“Did my grandmother know her too?”
“Your grandfather introduced us,” he shared, smiling at my surprise.
“I never met him,” I admitted.
“Of course you didn’t. But I think you would have gotten along wonderfully.”
“All I know about him is that he liked vintage cars and died when my mom was in high school.”
“That’s a shame,” he looked genuinely hurt over it.
“Grams died when I was really young too,” I told him. I have memories of my Grams where she is kind and loving, but also a bit paranoid and removed from the outside world. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd would tell me she was different once, but the only example they had was that she used to have parties and visitors and go out all the time before my grandfather died. “You could tell me about them, if you’re not too busy some time.”
“I would love to,” he beamed. “I have a million stories. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“At the beginning?” I suggested.
“The beginning of her? Or of us?” he asked.
“When did you first meet her?”
“I can’t remember not knowing her,” he tried to think. “Her mom brought her here every summer, even after they moved to Boston. I met her before I could walk or talk or any of that.”
“Did you two ever…” There was something about the way he said it that made me wonder if they were more than just childhood friends.
“First love and first kiss,” he agreed. “I still get nervous around Embry sometimes.”
“He was overprotective?” I smiled.
“Very,” he agreed. “It was a weird dynamic if you didn’t know what was going on.”
“Probably weirder if you did,” I pointed out.
“Arguably, yes.”
“Who broke who’s heart?” I asked.
“It wasn’t like that,” he brushed it off. “She was amazing. This fierce girl from the North who didn’t let anyone tell her what to do. It was usually just the two of us, but anyone who met her fell for her. I was lucky enough to be her favorite person in Louisiana,” he said, which sounded exactly like what I was asking.
“When did you meet my grandfather?” I asked.
“The summer we turned sixteen, we drove to Nashville to see Johnny Cash at the Grand Ole Opry. I won’t lie and pretend I wasn’t hoping something would happen, but Grant came over to say hi to her, and the way she looked at him, I knew she would never be mine.”
“She broke your heart,” I concluded.
“She would have,” he agreed. “But by the time she admitted to liking him as much as I knew she did, Grant had spent quite a few weekends in New Orleans, most of them with his best friend, Laurel.”
“Were they like you and my Grams?” I asked.
“I am told it was like kissing her brother, so she was relieved when he told her about the girl he met at a concert, and she orchestrated most of their trips.”
“For him to see Grams, or so she could see you?” I called him on it.
“Her motives grew more selfish as the summer went on,” he smiled.
“Did Grams still spend every summer here after she got married?”
“Once she went to college, she had to go home to Boston in the summers, but we were all at Louisiana State together, so I still got to see her.”
“What did they study?” I asked. I had no idea what Grams did other than be rich and take care of me.
“Grant was in the science department with Laurel. Astrophysics and space stuff,” he shrugged like it was all Chinese to him. “And your Grams was the only lawyer I have ever trusted. She refused to take on clients who were guilty and deserved to pay for their crimes.”
“I don’t think you’re allowed to do that,” I argued.
“Not technically, but she did.”
He went on to tell me about her entire process once she had her practice set up, where she would interview potential clients. “If the crime was one she found reprehensible and they were guilty, she sent them away. If it was a crime she might have committed if she were in their shoes, she would defend the innocent and the guilty alike.”
“A lawyer with a moral code,” I shook my head. It was hard to picture Grams as a powerful lawyer.
“And how many times did she get you out of something?” Eric came over, wearing dark blue jeans and a green plaid shirt with a cowboy hat, which would have made me laugh my head off, only it somehow worked for him.
“Only the things she got me into.”
“I’m sensing a story,” I smiled, hoping Charlie would share.
“Lots of them, but I believe my grandson came over for a reason.”
“I’m down for stories,” Eric assured his grandfather. “But if Lucy would like to accompany me, I was going to go riding.”
“We’ve got time to finish this later,” Charlie told me.
“Then I would love to go horseback riding with you. I’ll change and be right back,” I told Eric before heading inside to put the Chronicles away and change into a pair of pants.
When I got to the stables, Eric had a beautiful, butterscotch colored horse saddled and waiting for me.
“This is Donner,” he introduced him to me.
“And who is this?” I asked of the chestnut mare he had for himself.
“Rudolf,” he looked embarrassed. “We were very young when we chose their names, and it was December, so…”
“Reindeer,” I let him know I understood. “Do you guys get snow here?”
“No, we don’t. My oldest sister convinced us that horses were reindeer who lived in warmer climates.”
“I’m sensing a lot of these tricks.”
“My entire childhood,” he agreed. “But now they’re having kids and I’m their older and wiser uncle, so I’m making up for it.”
“I didn’t know you were the vengeful type,” I remarked.
“It’s not revenge so much as my duty,” he argued.
“You’re close?”
“Not like when we were all living together, but they come out here every summer, we get together at Christmas... I try to make it to all the birthday parties, but there are lots.”
“How many nieces and nephews do you have?”
“Eighteen and a half.”
“Missing body parts, or someone’s still pregnant?” I got him to laugh.
