He had no answers for her, but she was speaking to herself now. Or so he thought until she met his eyes. No, she didn’t need answers, but she needed to be heard. Zac nodded, and she sighed.
“Would you talk now?”
“Sure,” he said.
The hour slipped away while he told her stories. Light stories, easy days, adventures to make her laugh. Every time, she jolted in her seat, as if the sound of her laughter startled her. He joked at his own expense and asked questions she could answer without thought, without caution. Her favorite color was green. Her favorite smoothie flavor was peach, and she laughed at his mock gagging noise. She collected fossils and seashells.
They were laughing at the time Moira had dragged Zac to a Bananarama concert without telling him who the artist was, when Rachel went silent and bit her lip.
“Everything okay?” Zac said.
“You’ve known Moira since the beginning. When both of you were mortal.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you lovers?”
No conversational caution with this woman. He should mind, but he couldn’t somehow. “Moira’s husband was lost in a flash flood a few years after the last of us got the cure. About ten years later, typhus took my wife.”
Rachel nodded, eyes on the road. She wanted the full answer.
“We got together about two years after that.” One year and ten months of wrenching loneliness.
“So why isn’t Moira here?”
Shoot, he had no idea, not really. “Some things happened recently that were … well, painful. I think she had to get away from what this place means now.”
“But you didn’t.”
“David and Tiana, they have a life here. They can’t uproot easily.”
“And they matter more?”
It was so much more complex than that. He could say Moira had fled without a word, had given him no chance to choose her. He could say, since they were being frank, that he and Moira had not shared a bed in almost two years. But there was more he wouldn’t say. That if Moira came back to him tonight, stood in his bedroom and disrobed, he would pray for strength to look away because the ship of his life was no longer his to steer but his Father’s. Not that it had ever been his. But the century of nights with Moira had been, in addition to pleasure and closeness and love, yet another attempt to control the rudder of his life.
While he tried to find a response, Simon signaled with his right blinker and took the exit ramp, tightly curved and narrow. They merged right onto the two-lane blacktop road that would soon become Main Street, and a green highway sign flashed past them. WELCOME TO HARBOR VALE.
Rachel whimpered. The car slowed until Simon began to pull away from them.
“Hey,” Zac said.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “The people.”
He pulled from every experience he could—walls, ceilings, stairs down into old buildings with low overhangs that shut his lungs down the moment he had to duck. None of it seemed to apply.
“I thought I could do it, Zac, but I can’t.”
The vehicle was drifting below forty mph, and cars were flowing past them in a rapidly perilous river.
“Okay, listen, pull off here. Put your flashers on.”
She obeyed, her fingers fumbling. “The people, they know. Cady knows. And Finn. And David Galloway.”
“And I know.”
Her eyes locked on him, too wide, unblinking.
“I’m like you. I know who you are and what you did, and I’m still here.”
“You’re still here.”
“And Simon knows too. We want you here. You’re safe with us. That’s true, isn’t it?”
“With you.”
“And with Simon.”
“And with Simon.” Wooden repetition, but she nodded slowly.
“You’ll be safe with David too. And with Cady and Finn.” He prayed the last promise was true.
Simon’s car pulled up behind them. He had circled back. The headlights shone in Rachel’s rearview mirror, and she gasped.
“Who is that?”
“Simon. He’s making sure we’re okay. Will you stay here if I get out of the car and talk to him for a minute?”
“No.”
“No?”
“I’ll drive away. I’ll go to Arizona. Or North Carolina.”
And take the cure and breathe her last in a hotel or in this vehicle. Alone.
“Okay,” Zac said. “Then we’ll wait for him to walk up.”
Simon approached the passenger side and motioned for Zac to roll down the window, as if this were a traffic stop and their vehicle had registered as stolen. Zac complied.
“Hey,” Simon said, eyeing both of them. “What’s up?”
“A little anxiety,” Zac said.
“Don’t make me do this.” Rachel’s voice inched toward shrill.
