Still mortified, I smiled. “Yes. I guess I forgot my manners.”
“I’ve missed teasing you.” He pulled me a little closer.
I lowered my hands to his chest. “I’ve missed you too.” I could feel the beat of his heart under the palms of my hands. With his arms tucked tightly around me, I had a hard time breathing.
“Now where were we?”
“You were telling me how there was nothing going on between you and Jamie,” I said, wishing I could have avoided saying her name.
“That’s right, and you were telling me how Jack is not your boyfriend.”
“Correct.” As I spoke, I couldn’t help but look at Nate’s mouth. Ever since his sweet kisses on my cheek, I had dreamed of kissing him for real.
His head moved a little closer to mine. “I’m sorry I’ve been so rude to you. I was jealous.”
“I understand.” I tilted my chin up a little.
From a breath away he asked, “Can I kiss you?”
“Yes.” There was nothing I desired more.
“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to do this.” He lowered his lips to mine.
“Dani!” Jack shouted.
I couldn’t believe the blissful moment had been interrupted. I started to move away from Nate, but he kept his arms around my waist. “Hi, Jack,” he said. It sounded almost like a groan.
When he saw Nate and me embracing, Jack stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide. “What are you two doing?” he asked in an accusatory tone.
“Dani fell into a pile of manure, and I was helping her wash off,” Nate answered.
I peered up at Nate and he winked, then he pulled me in close again.
I looked back at Jack. “Right, we both smelled really bad.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “Your mom would be so mad if she saw you looking like that.”
“It’s a good thing she’s not here, isn’t it?” I said with a little huff.
“Dani, I need to show you something.”
At Jack’s serious tone, I looked up at Nate and put my hand on his chest. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Don’t worry about it. I can finish the stalls. You should go home and take a bath.”
I frowned. “Fine,” I said slowly.
“Now, don’t go off thinking what I bet you’re thinking.” He touched the end of my nose with his finger and grabbed my hand. “Tomorrow we can finish where we left off.”
My stomach tingled with anticipation, and I smiled brightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Dani.”
I walked a few steps away with my hand still attached to his. “Goodbye,” I giggled.
“Dani, now,” Jack growled.
I let go of Nate’s hand and walked toward Jack. I looked back at Nate again and waved goodbye.
“Dani, it’s important.” Jack grabbed my arm and started walking away from the barn.
When we were out of earshot, I said, “What was that about?”
He looked behind him as if to make sure no one was near, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag. “Now I am certain you’re not safe here.”
“But Dorothy said I am safe,” I protested. I didn’t want to leave now that things were better with Nate.
Jack opened up the bag and pulled out a gold coin. “Look at this.”
He placed it in my hand. I rolled it over in my fingers and saw a familiar snowflake engraving. It was a coin from Fenmore Falls, but it looked like an antique. My family’s name was Channing, which meant snow, and the royal symbol on all coins in the kingdom was a snowflake. This coin, however, was unique because it was pure gold and larger than the regular coins. I had only seen one like this before, and it was locked away in a vault in the castle. Only the royal family possessed such a valuable coin.
“Where did you get this?”
“I found it,” Jack replied. “In Mr. Haney’s house.”
Chapter 17
Jack and the Beanstalk (continued)
Then Jack crept out on tiptoe from his oven, and as he was passing the ogre he took one of the bags of gold under his arm, and off he peltered till he came to the beanstalk, and then he threw down the bag of gold, which, of course, fell into his mother’s garden, and then he climbed down and climbed down till at last he got home and told his mother and showed her the gold and said: “Well, Mother, wasn’t I right about the beans? They are really magical, you see.”
Finding the Gold Coin
“We need to get you home.” Jack grasped my hand and pulled me down the road, away from Mr. Haney’s house.
My heart beat a quick staccato rhythm to accompany the troubled song in my mind. The sound of percussion, with its loud symbols and drums, pounded inside my head. By slowly inhaling and exhaling, I managed to slow the speeding tempo.
Finding the gold coin meant there was a connection between my world and this place. My dad knew about Idaho, and the three fairies knew about me and all about Fenmore Falls. Obviously, people had moved back and forth between the two worlds.
“You just stole the money?” I asked Jack.
“Dani, remember we only took the job so I could keep a closer eye on Troy,” he said with exasperation. “We also wondered if Nate and Mr. Haney were trustworthy. So I searched the house and found the evidence I need to accuse them.”
“Nate is innocent—he doesn’t have anything to do with this,” I protested.
Jack stopped walking. “Don’t you get it, Dani? You’re not safe here. If someone knows about our kingdom, they might know about you, Princess Danielle Channing. No matter who you think is innocent, we need to get you out of here.”
“You’re right, Jack,” I said, a little shaken by his warning. “I’m sorry.”
He put one arm around my shoulders and we continued to walk down the road. “Let’s go home.”
We passed Dorothy’s place and continued down the road to the crumbled house that held the portal to our world. Jack helped me climb the broken stairs to the second floor, and together we approached the magical door.
“I tried everything I could think of to open this,” I told him.