“Franny married a guy who already had a four-year-old daughter, so she calls herself my half. As far as I’m concerned, it’s nineteen, but the nickname makes her happy.”
“My niece likes to introduce me as her sister-aunt to kids at school.”
“But she’s really your niece?” he asked.
“I was orphaned when I was four and the couple that took me in had a son. We grew up together, so I feel like his daughter is my niece, but I also still live with them,” I tried to find a less tragic way to explain that every member of my family died, so I won’t ever have a sister or a niece, technically speaking. He also didn’t need to know that I’d lost Sam too. Maybe I was cursed.
“Sister-aunt,” he agreed with Clara’s title for me.
“I guess so,” I rolled my eyes.
He took us through a path in the wooded area, toward the swamplands.
“Not a fan?” he asked when I kept slapping myself to kill the bugs.
“It’s beautiful, but I’m being eaten alive.”
“Zombies or cannibals?” he asked.
“Mosquitoes. They’re not bothering you?”
“Guess your blood is sweeter,” he smiled. “This was my favorite place to play as a kid, until grandpa freaked out.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“The mosquitoes carry a deadly virus,” he teased. “I think people might drown in the swamps sometimes, or there’s alligators, but it had more to do with me bringing half the swamp back to the house with me.”
“That could be upsetting.”
“Now the horses play in the mud and I can outrun the bugs.”
> “I doubt that,” I argued as he started slapping himself as well.
“Come on.” He brought me around the property, which was beautiful, but also very different from our land in Boston.
He told me more about his family and his childhood with Charlie while I shared stories about life with Sam and Deanna, as if this was just a summer trip and everything would be back to normal once I went home.
When we brought the horses back to the stables, he showed me how to take the saddle off and let me brush Donner.
“Out of all the reindeer, why Donner?” I asked as I brushed. “I get Rudolph, but Comet, Cupid, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen…”
“He came seventh,” he shrugged.
“You’re the youngest?” I guessed.
“They would never say unwanted, but my siblings were all born very close together, and I came as an afterthought.”
“Maybe they missed having a baby.”
“I’m Charlie’s favorite now, so that’s good enough for me.”
“You liked it here because you got to be an only child,” I understood.
“And there is nothing wrong with that,” he laughed at being caught.
“Nothing at all,” I assured him. I had wished for siblings, in the sense that I wished my parents had been around long enough to have more kids, but I was perfectly happy when I had Sam.
“Same time tomorrow?” Eric asked me.
“I have no idea what they have planned.
“Are you their prisoner?” he asked, mostly teasing, but I could tell he was curious.
“I thought you knew them?”
“Embry comes sometimes, but it’s more like I know his house really well.”
“I have yet to explore it.”
“Most of the fun stuff is behind locked doors.”
“It usually is,” I agreed.
“Not a prisoner?” he verified.
“It depends on your definition.” I considered it, but he looked concerned, so I backtracked, “They’re looking out for me. I’m ninety-nine percent sure they’re the good guys.”
“Well, with that glowing recommendation…” he laughed, and I did too, until we ran into Gabriel. Literally, because it was getting dark and he was standing in the shadows, dressed in black.
“Where were you?” he asked, not exactly reproachful, but concerned.
“We went riding.”
“We told you not to leave the property.” The vein in his forehead was pulsing again.
“We didn’t. I know the limits and we went nowhere near them,” Eric assured him.
“Thank you.” It sounded difficult for Gabriel to get out.
“I’ll maybe see you tomorrow?” Eric asked me with a smile.
“Maybe,” I agreed, smiling back. Eric went to Charlie’s and I headed to the villa, leaving Gabriel outside to do god-knows-what in the shadows.
Chapter Nine
“Aim for the pads,” Sam told me, holding them up to his chest so I could practice my jabs, my cross, and my hook, like Caleb taught me at the beginning of the summer.
“You have to follow them ladybug, the enemy won’t stay still for you.” He brought his arms out to the side and above my head, so high that I couldn’t reach.
“I’m not tall enough,” I argued, jumping as high as I could, but not touching him. Not even close.
“Find something to help you then. You won’t always be evenly matched, and I can’t be there to help you.”
Of course not. You died. The thought came into my mind, but I pushed it away. Sam wasn’t dead, he was right in front of me, training me like they should have my whole life, to prepare me for what we were up against. “There’s nothing here,” I said instead. We were in a field with tall grass. It was the perfect summer day, with not a cloud in the sky…but there wasn’t any sun either. The light was white and artificial.
It felt like he kept getting taller and taller, so his head was further and further away from me. I looked around again, but couldn’t see anything I could use to get higher, until Beth showed up out of nowhere.
“Beth!” I exclaimed. “Do you have a spell or something I can use? Maybe a ladder?” I asked, showing her how tall Sam was.
“You have everything you need,” she said with a smile and a wink before walking over to me and crouching down, so I could get on her shoulders.
“Are you sure?” I asked, knowing I must be pretty heavy.
“I’ve got you,” she said with confidence.
