by Amber Lynn
The next morning I woke up happy to see the pillow wall in place and Nate still sleeping on the other side of it. To reward him, I leaned over and give him a small peck on the cheek. He didn't stir, so I left him sleeping while I went to put the pork in the oven.
I liked to cook it slowly, so it was really tender and easy to pull apart for sandwiches. I set the oven to the proper temperature and then got out my two huge roasts. I put them both in a large roasting pan and added a little water before placing them into the oven.
It was going to take a few hours, so I started going over in my mind what else needed to be done. Other than heating up the hot dips, the rest of the tasks were mostly just presentation oriented. I did have to make Nate's mushrooms, but those only took a second and just went in with the dips.
Having at least a couple hours before I needed to do anything, I decided to give Rick a call, since we hadn't got around to it the night before. He was a couple of hours ahead, so there was a chance he'd answer. With my phone in hand, I made my way to the living room and got comfortable on the sectional.
"Joe's Bar and Grill," Rick answered. "What can we do for you?"
"Well Freddie, Lord Eldridge has really been bugging me with all this dancing. Do you think you could sneak me out to the carriage so I can get away from him?" I asked.
The phone went dead quiet for a few seconds. I didn't hear a click to indicate something had happened technically with the line, so I assumed Rick needed a second.
"He told you?" Rick asked hesitantly.
"He was forced to after I started getting memories of you and me dancing the night away at a ball. I came out of the memory with a bloody nose, so he thought knowing the truth would make them easier on me."
As I spoke, Nate stumbled out of the bedroom and came to sit next to me. I mouthed "Rick" to him after he gave me a morning kiss on the cheek.
"What, if any, other memories have you had and what all has Nate told you?" I could tell he was still proceeding cautiously.
"Probably just the basics. That I'm some awesome phoenix mated to the phoenix king and if I wasn't currently impaired, I could do all sorts of wicked things. Other than the fact that I don't know how to resurrect properly, I think that sums up the conversation we've had. Oh, I also know his original name is Malik and mine is Yara. What's yours and what does it mean?"
He laughed. "Out of all the questions you could ask, you want to know my name. Mine would be Tarak and it means protector. So, you still don't have your full memory back?"
"Nope and according to Nate the part I have is like half a day of an eon of missing time."
"Do you know what brought on the memories?" Rick asked. "Or why things have been screwy for you?"
"No to the second question. The first day the memories happened, they coincided with some reactor testing that goes on at the think tank. The second day, I didn't ask, but it wasn't during one of the normal testing times. I'll have to try to figure out if anything happened during all three episodes. I have no idea what goes on in the building other than my work area."
"I can't tell you how relieved I am to have you back in the family. I know Nate was hopeful you'd eventually remember some things, mostly how you're madly in love with him and want to have a million phoenix babies." We both laughed at the thought, which I didn't doubt was true.
"Too bad for him those memories and feelings are still hidden. I did remember a moment with our daughter Mirari, though." I turned to Nate and said, "I forgot to ask, do we have other children? If I'm a mom, I expect Mother's Day cards."
Nate sighed. "Yes, we have four other children. We've been very fortunate; most phoenix couples have only had one or two children."
"What about you, Rick, do you have a lady friend and little children I don't know about?"
"Nope, I haven't found my other half yet and it's probably a good thing, since my boss doesn't give me a lot of time off," he replied.
"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You've lived centuries longer than your boss. I don't think he could've stopped you from looking in your previous lives." I looked over at Nate and saw him smiling at me.
"Tell him he had fifty years, it's not my fault he spent them sitting on his butt," Nate said.
"Are you telling me you're his boss somehow?" I asked Nate.
"He is the protector. His job above all others is protecting you," Nate replied, like it was obvious.
"Why in the world would I need protected? You said phoenixes couldn't be killed."
The more I found out about the whole other life, the more I thought I was better off not knowing. Human life was confusing enough for me; it didn't sound like phoenix life would be any easier.
Rick answered the question for me. "We aren't concerned about someone killing you. Has he told you that you're different from the rest of us? There has always been a worry someone would kidnap you and use your abilities against your will."
"Yes, he mentioned that I was a freak amongst our people," I said, earning an elbow to the side by Nate.
"Did he just smack you upside the head?" Rick asked.
"Nope, it was an elbow to the side."
"I see he's being lenient. You are a treasure amongst us. If anyone called you a freak, Nate and I would probably battle it out to figure out which one of us got to punish the perpetrator. One day, hopefully soon, you'll remember everything and know the truth."
"If all this is true and I haven't just been in a coma for the last week, then that day can't come soon enough." A check of the clock told me I should probably get back to the kitchen. "Well, Freddie, it's been fun, but we're having a party this afternoon and I need to start doing the final preparations."
"You're hosting a party? Can you have Nate videotape it for me?"
"Hey, you listen here, buddy. You better be nice to me or I'll play damsel in distress and ask Nate to beat you up." I fluttered my eyelashes at Nate to practice my part. "And you know I have him wrapped around my finger."
They both laughed at me. I solved the problem by hanging up the phone. That just made Nate laugh more.
"So, what do we need to finish up before people get here? We still have a couple hours."
"Let's go get the mushrooms made up and the hot stuff in the oven. I still need to whip the barbecue sauce up, and then we just need to set everything out."
We moved to the kitchen and I handed him the mushrooms, so he could remove the stems and clean them up while I made the stuffing. Twenty minutes later we loaded all the dips and the mushrooms into the second oven and let them do their thing for the next half hour.
"I think I'm going to go take a shower and get ready." I left to get something to wear before retreating to the bathroom. Nate received brownie points for not asking to join me in the shower.
