The Line That Binds Series Box Set

by J. M. Miller

  His smile widened, though it was stiff with annoyance. I wasn’t sure if he was annoyed with me or with the topic. “I had some issues with my father.” He didn’t elaborate further. Instead, he walked into the hallway and turned toward the back exit. He opened one of the doors and swung his empty hand, motioning us in front of him.

  We moved outside to the courtyard. Slatted folding chairs were lined in long rows alongside the circular lily pond. More white lace billowed down the sides of the iron trellis, decorated for tonight’s reception and tomorrow’s wedding.

  “Back to the history lesson,” Ben said, closing the door behind him. “Since you don’t know much about your family, I’ll fill you in. Your house and my grandfather’s place were both built early-nineteenth century, before the Civil War. The farm estate was a gift to Sam Stockton from his father, who got his wealth from the coal industry. Sam and his wife, Margaret, had one son, Charles. The event house was built years later when Charles married his wife, Sarah.

  “Charles inherited the estate not long after, when his father passed. I think he had two sons. I mostly remember that timeframe because your house was the main house, and my grandfather’s house was the servant house. They were both used as safe houses, or stations, in The Underground Railroad.”

  “No way.” I breathed out, looking over the courtyard’s wall toward my house.

  “They had English servants, not slaves. I can’t remember the servants’ names right now.”

  “So you’re saying that our family members were abolitionists?” Gavin asked.

  I looked at Gavin curiously. He wasn’t exactly known for his use of educational terms. His conversations usually only included gamer vocabulary such as head shot and noob.

  “What? I might not like history, but I remember some stuff. Abolitionists fought against slavery,” he replied to me with a shrug then looked back at Ben, who was smiling.

  Oh, was he smiling. I couldn’t contain my own smile as I stared at his dimples.

  “I guess you could say they were, though I’m not sure to what extent,” Ben agreed then moved toward the courtyard’s exit.

  “I had no idea,” I said as we walked out onto the back grounds. “I can’t believe Mom never told us.”

  “Really?” Now Gavin looked at me curiously.

  “You’re right. I guess I can believe it.” Mom wasn’t really a family person. She was distant long before she started dosing.

  Ben looked at us both as we crossed the grounds. He seemed to want to join our personal conversation, but chose not to. “I guess that covers some of the history. You could probably find more information if you wanted to, especially in Janine’s house.”

  “I’m good. It’s cool and all, but there’s no need to dig up the past,” Gavin said and shook some of his longer hair off his forehead.

  Unlike Gavin, the history lesson actually interested me. I wanted to know more about the family, especially Janine. Most of the property would be mine soon, and that alone was reason to learn.

  When we reached the barn, Ben slid one of the doors open and Gavin weaved around the tractor and lawnmowers to get to the bikes. “I’ve watched Supercross on TV. Do you race or are you freestyle?”

  Ben rested a hand on the handle bars of the bike that had Honda written on the slim, red seat. “I trail ride mostly. My friends and I race sometimes around here. We made our own track along the edge of the property, but we need to fix it up.” He glanced at me as Gavin inspected his bike.

  “Is the track on your section of the property?” I asked.

  “Yeah, actually,” he replied.

  I silently scolded myself for the way the words sounded out loud. “I didn’t mean it like I’m worried that it’s on my part. I was just curious about the divides.”

  “Since you brought it up, my part is back in the corner. One of the turns banks over my grandfather’s property line and into yours a bit, too. I was going to talk to you about it.” He squeezed the brake lever on his bike, but his eyes remained locked with mine.

  “Oh, I see.”

  “You see what?” His brows pinched together inquisitively.

  “The real reason you wanted to hang out today. What if I say no? Maybe I don’t want my property getting ripped up,” I deadpanned.

  His head kicked back, looking around the barn with an amused smirk. “Well, I guess I could say that since the property isn’t yours for several months, I don’t have to worry about getting your permission.”

