Waterdreamer (The Emerald Series Book 2)

by Kimberly James

  “Do you think she’d be hurt by it?” I ventured.

  “I think Rena would understand.”

  * * *

  Athen left, and I was sad to admit there was relief in the air in his absence.

  Noah was still on the patio, and I went out to meet him, leaving the adults inside to talk. Mrs. Jacobs dispensed another round of beers and opened a bottle of wine. It appeared, with all the hilarity, they were going to be at it a while.

  Noah wrapped his arms around me from behind, his body warm at my back. I leaned into him and said, “Every time I think I’ve experienced the weirdest moment in my life, it gets weirder.”

  “Think how I feel. If it works out between your dad and Thomas that means I’m in love with a girl that has the equivalent of three dads. This could go bad in so many ways.”

  “Don’t forget the uncle.” I smiled into the crook of his elbow. Mmm, I’d never really explored this spot before. “You better get out now, while you still can. I might be more trouble than I’m worth.”

  “I’d say you’re worth it.” He pressed his mouth into the back of my hair. “And there’s no getting out. I wouldn’t want to.”

  The sky was moonless. Every now and then I could just make out the foamy white break of a wave in the expanse of dark.

  I turned around in his arms and looked up into his face. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” He kissed the end of my nose as laughter rose from inside the house.

  “For being the one person, the one thing in my life that makes sense. The one person I can count on,” I said, feeling an overwhelming tenderness.

  “You’re that person for me too. The one person that’s all good.” He cupped my face in his hands then brought his lips to mine. His kiss was sweet. Affirming. When he released my mouth, he brushed the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. “I know you plan on accepting Athen’s pearl. But you have me. If it’ll help smooth things over with your dad. I’ll stand up for you if you ask me to.”

  I thought about that carefully worded offer. He hadn’t said he would stand up for me. He’d said he would stand up for me for the sake of my relationship with my dad. There was a difference.

  “Are you offering for my dad’s sake or mine?”

  “I don’t know. What if I offered just for you? Because I want you. Would that scare you?”

  Yes. But not for the reasons he was thinking. It only scared me because that would make us feel like forever, and I wanted to do forever with Noah. It was forever that scared me.

  “It might scare me a little. But despite everything, I want it to be Athen,” I said, hoping Noah wouldn’t take it as rejection. We were already bound by the Song that brought us together in the first place. The Charm that kept me hidden may be gone, but in its absence it left more magic. Stronger magic. A force that crept under my skin, a storm waiting to happen. In that, Athen and I had a lot in common.

  “Does that mean you’ve forgiven him?”

  “Probably.” I laid my head on Noah’s chest.

  “I like him,” he said over the top of my head. “He reminds me of my dad.”

  Finally, someone I didn’t have to convince.

  “Yeah, I like him too.”

  Fifteen

  Athen’s premonition about my Soulfast bringing a new energy, a sense of unity to the tribe, was proving true. Excitement amongst the tribe grew as word spread about the event. I didn’t think it had anything to do with me personally, I think the tribe as a whole was primed for anything that would help it regain its sense of itself. The planning of the affair had become a community project, and I was the only one not allowed to participate. Noah and Jeb, along with Daniel and Cree, had been spending their afternoons preparing the party site, a location they wouldn’t share with me. Noah was frustratingly close-lipped about the details.

  As for me, I was stuck at home doing homework. Specifically, I was slugging my way through a five-page rough draft on the environmental impact of the Deep Horizon oil spill.

  At the time it happened, I’d been clueless, tucked safely away in Kentucky and far removed from any political or environmental debate on the spill’s effects. But now that I breathed water—needed to breathe water—I’d taken an interest in the environmental side of the issue for obvious reasons. Plus one for clean water.

  Local Natives spun on my record player, and I’d secretly dubbed Noah and his crew with the band’s name as a nickname, thinking it appropriate. When the record ended, I was more than ready for a break, and I got up to thumb through my vinyl collection, searching for what I thought would be good theme music for writing a paper.

