He looked up at me, small brows furrowed. “What does it say? Bufonem emittunt—”
I drew him back and shook my head, cutting him off before he could say anything else. “Who knows? Let’s look at something else though, okay.”
He sighed but didn’t argue.
I knew exactly what he’d just said—the Latin term for toad. For all I knew, this was some sort of witchy spell that my son had no business repeating. I could almost hear Elle’s huff of exasperation at my thoughts, making me feel instantly silly. Elle had always been more of a free thinker than I had, excited by life and all that it had offered. I, on the other hand, had just been a big chicken.
Knowing that, I decided not to yank Edward out of there like I so desperately wished to do. But I was only giving Madam Bouvier until the count of five before I turned around and left.
One.
Two.
Three...
Edward laughed so hard that I turned on my heel in wonder. He was looking into a small hand-held mirror I hadn’t seen sitting on the table earlier. It must have been leaning against the toad’s cage and looked Victorian-era or thereabouts. It was made of brass and had ivory inlay on the handle and back of the mirror. There was a ripple on its surface, slightly blue in tint.
I looked from it to my boy, who was still enthralled by whatever he saw in there. But when I looked over his shoulder into the mirror, all I saw was his ebullient-looking image smiling dumbly back at himself.
“There you are,” he said so softly I almost didn’t hear it. My blood turned to ice in my veins.
“There is who, Edward?” I asked.
“Oh heavens!” A husky, feminine voice cut through my sudden tension, causing me to glance over with a start.
My skin shivered again, but for entirely different reasons this time. It was Zinnia, and dear God above, I felt a sudden flush of heat wash all over me.
She was dressed in a black gown with a ridiculously-long, vertical slit running up one leg. As she walked, the fabric rippled, causing what little light there was to catch hold of the sparkles sewn into it, like a diamond dipped in midnight. My heart raced, and my pulse roared. All the blood in my body seemed to rush south, and I had to clear my throat and force myself to look away.
But her image was burned into my retinas. The tight fit of her corset, the ungodly amount of cleavage she showed, the pale perfection of her gorgeous breasts. I wanted to ask her to cover up. I also wanted to pull the dress off and expose the rest of what lay hidden beneath.
It had been so long...
“Well, how in the name of all that’s holy did you get out here, Mirror?” she asked with a light laugh. I glanced over just in time to see her pluck the mirror gently from my son’s hand and wag her finger at it.
Tsking beneath her breath, she said, “Bad, Mirror. Bad. Too much temptation for a little one, you are. And so back you go.”
I’m not sure how she did it, since there didn’t appear to be any room on her person to hide the blasted thing, but one second the mirror had been in her hand, and the next it was gone.
It was the best sleight of hand I’d ever seen. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood on edge.
“You work here too?” I asked dumbly, not even sure why I’d asked it. The woman was free to work wherever she darn well pleased, but she’d been the very last person I’d expected to see here. Especially considering the state I’d found her in just a few hours ago. She’d looked dead on her feet then.
She smiled.
My breath shuddered through my lungs, stuttering so that I almost choked on it. She wore her customary bright-red lipstick, but tonight she was also wearing makeup, a lot of it. Her eyes were rimmed in black, and she had on long, false lashes that twinkled whenever she blinked from the gems at the tips. The effect was stunning, making her glass-green eyes gleam as they stared back at me.
“Actually, no. Not usually. But my friend Eerie was in a bind, and I had a rare day off, so...” She spread her arms.
“Here you are,” I said softly, hearing the lightness of my words and wondering, as if I were observing myself from the outside, why she seemed to have this effect on me.
A fierce blush stole up her swan-like neck and settled in her cheeks, giving her a dewy glow. “Here I am,” she repeated back to me just as softly.
Stupid nonsense suddenly roiled like an agitated wave through my mind. Here. Right here. With you. This is where I’m meant to be...
