by Clay, Verna
Jake's heart raced. What was she doing? She wasn't moving, was she? Had his dad's kiss upset her? Jake hadn't thought so last night. She'd looked like she kind of liked it. Jake kept his binoculars on her. Yes, she was packing. What should he do?
Jazmine packed the last of the kitchen items. Her cab would be arriving soon. She needed to say goodbye to Jake and Ryan. She heard her front door open and then running footsteps. Jake burst into the kitchen.
"Why are you packing?"
"I…I have to leave."
"Why do you have to leave? It's because of the way my dad kissed you, isn't it?"
"Oh, no, Jake."
"I'm sorry. I wouldn't have gotten that dumb mistletoe if I'd known my dad was gonna kiss you like that."
"Jake…Jake… Listen to me. I'm leaving because I have to return home."
"You were going to leave and not tell me?" he gulped.
"No. No. I was going to make the taxi wait while I came over to your house."
"I don't believe you. You're…you're not a good witch! You're a bad witch!"
"Jake, I don't understand what you're saying. Listen to me. I'll explain what I can, okay?" She placed a hand on Jake's shoulder.
He looked warily at her, but nodded.
"I was sent here to bring you and your father close again, and that's happened, hasn't it?"
He nodded again.
"I was only sent here for a short time. I have to return to my home."
"Where is your home?"
"I can't tell you, Jake."
"Will you ever come back?"
"No. My home is very different from yours."
Jake's chin trembled.
"I'm asking you to be brave, Jake. I want you to tell your father goodbye for me because…I don't think I can." Her own chin trembled. "You and your father have each other again. My job is done and I must leave."
There was a knock on the door and they both jumped.
"That's my taxi, Jake." Jazmine knelt in front of him.
Jake blinked rapidly and then threw his arms around her neck.
Jazmine's heart broke. She loved this little boy. She clutched him to her heart before gently setting him away from her. She smiled and said, "Go hug your father the way you just hugged me, okay?"
Jake swiped his eyes and nodded.
Quickly standing, Jazmine rushed to open the front door. The same cab driver that had driven her to Bend impatiently tapped his foot.
"Let's go." Jazmine brushed past him.
"Hey, you're the lady from the High Desert Museum a few months back…the one with the wad of money."
"Let's go now."
"Yeah, sure, lady."
Jake brushed the tears from his cheeks. He turned and ran to the porch. He saw Jazzy slam the car door and the cab peel away. "Wait!" he yelled. The blue taxi reached the intersection and turned.
Jake gulped back more tears and ran to his house. Throwing the door open, he yelled, "Dad! Dad!" He almost ran into his father.
"Jake, are you okay? What's wrong?"
Jake threw his arms around his dad and sobbed. "Jazzy's gone! We've got to go after her!"
"What do you mean she's gone? We just saw her last night."
"She's gone for good, Dad. You've got to believe me."
"Jake, calm down and explain things. Take a deep breath."
Jake did what his father said, but the deep breath didn't calm him. Speaking rapidly, he said, "Dad, Jazzy's a wit…" He didn't finish his sentence. He suddenly remembered all the stories she had told him about Flitter Town. "Wait a minute…wait a minute…Jazzy's a fairy!"
"What, Jake?"
"Dad, Jazzy's a fairy."
"Huh?"
"I understand now!"
"Well, Jake, I certainly don't."
"Dad, quick, grab your car keys. We have to find her before she returns to Flitter Town.
"Jake, you need to explain yourself."
Jake looked at his dad, willing him to understand. "Daddy, please trust me. I'll explain while you're driving."
Ryan steered onto Highway 97, heading south of town. Jake had been talking nonstop since they left the house. The tale he was spinning was beyond belief.
"Okay, Dad, you've got to find the exact spot where you first saw Jazzy. You can do that, can't you?"
"I'll do my best, son."
"So you see, Dad, all those stories that Jazzy told me about the fairy realm were true. She pretended she was making them up, but she was really telling me about herself. I thought she was a witch after I saw her do magic. But after I got to know her, I figured she was a good witch. I never thought about her being a fairy until today. Yes! That's why she dressed like a fairy on Halloween. Remember, Dad?"
Ryan was really worried. His son had totally tripped out.
A blue taxi passed them going the opposite direction.
"Dad, that's the taxi that picked her up! Hurry! Where did you first see her?"
Ryan did some calculations and traveled a little farther. Pulling to the side of the road, he said. "It was about here, Jake. Son, this has gone too far."
Jake opened his door and jumped out of the car. He turned in all directions.
Ryan got out of the car, too. The misery on his son's face broke his heart. "Jake, she's not here. Let me take you home. I'm sure she's still next door."
"No! It's your fault she's gone. It's because of the way you kissed her. You kissed her like you used to kiss Mom. You scared her away!"
This new explosion took Ryan by surprise. Jake was right about the kiss, of course, but how could he explain what he, himself, didn't want to acknowledge.
"There!" Jake pointed down the highway.
Ryan turned in time to see a doe sprint into the woods. The horn of a passing car blared.
"Jazzy, Jazzy," Jake yelled, running away from Ryan.