  Naturally, the door leading to my balcony was open, and a warm, humid breeze filtered into my room. Along with it came the sound of a patio chair scraping across the stone underneath. I walked out on the balcony to investigate, my nose catching on a now familiar scent, that deep, dark smell of somewhere far away. My uncle stood on the patio below. Before I could muster my tone, I blurted, “What are you doing here?”

  He angled his face up to me, his skin wearing a fine sheen left by the gulf water, dark hair slicked back over his head, the flash in his blue eyes like a whip. “I wonder if I might have a word with you?”

  “Sure,” I said, hiding my surprise. “I’ll be right down.”

  I made my way down the stairs and stopped in the kitchen, grabbing a pitcher of water from the fridge and two glasses on my way out. As a result of my environmental research for my paper, I’d boycotted the buying of bottled water. I’d found too many of them on the beach and floating in the gulf, and I’d witnessed tourists consume them in massive amounts. I was engaged in my own little war. Seeing my hands were full through the glass, Sterling slid the door open for me.

  “Thanks.” I set the pitcher down on the wrought iron table. “Thought you might want something to drink.”

  “That would be nice, thank you,” he said.

  “There’s a towel if you want one.” I dipped my chin, indicating the stack of towels I’d started leaving on the patio bench for just such an occasion.

  “I think I prefer to air dry.” His aura of authority was undeniable with the skin of his chest exposed, his hair wet and slick on his skull, making his eyes seem unnaturally blue and fierce. He moved with such fluidity and power there was command in the simple act of taking a glass from me.

  I started when our fingers brushed, wondering at my lingering doubt. He’d been nothing but polite, even in his demands, exhibiting nothing but concern for me, and I had no reason to distrust him. But a part of me did, an inner voice warning me to caution. I tried to remind myself the man was family, and while my mind understood that, my heart still quaked a little in his presence.

  “I have something for you,” he said. “A homecoming gift.”

  “What is it?” I tried for a neutral tone, though I wasn’t sure I succeeded.

  His fingers dug into his pocket. The necklace he held out to me was a beautiful thing, a treasure to behold. I didn’t immediately take it.

  “I had this made for Rena in the event she choose me,” he said, his tone and expression unguarded. I’d never seen a pearl such a captivating blue. It was set in the center of a plain supple leather cord. Up from the center, three tiny white pearls climbed up each side scant inches apart. It made me think of the sky and the sand on a clear day. I reached for it, even not wanting to, and held it in my hand.

  “It’s an invitation. You have a place with me and my family if you want it.” His eyes leveled on my face, his tone earnest. “I can provide a good life for you. The kind of life I wished to give my sister. I’d give it to you, if you wanted it.”

  I stared at the necklace for an endless minute. A part of me wanted what he offered. More family. Ties to a mother I never knew. Slowly, I lifted my eyes back to his. “I’m happy here.” It was all I could think to say. The truth.

  “I can see that you are, but custom dictates I make the overture. And it’s a sincere one.” His eyes had an unnatur
al gleam to them and his lips compressed in a thin line of clear disappointment.

  “My place is with my dad,” I said in all certainty. Both of them. I handed the necklace back to him. He took it and held it in his hand as if it were cut glass.

  “I remember the day I had this made. I was excited to show her, make my offer official to stand up for her at her Soulfast. I looked for hours, but I couldn’t find her in her usual places.” His fingers closed around the necklace, trapping it in his hand. “Eventually, I heard her Song. She always hated that I could hear her too. She much preferred the more romantic notion of singing to a potential mate. Her Song was faint, and I could tell she was in distress. Athen had enemies. They’d taken her. Hurt her.”

  “Why would someone want to hurt her?”

  “It wasn’t Rena they wanted to hurt, it was Athen. They used her. Used her Song to lure Athen into a trap.” He paused, regarding me thoughtfully, almost gleefully. The color of his eyes changed, the blue now hazy like the sky on a particularly humid day. The same look they’d had that day on the bench when he’d called me by my mother’s name. “It was obvious she resisted at first, but there are ways to make you sing whether you wish to or not. Unpleasant ways.”

