by Betty Hanawa
"What does Magdalena think happened to Billy?” Angela wet some gauze in the hot spring pool and pressed it to the worst of Diego's scratches.
"She thinks her brothers killed Billy and hid his body in the caves. They swore they didn't, but she doesn't believe them. I'm sorry I attacked you, Diego. You look like one of Magdalena's brothers."
"No shit, Sissy. Damn, woman, I shouldn't have taught you to fight so well. I meant for you to be able to defend yourself, not maim me."
"It wasn't me,” Nita said, trying not to sound defensive.
"Yeah, yeah, right. Okay. I now believe in spooks. Call?"
"Hmm?” Call nuzzled Nita's hair.
"You still picking up flashes of Billy Calverton? Do you think you can find him if he's in the caves?"
"He's here. I can find him,” Call said. Nita envied him his confidence. She still shook at the realization she'd temporarily lost her body to a ghost.
In the end, the four of them agreed it was thanks to the assholes, who'd headed out on their own to hunt for the Blue Stone River, that the search for the Calverton boy's bones was successful. Though not as easily as he'd found the pool, Call nevertheless found the general area where Billy hunted turquoise.
The shifting the crews had done to rescue the two assholes loosened another pile of shale. A gap appeared between the top of the pile and the ceiling. Cautiously, they scaled it and went through the gap. As they maneuvered to the bottom, the Professor Doctor of Anthropology recognized a finger bone. After a bit of preliminary digging, they uncovered a crushed hand and arm.
Diego gently touched the fragile bones. “Billy made the two major mistakes of caving. Went alone and without telling anyone where he'd be."
"Plus,” Angela added, “He entered a mining section shored up by ancient timbers."
"But when he came in here, it hadn't been that long since the copper mining ended,” Call protested. “The timbers couldn't have rotted that quick. He had to have thought he was safe enough."
Angela simply turned her flashlight onto some of the beams beneath the rubble. “Here. Here. This,” she pointed out where the timbers had been shaped. “These are not from the commercial copper mining. The Spanish mined earlier. Also the Apache and other Indian tribes valued turquoise and copper. These beams were already in place years before the commercial interests came in. This is not my area of expertise, but at a quick and dirty guess, I'd say they've been here several hundred years."
"We'll have to unseal the main entrance and shore up these ceilings before we can get him out,” Diego said soberly.
Angela looked skeptical. “Why not just leave him here? It's just bones."
"It's Billy Calverton,” Diego said. “He's part of our family. Calvertons take care of family."
"We'll take him back and bury him properly in the Calverton family cemetery,” Call said firmly.
"He'll be buried in the Ramirez family cemetery,” Nita said just as firmly. “With Magdalena and the baby."
Something not bone caught in the flashlight beam Call shone on what was left of Billy.
Nita picked up a thick chunky bracelet. She laid it in his hand, then covered his hand with hers, keeping the bracelet between their palms.
"Mi amore,” she said softly.
The tarnished heavy Mexican silver of interlocking circles and triangles warmed in Call's hand. He looked into Nita's eyes. For a moment, Magdalena lived again in those brown depths.
With a sigh of contentment, Call felt Billy's soul leave his body.
A phosphorescent glow lit between Nita and Call's clasped hands. Then it disappeared.
Only Nita looked at him.
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Epilogue
It took weeks for the Ramirez and Calverton families to unseal the main cave entry, shore up the ceilings, and remove the rubble to bring out the Calverton boy's remains.
Nita was shaping silver wire around a polished agate for a pendant when Call came into her workshop. “Hi."
She eyed the dusty chamois bag he carried and smiled. He came from Phoenix each weekend to help with the excavation. Whenever he came down from the mountain, he brought more agates and jaspers and an occasional crystal for her to turn into jewelry.
During the past weeks, they'd stayed several nights together at his condo in Phoenix. Weekends he stayed with her, despite his father's frowns and her mama's sighs.
But where they were going in their relationship, Nita didn't have a clue. The sex was still as hot as when they were possessed by Magdalena and Billy. Yet Nita wasn't sure if Call wanted to be with her because of the force of Magdalena and Billy's personalities or if he loved her. Nita.
"How's the excavation?"
"Finished.” Call kept stroking the bag like a pet. “Dad and Uncle Len went with your mom and Tia Marta to arrange the memorial services. The crew is readying a joint plot on the mountain for Billy and Magdalena and Billy, Jr."
"They'll like that."
"Yeah. They will."
