I couldn’t help myself. Leaning against the corner of the garage, I just watched him work. His muscles strained when he picked up more than he should have for each load, and with his shirt off, his body glistening in the summer sun, who could blame my creepy Peeping Tom routine? The longer I watched him, the more I didn’t want to just watch him.
“I always wondered how you stay in shape,” I called out over the radio.
He spun in surprise at the sound of my voice, dropping two logs in the process. “Hey,” he smiled wide, genuinely happy to see me, “what are you doing here?”
“Just a little stalking.”
“Well, that’s always welcome.”
“Your dad told me you were out here.”
Jensen tossed the armload to the ground and grabbed the t-shirt that hung off the side of the truck to give his chest and arms a wipe down before coming over to me. Very considerate considering the amount of sweat that had been dripping from the hard planes of his bare back and abs.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
Grabbing my hand, he led me over to the big, black truck where the music was coming from. After dropping the tailgate and going around to lower the volume, he came back to sit beside me. Even with all the physical activity and the perspiration, he still smelled sweet. It was like a musky, earthy smell. It worked on him.
“I went to the shop first—”
“I told you I wasn’t working today, right?” He eyed me curiously, those beautiful blue eyes narrowing on mine. I assumed it was his way of asking if I went there to see the competition.
“I went to talk to Aric.”
His face fell and body tightened like he thought I was going to throw a punch or something. “And?”
“We talked. I still want to be friends with him and he gets it.”
“Gets what?”
“This is gonna sound incredibly stupid, but I had to pick, right? Make a choice. Isn’t that what you said?”
The little boy grin came out as everything I said started to make sense to him. He leaned over, stroking my bottom lip, then cheek, with a thumb before bringing his lips to mine. My entire body reacted when I felt his tongue on my mouth, making the kiss more urgent and full of the desire I’d been trying to keep at bay.
I had no idea how long we were there before his mom interrupted with glasses of lemonade. I swear I would’ve let him take me then and there. I think the lemonade was just a ruse to check up on us in case I was defiling her son against the back of her garage. I was still grateful. It tasted lemony, sweet and cold.
“Don’t forget the Dittmans are coming for dinner tonight. You said you’d be here,” she added. I threw him the look that asked who that was.
“Ashley’s family,” he whispered back even though his mom was right there and would hear either way.
“Ah, I see. The future wife’s coming over. I guess the girlfriend should leave.”
Jensen laughed loudly, though his mother didn’t seem to appreciate the comment. She looked like she’d been sucking on too many of those lemons anyway. I made a mental note to ask later if that was her normal disposition or something only I brought out. When he effectively dismissed his mother, Jensen walked me slowly to my car, a sticky arm around my shoulder.
“It was the motorcycle, right?” Jensen’s hip nudged mine.
“Course. Because I couldn’t find any other douche on a bike who’d have me.” I gave him a sharp elbow to the solar plexus, just hard enough for him to feel it. “Hey, could I pry you out of the shop for lunch Monday?”
Alone, we’d probably get distracted and I’d never get around to telling him that he’s the prodigal son of a powerful Gremalian and needs to come home to help save our lives. It probably wouldn’t come up. Other things would, but not that.
“I think I can make time for lunch with my girlfriend.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just don’t think this means I’m open for business or anything.”
He smirked back at me. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, maybe I would dream of it, but I assume nothing.”
Another elbow to his ribs got more laughter out of him. I could only shake my head.
***
The thing I loved about Putnam Valley was that, compared to home, it was huge. I had actual options as to where I could eat. Back home, my only choice was the one family-run restaurant. Putnam Valley even had a Chinese restaurant, something you’d have to drive miles for in the Upper Peninsula.
I chose the deli for my and Jensen’s lunch that Monday because they made the best sandwiches I’d ever eaten. Plus, most orders were take-out, so we would have some privacy. Jensen told me, as soon as we sat down, that he didn’t usually leave the shop for lunch unless it was just to grab everyone’s take out. He joked that his dad might think he and I are on the verge of marriage since I got him to go out.
He ate. I pretended to, since I was feeling a little nauseous. It was time to explain everything, which was why I came to town in the first place. I was falling for him and the prospect of that beautiful man never wanting to see me again if he thought I lied to him or if he thought I was crazy was almost more than I could handle. I almost backed down, but I knew I’d been there too long to keep delaying. With the way he sometimes looked at me, I couldn’t imagine he’d say no. Or, at least, I hoped his feelings would be a factor in his decision. I hoped he wouldn’t think I was completely nuts even though I know I’d sound nuts.
“I have to tell you something.”
Our eyes didn’t meet because I made sure to avoid looking at him, but I could feel his on my face as I tore the corner of a paper napkin apart. I could honestly say I’d never been that uncomfortable in my life.
I thought it would be easy. No sweat. I’d roll into town, make him take notice, get him alone and tell him who he really was. Instead, I fell for the guy. Now, not only was his return on the line, but a relationship was, too. I hadn’t seen that coming.
“Why do I not like the sound of that?” he replied. The chair creaked as he sat back, folding his arms across the muscles in his chest. I tried not to notice. I didn’t want to be distracted, but the years working on cars had an excellent effect on his body, one I seemed to enjoy quite a lot.
