by LK Kelley
“Here,” he said ignoring her, and giving her his cell. “Call Taylor. I have her number stored.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, wondering why he would have Taylor’s number in his phone.
Desperately punching the buttons on his iPhone, she kept missing, and had to dial at least three times. Taylor answered on the first ring.
“Yes, sir. Your orders?” Taylor’s voice said.
Orders? Sir? Why would Taylor be saying something like that?
“Hey, Taylor?”
“J – uh – Gem? Is that you? Why are you using Professor Hawkin's phone?” Gem could hear the surprise in her voice.
“Another massive storm hit, Taylor. I was out of food, and ran down to the convenience store. It hit, and Lola was in the truck, which was picked up and thrown sideways.”
“Oh, no! Is Lola…?”
“No. She’s fine. Professor Hawkins showed up, and brought her to me.”
“I was wondering why you were talking on the Professor's phone? He’s there?” she sounded surprised.
“Uh, yeah. He tried to take me home, only…” Gem gulped.
“What, Gem? What happened?”
“Lightning strike. My house is gone,” Gem gulped tears back, again.
“Oh, sweetie! I’m so sorry! Tell me that you’re coming here with Lola. You are, right?” Taylor asked.
“H-he’s bringing us, yes,” Gem’s voice broke, and she couldn’t speak any more.
Jaxx grabbed his phone out of her hand.
“Taylor, she’s about to have a nervous breakdown…not that I blame her at all, of course. She’s been cursing the fates.” He heard a gasp of horror from Taylor. “Yes. No. Yes. We’re on our way.”
He shut the phone down, and put it in his pocket. He hated using the damned things! They were just too ridiculous for words considering he was able to contact anyone he wanted at any time without them. But, to function in this world, he had to appear to be like humans. Taylor could easily have blown their cover. He sighed, and turned to look at Gem. He never had a heart. He wasn’t built that way. But, her sadness was piercing him where a heart would be, and that was so not good. No. Not good at all. He’d never have feelings for a woman. Ever. Oh, he used them for sex and fun, but that’s it. This girl, though. She could turn out to be a real problem for him, and he couldn’t let that happen.
Jaxx turned down Taylor’s street, and stopped in front of her house. He still couldn’t believe she had not only married a human, but had children with him! How could she be happy? But, she sure seemed to be. Nope. Jaxx just couldn’t understand it at all.
Beside him, Gem sniffed as she exited the SUV, and opened the back door to pick up her tiny little dog who was sound asleep. Lola didn’t even move, but snored adorably as they walked to the front door with Professor Hawkins, who seemed to think that she needed him to hold onto her arm to keep her from falling, or whatever. When he had reached for her elbow, a bolt of electricity shot through her entire body, again! It had startled her so much, she had flinched. Her eyes shot up to the Professor who looked at her with the same dumbfounded look that said, “What the fuck?”
The tense moment was interrupted when Taylor threw open the door, and ran out to grab Gem in a huge bear hug! Richard and their two children followed after her. Over Gem’s head, Taylor glared at Jaxx. What the hell was he up to this time?
Letting her go, Lola, who had just woken up, almost suffocating when Taylor hugged them, started to wiggle to be let down. Gem sniffed, and handed her over to the two kids who hugged her tightly, much to Lola’s happiness. She had awakened when Taylor had almost suffocated her in the bear hug she had given Gem. Lola admitted it. She was truly worried about her pet, but it was also nice to be loved by so many after that harrowing close call when the wind blew the truck sideways, and into the tree with her little love pug inside it! Lola excelled at being loved! Her very size and face made everyone love her instantly. While she wagged her tiny, curly tail, Gem was caught in a wooly mammoth hug by Richard, who was, quite literally, a giant of a man at 6 feet nine inches.
“I’m so sorry, Gem. I truly am. I know how much the house and especially the truck meant to you,” he told her quietly.
Richard always had the ability to calm her down just by his voice, and Gem felt calmer than she had over the last couple of hours. He pulled away from her.