The moment, the very second, I’d set eyes on my Elle I’d heard those same words. I hadn’t known her, hadn’t known a darn thing about her, but I’d felt the instant connection, the draw and pull toward something greater. I’d fallen headlong into it without a thought or care in the world, and she’d followed suit.
I had never felt that again, and had thought I never could. I’d had one great love, and it had been enough.
With you...
A cold sweat broke out along my spine, and I jerked, taking a step back. I felt her quizzical look and Edward’s worried gaze. I had to say something, but I couldn’t say what I was feeling.
“You have a cane toad. It’s toxic, you know.”
She blinked those long, sensual lashes back at me, and my stupid traitorous heart banged wildly.
On Zinnia’s face, confusion was quickly replaced by a knowing, crooked smile, and I hoped to God that she didn’t know what I was thinking. I really, really did.
I had to take Edward out of here. We had to go. But my feet refused to budge.
“Princess is a little puppy dog, aren’t you, baby?” she crooned toward the giant toad’s cage.
As Elle had always been fond of telling me, reptiles are cold-blooded creatures, Zane. They’ll never love you back. Not the way that you love them. Except that when Princess looked back at Zinnia, I could have sworn I saw the horizontal slit of its eye widen, and something very similar to a smile cross its warty face. With a very clear and very sonorous rrribbit, Princess seemed to greet her back in kind.
“Princess would never harm her mummy, would you, baby?” Zinnia was by the cage, holding a small object in her palm.
It was a wooden box with a sliding latch on it. She clicked it forward, and from it hopped a large, dull-brown cricket. It chirped once. But when it went to chirp again, it suddenly found itself wrapped up in the grotesquely bulbous pink tongue of Princess.
Edward giggled. He’d always had a strange sense of humor. Zinnia’s full lips twitched as she gently scratched the back of her pet’s warty head. I couldn’t explain it, but I sometimes felt like she knew what Edward was going through and did these things on purpose, to make him laugh and draw him out of his shell.
Maybe I was projecting, though. Maybe that was what I wanted to see.
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure it mattered right now.
With a final pat to Princess’s obscenely fat head—the beast ate well, that was for certain—she turned and gestured toward the three seats at the table.
I narrowed my eyes. I could have sworn there’d only been two there before. I ran my hand over my head. I was tired and not very observant, not like I usually was.
Zinnia moved toward us, diaphanous skirt gathering round her slender ankles in a rippling, ethereal motion. Was it any wonder I couldn’t focus?
When she sat before us, I was washed in a misty cloud of rose perfume. I inhaled greedily, noting from the corner of my eye that Edward did the same.
I lifted my brow when Zinnia turned her palm over and said, “A quarter, young master, if you please.”
Giggling to himself, Edward quickly reached into his pocket to fish out a quarter I hadn’t known he had.
“And how do you know I wasn’t the one coming for answers?” I asked, realizing dimly that my tone was far too flirty to be casual.
Her smoky-eyed gaze flicked briefly to mine, and just like before, I felt a wave of vertigo assault me. I didn’t hear the voice claiming her as mine, but I felt the emotion of it wind all the way throu
gh me like an awakening.
I shuddered when she finally looked away. Being around Zinnia felt a lot like staring into the sun.
“It’s his aura,” she said and wiggled her fingers. “It’s a beautiful lavender shade.”
I snorted. She was already in character. I almost told her she could drop the charade. She was Zinnia, not Madam Bouvier. But after one look at Edward, I decided to play along. He was having a great time.
“And what shade is my aura?”
The corner of her full lips tipped up. “Is that a question, Zane Huntington?”
My blood stirred at the way she caressed the vowels of my name, turning them husky and full of fire. “Madam Bouvier doesn’t work for free, in other words?”
She sniffed, lips pressing tight as though she fought a smile. “Something like that.”
Edward sat his quarter in her palm. Shiny and silver, it seemed so large in her small hands. I felt the challenge in her eyes.
“Dad,” Edward said, “you’ve got to do it too.”
