Sweet Water

by Lena North

  “I know it’s too soon, but I hate sleeping alone, and I miss you. I want you to move into the Mayor’s house with me,” he said.

  “Okay,” I said immediately, not pretending for even a second that I had to think about it. “What will Snow think?” I asked.

  “She wants to move to Prosper for her final years in University,” he replied.

  Snow had been studying part time for a while but I knew she had settled on a degree in Marine Biology and it made sense for her to move to Prosper. I’d miss her, though.

  “She’s sure?” I asked because there were still things about Snow’s past that I worried about.

  She’d shared snippets of her childhood with me, and I knew something had happened, but the one time I had asked her about her parents she’d clammed up and avoided me for the next couple of days, so I didn’t ask again.

  “It’s good, honey. She’s finally ready to leave Marshes,” he replied.

  I nodded and let my hand move over his shoulder, up his neck to settle on his cheek. I liked how his beard tickled my palm, and I smiled.

  “We love each other, and we’ll live together,” he murmured, and I thought that he looked a bit uncomfortable.

  “Yes,” I confirmed, though I thought we’d just agreed on that.

  He looked at me for a while and then he put his hand over mine on his cheek.

  “Then I’m asking you now if you want to be engaged to me. We don’t have to be, and maybe it’s old-fashioned, but I would really like it if we were,” he said.

  “Okay,” I said not pretending to have to think about that either.

  He continued as if he hadn’t heard me, “You already wear my ring, and everyone already thinks that we’re engaged.”

  “I said oka –”

  He kept talking, “Later, when we’re ready, I’ll ask you to marry me, and Nellie, I promise, I’ll do it right then. Down by the water, at home, with flowers and sparkling wine.”

  I waited, and when he stayed silent, I moved back a little to put my other hand on his beautiful face.

  “Dante, honey. Yes. You had me at I love you,” I told him.

  He shifted slightly and picked me up, turning me to around until I was straddling him. One of his hands came up to my neck, pushing gently until our lips met.

  “I love you,” he murmured against my mouth, but before I could echo the feeling, he kissed me. His hands slid down low on my hips, and as we continued kissing, they moved down to cup my behind, grinding me into him. I started pulling off the leather cord he used to hold his hair back, and when it was loose, I slid my hands through the soft golden fall and started moving against him.

  “Holy shit!” someone said.

  A door slammed, and we pulled apart. We were both a bit out of breath, and Dante’s gray eyes had darkened. I felt flushed and restless and cursed whoever had walked out the front door.

  “Can we come out now?” Wilder giggled from inside the house.

  Well, crap. I’d never hear the end of this.

  “We just got engaged,” I called out as I tried to crawl off Dante’s lap in spite of his efforts to hold me in place.

  “I thought you were engaged already,” Wilder shouted, and I heard Mac laugh in the background.

  “We’re more engaged now,” I replied, laughing both with happiness and at the whole situation.

  “Yeah, well, I certainly saw that,” she laughed back.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  I know

  I moved into the Mayor’s house in Marshes the next day. Mrs. C cried a little when we told her I wouldn’t live with her anymore, but it was happy tears, and then she called Anetta to organize an impromptu engagement party at the restaurant by the sea. It didn’t start out rowdy, and we didn’t stay late, but as I lay in Dante’s arms in my new home, we heard the music and how people were cheering and singing.

  “Happy,” I whispered.

  “Yeah,” Dante murmured and wrapped his arms tighter around me. “Maybe I can make you happier?” he asked, and his voice was suddenly a deep rumble under my cheek.

  “Um, Dante,” I said. “You just did?”

  “Yes, but you see, I didn’t try this…” he trailed off, and his fingers took over until he was absolutely sure I was as happy as I could be. And so was he.

  We slept late the next day but no one bothered us, and when we finally left the house we were met with cheerful greetings and cheeky grins.

  After that, life settled into a sweet, slow routine. Dante worked a lot with all things going on, and the changes in the village he wanted to get moving. The gates were still closed to outsiders, but he started having town hall meetings, and the first thing they decided was that if sufficient accommodation could be secured, a small number of visitors would be allowed. Dante was happy about the decision, and so was I. Neither of us wanted Marshes to be exploited in a way that took anything away from the way of life in the village, but a sustainable future could only be built on moving forward, and we felt that this was the right way. Danny and Dante started discussing setting a limit to the number of rooms that would be available to visitors, but since there currently were none at all, they decided to park the question for the time being.

  Then Mrs. C came to talk to me, and she had a surprise in store for us.

  “I've discussed with Wilder, and we’ll make the Fratinelli house into a guest house. A hotel you might call it,” she shared, and added, “I talked to Antonia Barlotto, you know who it is?”

  Her husband had been one of the builders working on the lab, so I knew well who the tall, cheerful woman was.

  “Well, she and her husband have agreed to run it for us,” Mrs. C said.

  I didn’t have to think about their idea for long to figure out what a great solution it was. I’d been concerned about Mrs. C’s financial situation, knowing that she wouldn’t accept money from me and worried about her living alone. This would provide an income, without her having to work, and it would also solve the issue with adding a few rooms available for visitors. Dante and I had already discussed trying to get her to move anyway, so I asked her gently, “Where will you live?”