  “What happened?” My mind balked as he described my worst nightmare, my Song being used to hurt Noah.

  “I saved her. I saved them both. All I wanted was to protect her.” His eyes continued to hold my gaze, unwilling to let me go. “And still, days later when the time came, she chose him.”

  “Maybe she loved him,” I said.

  “Maybe.” He pierced me with those eyes. They were beautiful in the same way a waterfall was beautiful but for the rocks below. “So you see, there is a reason for my interference, an earnest one. I will rest easier knowing your place is secure. She will too, I think.”

  “You don’t need to explain. I understand. I want to do it. I think it’s something I need to do,” I admitted.

  “Good. Then I have done you a service.” He tucked the necklace back into the pocket of his shorts. “I hope I can entice you to come home with me at least for a visit. Maybe in the summer. You could bring Noah. I think Sasha would like to meet you.”

  “Maybe,” I said, remaining noncommittal. I took a long drink of water, the glass slippery with condensation. The breeze that moments before had been warm infused with a shot of coolness. Just then, I caught sight of Noah making his way toward the house from the beach and wondered at my sense of relief at seeing him. He trotted up the narrow path, his steps slowing, becoming more cautious when he saw me and Sterling on the patio.

  “Ah, here he is now.” Sterling took Noah in with an all-encompassing sweep of his eyes.

  “What’s going on?” Noah asked as their eyes locked and repelled. Noah reached for one of the towels on the bench, eyes darting between my uncle and me. He wasn’t as guarded as he’d been the last time the two met, but they still reminded me of two blue crabs Noah and I once watched fight on the ocean floor, pinchers raised, viciously snapping. We’d snacked on them that same night.

  “I was trying to persuade Caris to visit. Perhaps you would bring her when she’s more comfortable with the idea of an extended family.” Sterling took a long gulp of his water.

  “If she wants,” Noah said, looking at me as he ran the towel down his arms. I didn’t know if I wanted or not. I liked my uncle well enough. There was just something not quite right in the way he looked at me sometimes, something that remained a little bit off despite his pleasant overtures.

  “I knew your brother, if only briefly,” Sterling said, drawing Noah’s undivided attention. “I was deeply saddened to hear of his passing.”

  The arm holding the towel fell to his side, his fist bunching around the thick white cotton. Noah’s voice when he spoke was steely calm. “You knew Jamie?”

  “His reputation only.” Sterling met Noah’s intense stare with equal measure. “It preceded him. It’s always hard to lose one of our own, especially one so young and with such potential.”

  “Jamie reached his potential,” Noah said, his voice hard and flat. “He died a hero.”

  “I have no doubt he did,” Sterling agreed before his attention was riveted behind Noah. I followed his gaze and saw my dad standing at the back door. He slid it open and stepped onto the patio.

  “Dad,” I said, Sterling’s subtle threat against him that day on Athen’s boat running through my mind. He looked at me briefly, and I thought he was kind of brave the way he walked right up to Sterling and stuck out his hand. He had to be well aware who he was.

  “Patrick Harper,” he said, leveling a steady gaze on my uncle. Unapologetic, like he was staking his claim, that claim being me. I’d noticed that about him since his “coming out.” A new sense of confidence, as though shedding an old skin, an ill-fitting skin. I was proud of him.

  “Sterling Flores.” Sterling took my dad’s hand. I watched his face intently, looking for any sign of lingering hostility. If it was there, he hid it well.

  “I was hoping we’d get a chance to meet. I owe you my gratitude for taking such good care of my niece in light of the unpleasant circumstances.”

  “Thanks are hardly necessary. I can’t imagine a life without her. I’m truly sorry about Rena, but it is good to meet someone from her family after all these years.”

  “It is not always allowed, but I hope you will join us in celebrating Caris’s return to us at her Soulfast. I think you’ve earned the right.” Sterling released my dad’s hand and continued to regard him in earnest.

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” my dad said. “You’re welcome to stay for dinner. Noah, you too. I was about to throw some chicken on the grill.”