Without taking my eyes off her, I shook my head even as I reached into my wallet. All I had was a dollar bill.
She snatched it up and winked as she tucked it into her bra. I chuckled, suddenly weak in the knees.
“Thought it was only a quarter,” I drawled.
She shrugged, causing one of her soft brown curls to slide up and down her shoulder. “Yes, but I’m sure you’ll be asking more than one question.”
“Mind reader?”
Her laughter was light and carefree, and it did crazy things to my body. It made me feel alive and fueled by adrenaline.
“Well,” she said softly, “I reckon I rather should be, considering where we’re at? Don’t you agree?” She rolled her wrist to encompass the whole of the parlor.
My answer was a slow, curling grin.
“Ducky,” she said as she rubbed her hands together and looked at my boy.
A change came over her then. It was subtle but powerful. Gone was the flirtatious woman who I’d seen moving with ease and grace through her crowded diner, and the tired female I’d seen alone in the woods. Her shoulders were erect and her neck stiff. She was staring down her graceful nose at my son and pursing her lips.
She was beautiful.
Alluring. Exotic.
Where Elle’d had a lust for life mixed with a dichotomous type of innocence, Zinnia was something altogether different. She was fire, but she was also steady and calming. Their pull on me, however, was the exact same.
Zinnia had power, something innate and intangible, but definitely there. Like a tower that burned deep inside of her, causing anyone who came across her to stop and stare and notice. She was also kind. Quiet at times, but it was a comfortable and easy type of silence. Not like she didn’t want the world to notice her, rather more like she was reflecting on the world around her, taking it all in and measuring its worth and value before opening herself up.
“Tell me, young master,” she said in a slightly deeper voice than she had ever used with me before, “what question would you ask of me?”
I wet my lips, heart thumping wildly as I waited to hear the question my son had hidden in his heart.
He inhaled deeply. In his earth rich eyes, I saw the reflection of a ghost, of my wife. That same innocence that had burned in her was alive in him, and I fought not to let the lump in my throat turn into a groan.
“I saw her,” he said slowly, and my left foot jerked under the table. What was he talking about? Saw who?
I wasn’t sure whether it was the low lighting or that we were surrounded by objects of occult significance, but the words felt sinister.
“In dreams, yes,” she said. “She will always live on.”
I frowned at Zinnia. What was she answering, exactly? I wasn’t a fool. I knew Edward was speaking of his mother. Deep down, I’d suspected his question might be about her, but he’d never even asked a question.
I looked at Zinnia. Her expression was open, but there was a sadness that radiated off her. Not pity, not at all. More like she truly empathized with the truth of what had happened to Edward and me.
For a brief moment, her eyes touched mine, and she gave me a gentle nod. I knew she couldn’t hear my thoughts, but I also knew she was smart enough to put two and two together.
I tightened my jaw, muscles clenched in my cheeks as I ground my teeth. The subject of Elle was one I rarely talked about with anyone else. If anyone tried to bring her up, I would usually steer the conversation elsewhere.
But maybe that was wrong of me. Maybe Edward needed to talk about her more. Maybe I did too. It had been two years. At what point was it okay to start to heal?
Edward shook his head. “No, I saw her. She waved at me. I wanted to know if she was okay, but now I know she is. I... I want to go with her.”
I trembled, losing the battle to check my tears. I didn’t realize I’d started crying until my vision blurred. Trying to be inconspicuous, I turned to the side and quickly swiped at my cheeks, sniffing once.
When I turned back around, Zinnia was looking at me with something burning bright in her eyes. Sympathy yes, but more. Like she knew. Like she felt my pain as keenly as if it were her own.
I shook my head, and she looked away.
“Illusions, young master. Where she is, you cannot go. Though, give me your palm.”
Trusting, Edward thrust his palm out to her.
Zinnia traced a finger over his heart line, murmuring to herself as though deep in thought. “You will see her again. Someday.”
Edward’s breath caught, and he nodded.
