He laughed. “Maybe. A little. I don’t really know her.” He was afraid to say anything bad about her sister. If her family was anything like his, he knew that it was okay for siblings to insult someone but not for outsiders. He would do anything to avoid making her angry. Other than stay away from her, of course. That wasn’t an option.
Chapter Five
When they arrived at Heather's parents’ house, the others were already there, and the house was bustling with activity. Jessica was in the kitchen helping cook, and Marti was setting the table. Tracy was sitting with the newspaper, reading through everything there was. Tracy sold cars for a small car dealership in town, and she did a great job of it. She always said her dream job was to own an Irish pub in town, but Heather couldn’t really see that happening.
As soon as they walked in, Gaylynn hurried over. “Come and sit in the living room with me. Dad has the Cowboys game on, and I want to get to know your guy.”
Heather frowned. “I wouldn’t exactly call him mine.”
“I would. I’m hers. No one else’s. I’m going to convince her to marry me if it takes all week.” Michael was grinning as he said it, but he was dead serious.
Gaylynn laughed. “All week? You're giving it a whole lot of time there.” Gaylynn was a mental health counselor, and sometimes she made Heather nervous. She hadn’t told anyone in the family about the colors she saw hovering over people’s faces, but she knew her sister would think she was insane if she did.
Michael shrugged. “I’m an optimist. What can I say?”
“An optimist? I’m a realist,” Heather said softly.
Gaylynn laughed. “You? A realist? You’re more of a pie-in-the-sky optimist who believes in any dream there is out there. Why would you even think you’re a realist?”
“Oh, hush. I’m not that bad.”
“You definitely are! You were told you couldn’t ever dance after you broke your leg when you were little, and you worked every day until you could dance. You were told you could never make the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and what did you do? You went out there, and you made it happen.”
“And that makes me a pie-in-the-sky optimist? I would think that would make me an achiever.”
Gaylynn shrugged. “That too. You should come see me this week. Something’s bothering you.”
Heather rolled her eyes. “I don’t need help from you to figure out what’s bothering me. I know that well.”
Michael looked between the sisters. “What does that mean?”
Gaylynn smiled sweetly. “I’m a mental health counselor. I have an office in town, and Heather thinks she doesn’t need someone like me in her life.”
“That’s not true at all. I need my sister. I know that with everything inside me.” Heather stepped close to Gaylynn and hugged her tightly.
Gaylynn smiled. “Fine. You need me as a sister but not as a counselor. I get it. If you change your mind and want to talk, you know where to find me.”
“Always.” Heather knew her sister had her best interests at heart. It must be obvious how she was feeling about her new relationship with Michael.
Their dad was sitting there in the living room, a pad of paper in his hands. “I’m sure there's a way for me to figure out who will win the Superbowl early in the season if I can just make the right algorithm,” he mumbled.
“If you ever get that algo figured out, I’d love to hear about it!” Michael said, sitting down and pulling Heather down beside him on the couch. He wanted to put his arm around her, but he really wasn’t sure how her father would feel about that.
“I will. If I figure it out. When I figure it out.”
Heather watched the television, thrilled that the cheerleaders were on. Several of her closest friends were still on the squad, and she watched them whenever she had the chance. It made her feel connected to them. As she watched, one of her friends was in the front for a fun routine that Heather had written herself. She was sad not to be there to perform with them, but she was so happy they continued it without her.
Michael looked between the television and her family, watching all the sisters. They all seemed like they were in their own worlds to him. “What do you do for a living, Mr. McClain?”
“Call me Bob. I’m a video game designer. Atari.” He had a silly grin on his face as he named the biggest video game company there was.
“Oh, really?” Michael knew about Atari, of course, because everyone did, but he wasn't really a fan of video games. “Have you ever thought about creating a realistic hunting game?” Hunting was one of Michael’s favorite activities. He was always thrilled to take his mother enough meat to last an entire winter. He was careful to use every bit of the animal, though, just as the Native Americans had. He thought it was best not to waste anything.
“I’ve messed around with it a little. I figure if someone is that into hunting, they won’t be sitting around playing video games. Instead they’ll be outside enjoying themselves. Am I wrong?”
Michael grinned. “Probably not.”
“Well, then why should I make it? That makes no sense, now does it?”
“I guess not. It would be something that could get me to at least try a video game. Shooting aliens is really not my thing.”
Bob frowned. “I didn’t work on any of the alien games. I’m more the golf guy and the bowling guy.”
Michael shrugged. “Those are probably more fun than the alien games.”
Heather was thrilled when her mother stuck her head into the room to call them for lunch. She wasn’t sure her dad and Michael were going to come to an agreement on anything, and she knew any arguments at the table would be stopped by her mother.
After the meal, Heather helped wash the dishes while Marti introduced Michael to the glories of the Atari golf game. He played to appease Heather’s father, but he was not a fan. Not at all.