  She started talking about one of her friends who had a room, making it sound like a fantastic idea, although her joy didn’t quite reach her eyes, so I interrupted her.

  “It that’s what you want then, I’m happy for you. Before you decide, though, I want you to know what we would like more than anything. We would love it if you moved into Dante’s old house, Mrs. C. I know it’s smaller than the Fratinelli house, but it’s next to this house, and I would love it so much if you were close.”

  She gasped, and her eyes were suddenly shiny, but she cleared her throat and said determinedly, “I’m sure Snow doesn’t want an old woman in her house.”

  “She’d love it, but she won’t be living there. She’s taking over my condo in Prosper,” I told her. “And when she visits, she can stay with you, or here. We have plenty of space in this humongous building.”

  “You’re a blessing, my girl,” she whispered.

  “Not at all,” I replied. “I’m a nuisance. Dante says so on a daily basis.”

  She chuckled and patted my hand.

  “I would love to move in next to you and Dante. You’ll need help with the house –”

  “You’ll not be our housekeeper. Not in a million years, Mrs. C. Dante arranged with a few of the teenagers to do some cleaning for us, but we’ll manage the rest easily. Dante can grill a mean cheese sandwich, and with my engineering background, I know how to use a can opener,” I joked.

  “Oh my,” she muttered. “I’d better start moving soon.”

  And just like that, it was decided. Snow left for Prosper, but she came back on most weekends. She stayed with us the first time, but after that, she stayed with Mrs. C. When I told her I thought it was nice of her to keep the older woman company she just stared at me.

  “Yeah, nice. That’s me, Jiminella. It has nothing to do with wanting a full night
of undisturbed sleep.”

  Oh God, I thought. Dante had assured me that the walls were thousands of years old and practically soundproof, but apparently, they weren’t. She giggled when she saw my face, but I ignored that and started talking about the hotel that was almost finished, and how they had bookings all through the first three months. Bo would come once a month to work with our seamstress, Tony had two wood carving classes filled already and was planning for more, if they were a success.

  Hawker had booked one of the rooms for a year, telling us that he was sure there would be, “Shit to do,” and that someone would be there. When I said that they'd be welcome to stay in the Mayor’s house, he’d snorted and calmly informed me that he’d talked to Snow.

  There was apparently also a long list of people who wanted to come to see me.

  I’d mentioned in passing to the reporter that I planned to set up a small research center next to the lab. The house was already drawn up, and I hoped to have it ready by Christmas, but Danny warned me that with everything going on I might have to wait a few months longer. It wasn’t a problem, because I could work in Wilder’s lab, and had, in fact, started thinking about making a connection between the houses. I still looked forward to having my own place, though, because it would be set up exactly the way I wanted it. There would be a huge office with a couple of workstations, a small lab and an enormous workshop that I pompously called my test hall. I’d do whatever kind of work I felt like doing, and had together with Roberto already started exploring a few ideas for how to improve the voice recognition solutions I had a patent on.

  Since the article in the newspaper, I’d gotten so many requests from scientists to come and do research with me that Dante finally confiscated all the letters and told me that I wouldn’t get them back until I hired someone from the village to organize it all for me. So, I asked one of the teachers to do it, and when he’d gone through them, he asked me if I planned to start up a new university.

  “With the people in this pile of letters, you could,” he said.

  I just laughed and told him that I might accept one or two at the time if I had an interesting project going. There was apparently also a professor of medicine from Prosper who wanted to semi-retire, and he’d asked if he could build a small facility of his own in the area. I liked the idea but asked the teacher to direct the man to Dante and Danny, and forgot about it.

  Kit spent less time in Marshes, and our work on the crystal had slowed down, but I did spend some time going over the data. We’d reconnected the air hose, and I was looking at the instruments when they suddenly started to jump. I recalibrated them, but they still showed huge spikes of energy.

  Then Snow walked in, and I stared at her while my brain went through the implications of her entrance.

  “Go away,” I barked.

  “Well, hello to you too,” she said sourly.

  “No, God, I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I didn’t mean it like that, honey, but I need you to go back outside, take this instrument and walk away for two minutes. Then turn and come back.”

  She blinked as I handed her a small measuring device that didn’t work, but did as I asked her. I could literally follow her distance by the curve of energy coming from the crystal. When she came back, I shrugged and muttered something about magnetism and force fields that had nothing to do with my experiments at all, and then we talked about the classes she was taking instead.

  When she’d left, I compared the spikes of energy with the occasions anyone with a connection to a bird had been to the house, and it matched perfectly. I didn’t want to tell anyone until I understood it better, and there was much more work to do before I knew how it could be used. What was clear to me, though, was that if knowledge about my findings spread, then suddenly Wilder and the group around her would be exposed to danger in a way I did not like.

  To buy some time, I asked Hawker and Kit if we could have a conference call, and asked Dante and Danny to join me. Then I shared that I still didn’t know exactly how the crystal worked, that my recommendation was that we kept it in Marshes, and continued working on it for the foreseeable future. I asked if Kit wanted to come and stay for a while but he evaded the question, and I didn’t want to push.