“We’ll help you, Gem. You know that, right?” he asked her.
Gem couldn’t trust her voice at the moment, so she just nodded. Then, her legs buckled. Jaxx was behind her, and caught her while Richard grabbed her from the front. Jaxx couldn’t believe the surge of jealousy he felt when he saw Richard touching Gem, and he growled at Richard, whose eyebrows rose at the sound in surprise! Richard carefully released his hold on Gem, giving Jaxx a knowing grin. Jaxx’s surprise at the grin made him wonder why he felt that way? He’d never felt jealousy – ever. In fact, his emotions were non-existent. At least, that was what he had always been told. It was his lack of emotion for anything, or anyone, that made him so dangerous.
Gem turned around.
“Thank you, Professor, for bringing me here. I’m so sorry, because I just know you wanted to have a hysterical woman on your hands,” she managed a tight grin at him. “And, thank you for saving Lola for me! I’m just so glad that she was o-okay.”
Gem broke down into tears once again, and Richard guided her into the house with Shirley and Marcus following him, holding tightly to Lola who wanted her pet, and tried to wiggle down to get to her.
“I’ll be right in, honey!” she called after Richard, then whirled on Jaxx.
“What in the fuck is wrong with you?” she demanded.
“Nothing! If she wasn’t your best friend, I would have left her alone!”
“Gem Elwood is not your responsibility. You know it!”
“Oh. So, what? Had you rather me stand aside, and leave her to her own devices after her entire world hit the fucking fan?”
Taylor narrowed her eyes at him. Something wasn’t right.
“Since when do you care about humans?” she asked warily.
“I don’t, so don’t get any ideas, Taylor. I have my orders just as you have yours. Gem is not your responsibility, either!” His voice was low, but held a note of authority.
“So, why didn’t you just leave her?” she asked.
“Taylor, hon?” Richard called.
“This isn’t over, Jaxx. I’m considering telling the council about this!”
Jaxx snorted.
“Go ahead. You know I don’t give a fuck what that group of blowhards says or does. I have never bowed to anyone. I will never bow to them, and you know it.”
“Fine. Go away!” Taylor hissed, and turned to walk into the house. She stopped when she heard Jaxx’s voice.
“I will leave for the moment, Taryln, but I will not stay away,” he growled at her.
Taylor turned on her heel, and shot him an angry glare.
“You will stay away from Gem!” Taylor answered with her own growl, then slammed the door behind her with finality.
Finding himself standing, staring at a shut door, surprised the hell out of him! No one had ever shut a door in his face! He was livid, and stomped back to his SUV. Just before he stepped into it, he looked into the distance where the rumble of thunder, and the lightning was slowly dissipating. He got behind the wheel, then put his arms on it staring. Something was not right about this. The thunder and lightning last night, the heavy deluge, and the shards of glass heading straight for Gem – as if they were guided. And, then, tonight. He’d been on his way out of town, and drove upon the devastation that wrecked Gem’s life with her dog and her truck. Also, caused by a storm. But, what he didn’t tell anyone was that hers was the only vehicle that had been thrown into the tree. If she had been inside it, she would be dead. If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that the two storms were after her – or someone was causing the storm to target her! No! That was just plain crazy!
In his entire life, never had he seen a force of nature target one particular human. Besides, who would do this in the first place? He slid his arms off the wheel, and turned the key. Fuck these stupid vehicles! He didn’t need one at all, but he had to continue to play this charade until he found what he had been sent to find. He drove off, and straight to his house.
“Gem, I’m so very sorry!” Taylor kept telling her.
“It’s okay, Tay. I-I’ll have to figure out what I’m going to do, now, though. I have no car, or house. Hell! My computer was burned to a crisp, my clothing, and everything I owned! The house wasn’t worth a dime, and neither was my truck, but they were free, and I didn’t have to pay rent. My books are just beginning to give me a little bit of money every third month, but now, I have to find a place to live, pay rent, figure out how to get from point A to point B, and to do my writing.” Gem's voice sounded defeated, and Taylor had tears in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, Gem,” Richard said. “You can stay with us as long as you need until you can figure out what to do. Besides, we have three cars. You can have one of them.”