“When my aunt unlocked it from the other side, she made me turn around so I wouldn’t see how she did it. She said it was important to keep it a secret.”
“How did she expect us to get back?”
“I suppose she figured they’d come get us when it was safe.”
I jiggled the knob and halfheartedly tried to open the door. “See, it won’t open.”
“Let me try something.” Jack pushed me aside and reached above the door. “I caught a glance of my aunt putting her hand up here. Maybe there’s a key, or even a lever that releases the door.”
I held my breath in anticipation as Jack inspected the door frame. He gave a couple of gasps that made me think he’d found something, but then he would shake his head and continue searching.
“There’s nothing, Dani.” He backed away from the door to stand next to me.
I stared at the knob. “What do we do?”
“Maybe the door can only be opened from the other side.”
“When my dad brought me here, I was too shocked to pay attention to how he opened it.”
Jack grabbed my hand and squeezed it briefly. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”
“Okay. Let’s go back to Dorothy’s.” After a pause, I added, “Maybe we could ask her how to open the door.”
Jack shook his head. “I know your dad said to find the three fairies, but I’m not sure we should confide in them.”
When I protested, he said, “Just until I can do a little more checking around, all right?”
“Okay,” I replied. Jack had always been my protector, so if there was anyone I could trust, it was him. Then my thoughts shifted. “What about Nate?”
“I doubt you’ll listen to my advice, but I think you should stay away from him.”
“No way,” I exclaimed, using one of Abby’s favorite phrases. “I just won’t do that.”<
br />
Jack let out a sigh. “Okay, but please be cautious around him. Don’t tell him anything about Fenmore Falls or who you really are. And don’t get into trouble.” My best friend gave me a full grin. “By the looks of things a few minutes ago, I’d say you and Nate are too distracted to go off on some grand adventure.”
I smiled. “Nate’s a good guy, Jack. I’m sure he’s not involved with anyone who means to do me harm. I’ve been here longer than you, and I know these people are good.”
“Let’s not completely rule out anybody, all right?”
“Sure.” I knew Nate was trustworthy, but I also recognized that Jack had my best interests at heart.
As we headed toward Dorothy’s house, Jack said, “How about we continue our daily schedule as if nothing has changed? We’ll go to school, work at Mr. Haney’s, and try each night to open the locked door so we can get you home. What do you think?”
“I agree. We’ll act as if nothing has changed, just in case someone here would want to stop me from going home.”
Jack nodded. “Sounds perfect.”
That night, I dreamed of a man counting piles and piles of money. Jack stole the money while the man was sleeping. Before he could escape with it, the man woke up. I tried to shout to Jack to warn him that the man was chasing him with an ax, but no matter how hard I tried to scream, no sound came out. Then, I woke up.
The dream haunted me all day. Even while I played the piano at Mr. Haney’s, the man kept chasing Jack in my mind.
Nate and I were doing chores in the barn that afternoon when he asked, “Are you mad at me for throwing you into the horse trough yesterday?”
“No, not really,” I said.
“Good.” He grinned. “I just wondered, because you were quiet today at school.”
“I was thinking about home.”
“Homesick?”
“A little, I guess.”
“Do I need to toss more manure on you to make you smile?”
I narrowed my eyes and pretended to glare at him. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Holding his pitchfork, he stepped toward me with a playful grin.
“Nate!” I squealed and tried to back away.
He dropped the pitchfork and wrapped his arms around me before I could retreat. “I think I can make you smile without the manure.” He ran a fingertip across my cheek, sending goosebumps down my arms. “Now do you want to tell me what else is on your mind?” he asked.
“It’s nothing.”
“You know you can share anything with me.”
Can I? I wondered. What would he do if he knew I traveled here through a magic door?
His gaze was so intense that I almost looked away, but my shyness was overcome by the warmth in his eyes. It almost seemed he could see me better than I could see myself.
“Dani, when you’re ready, talk to me.”
I nodded. I wasn’t ready to tell him everything, not because I didn’t trust him, but because I didn’t trust myself. And until I knew the complete truth about why I was here, I couldn’t explain it to someone who would think it was unbelievable. Sometimes it was even hard for me to believe.
Nate slowly kissed my cheek, then glanced at my mouth. “We’re not going to get any work done if we don’t set some ground rules first,” he said. “First rule: Chores first, kissing second.”
He leaned in to kiss my cheek again, but I pulled back and said, “The second rule is stick to rule number one.”
He laughed. “No rule may be instated until both parties agree.” He wrapped his arms tighter around me and kissed my forehead.
“It’s going to be hard to get any work done now that you’re not being a pig head.”
Nate chuckled. “It sounds strange, but I almost missed you calling me that.”
“There’s more where that came from,” I teased.
“Come on.” Nate let go of my waist and stepped back. “Let’s get to work and finish as fast we can.” He winked.
We grabbed our pitchforks and began cleaning the stalls. I would have rather stayed in Nate’s arms, but at least the chores would help me forget about Fenmore Falls, and the locked door, and the wizard, and the curse. Didn’t someone say that busy hands created clear minds, or something like that?