“It’s no big deal. I mean, it is, but it’s not, you know?”
I couldn’t have made less sense if I were actually speaking Mandarin. What the hell was wrong with me? I once fought a six pack of evil fairies—really, just a bunch of overzealous high school boys with an awesome nickname, courtesy of me—on my own when I was fifteen, which impressed even our most experienced fighters since I’d kicked their asses. Yet the minute I had to tell a boy I liked something important, I could barely put a coherent sentence together.
“Okay, well, I know you’re not pregnant.” He snorted at his joke. “So, out with it.”
With one deep breath, I used all that air to spit it out. “I’m Gremalian, and so are you. We need you to come home to help save our people.”
That’s when I finally looked at him. He didn’t believe me, or he didn’t understand, because I’d explained nothing and sounded psychotic. The entire sentence came out as one word.
“Gremlin? Like Gizmo?” He cocked his head to the side and smirked.
A nervous laugh came out, but I rolled my eyes. “No, those gremlins are the bastardization of our people. I’m not small and green, am I?”
“You are pretty small,” he teased.
“Jensen,” I sighed, “I’m serious.”
My face pled with him to listen. He stood up to leave instead.
“I can see that you think you are, but you’re also making no sense. I’ve got work to do. An old carburetor is calling my name.”
Then he was gone.
When I thought about this conversation beforehand, I was afraid he wouldn’t wait for an explanation. Gremlins, as he called us, did sound crazy if you grew up in the human world oblivious to anything out of the ordinary, but I also hadn’t pla
nned on sounding like a moron when we talked. This one was on me. When I saw his motorcycle pass the front window, I had to act.
Shit. I tore out of there like my pants were on fire and sped through town, trying to beat him back to the shop. I failed. His ten second head start was all he needed. So, instead of busting in there to haul Aric out, I loitered at the corner until I caught his eye and waved him over.
“Some kind of lunch, I guess,” he called out before getting all the way into the parking lot. I shushed him with a finger over my mouth and gestured for him to hurry.
“I told him.”
“What?” Aric’s voice dropped the way it should have.
“I told him. He didn’t believe me and he left. Of course, I really explained nothing, which I’m thinking was the wrong way to go.” Deflect with humor; that’s the Alyssum way.
Pushing his shoulders back to stand tall, he said, “That explains his weirdness.”
“What?” I pulled him by the arm to the other side of the building in the hopes Jensen wouldn’t see us. That would be the last thing I’d need at that point.
“He’s been weird since he’s been back. Slamming drawers, cursing under his breath. Everyone’s kind of keeping their distance. They think he’s had a stroke or something because that’s not like him. I mean, me they expect it from. Not him.” He paused to look at me. I tried to envision a pissed off Aric tearing apart the garage. “Do you think he thinks he got stuck with the crazy chick?”
“Probably,” I muttered. “What do we do?”
I still couldn’t believe I was asking a Gobel for advice. My father would roll over in his grave and he wasn’t even dead yet.
“Okay, I’m supposed to go to his dad’s with him to watch the baseball game—”
“I never understood the appeal of that game.”
“Not really the point here, Alyssum. It starts at seven. We’ll have to lay it all out for him.”
I agreed. In the weeks I’d known Aric, he became one of the most trusted people in my life. Jensen too, of course. I trusted both of them more than my own parents. It didn’t help that I thought my parents would feed me to wolves if it suited our people. Our people came first. I came last.
Aric went back to work, pretending he knew nothing, and I went around the other side to sneak back to my car two blocks away. Just as I passed the entrance, his dad caught me. I turned with a smile. After a nice, short conversation that left me believing Jensen told him we were officially together and he was happy about it, I went on my way.
Chapter Ten
It had gotten harder and harder to fill my days in Putnam Valley as the inevitability of telling Jensen and us leaving for Michigan drew closer. That day, waiting for the guys to get to Jensen’s parents’ house was hardest of all. My boyfriend and new best friend were working, which left me with nothing to do in the hours before meeting them. That had never been me—bored, without a guy to entertain me.
If I were home, I’d walk the shores of Lake Superior or journey into the depths of the copper mine until I just couldn’t stand the power coursing my body and had to tear ass out of there before I exploded. I could practice my power, although I didn’t need the extra practice, or train with some of the guys, which was always fun. I could usually find something to do at home. I could just be me. It hit me that I was actually homesick. Yikes. That was a cold slap of reality. I’d wanted to leave home for almost as long as I could remember. Now I was gone and I wanted to head back.
I glanced at the clock and saw it was after seven. I could finally get out of my motel and meet them.
His mother was a bit nicer this time. She even invited me in, like I was a guest, but Jensen’s eyes popped in surprise when he saw me come around the corner into the living room. I asked if we could talk, privately. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he pushed himself out of the chair and led me up a flight of stairs, to the second room on the right, with Aric following.
“Your room?” I asked while Aric shut the door gently. Jensen didn’t have any siblings, so this was most likely his room, but it was little more than a shrine to the teenage boy he had been. It didn’t reflect the man I’d grown to care for.