"Jake, stop!" Ryan caught up to him and grabbed his shoulder.
Jake twisted loose. "We have to follow the deer, Dad. If we don't, she'll be gone forever. Trust me!"
Ryan looked into his son's eyes. "Okay, Jake. I trust you. Let's go."
The two of them raced along the shoulder of the highway until they saw hoof prints. They followed the prints into the forest of ponderosa pines.
"Jazzy!" Jake shouted. "Jazmine!" Ryan yelled to appease his son; certainly not because he believed he was chasing a fairy. He'd decided to let the scenario play out; allow Jake to decide when to call it quits.
"Look, Dad." Jake pointed. Several yards away a lone doe watched them. When they ran toward the animal, it sprinted. When they reached the place it had been, Jake pointed again. "Dad, I think it wants us to follow!" The doe was again watching them from several yards away.
"That's weird," Ryan mumbled.
For the next ten minutes, Jake and Ryan followed the doe. The trees were becoming denser. Ryan wasn't worried about getting lost; he just didn't want to continue this game indefinitely. They rounded a copse of pines. Jake stopped so abruptly that Ryan ran into him.
"Ugh." Ryan looked to see what had stopped his son in his tracks. He gasped. Jazmine stood in a small clearing. At the same moment he saw her, she saw him and Jake.
"What are you doing here?" she cried. "You have to leave, now!"
Jake ignored her plea and said calmly, "Jazzy, I understand. All those stories you made up were real—about fairies coming to the human realm. I used to watch you from my tree house with my dad's binoculars and I figured you were a witch when I saw your magic. It was scary at first, but then I decided you were a good witch; like the one on that old TV show. But now I know you're not a witch at all. You can't go back to Flitter Town. We need you, Jazzy.
"You saw me do fairy magic, Jake?"
"Uh-huh."
Ryan looked from Jazmine to Jake, and back to Jazmine. "Jazmine, I don't understand what the two of you are talking about, but…it's true, we need you. I've been fighting my feelings for you for a long time. I didn't want to care about you because it made me feel like I w
as being disloyal to Annie. But I was wrong. I love you, Jazzy. Don't leave us."
Jazmine couldn't believe her eyes or her ears. Ryan and Jake had followed her and they loved and needed her. Her heart sang and then plummeted. She had to return to Flitter Town…didn't she? She knew the consequences of deliberately using fairy magic in front of humans—she would become human and her magic would disappear, and she could never return to her clan.
She made a decision.
She lifted her hands and pointed toward the ground. She would miss her clan, but she had a human family now.
"Here we go, Dad. Prepare yourself."
"What? Why?"
Jazmine waved her hands, and when she clapped them, jasmine vines sprang from the forest floor, covering the space between her and them.
"What's happening?" Ryan gasped.
"I told you she's a fairy. Do you believe me now, Dad?"
Jazmine laughed and wiggled her fingers. A glittering pathway appeared through the jasmine. Slowly, she walked toward the boy and the man she loved. Halfway there, she lifted her gaze from Jake to Ryan. Suddenly, he laughed and opened his arms.
"Thank you, God," he whispered.
"Thank you, Boss-at-the-Top," Jazmine breathed, and ran into his arms.
Excerpt: Christmas Kisses
(Romance on the Ranch Book 5)
One: Third Person
Cecelia Brightman sighed and glanced out the window of her high-rise office in one of the choicest locations in Manhattan. As coordinator for Charity Disbursements, Inc., she had the fortunate, and sometimes unfortunate, job of deciding which charities making application for fund raising events would be accepted for review by the board of directors, and which would be gently refused.
Shuffling the papers on her desk, she lifted another application, but her mind was elsewhere. In one week she would be in Colorado visiting her brother and sister-in-law for a much needed vacation. Sometimes her workdays ran as long as ten hours. Of course, that was by her own choice. She had no husband or children to care for and the older she became, the less she looked forward to nights spent alone in her penthouse. Since the age of twenty-five, after graduating from exclusive, Barnard College, she had devoted her life to helping others through charity work. Now, at the age of forty-two, she was beginning to wonder if she had made a big mistake in not actively seeking a husband and having children in her twenties and early thirties. The more she was around her brother and sister-in-law, Miles and Tooty, and their five children: Harris, Eli, Morgan, Austin, and now eighteen-month old Sunny Beatrice; the more melancholy she became.
Whenever she'd had doubts about the direction of her life before, she'd just worked harder, and soon new projects consumed her every waking minute.
That strategy wasn't working now.
And that was the reason for her visit to Colorado. She needed to be with family, not charities. Of course, her mother and father lived nearby in their own posh penthouse and she visited them often, but she'd always felt somewhat estranged from them. They were well known amongst their elite community and interested in country clubs and the rich-and-famous lifestyle.
Of course, much of their fame came from being the parents of Maxwell Henry, the pen name of their famous son turned author. Although they loved Miles dearly, and had agonized after a car accident rendered him a paraplegic as a teenager, they still capitalized on his notoriety. Cecelia knew that spending time with her parents was not the answer to her increasing loneliness.