As they walked back to her house, he said, “What’s on our agenda for the rest of the day?”
She frowned. She could do most of her housework late at night but not the laundry. She needed clean leotards to teach in that week. “I need to get some laundry done. I have Love Boat and Fantasy Island taped from last night. We could watch it while I work on laundry. I’ll have to pause it some . . .”
“That’s fine. Wow. Laundry day is exciting.” He needed to do laundry as well, but he’d do his at the hotel the next day while she worked. He wasn’t wasting a single moment of the time they had together. He had to convince her that the two of them together were more powerful than any job.
She made a face at him. “Just don’t think you’re going to get to fondle my panties . . . or my leg warmers. Got it?”
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” He grinned at her, glad she was still willing to tease with him, despite her misgivings about their future.
When they got to her house, she settled him on the couch while she wandered into her bedroom to gather her laundry and get it started in the garage, where her washer and dryer were.
When she walked back in, she pushed play on the VCR, and then sank onto the couch beside him. “This is last night’s shows. I hated missing it, but I am so glad I have a VCR.” She glanced over at the kitchen to see her microwave oven on the counter. She loved being an eighties woman. So many gadgets to make her life easier.
He scooted a little bit toward her and slipped his arm around her. She looked at him for a moment. “Thanks for not doing the yawn and stretch. It seems like your style.”
“Smooth and sophisticated?”
She laughed at that. “Sure. That’s what I was thinking.” She snuggled closer to him, her head going to rest on his shoulder as she focused on the show. She loved how many people fell in love every single week.
She got up twice to deal with laundry in the middle of the shows, but when they were finally over, she looked at him. “I’ve been working on a jigsaw puzzle, if you like them.”
He grinned. “One of my favorite things.”
She stood and led the way to h
er kitchen table. “My table is always covered with a jigsaw, so I always end up using my lap as a table.”
“Doesn’t bother me,” he said, liking the way she did things. He wasn’t exactly formal either.
Together, they sat and worked on the puzzle, talking about random things. “How old were you for your first kiss?” he asked.
She tilted her head to one side, pretending to have to think about it. “I was fifteen, and it was after my first football game where I cheered on the varsity squad. It was Brian Angles, and he kissed me under the bleachers. I was sure my mom was going to see us when she picked me up, but she didn’t.” She looked at him. “What about you?”
“I was sixteen, and it was after homecoming. I kissed her on her parents’ front step, and her dad came out and told me to get off his porch.” Michael frowned. “She was grounded for two weeks, and then we went out again, and I kissed her again. I learned to do it before pulling onto her father’s land, though.”
She laughed softly. “Wise move. What was her name?”
“Tina Nelson. We dated for the rest of the schoolyear, and then she moved away.”
“Do you still think of her?”
He shrugged. “Only when someone is asking about my first kiss. She didn’t exactly rock my world. She was nice, though. And she was great about helping me with my trig homework. I was not good in trig.”
“You dated a girl for her math abilities?”
“Well, yeah. Why did you date Brian?”
“Because he was the only sophomore with a car, of course!”
They both laughed. Priorities were so different when you were in high school than when you were an adult. “Are you going to spend time with me tomorrow night?”
She frowned. “I have evening classes tomorrow. I have morning classes as well but no afternoon classes. We could have lunch.”
“You have a difficult schedule,” he said with a frown. Thankfully he wasn’t working while he was in Texas, and he could accommodate her.
“Yup. I try to make it easy for all the moms who want their daughters in dance. Some want their kids to nap all afternoon. Some are coming right after school. I have different hours on different days.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I would hate to leave my students.” She knew he didn’t understand, but she wished he would. Those kids and parents counted on her.
“I know you would. Are there no other dance schools?”
“There’s one in Nowhere, which isn’t terribly far, and I know the teacher. She’d be good with the kids. It would just feel weird to abandon students I’ve been teaching for so long.”
“How long has your studio been open?” he asked.
“Only three years, but many of my students have been with me since day one. I truly love what I do.”
“I know you do.” He thought about whether or not he had ever seen a dance studio in Muir or any of the neighboring towns. “I really think you could start a place near me. You could be happy there.”
“I have to be here at least until early December. I have promised to do The Nutcracker with my students.” She wouldn’t commit to anything after that, but she couldn’t even consider leaving before.
“Maybe you could come visit me over Christmas. My mom would love to have you stay with her, so there are no strings. Just a visit.”
She frowned. “I’ve never been away from my family for Christmas. I guess I can think about it, but I have a feeling I’ll want to be here.”
He nodded. “I can understand that. I do want to show you Idaho, so you can see that it’s not as horrible as it is in your head.”
“Maybe after the play. I could come in mid-December.”
He really hoped they’d be engaged by then, but he was willing to wait for her. Whatever it took. “Whenever is good for you. The cattle and I are willing to host you anytime, day or night.”