“It was. I don’t live here anymore, remember?”
“Right, sorry.” I waited. He didn’t say anything else. “Okay, I shouldn’t have sprung anything on you at lunch and I’m sorry for that. Maybe a little lead in or something would’ve helped.” I was starting to ramble. “Whatever. Look, what I said is true.” He pushed off the desk to leave the room. “Let me start over.”
“Are you trying to prank me or something?” He asked as he got closer to Aric. “Are you two in on some sort of gag? I’m not falling for whatever this is.”
“Just listen to her, Jensen.” Aric spoke for the first time. He was leaning against the wall and out of the way. “We aren’t pulling a fast one. What she’s trying to tell you is true and she can prove it. It’s important.”
“We? What the fuck, Alyssum? You know you sound crazy, right?”
“I do. But just give me a minute, please.”
He sighed heavily before coming back to me. I was grateful Aric stayed by the door. If Jensen tried to leave again, Aric could stop him.
I laid it all out for him and told him that he was part of a race of people called Gremalian, which humans bastardized into tiny, green troublemakers that had a lot of rules, most of which were false. Although it is true that if a Gremalian eats after midnight, but before five in the morning, they’ll be left with a hellish case of debilitating heartburn. I never knew what that was about.
In reality, we’re not all that different from humans. We just want to live our lives and be happy with our families. I skimmed over the war part. Even without bringing up the war, it was a lot to take in when you’d lived your entire life thinking you’re a regular human.
Jensen pointed to where Aric was standing. “Why does he know about this?”
“He’s a Gobel.” Like that would mean anything to him.
“A goblin?” He clawed his hands down the front of his face.
I giggled, more from being nervous, but it did strike me as funny. Aric laughed too. “No, Gobel. It’s basically the same as Gremalians, but different. I know that doesn’t make sense.”
“None of this makes any sense. Do you expect me to listen to this? Or, better yet, do you expect me to believe this?”
Jensen yanked the door open and left the room, sliding past Aric, who didn’t try to stop him.
“You just let him leave?” I gave Aric a little push.
“It looks like he needs some air. If this is sinking in at all, he’d need to do something. What’d you expect? You’d come in and say, ‘Hey, you’re a gremlin,’ and he’d be all ‘That’s cool.’ Don’t think so, Alyssum.”
Before I left the room, I gave Aric my best death glare, mostly because I didn’t want to admit that he hit the nail on the head. I thought Jensen would believe me right from the start. That was why I wanted him to get to know me before I told him. Aric was right behind me as we went looking for Jensen. Mr. Burkhardt said Jensen had gone out the front door. It wasn’t until we checked behind the garage, the very same place I came to tell him I’d chosen him, before we found him.
His chest heaved, rising and falling rhythmically, but his eyes were wary when I got to see them up close. His trust in me was wavering.
“Maybe you two should stop following me.”
“We can’t. Jensen, we’re normal people, just not completely…human.” His shoulders tensed even more. “I know that sounds terrible, but it doesn’t change who you are or who I am or that when you woke up this morning, I was your girlfriend. You work in a garage. All of these things are exactly the same as the fact that you were Gremalian when you woke up this morning. The only difference is that now you know it.”
Silence hung in the air, thick and stagnant, like an uncomfortable corset squeezing my lungs. It seemed like forever before he spoke again.
> “Why do you need to save your people?” He was skeptical. I could hear it in his voice.
“Our people,” I corrected. “We’re natural enemies. Us and the Gobel. Control of power, control of the land where the copper mines are…I don’t know.” I sighed.
“It’s all of that,” Aric said from his spot against the garage.
“Think of it like this. We’re the Hatfields and they’re the McCoys.” Since he wasn’t running away, I continued, but moved a bit closer to place my hand on his shoulder. The muscle there jumped. “If you concentrate, Jensen, you’ll know I’m telling the truth. You have to know it.” I thought for a minute. “Don’t you feel it whenever Aric’s around? A prickling up your neck and your hair stands on end? Anything unusual at all?”
He threw a smirk over his shoulder to me. “And here I thought I was just bi-curious.”
“What?” I smiled back. At least he was talking to us. That was something. He turned to face us. I hoped it was a sign that he was starting to understand what we were trying to tell him.
“There was a time, a very short time that I thought I might be…attracted to him.” He said the last three words very quickly, so that they came out as one crunched together word. Aric and I still heard it and we both howled with laughter, Aric louder than me.
“I am pretty sexy,” Aric said through his laughter.
“Asshole,” Jensen said back with a smile.
I had to get myself under control. Two quick breaths eased the pain in my stomach from the laughing, but I had to wipe the tears from my eyes to bring myself back to normal.
“I know things. I can convince you,” I promised.
“Like what? What do you know?”
“You’re adopted—”
“I could have told you that.”
“But you didn’t. You showed up at the hospital your mom works at, right? After your parents were killed in a car accident.” I left out that they were being chased by a group of Gobels. That was for later. He remained silent. “Your birth parents’ names were Glen and Saffron Sorrel.”
Grounded (Grounded #1) Page 7