A tap on her door interrupted her musings and through the glass she saw Charles Wilson, her assistant, waiting for her response to his knock. She motioned him in. Usually reserved, Charles fairly oozed excitement and Cecelia thought she knew why. "Is it here?"
Charles tapped his chin and grinned so big his perfectly capped teeth took center stage in his perfectly tanned, perfectly handsome face. Years ago, he'd hinted that maybe there could be something between them, but Cecelia had never viewed him in that light. After a few more hints, she'd made it clear with her own hints, that she wasn't interested. He'd grinned, said, "I hear you loud and clear," and never broached the subject again. About a year later, he'd met a barista that he claimed made Café Mochas to die for and married her six months later. They now had three children and couldn't have been more opposite than a cat and dog. Charles was gorgeous; his wife, Betty Sue, looked like a throwback from the hippie heydays of the sixties. He wore Armani suits; she wore swirling linen skirts and peasant tops. He worked out in the gym faithfully; she refused to set foot in one and insisted she got all the exercise needed chasing their three children, ages five, six, and seven. He loved caviar; she loved burritos. He came from Boston wealth; she came from Shreveport poverty. However, the two of them had been going strong for years and their antics laughed at by coworkers. Someone was always saying, "Wait 'til you hear what Betty Sue has Charles doing now;" the latest being spending time at a retreat that didn't allow talking. When Charles returned, he'd had the office in stitches recalling his vacation that left him "speechless," literally.
Cecelia pushed thoughts aside and waited with anticipation for Charles' reply.
"It is. And, my God, I've never seen anything like it."
She jumped to her feet. "I can't wait." She followed Charles to the Donations Art Room, and marveled that the famous artist, Connor MacKenzie, had actually responded to the letter she'd sent three months previous and agreed to donate a painting for their annual Christmas charity auction, the proceeds of which were going to an organization selected by vote of the board of trustees. Even though it was only June, the auction required months of planning. The charity receiving the proceeds had yet to be made public, but Cecelia, in her letter, had revealed that it was a small non-profit organization named Loving Arms Adoption Agency, and that they found homes for children who had unexpectedly lost their parents; orphans who had once had a family, but now, either had no relatives to take them in, or relatives that couldn't or wouldn't raise them. Rather than send them through the foster care system, they housed the children until suitable adoptive families were found. They had a ninety-eight percent success rate and Cecelia had been pitching them to the board of trustees for years. Finally, they had been selected.
Charles walked to a large picture on a tripod. He'd draped it, and he now said dramatically, "Come no closer."
Cecelia halted and her heart hammered. She loved the paintings by reclusive artist Connor MacKenzie, and, in fact, had recently snagged two of them at a local gallery because she'd been invited to a pre-showing. She now owned five works by this genius of light, shadow, and color.
With a flourish, Charles swept the drape away.
Cecelia gasped and covered her mouth with her palm. She was speechless. Never had she seen a more beautiful painting. The artist, renowned for mystical renderings, had created a scene straight out of a magical forest. Known for his muted colors and lighting, the gray mist blended so perfectly with the green pines that the viewer could not distinguish where one ended and the other began. Filtered light penetrated the mist to barely reveal several deer beside a stream. The painting was about four feet high and five feet in length and the pines stretched all the way to the top while the stream ran the width.
Such was the beauty of the artistry that Cecelia felt tears welling up. She stepped closer and looked for the painter's trademark. She scanned for a long time.
Charles said, "It took me awhile, but I finally located them."
Stepping until she was close enough to touch the painting, she eyed it inch by inch. Her eyes lit and she lifted her gaze to Charles.
"Ah-hah, you've found it. Tell me what you see?"
"I see the man and the woman in the far left corner. Hmm, something seems odd." She gave Charles a startled look.
He responded. "Exactly. This painting is going to sell for tens of thousands. As far as I know, this is the first one he's done with a third person painted."
With wonder, Cecelia said, "And it's a child. There's a child betwe
en the man and woman holding their hands. How perfect for the charity it's going to benefit." The tears Cecelia had been sniffing back, now dripped down her cheeks.
Charles said, "Aw, honey. I think you need to come to dinner with me and Betty Sue and my gang tonight. You've been way too sad lately. My wife and kids will have you rolling on the floor laughing.
Before responding to his invitation, Cecelia said, "If it wasn't against the rules, I'd bid whatever the cost for this painting."
Novels and Novellas by Verna Clay
WESTERN ROMANCE
Contemporary
Romance on the Ranch Series
Dream Kisses
Honey Kisses
Baby Kisses
Candy Kisses
Christmas Kisses
Rock Star Kisses (coming soon)
Oasis Series
(Romance in the Grand Canyon State)
Stranded in Oasis
Branded in Oasis
Crashed in Oasis
Historic
Unconventional Series
Abby: Mail Order Bride
Broken Angel
Ryder's Salvation
Joy's Return
Finding Home Series
Cry of the West: Hallie
Rescue on the Rio: Lilah
Missouri Challenge: Daisy
FANTASY ROMANCE
Shapeling Trilogy
Roth: Book One: Protector
Fawn: Book Two: Master
Davide: Book Three: Prince
Jazmine
(Sweet Whimsical Romance Novella)