  I smirked back at him, fidgeting with the bandage around the base of my thumb. “True. Not sure if the manager of the estate would agree with you altering part of the grounds that are in trust to someone else though,” I teased.

  “I’m in good with the manager.”

  “Really?” I asked. “I didn’t think anyone could be in good with her.”

  “Simone is okay, once you get to know her. She’s a hardass, and she expects a certain work ethic from all of her employees, but she gets the job done. You’re right though. She wouldn’t want me to touch your property without permission.”

  “Good thing I can give you permission then.”

  He backed away from his bike and tucked his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans. “Just so you know,” he said, looking down at my bandaged hand. “Asking permission about the track wasn’t the reason to hang out today. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  The words rolled over me as smooth as his voice. My heart beat quickened. “Really? I’m not sure I can believe that.”

  “You don’t believe me? How can I prove it?”

  “Hey, I’m still right here. Could you at least wait until I’m gone to flirt? It’s kinda weirding me out,” Gavin said while he continued caressing the bike like it was a girlfriend instead of a machine.

  Ugh! My face burned again and my palms started sweating. Ben smiled before he turned to Gavin.

  Suddenly, the headache returned full force accompanied by high-pitched tones, deafening my ears. The throbbing and ringing pricked tears in my eyes. I closed them tight and pressed my fingers into my lids, hoping to dull the pressure. Through the ringing, I heard a soft voice. It was undeniably Gavin, though, when I opened my eyes to him, his lips were still. The voice whispered again and I strained to hear it clearly.

  “I wish I had the confidence to talk to girls the way he does,” Gavin’s voice said, but the words were not formed from his lips.

  I shook my head even with the pain and stared at him again. The pitches diminished and my head started to calm.

  “Can I take this for a ride?” Gavin asked Ben as I stepped beside him.

  “This bike is a bit big since you’re new. My friend Spaz has an older bike that you could probably learn on, but I think you’d have to ask your dad first. It’s not really my call,” Ben responded then glanced at me. His eyebrows knitted.

  Gavin turned his face directly into my staring eyes. “What? Do I have a booger? Wait … Are you okay?”

  I grabbed his arm and he recoiled, shocked by my forceful contact. He probably thought I was insane. Hell, I thought I was insane. “Did you just say something?”

  He confused eyes looked into mine. “I asked if I could ride the bike.”

  “No, before that,” I said, squeezing my hands around his arm.

  “LJ,” Ben said, tearing my focus away from Gavin. He ran over to the lockers and grabbed something off of the nearby desk. When he rushed back, he held a tissue to my face. “Your nose is bleeding.”

  I took hold of the tissue and pressed it to my nose, tilting my head back.

  “What’s up?” Gavin asked me.

  I stared at him, wondering the same thing. “I don’t know.”

  “You need to sit down before you pass out,” I said while Gavin pulled LJ over to the desk beside the lockers. I tossed a greasy pair of coveralls off the empty chair before he sat her down.

  “What’s with the nosebleeds?” Gavin asked, letting go of her arm.

  “Is this somethin
g new?” I asked as my stomach dropped. Thoughts of the curse flooded my mind. I remembered seeing Janine’s nose bleed a few times.

  LJ kept her head tilted back when she responded. “I haven’t had a nosebleed since I was little. Not sure why I’m getting them now. Could it be the humidity?”

  “I’ve gotten them from the dry air in winter and from physical trauma, but I don’t think the humidity ever caused one,” I responded. “Tip your head forward so you don’t swallow too much blood.” I pulled another folding chair around the desk to sit in front of her.

  She did as I instructed, still pinching her nose. “Do you have any Tylenol? My head is killing me.”

  “Not out here. I can go get some from my house.” I stood up, ready to leave.

  “I’ll get some. I’ve got to piss anyway,” Gavin said then shot me a head tilt.

  “Nice, Gav.” LJ shook her head at him as he walked out of the barn.

  I laughed at his bluntness and her reaction.

