going to change. Not ever."

  Faye's eyes widened. Her mouth opened slightly, her little pink tongue came out to moisten her lips. "How long?" she whispered. Her face flooded with color, her eyes were glowing bright gleams of hope. "How long did you say you'd love me?"

  Kent gazed into her darling, upturned face. "I will love you forever," he promised, and he knew, without a doubt, that this time, he meant it.

  "You mean you would have left if I hadn't said 'forever'?" Kent demanded incredulously.

  Faye sat on the floor of her forest, snuggled up to her Wizard. The haze surrounding her was gone, leaving her absolutely euphoric with delight at what had just happened. She was still going to have to leave this place, but she was going to be with him for forever and it was almost too wonderful to be believed. "I didn't know you felt that way," she murmured. "I know when a Wizard falls in love, it's forever, but I didn't know…"

  Kent raised her chin with a finger and gave her a look that tried to be stern, but was too filled with happiness and relief to accomplish it. "There'd better not be any more little gems I'm supposed to say. Or, if there are, they'd better come with cue cards!"

  "There aren't." She touched his dear, dear face. "Oh, Kent, I love you ever so much."

  "I love you, too, babe. I swear you won't regret this. I swear." His lips met hers, and she responded with total enthusiasm. Of course, she wouldn't regret it.

  Something in his pocket made a crackling noise. "Oh, yeah," Kent mumbled. "I almost forgot." He tugged a two-way radio out of his back pocket, fiddled with a dial and spoke into it. "Pan to Hook. Pan to Hook. Tinker Bell is in the bag. Over."

  There was dead silence, then Dan's growl: "I gather she said yes."

  "You bet!" Kent grinned triumphantly and tossed the radio onto the ground. "Now, where were we?"

  "We were, uh—"

  "I remember," he interrupted. He folded her to him again and began nuzzling into her shoulder.

  "Kent," Faye murmured. "Why… uh… Why was Dan… uh…"

  "Hmm?" He brushed his lips around her neck, heading toward her mouth. "Oh, he's just getting it all organized."

  "Getting what organized?" she breathed.

  "Our wedding." He touched the tip of his tongue to her ear. "There won't be time for much of a ceremony now, but all of Neverdale are doing their best to make it special."

  Faye tilted her head and arched toward him. "Why would they do that?" she asked, with a hazy, happy sigh. "We just got married. We don't need to do it again."

  Kent's head came up in a jerk. "I guess I'd better get used to it," he muttered. "My entire life is going to be like this." He paused, his lips moving into a wide, satisfied smile. "And I'm going to enjoy every second. Okay. Go ahead. Lay it on me. How did we manage to have a wedding that I don't remember?"

  "You do remember," Faye insisted. "It just happened." She dec
ided it was her turn to taste his earlobe, and found it was incredibly intoxicating. "We were here in the forest and we promised to love each other forever. That's how Ayaldwodes get married."

  "Ah." He brushed his mouth over hers, and sighed. "That's terrific, but unfortunately not recognized in other parts of the globe, like, say, ten feet from here. We have to do it all over again, but this time, a whole town will be staring at us, and someone will tell me what I'm supposed to say."

  Faye undid a button on his shirt and slipped her hand inside. "If that's what you want to do, I don't mind. When would you like—"

  "Now," he interrupted. She glanced around, and he quickly went on. "Not right now, darling. We have to leave here, drive to Neverdale, and then get married. You, of course, look absolutely adorable, and I, unfortunately, look and smell like a swamp creature, but well just have to keep our wedding pictures well hidden."

  Faye studied him critically. "You look wonderful," she decided. "Fabulous. Very Wizardly. But maybe I should talk to the WEA…"

  "They're okay with this. As a matter of fact, they're quite delighted." He sucked her earlobe. "It accomplishes everything they wanted to accomplish. You get a new name, a new country, and a new place to live. I'll be there to protect you, and, as long as you're around to fix my magnetic field every now and then, you should be perfectly safe. We'll get a place outside Calgary and we'll stock it with birds and ferns and whatever else an Ayaldwode needs to keep her happy."

  It sounded like a dream come true. Then Faye had another thought. "What about your sister? How does she feel about this?"

  "She's livid." Kent sounded pleased at the prospect. "Actually, she's torn between absolute fury, total shock, and almost pathological curiosity." He lifted his head and frowned at her. "How about your relatives? They aren't going to turn me into a frog if they don't like the idea, are they?"

  "Absolutely not," Faye said firmly. "It's impossible to do that when you're this far north of the equator."

  Kent let out a hoot of laughter, and kissed her soundly. "Are our children going to be Ayaldwodes or Wizards?"

  "We'll have one of each," Faye decided, entranced by the idea. "Or maybe two of each."

  "Uh-huh. What are little Ayaldwodes like?"

  "Good-natured, kind and very sweet."

  "Uh-huh. And little Wizlings?"

  "Mischievous, disobedient, naughty…"

  "I'd like to see for myself. "He kissed her again. "And since we've already had an Ayaldwodian-style marriage, I believe we can get started on that right away." He slid his hand up her dress and began lowering them to the ground.

  "Kent!" Dan's voice hollered over the two-way radio. "You're supposed to be proposing, not consummating! Get down here!"

  Kent sighed, straightened Faye's clothes and got reluctantly to his feet. As he rose, an unexpected gust of wind swirled around him, rustling the leaves, caressing through his hair. He froze, his eyes focusing into the distance, as if he was hearing a voice. Then the leaves settled back to earth, forming a strange, circular pattern in the dust at his feet.

  Faye stood beside him and squeezed his hand. Apparently her relatives approved, after all.