  “Will it be possible to ever extract energy from the crystal?” Hawker asked, not understanding that it wasn’t quite as black and white as that.

  I decided to go with the option that would keep them safe.

  “No,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t see how that would be feasible.”

  “Okay,” he said. “That’s actually good news, Jinx. I’ll let that leak out through a few sources, and you can keep the crystal for now. Once you’re done with it, we’ll put it back in the ground.”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “That sounds like a good plan.”

  I wondered if I’d done the right thing, and didn't like lying to them, so it worried me. I didn’t know what else to do, though, so I continued my research, knowing that there were much to find out before I could tell anyone anything.

  Then I went to Double H for the day and saw Hawker with Sloane. When I saw him put a big hand on her belly, caressing her and their baby, I finally knew I’d made the right decision. The baby wouldn’t have a connection to a bird because Wilder was the one in that generation who did, but someone trying to exploit the crystal would perhaps not understand that. Hawkers eyes were on Sloane at first, but then he turned a little to look at his daughter, and his smile was gentle and full of love in a way he rarely showed. Keeping his children safe would be the right thing to do until I’d figured out what we should do with the crystal.

  Life was good, and one night as I walked on the beach with Dante it hit me just how good it was. We’d left our shoes at the bridge and let the soft waves wash over our feet. The sun had almost set, but it was still warm, and Joe ran in and out of the water, grinning goofily.

  “I’m Jiminella Nixée Sweetwater,” I said to Dante. “I’m a genius. An inventor and a scientist. Resident MD in the small town by the sea where I have my family and most of my friends. I’m probably more, and I don’t know exactly what else, but I will find out.”

  “I know,” he replied softly, brushing my mind with love and happiness.

  “I know you do,” I told him. “I just wanted to let you know that I know it too.”

  Epilogue

  Five rooms

  We sat on the back patio and looked out over the garden. I was on Dante’s lap, and winter was coming so we’d wrapped ourselves up in blankets but the crisp air smelled good, and the high sky was clear blue.

  “The garden looks kind of funky honey,” I murmured. “When spring comes, I’ll create a fertilizer that will...”

  I stopped speaking when his arms tightened, and I realized what I’d said.

  Oops.

  “Jiminella?” he asked.

  I just giggled a little, guessing that he’d already figured out what I’d done.

  “You fooled all the brain specialists into thinking you have amnesia?” he asked.

  “Of course I did,” I replied calmly.

  He sighed and leaned his forehead on my cheek.

  “Is there energy in the crystal?” he asked quietly.

  “Like you wouldn’t believe it,” I replied.

  “But Nellie, couldn’t someone else figure how to use…” he said but trailed off when he saw my face.

  “Oh, please,” I said and tilted my head to the side.

  He grinned then and leaned back, pulling me deeper into his embrace again.

  “Honey… I know we said we’d wait but you should know that I really look forward to having a daughter or two. Life will never be dull if they get even half your brain,” he said.

  “It isn’t easy to raise someone like me,” I shared. “The shit-storm a couple of teenage daughters with my kind of brain could start is beyond your imagination.”

  “Ah,” he said. “But they’ll have a dad who can read their minds.”

  “Th
ere is that,” I smirked, thinking about the teenage drama we’d have when that time came. “Don’t you want to have sons?” I asked.

  “Of course.”

  A couple of daughters, and sons too? Plural?

  “Uh, Dante,” I murmured. “Just how many kids are you planning to have?”

  “More than one.”

  “Okay, yes,” I said immediately.

  I’d been an only child and so had he, so I could definitely agree to that.

  “Less than six,” he continued.

  “What?” I choked out and tried to crawl out of his lap, but he tightened his grip.

  “There are five rooms on the top floor,” he said, and when I turned my head, I looked straight into his laughing eyes.

  Oh my God.

  Continue reading…

  Picture this - Birds of a Feather, book 3

  Release June 2017

  Prologue

  They walked in late in the evening, a little drunk and a lot rowdy, three of them laughing and dragging the fourth along with them.

  I carried an empty tray in one hand and tried to tuck my notepad into the back pocket of my black, too tight jeans with the other. The place was filled with smoke and laughter, but I was dead tired and the thick layer of cheap makeup I’d put on many hours earlier felt sticky. I wasn’t sure where to sleep when I got off shift, and my usual place behind the University library wasn’t an option because early that morning, they’d started removing the dumpsters I frequently huddled between. Someone said that they were clearing the site to start building a new art department, but I didn’t care. I’d been busy grabbing my few belongings, scanning the area to see if someone left anything useful that I could get my hands on.

  “Come on Hawk,” I heard one of the men saying. “You lost the bet, we got to choose your loss, and this is our choice.”

  I wondered what they were doing in a bar like Kinkers. I’d worked there for almost six months, and it was clean enough, but it was located on a back road in a part of Prosper well known to be unsafe. The owner liked to call it a roadhouse and they served lunch, which was the shift I worked most of the time. In the evenings, it was mostly a bar, though, and no one ever ordered any food, unless you counted peanuts and chips.