I climbed on and let her straighten up, which gave me a few extra feet, but it wasn’t enough. I looked down, about to tell her we needed more height, but I recognized Cassandra walking over and crouching down, like Beth had. I was sure I couldn’t stay on, that there was no way the three of us could stand on top of each other without toppling over, but we did. I was almost there, so I tried extending my arms, but I couldn’t reach.
By now I was expecting it when Rosalind ran over and crouched down. I wasn’t even surprised when Annabelle came and managed to carry us all on her shoulders, making me at least four heads taller than Sam, who smiled.
“You figured it out.”
“I had help,” I argued, bringing my gloves to his pads, as he slowly regressed to his normal size.
The world was beautiful from up so high, and I felt like I could do anything, but as ‘our enemy’ grew smaller, the girls relieved their charges, one by one. Once I was on solid ground, back to my own height, my ancestors smiled at me and walked off into the field they came from.
“Wait!” I called after them, but only Annabelle looked back at me and smiled, none of them even slowing down.
“They did what they needed to,” Sam shrugged, taking off the pads.
“Will they come back?”
“I guess if you need them to.”
“I need all the help I can get right now.”
“You’re living the adventure we dreamed about.”
“Not like this,” I argued. “It was supposed to be scary and thrilling, with magical creatures and pirates and happy endings.”
“You can’t tell if the ending is happy until you reach it,” he reminded me.
“When did you start talking like this?” I asked instead of telling him that the ending couldn’t be happy if he wasn’t there.
“When I became a grown-up,” he ruffled my hair.
“I miss how easy it was when the manor was my playground and I was cute, so you followed me around and played all my games. Your mom made us cookies and ice cream, both if I was sad…”
“You were an annoying little monster,” he was clearly lying and couldn’t keep a straight face.
“You loved me.”
“Still do,” he assured me, as the clouds moved overhead. I looked up to see if the sun was still there, but when I came back down, we were in the parking lot at the motel.
“Sam, we need to go.” I felt a chill and knew in my bones that something terrible was about to happen. I looked around in fear for Donovan and his followers to pounce on us. “Sam!” I turned and his throat was slit, with blood pouring out of it.
“Lucy,” he struggled. “What did you do?”
“No, I didn’t want this to happen, I tried to…”
“How could you?” he asked, clutching at his throat before falling to the ground.
“Everyone you love dies,” Donovan came out of nowhere and spat, less than an inch from my face.
I screamed and woke up in a room I didn’t recognize, with sweat pouring off me. I pulled the covers up to my chin and tried to breathe, reminding myself I was in Embry’s house in New Orleans and it was just a nightmare. My breathing came back to normal as Gabriel rushed in, but the pain in my heart remained. The part that made the dream a nightmare was the part that really happened.
“Do you hear that?” I asked as Embry ran into the room, holding a baseball bat. I saw that Gabriel had discarded a fire poker when he saw I was alone in the room.
“It was just a nightmare,�
�� Embry said, sitting on the bed with me.
“I know. I’m sorry I woke you, but…that’s my name.” I wasn’t sure at first, but I could hear it as clearly as Embry’s words. Someone outside the window was calling my name.
“Is Charlie’s…” Gabriel sounded like he was ready to have some very unpleasant words with Eric if he was the cause of my nocturnal turmoil.
“No, it sounds like…” I stopped myself. It didn’t make any sense. They would think I was crazy.
“It sounds like what?” Embry asked, but the sound was already growing faint. With the lights on and the guys there, I could almost convince myself I imagined it.
“It sounded like Sam calling me,” I admitted, hating the look they exchanged, full of pity and concern.
“You don’t hear it anymore?” Gabriel asked gently.
“Not as clearly.”
“What was the nightmare?” Embry asked, his hand still on mine to help me calm down.
“It was just a weird dream with Sam.” I knew how it sounded. “But then he died, and it was my fault, and he was so hurt.”
“Sam knows it wasn’t your fault and doesn’t blame you,” Embry told me.
“No, the real Sam doesn’t know or feel anything, because he’s dead.” I knew he was trying to help, but this wasn’t something I wanted to feel better about.
“Pancakes?” Gabriel asked, making Embry and I both look at him like he was crazy. “Unless you would rather go back to sleep, but it’s 4 a.m., I’m up and I’m hungry.”
Embry looked at me to assess how I was feeling, so I shrugged, “I’m not getting back to sleep any time soon.”
“I’ll get them started.”
There was one other time Gabriel made me pancakes in the middle of the night, although if memory served, they were actually crepes. Clara had this freak fever and I can’t remember where Embry was, but Sam wanted someone to stay with me at the plantation so I wouldn’t catch it, and Gabriel was the one who showed up. I was not happy and wanted nothing more than to be back with Sam and Deanna, helping them take care of Clara. I would sing to her until she fell asleep, and hold her hand, so I spent the night on the couch, convinced they were going to call for me. When Gabriel realized I wasn’t sleeping, he made crepes and we had one of those rare times where it’s the middle of the night and he talks to me.
Destiny Page 8