Nita hadn't had dreams of reliving Magdalena's hours with Billy since they'd found his remains. Once Magdalena found Billy and realized he wasn't murdered by her brothers, she left Nita as completely as Billy left Call. Now all Nita's fantasies revolved around her brown-eyed Call, not the blue-eyed Billy.
Her dreams for the future also focused on Call. She needed to know if they had a future together. No time like the present. They'd repeated the past with Magdalena and Billy. The present and the future belonged to them.
If Call wanted to share it with her.
Nita fingered the turquoise nugget hanging between her breasts. “Call? Do you think the hot sex between us is only because of Magdalena and Billy?"
Call fidgeted with the chamois bag. “No,” he finally said. “I think Billy and Magdalena used us and what we feel for each other to reunite."
"What do you mean?” Nita tightened her fist around the nugget. For a moment she thought the turquoise throbbed with life, but she told herself it was her own pulse.
Call's eyes held a combination of uncertainty and defiance. Hesitantly, he said, “I think they've tried before. My great-uncle Mark and your aunt Celeste. Hell, look at my dad and your mother. But the other times, the attraction was only sexual."
"And you think this time they reunited because...” Nita knew the answer, but wanted him to say the words. She needed him to say the words.
"Because what's between us is more than just sex.” Call took Nita's hand in his. “They couldn't reunite using the others because it never went beyond sex. You and I have more."
Nita gripped Call's hand. At that moment she realized Call was as worried about her feelings for him as she had been about his for her. He needed to hear the words as much as she did. “Love. Magdalena loved Billy."
"And Billy loved Magdalena. They couldn't get together forever until I fell in love with you."
Nita looked into Call's joyful eyes and saw her future. “And I fell in love with you."
"We matched Billy and Magdalena, and they were able to complete the circle and find peace."
Nita wrapped her arms around Call's neck and opened her mouth to his kiss. The kiss held hunger, sweetness, and the taste of forever. When it ended, she told him, “I do love you. I've loved you since I was a teenager."
The chamois bag thumped against her butt while he hugged her. “I've loved you since I came back from college. We've wasted a lot of time. We need to be married. And I've got an idea where."
"On the mountain top after we've interred Billy, Magdalena and Billy, Jr. so we can finish the circle they started."
"Yes.” Call looked at her solemnly. “I'd like to name a son Billy and a daughter Magdalena."
"Perfect.” Nita sighed and snuggled her belly against Og. “I'd like to name a second daughter Bella."
"Like hell,” Call said. “There's one Bella now, and she's right here.” He firmly stroked Nita's crotch.
"Would Og like to pre-celebrate his wedding with Be
lla?"
Slipping from his arms, Nita flipped the “Be Back Soon” sign and locked the workshop door. In the back room, they stripped and settled into the now familiar, yet always thrilling, rhythms of life.
As Call stroked deep into Nita, she wrapped her legs tight around him, never wanting to let him go. The glory caught and spun them high. Call grew harder within her, his thrusts more insistent. Nita released the last of her earth-bound self and became the silver shimmer to his golden glow. They joined all others who knew the joy of two becoming one. For a brief moment, Magdalena and Billy flew with them, then Nita went back into her own self and knew Call had, too.
Even after Og slid from Bella, and Call moved to his side to cradle Nita against him, a small connection still held them as though they breathed with one breath, beat with one heart.
Call's voice rumbled under Nita's ear. “I was thinking about that bracelet Magdalena gave Billy. Could you make us wedding bands using that interlocking triangle and circle design? We can use Billy's turquoise for stones in them. If you want diamonds around your turquoise, I can get a discount at Tiffany's."
Nita looked up and saw Call's wry grin, reminiscent of his broken engagements.
"I've got some turquoise in my shop we can use.” Nita unclasped the chain holding Magdalena's turquoise nugget around her neck. “I want to give Magdalena back her stone."
Call took off the ring Billy had made so many years earlier and threaded it onto the chain with Magdalena's nugget. “I want to give Billy back his ring also. I caught one last flash of Billy's thoughts this afternoon. He wanted a grubstake to build a ranch for him and Magdalena to raise their children on. He figured finding and selling the turquoise would give him the money to get started. This is what Billy died for."
Call reached to the table and picked up the chamois bag. He cupped Nita's hands together and shook the bag, filling her hands until they overflowed with the Blue Stone River of turquoise.
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Also available
Naked Bluff
by
Betty Hanawa
The friendship-with-privileges relationship of American professional poker player Clarisse Jones and Prince Makis has bloomed into a love as beautiful as the roses his small country exports. His parents, the Prince and Princess of the island Principality of Renoun, have come to Monaco to pressure him into marrying. An American professional gambler is not what they wanted for the new princess.
* * *
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