  “It’s you,” LJ said, her voice squished from the pinch in her nose.

  “What do you mean, it’s me?”

  She smiled. The tissue hid most of her mouth, but I watched the corners of her lips shift, pressing her cheeks up under her big green eyes. It was nice to see her smile. “I think he’s trying to impress you.” With her head still tipped down, her shiny hair hung forward, curtaining her face in the most alluring way. She swept one curtain back behind an ear.

  “Really? Why would he try to impress me?”

  “He’s never been around cool older guys. I guess he wants you to like him.” Her eyes finally locked with mine, looking the perfect mix of angelic and sinful.

  “No other cool guys have been around, huh?”

  She smiled again with understanding. “There have been a couple of guys around, but they were of the douche variety. Not worth the time to impress.”

  I choked out a laugh. “Yeah, well …” I looked around the barn, thinking about how badly I’d misjudged her. With the ability to spit nasty words, she was almost the exact opposite of the girl I’d pegged her as: pretentious and uptight. “I just might have my own douche qualities.”

  “I’m not sure why, but I find that hard to believe.” She removed the tissue from her nose. The bleeding had stopped. “You mentioned physical trauma with your nosebleeds. Is it something that happens often?” she asked, changing the subject back.

  “Nosebleeds? No.”

  “The trauma, I mean.”

  “Usually nothing serious.”

  “You told me it wasn’t a fight that broke your jaw, so what was it?”

  “An accident. My friend, Spaz, has a piece-of-shit bike that he likes to run hard. The chain broke while he was riding one of the turns out back. He clipped me and I flipped.”

  “Didn’t your helmet do its job?”

  I grinned. “That would be an excellent example of my douche qualities.”

  “You weren’t wearing your helmet?” She shook her head gingerly. Her headache was still bothersome enough to visibly restrict the movement. “I would file that under idiotic, not in the douche category.”

  I shuffled my boots along the dirt floor. “I’m not sure that’s any better, but okay. I’ll take the idiot card.”

  “It’s much better, trust me. At least you only hurt yourself.” She stared at my mouth for a moment. “Your mouth looks good. I mean … it looks better than it did last week.”

  I wasn’t sure where all of this was leading, but I really didn’t care. I was having a hard time caring about anything else. I’d known her a week and she already called me an idiot for riding without a helmet. She was genuinely concerned. It’d been a while since a girl was genuinely concerned for me, aside from Izzy anyway. Emily definitely didn’t give a shit, and my other interludes never wanted to take things further. I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t exactly asking for more than a quick throw-down during their mom’s third wedding, their little cousin’s bat mitzvah, or their best friend’s birthday party either.

  She blushed after her accidental admission about my mouth, which instantly made me regret my no-helmet idiocy. Those pink cheeks pushed my mind somewhere that she’d clearly just visited herself. I couldn’t stop imagining how pink her cheeks would get if my jaw wasn’t jacked up, then I could show her how good my mouth really was.

  I smiled at her slip and my thoughts. “I get the arch bar removed Monday then I go to the dentist. Now that I can open it wider, they want to go in and torture my mouth clean.” I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth while looking at hers. Thinking of her lips against mine almost set me off. I took a deep breath, stood up, and moved to the barn’s water cooler to get us both a drink. I wanted to pick it up by the handles and dump the whole thing over my head to keep focused. I needed to know if her symptoms were curse related, not if her lips tasted as sweet as her smile looked.

  “Well, that’s good. Not the torture part, of course. I hope everything goes okay though. Thanks,” she said when I handed her a cup of water. She took a sip and scanned the barn with her eyes.

  “You’re welcome,” I responded, studying her. She wore baggier jeans today with a racer tank top that pressed tightly against her chest. It was similar to the one she was wearing in bed earlier, only it was baby blue instead of gray. The design curved far over her shoulders, showing a lot of skin and making me imagine everything underneath. I took a sip of cold water and another deep breath. “So your dad got a job?”