  Noah’s hands rested lightly on my shoulders as if he knew my alarm at the idea of Sterling hanging around for dinner. I almost wished he’d decline.

  “Yes,” Sterling said. “I think I should like that.”

  * * *

  Dinner with dear old dad and the newly discovered uncle went off without a hitch. I would go as far as to say they got along and liked each other. Noah was still on the fence about Sterling, but even he relaxed by the time my dad and Sterling finished off a bottle of wine.

  Disaster averted.

  Now, here it was Thursday, two days away from the Soulfast, and for Felix, Thursday meant spa day. Lucky him. Maggie lent me the keys to her car and asked me to pick Felix up from the Pampered Pup where he received the full treatment. His perfectly trimmed toenails made silent passage over the sidewalk. His coat gleamed. And he was working it, strutting along on his stud muffin legs at the end of his leash, sporting a rhinestone collar like he owned the sidewalk and everyone on it. He kind of did. Everyone wanted to stop and pet him.

  The woman coming up the sidewalk was no exception. Our eyes met briefly and time froze, my heart and lungs along with it. It was like looking at someone I knew even though I’d never seen her before. The moment passed and I blinked as though I’d been held in a trance. I took in her smooth brown skin, the corkscrew curls that bobbed right under her chin framing her open smile. It was hard to say how old she was. Thirty? Fifty? A youthful face made older by her eyes. Not in the sense that she had crow’s feet or wrinkles, it was her eyes themselves. She looked like she knew things no one else did. Like the universe had given her special insight into its secrets wrapped in an ageless beauty.

  “Aren’t you a handsome devil?” she addressed Felix in that universal voice I’d learned was solely reserved for dogs and babies, all high pitched and mushy.

  To my surprise, Felix growled at the woman, the aggressive sound so out of character. A reprimand sat on my tongue but remained unvoiced when she bent down, putting herself at eye level with him, an action that dissolved any animosity he might have for her. Saggy, brown eyes feasted on her adoringly as he used all that extra skin to his advantage. Like a chubby cheeked baby, he was absolutely irresistible.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve offended you when it’s obvious you a
re nothing but a gentleman.”

  I laughed. Felix had some very ungentlemanly habits. He seemed to take her apology to heart and licked her right on her soft cheek. She held her crouched position and angled her head up, aiming an unsettling gaze on me while her fingers worked under his collar, scratching his neck.

  “Caris, you are pretty as a picture,” she said, her smile expanding under the compliment.

  “I’m sorry. Have we met?” She could be one of my dad’s old friends. I’d run into that a few times. Strangers acting like they knew me only because they knew my dad.

  “No.” She rose once again to her full height, which was about an inch shorter than me. “Our paths crossed once, but you would not remember. I have something for you.” She pulled an envelope from the pocket hidden in the folds of her colorful skirt. She held it out to me, but instead of taking it, my fingers cinched around Felix’s leash.

  “It’s all right, Caris. They’re only words. Words meant for you.” The look in her eyes, the lyrical way she spoke, created a bubble around us, blocking sight and sound. Faces of strangers passed on the sidewalk in a blur, and we might be the only two people on the planet.

  I had no need to ask who’d written the words. I smelled her. Her scent clung to the envelope as if she’d just touched it. My mother’s scent. The one I’d been desperately trying to duplicate. I reached out, a dream-like quality stirring the air. A deja vu so strong the sidewalk shifted under my feet.

  Our fingers touched and with the contact of skin a fume of energy spread from her hand to mine. She held my gaze, her eyes transporting me to a place out of time.

  “So the pattern has repeated itself.” Some deep knowing brightened her eyes. “But you are fortunate. Your Song brought you love. It doesn’t always work that way.”

  Pop. The bubble burst. Sound returned. People talking, laughing. A car door slammed. Felix whined. The heat of the sun on my shoulders intensified.

  The woman turned to go, an apparition I might never remember. When she paused, my heart skipped a beat, skidding to a stop when she looked to me once more. “The goddess has chosen to bless you. Take comfort in that.”