When we finished cleaning the last stall, Nate threw the pitchforks into the corner and grabbed my hand. He pulled me to the back of the barn to where a ladder led to the hayloft. He climbed up first and helped pull me up when I reached the top of the rickety ladder
Farming tools were scattered across the straw that covered the floor of the loft, which was about ten feet square. Nate pushed aside the tools to relieve a small patch of hay for us to sit on.
Once we were sitting comfortably, I grabbed his hand and said, “Thank you.”
“For what?” He raised his other hand to caress my cheek.
“Just being here.” I didn’t know how to express how happy I was that Nate was in this strange world.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re here too, Dani.”
“Like that, for example. You make me feel special.”
“You are special,” he said softly. He scooted close to me. “I feel bad I got so jealous when I thought you were dating Jack.”
“It’s okay.”
“I want to make it up to you somehow.”
“Bringing me up here to the hayloft was really nice.”
Nate’s arm was touching mine, and I could feel my arm growing warmer.
“I have a lot of making up to do.” His head moved a little closer to mine.
“You’re off to a good start.” I couldn’t help my eyes from drifting to his mouth.
“Maybe it’s time for that other lesson we talked about.” His face inched nearer.
“What lesson was that?” I said, pretending I didn’t remember. He is going to teach me how to kiss . . . right now!
His lips lifted into my favorite grin. “The lesson I’ve been dreaming about since I met you.”He paused. “Can I kiss you?”
I could only nod my answer.
His mouth closed the distance between us, and he kissed me. The instant our lips met I almost gasped. His lips were softer than I expected, and he kissed me so gently and tenderly. All the muscles in my body seemed to melt at his touch.
Then I actually realized what was happening. Nate is kissing me! I am having my first kiss! Then I thought, And I’m not doing anything about it. Well, I can fix that.
I slid my hands up his chest and over his shoulders to bury my fingers in his hair. His arms surrounded me, pulling me close, and I was lost in the magic. It was as if Nate held some kind of power over me—I had never felt anything like it.
He pulled away and rested his forehead against mine. “Are you sure you haven’t kissed anyone before?”
“Now that you mention it, I might have kissed a few other boys.”
He sat up straight but smiled when he saw my teasing grin. “I have another rule,” he told me seriously. “We can only spend ten minutes in the hayloft.”
“Why ten minutes?”
“I don’t want to mess this up, Dani. I want to be careful and not spend too much time alone with you.”
“Why? I thought you enjoyed kissing me.”
“Oh, I did, more than you know. But I’m afraid if I spend too much time kissing you, I’ll take it too far. I like you too much to mess things up.”
My heart melted. He is too perfect! If only he lived in Fenmore Falls.
“Call me old school or whatever;” he continued, “but I just want us, especially you, to feel safe.”
“I do feel safe. More than you could know.” I wished I could tell him more about my life and how much it meant to know he cared about my safety, but it didn’t feel like the right time. For now, at least, I wanted to pretend I was an ordinary girl who was doing normal things with a guy she really liked.
“We better climb back down before anyone comes looking for us.” Nate helped me up and we moved to the ladder. W
hen we reached the bottom, he gave me one more quick kiss. “That will have to get me by until Monday,” he said.
My heart sank. “What do you mean, Monday? Won’t I see you tomorrow or Sunday?”
“My stepdad is taking Troy and me to a horse show to buy some mares. We leave early in the morning and won’t be back until Sunday night.”
I exhaled loudly. “Oh.”
“Don’t worry,” Nate said as he started to walk out of the barn. “We’ll continue our kissing lesson Monday after chores.”
Will I still be here on Monday? I wondered.
}
That weekend we tried everything we could think of, but Jack and I couldn’t open the magic door. Secretly I wasn’t too disappointed, since I wanted to see Nate again, which probably wouldn’t have happened if we’d made it to Fenmore Falls.
When I walked into French class on Monday morning, Nate was leaning against his desk, smiling at me. I rushed over and sat next to him, at which point he boldly leaned over and pressed his lips on my cheek. “Good morning,” he whispered.
I smiled, not even caring if the other students had seen the kiss. “Good morning.”
Nate sat at his desk and said, “I’ve been thinking that ten minutes isn’t long enough. We need to have a committee meeting to propose a change in the rule.”
I giggled. “What if I don’t second the motion?”
“Then there may be some manure involved.”
“Is the meeting before chores or after?”
“Before,” Nate said. “Definitely before.”
“What about rule number 1?”
“What rule?” He grinned.
He’s too wonderful for words, I thought, trying not to sigh.
When Ms. White started the lesson, I rested my chin in my palm and tried to focus on her instead of staring at Nate.
Abby was whispering to Jack. The two of them had been hanging out lately, which made me happy.
My eyes drifted to the front of the room to where Jamie sat. At least she couldn’t glare at me while the teacher was talking, because students got in trouble for turning around during class. But even if Jamie was her usual rude self, she couldn’t ruin my day. I was walking in the clouds.
Every day that week, Nate greeted me with a kiss on the cheek in French class, sat with me at lunch, and even walked with me to Abby’s car after school. He was courting me, and I loved it.
Finding Sleeping Beauty Page 12