  “Yeah,” she replied with a nod. “He’s really excited about it. He said they weren’t even hiring, but they wanted him to start as soon as possible. He went in this morning.”

  “Where is it?” It could’ve been coincidental. I wanted it to be, but the timing was too perfect, considering it was what she’d wished for yesterday.

  “The animal shelter close to town. I have no idea why they wanted him. He’s never worked with animals.”

  “That’s odd,” I agreed. “Spaz used to work there. He got fired last year for being a dumbass.”

  “What did he do?”

  “Let’s just say no animals were injured during his stupidity.”

  “Okay,” she laughed. I liked the sound, and the way it brightened her face.

  “How are you feeling?”

  She reached her hand up to the side of her head. “It’s dull now, like last night. I’m sure it’ll go away as soon as I take something.”

  “Your head was bothering you last night?”

  “That’s why I was in bed until noon. I didn’t sleep well,” she replied.

  “Do you get headaches a lot?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as I could.

  “Not really. After this one though, I can honestly say I sympathize with people who have migraines. I’m not sure what’s normal, but they’re painful enough to make my ears ring.” Her eyes shifted to the floor, lost in her own statement.

  “That does sound painful,” I agreed.

  After another moment, her eyes returned to me. “What about you? Any headaches?” she asked, watching me as she took another drink.

  “Not many that matter,” I replied vaguely, then decided to change the subject. “You never said whether you are interested in the history of this place or not.”

  “It’s intriguing. I’m a bit ashamed, actually. I should know more about my family. I wish I did.”

  “Have you found anything interesting inside Janine’s house? Besides the paintings, that is.” This was the information I needed the most. They’d been here a week already and she hadn’t mentioned anything besides the paintings to me.

  “I haven’t looked, but I’ve been meaning to tear the basement apart. There’s bound to be something buried in all that junk.”

  I ran my hand along the desk and relaxed into my chair. Her eyes tracked my movements. She seemed interested enough for me to press my luck. “If you find anything, would you tell me? I want to know more about this place too, especially since I’ll own part of it soon. Actually, would you m
ind if I helped you?”

  She smirked and messed with her bandaged hand. “I guess you could come help me clean the basement.”

  “Whoa!” I said, holding my hands up. “Let’s not get carried away. I didn’t say anything about cleaning.”

  “What? You said you wanted to help,” she teased.

  “Sure, help look for stuff.” I dropped my hands back to my legs and shrugged.

  “Well, I said I was going to tear the place apart so naturally that’s what I thought you were volunteering for.”

  “Definitely not what I meant.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll just do it myself and maybe I’ll let you know what I find.”

  I grunted and tipped my chin to the sky as I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I’ll help clean.”

  “Wow. You really don’t like to clean, do you? I’d hate to see your room.”

  “Since you’re getting personal, I can tell you that I definitely wouldn’t mind if you saw my room,” I said suggestively.

  Her mouth dropped open for a second.

  “That way you could clean it for me,” I added.

  She swung at me, landing a smack against my thigh. “You’re a perv.”

  “Maybe a little,” I admitted with a grin.

  Despite the flirting, I needed to figure out what the hell was going on. And getting into her house was the only way to find the missing pieces. That was still the goal. “So you’ll let me search your downstairs?” I lifted my brows.

  “Okay, funny guy.”

  “Too much? Okay, seriously. I would love to help you clean the basement. It would be awesome if we found more things about The Underground Railroad or more about your family’s history.”

  “This place’s association with The Underground Railroad is pretty amazing. Knowing it played a role in helping people gain their freedom is simply incredible. It’s nice to know some of my ancestors were generous and courageous. I’d love to learn more about that.” Her eyes widened. “Do you think they had hiding spots? I know Gavin searched the house for stuff last week. He was pretty excited about the dumbwaiter. Don’t tell him I told you, but he got stuck in it on Tuesday.”