She grinned at that. “Well, I do want to see the valley you keep talking about. And the Valley Girls.”
“I wonder how my sisters would react if you called them that.”
“No idea, but I have this weird feeling we’re going to find out.”
He laughed. “Probably.” He covered her hand with his, looking into her eyes. “I really don’t want our relationship to be over before it starts. I think we can work it out.”
“I hope so,” she said softly. It was then she realized that he already held her heart in the palm of his hand. If only he had been there three years before. Before she’d started her dance studio. When she’d been at a crossroads trying to decide what to do. Before.
He leaned over and brushed his lips across hers. “I think you’re pretty special, Heather McClain.”
She studied him for a moment, mesmerized by the pretty blue hue covering his face. “Do you believe in the supernatural?”
“You mean like Twilight Zone stuff?”
“Sort of . . .” She hadn’t talked to anyone about her seeing the colors on people, but for some reason she wanted . . . no, she needed to tell him. “About six months ago, I started seeing strange hues on people. Like their faces were weird colors.”
“Okay . . .”
“And I realized that if two people get close to each other, their hues will blend. Sometimes they change to a lilac color, which means they belong together, or a black color, which means they do not belong together . . . or something in between, meaning they’re neutral together.” She rushed through her explanation, looking only at her hands, and then she looked up at him, wondering if he’d think she was insane.
“That’s odd. It never happened before that?”
She shook her head. “There was a power outage at my parents’ house when Dad was showing us some weird gadgets. It’s been happening ever since.”
He frowned. “What do your parents say about it?”
“I haven’t told anyone but you.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me if that’s what you’re trying to find out. All the twins in my family have magic powers.”
“You have lots of twins?”
He nodded. “We tend to. And all of them have weirdness going on. I’m not a twin, so I don’t have it, but my mother is. She told me before I left Idaho that this trip would make me either the happiest man alive or the saddest. She said to fight for what I needed.”
“Really?” She was surprised but not terribly. The youngest of the seven sons always had powers in her family. Why not his, too? She wondered if other families had those secrets they never told.
“Really. What color is our hue together?” Michael asked. He knew she’d have the answer, and he suspected he knew what it was. No wonder this was so hard for her.
“Lilac. Your hue is a beautiful shade of blue. I noticed your hue before I noticed you, and I was so drawn to it.”
“So that means we need to marry, right?”
She sighed. “It means we are very compatible. I don’t know if there can be more than one person with a hue that matches another.”
“You haven’t seen that?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know that I believe there’s one soulmate for everyone either. I mean, what would happen if you were married to someone else when you met your soulmate? How heart-wrenching that would be!”
“Now I want to go for a long walk with you and ask you about the hues of everyone we see. Can you see it on television? And in pictures?”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t until a few days ago. Now, I can. I don’t know why or how it changed, but it’s weird.”
“Do you have any idea how badly I want to take you to the airport?” he asked.
Heather frowned at him. “Why do you want to take me to the airport? That makes no sense.”
“Because of all the people who are reuniting after time apart. I love watching people at gates of airports. They run into others arms, and there’s so much kissing. It’s weird, but it’s like the place to watch for people.”
She grinned. “That could be fun. Figure out who really belongs tog
ether and who shouldn’t be together. We could go around offering free relationship advice, telling people they should break up with their significant other or they should be with them forever.”
He laughed. “I can picture doing that. I wonder if going to the movies would have the same effect. Is there a theater in town?”
Heather grinned as she understood. “We can sit in the back row and check the others out.” She went to pick up her paper. “Let me see what’s playing!”
Chapter Six
That evening was filled with hilarity as Michael and Heather sat in the back row of the theater, and Heather pointed out couples who would last and those who were most likely to kill one another. Neither of them were able to focus on the movie, Irreconcilable Differences, because they were too busy laughing.
“It’s a good thing no one around us is watching the movie,” she whispered. “They’d all be angry with all our giggling.”
“Real men don’t giggle. They chortle.”
Once the movie was over, he walked her home.
“That was fun,” she said. “It never occurred to me to do something like that. I’ve been too busy adjusting to seeing weird stuff.”
“I can understand that.” He stopped at her door, wanting her to invite him in but knowing she needed to work the following morning. “I’ll pick you up for lunch. What time?”
She frowned for a moment, thinking about it. “How about noon? We can get tacos and go to the park for our very own picnic.”
“I’d like that.” He leaned down and brushed her lips with his. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Wear some exciting leg warmers for me.”
“You know I will!”
Heather watched him go, thinking about how much she wished they had more time together. He was a good man, and she wasn’t ready for him to go back to Idaho. She wanted to yell at the unfairness of finding the man of her dreams and him living so far away.
The following day found Heather walking on air—or dancing on air, as the case may be. Her students giggled as she forgot the steps a couple of times, but none of them said a word.
Heather (Seven Sisters Book 1) Page 4