Anger flashed through my body so quickly it was all I could do not to slap my fist down on the table, yank on my son’s wrist, and march us both straight out of there. How dare she give him such false promises? How could she do that? Zinnia had never struck me as cruel before, but this was cruel.
I tried to keep the anger from my tone, but wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. Speaking through my teeth I said, “Edward, I’d like to speak with Madame Bouvier alone. Please.”
“But I have more—”
“Edward. Now,” I said gruffly. Noticing that I meant business, my son quickly nodded and stood, walking back toward the tables behind us. Zinnia looked shocked by my behavior.
I didn’t start speaking until I heard the toad croaking loudly. Leaning in, I said in a harsh whisper, “How could you do that? Why? Why would you make him false promises?”
Her brows dipped. “I... I...”
I held up a hand, stopping her. “It’s taken two years for me to see a smile from him, just one.” I held up my finger. “After Elle died, my heart died too. The only thing I had left was him. My family disowned me the moment I’d put the ring on her finger. We were all we had, and then she got sick and left me. Left us behind.”
I didn’t know why I was telling her all of this. But now that the words were out, it was like a valve had been turned on. I couldn’t stop myself. Everything flooded out of me, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
“I thought I would lose him too. It’s why we came on this trip. Why I sold my house, quit my job, and decided I was going to learn how to be a damn fisherman. I don’t even know how to fish, for godssake!” I heaved for breath, shoving my fingers through my hair and tugging on the ends, knowing that I was making a bungling mess of things.
I should stop talking. Stop it all. Right now. I was angry, yes. But not at Zinnia. Not really. She shouldn’t have told him he’d see his mother someday, but dammit, I was the one overreacting. I could have fixed this with Edward, could have said it was all just make believe, and he would have believed me. Instead, I’d gone and acted like a complete nutcase.
I was staring down at my lap, looking at my palms, lost to the voices and memories of years gone by, remembering them all like I was watching a movie on fast forward, seeing the life we’d built together and the one I’d lost the moment the doctor had said cancer.
I jerked when cold fingers slid over my own
. When I looked up, Zinnia was kneeling beside me. I had no idea when she’d moved, but she was staring at me with glittering eyes alive with pain and sorrow.
My lashes flickered. I should pull my hand away, make her stop touching me. But instead, I curled my other hand over hers and squeezed, feeling like I was just seconds away from losing it.
I’d never given myself permission to truly grieve, telling myself I had to keep it together for Edward’s sake. But Elle’s ghost had been haunting me from the moment I began this fateful journey. I hadn’t felt her presence in so long, but I felt it now—the warmth of her, her love, her sheltering arms. For so long, we’d only had each other.
Zinnia slid her other hand lightly over my forearm. “Look at me, Zane.”
I didn’t want to, but I found myself doing just that, my traitorous heart beating rapidly in my chest at her nearness. The ghost of my wife and the woman who’d come out of nowhere were both right beside me, and I felt like I was coming undone.
“I knew almost from the first moment I saw you,” she said softly, “that you had suffered a great tragedy. You and your son.”
I laughed, but the sound was anything but funny. I glanced over to where I’d seen Edward last, but he wasn’t there, just an empty spot where he’d once been. I jerked, and she shook her head.
“Don’t worry. He is safe with Aunty Vi and Aunty Prim, just outside the flap.”
“What?” I asked dumbly, brows furrowing. What was going on with me that I hadn’t noticed someone else enter the parlor or even that my son had left? “I should go and—”
“No.” She pushed down on my shoulder as I tried to stand. “You should stay. Just for a minute. Look, I’m going to close the tent for the rest of the night. I think you need to talk. I think you need it badly.”
“And you think I should do it with you?” I said, sounding skeptical even as I hoped that she would agree.
She grinned, her beautiful smile tugging at my messed up heartstrings. “I think I’m a pretty good listener. I also make excellent cookies. She shrugged. “Or so I’m told. Will you stay while I go get a few things?”
Cookies, Curses, and Kisses Page 9