After a quick shower, I dressed in some jean shorts and a top that said?I will try to be nicer if you try to be smarter. I didn't wear shorts often, but with as many people as I was expecting to show up, I envisioned the house getting warm.
I checked on the appetizers when I made it back to the kitchen. They were all golden and bubbly, so I turned the oven down to warm. I opened Tabby up and grabbed my barbecue sauce ingredients and retrieved a bowl from a cupboard.
A quick peek at the pork revealed it was to the falling apart stage, which meant it was time to remove it from the oven. With a pair of forks, I shredded the pork and then added the sauce before returning it to the oven to let the flavors meld.
Nate had disappeared on me, but I didn't have time to worry what rabbit hole he fell down. I collected all my serving platters and laid them on the dining room table. I arranged the cold items, dippers, cookies and rolls. I checked the time and saw that I had fifteen minutes; time had started to fly after the call with Rick. I got the hot items from the oven and put them amongst the already arranged dishes.?
Nate appeared with a mess of paper plates and plastic silverware. "Just in time," I said as I grabbed them and arranged everything the way I wanted. "People can just grab
drinks from the fridge, right; we don't need to set any out, do we?"
"I think that will be fine. Let me just get some napkins and it looks like we're set." As he left to complete his task, the doorbell rang.
I rushed over, so they wouldn't be tempted to push the bell again. It was a little surprising it rang like a normal doorbell. I expected colored lights or something to go off, or at least a different tone. When I opened the door, I found Ettie.
"I hope I'm not too early," she said as I ushered her in. "I was hoping to get here first."
"You're right on time, but you do happen to be the first to arrive." I led her over to the dining room to introduce her to Nate. "Ettie, this is my fianc? Sean, Sean, this is the elusive Ettie."
"Nice to meet you, Ettie, I understand this shindig was partially your idea," Nate said as he shook her hand.
"I'm not sure if that means you're happy about the party or not, so I'll go ahead and apologize for the inconvenience." Ettie's cheeks turned a nice shade of pink.
"It's no problem. It's going to be a fun way for us to get to know everyone." The doorbell rang again and Nate left to answer it.
After about ten minutes of the doorbell ringing off and on, we decided to just open the door and hang a sign that said to come on in. I spent the afternoon trying to meet everyone, and at the same time I was including Ettie as much as possible in any conversations I had with the team. Things seemed to be going okay on that front, even with Josh being standoffish.?
At around two, most of the people had already cleared out, leaving my team and a couple of stragglers from security. With the smaller group, Katie had the brilliant idea we should play Pictionary. Apparently she carried it around in her car for situations like a party she didn't want to leave. I would've preferred if they just decided to go home, but I'd heard a time or two that we can't always get what we want.
Not wanting to have to endure the game by myself, I quickly latched onto Nate. With twelve people, we decided to have two teams of six. We were on a team with Ettie, Anne, Tom and Eric. The other team was Katie, Hank, Josh, Louie, Jake and Kim. Since it was Katie's idea, we allowed the other team to go first.
She picked a card up and gave a face that clearly indicated she didn't like what she was about to draw. Good, it was her stupid idea we played in the first place.
Anne, with the sand timer in hand, said, "Okay, ready, set, draw," and flipped it over.
Katie started drawing something that looked like a stick figure and then drew arrows like the person was moving. Her team yelled out walking, running, moving, dancing. They continued yelling things out and Katie didn't add anything else to her drawing, settling for moving her hand in circles acting like they were close and should keep yelling out words.
"Time," Anne said when the sand was all gone.
"Ugh, it was skipping," Katie said, taking a seat.
"Oh," her group said in unison. "I get it now," Hank added on.
"Okay, how about if I go first for our team," Nate stood up to take a card before anyone could object. Katie readied the time and said, "Go."
Nate started on what appeared to be a reptile and our team listed things it could be. In my mind I heard, "It's a dragon." Evidently Nate liked to cheat at games.
"It's a dragon," I said to the rest of the group.
"That's it." Nate returned to my side and gave me a kiss.
We continued back and forth until it was my turn. I couldn't draw to save my life, so I was pretty sure I'd embarrass myself. I picked up my card and saw my word was orange. Great. I got something shaped like a circle. Katie yelled, "go" before I had a chance to think of where to begin.
First things first, I drew the circle and tried to make it look like it had a textured skin. My team was shouting out all sorts of things, mostly different kinds of sport balls. After about ten seconds, in my head I heard, "Focus on me and think the word."
Okay, I continued drawing my oranges and thought "Nate. Orange. Nate. Orange. Nate. Orange."
Thankfully before the time ran out, Nate yelled, "An orange."
"That's it," I said to the group. In my mind, I focused on Nate again. "Did I actually do it or did you guess?"
"You came in loud and clear, baby," he said back mentally.
I was going to have to practice that ability. I wondered how far the range was. It would be fun to yell things at Rick from across the country.
With me being the last person to have a turn, we decided to call it a day and packed the game away. My team ended up winning, of course it helped when a third of the team could talk to each other without anyone knowing.
After we said goodbye to everyone, we collapsed on the couch. "I don't have the energy to clean up the mess," I said as I cuddled into Nate. I knew cuddle and Nate didn't belong in the same sentence; it just showed how exhausted I was.
"I don't think I can move off the couch," he said as he maneuvered so we were both lying on our sides with my back to his front. "Let's just sleep for a couple of hours and see if we feel like moving after that."
"Sounds good to me," I said as I drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER 15
I am thinking of a number between one and a million