Taylor smiled at her husband. Who said that humans weren’t awesome! To hell with the council who thought they were nothing but animals beneath them! They believed that they were made to serve them, but through a glitch in the system, had been given total freedom! The idiots on the council were fucking bastards! And, if she didn’t know better, she would bet a month’s salary that Jaxx hated them, and a second bet that the Council was terrified of him! Why, she had no idea, but she would swear it was true!
“I can’t take your car, Richard,” Gem gasped.
“Yes, you can, sweetie,” Taylor backed her husband up. “Look. We can’t drive three cars at a time, and one just sits in the garage, anyway. We drive it, what, Richard?”
“Maybe, if it’s lucky, a couple of times every three months?” he surmised.
“Close enough!”
“And, cars are not made to just sit,” Richard added. “You’ll be doing us a favor.”
Gem looked from one sweet face to the other while she considered their offer. It would help her out for the time being. And, if they would let her stay until she could find something really, really cheap, then that would help.
“Okay. I will. But, just until I get back on my feet. I’ll pay you back.”
“The hell you will!” Taylor growled. “We are as close to family as any blood bonded family. Come on, you can take the basement room.”
“I thought you had been using that as your workout room, Taylor.”
“Uh, well, yeah, but we had it renovated into an apartment for Richard’s, uh…,” Taylor stumbled over the words as she tried to think up something.
“My great aunt. She came to stay with us a while back for a couple of days,” Richard finished.
“Right,” Taylor agreed. “She wasn’t here that long, though, and we just didn’t want to change the room back, so we just kept it like it is.”
“Yep. And, I moved all our exercise equipment to the building out back, and fixed it up into a full gym,” Richard finished.
Great aunt? Gem was a bit confused.
“You never mentioned it, Tay,” she stated.
“Oh, right. Well, you see, the woman is a menace. She’s a bit of a jackass, and I just don’t like to talk about her.”
Gem frowned, then yawned, and Taylor laughed throwing her arm around Gem.
“Look. When Jaxx told me he was bringing you here…I mean Professor Hawkins…I rooted around in my closet for some clothes that should fit you. Tomorrow, you and I will go shopping for some new clothes, OK?”
Gem just nodded.
“Well, let’s all eat. What does everyone want tonight?” Richard called to the kids.
“Pizza!” was the unanimous answer, and even Lola was wagging her little tail at the word.
Gem laughed a little at that one.
“Well, I could have made book on that answer!” she joked.
“Then, pizza it is!” And, Taylor pulled out her cell.
~ 3 ~
“Well, when the shit hits the fan for your friend, you gotta drag out the big guns!” ~ Taylor
The children decided upon cheese pizza, and the four pizzas that they had ordered were delivered to the house in record time, and they all sat down to eat. Taylor ate quickly, and then gave a nod to Richard who understood what she meant.
“The room is dusty, I’m sure. I’ll just toddle on down there, and make sure it’s clean, Gem.”
“Oh, please, Tay! Don’t go to that kind of trouble. A little dust isn’t a big deal.”
“Hell, Gem! If you had someone to stay with you, would you let them go into a dusty room?”
Gem looked at her, and grinned.
“Touché!” she laughed at Taylor.
“OK. Give me an hour. Kiddoes, play with Lola, and be nice! Be back up in a little bit,” and Taylor took off down the stairs, and entered the exercise room. She had an hour. That was it. So, she pushed her sleeves up, and started to work.
Richard and Taylor were rich. There was never a question about it. Their house sported five-thousand square feet of living area, and even though Gem knew that she could live with them in the house – maybe never seeing any of them for days at a time, it just wasn’t in her nature to sponge off anyone. She’d been pretty much alone most of her life from the age of sixteen, and so she had learned to take care of herself. Granted, if she couldn’t find a place to live she could still live here, but it had to be a worse case scenario. Right now, though, she just needed a bit of time to recoup. That’s it. Just a few days. She sure hoped Tay wasn’t going to a lot of trouble with the room. Pushing that thought away, she settled down to play with Lola, Rick, and the kids.
Downstairs, Taylor was just about finished. Brushing her hands together, she had moved all the equipment to the building into the guest house that was at the back of the property, then designed the room, beating her own record! It was lovely, and she knew that Gem would love it. It was a room straight out of Taylor’s favorite series, Gem’s “King Triton”. She slapped her hands together to get rid of the dust to clean up the room, before she put the furniture into it. In seconds, another clap of her hands, and the room was transformed! Critical of her design, Taylor cocked her head as she walked through the new apartment. Having a five-thousand square foot house had its advantages, and since this room had its own entrance, Gem could easily stay here for months without even seeing them! For years, she had tried to get Gem to stop being a nut about being alone, but she had finally stopped bugging her about it. Gem wouldn’t change even though Taylor's family considered her family.
Nodding her head in satisfaction, she headed back up to get Gem.
“Gem?” Taylor said, looking through the railing while she stood on the stairs. “It’s ready. I hope you like it.”
Gem only laughed at that, because it was pretty hard not to please her! She stood up, kissed the kids on the head, told Lola to behave, and descended the stairs while Taylor went before her.
Taylor opened the door, and let Gem enter first. Gem took one look at the room of blues, greens, and creams, and gasped! She recognized it! It was straight out of her last book series! She almost couldn’t breathe! It was so beautiful it took away her breath! She moved reverently through the huge room that her own house would have fit into three times over!
It was split into three different areas, and all the walls were painted a seafoam blue as if one was under the ocean. To her right, and at the back of the room, a small kitchenette complete with full size fridge, stove, sink, and even a dishwasher that was shining and new! Large, sixteen inch, sand colored tile, covered the floor. Distressed cabinets of cream and a dark gray granite cabinet top completed the small kitchen. A small, cream wooden table, also distressed, was accompanied by wooden chairs – two green and two blue.
Two dividers separated the three areas. The one separating the kitchen from the living space was painted a coral pink
, and resembled a bookcase with various sized square and rectangle cubbyholes. Adding some books, shells, and marine knick-knacks, and interspersing them within the cubbyholes, enough were still empty for Gem to fill. And, she had an idea about what she could put into them.
Next, came the main room. A full-size sofa sat side-by-side at a ninety degree angle with a matching love seat, and the upholstery was dark sand in color. The floors were light wood, but covered with a large rug of seafoam blue-green resembling the color of the ocean depths. On two end tables of mahogany sat solid brass anchor lights with cream shades, and a small, rectangular mahogany coffee table sat in the center in front of the larger sofa. Underneath it sat two blue-green storage/seats. A rocker recliner in the same blue green sat opposite the love-seat.
The second divider was textured in a sand colored tone. In the center was a very large opening that held a 50” flat screen TV. Taylor darted to it to show her the cool feature the TV had!
“We bought this a while back, and it was still in its box, because it wasn’t large enough for the family room. It has a tiny feature in it that we absolutely love. Watch!” she giggled, as she swiveled the TV completely around so that it faced the sleeping area behind it.
“That’s so cool, Taylor!”
“Yes. It keeps one from needing to buy another TV!”
More cubbyholes were in this divider, and most were empty for Gem to fill.
“Come on! Look at the sleeping area!” Taylor gushed.
As Gem walked around the divider, her mouth dropped open! The bed was placed opposite the TV, and behind it, a mural had been painted. The entire wall had a sandy beach leading up to the palm trees that appeared to actually sway as a person moved toward them. On the opposite wall, sat a tan wicker chair with a stand next to it with yet another solid brass lamp on top, and positioned at the side of the mural which looked out upon the ocean! To the right of the bed, sat a multi-drawer large cream wicker dresser.
“Oh, Taylor! This is just beautiful! And, so relaxing!”