“No one’s going to make you do anything.” Simon rested his arms on the window frame.
“I can’t look at Cady.”
“Okay,” Zac said. “What if I make you a promise: you don’t have to see Cady tonight. And in return, you make me a promise: you won’t disappear tonight even if you have the opportunity.”
Her bottom lip wobbled. She held on to the steering wheel as if one of them might try to drag her away from her home.
“Okay. I won’t disappear tonight.”
“And one more promise, a permanent one.”
“What’s that?”
“You won’t take the cure in the form it is now. If you’re tempted, you’ll tell me. You won’t end your life.”
Still gripping the wheel, she rested her forehead between her hands. “I don’t understand why it’s so important to you.”
“I want your word.”
“Fine. I give you my word.”
“About what?”
“I … I won’t end my life.”
“Okay.” A sigh built beneath his ribs. He let it out slowly. “Good. Now, we need to switch seats.”
“But Simon said you can’t drive.”
Oops. Well. “At the moment I’ll be steadier than you will.”
Still half leaning in the window, Simon shook his head. “Can’t be helped, I guess.”
Or maybe he’d believed it when he said it. Moron. “It’s fine. Rachel, you get out first.”
She walked around the back of the SUV as Zac walked around the front, both of them keeping close to the vehicle, as many inches from the road as possible. The speed limit here hadn’t dropped yet the way it would in another mile or so, when they reached downtown.
Zac was opening the driver’s door when, behind Simon’s car, another pulled up. A cop car.
“Who is that?” Rachel stood beside Simon, and her arms crossed in an X over her body.
“Looks like an officer making sure we’re okay,” Simon said.
The squad car’s door opened, and out stepped Jacob Greene. Zac’s shoulders relaxed. The man was in uniform of course, as Zac had seen him around town about half the time. The other half, he was in civilian clothes and walking hand in hand with his young daughters into David’s bookstore. He set them loose, and they went after the books like seagulls after bread. The oldest, Elise, never returned to her dad without a towering armful. Zac had never yet seen Jacob deny her a book.
“Hi, Zac. I saw it was you.” Jacob raised his hand in greeting. “You guys okay? Need any assistance?”
“Jacob. Thanks for stopping, but we’re good. Just switching drivers.”
“Sure. Little narrow here for that.” He gestured to the shoulder and the curve of the exit ramp emptying cars less than a hundred feet behind them.
“Fair point. Oh—Simon and Rachel.” He nodded to each. “Guys, Officer Jacob Greene. We’ve chatted some since I’ve been lurking around his town.”
Jacob chuckled. “Some. Welcome to Harbor Vale, folks.”
Rachel nodded. She didn’t speak, but her expression looked more shy than fearful.
“Thank you,” Simon
said. “Figured we might as well see one of the Great Lakes, as long as Zac’s here. It’s beautiful country this far north.”
“Isn’t it? Be sure to take a drive along the lakeshore. There’s an old lighthouse about ten miles up that’s worth checking out.”
“I still haven’t stopped there,” Zac said. They’d passed it early on during their drive tonight.
“Don’t miss it.” Jacob half turned back to his car. “Good to meet you. Hope you enjoy your stay.”
“Just get out of the road in the meantime?” Zac grinned.
“Exactly.” Jacob offered a smile of his own, reserved but real. “People take this ramp too fast. I’ll pull out first and give you time to accelerate in front of me.”
“Thanks.”
As Jacob walked away down the length of their cars, Zac caught Rachel’s gaze. She wasn’t blinking.
Simon saw too. He opened the passenger door. “Get in, Rachel. It’s all right.”
“Yes,” she said, but her eyes remained wide.
Hopping into the seat and fastening her seat belt seemed to take immense effort. She flinched when Simon shut the door for her. He set his hand on the open window frame.
“You’re doing fine.”
“Yes.” Her voice had grown small.
“I’m going back to my car now, and I’ll follow you and Zac. Everything’s fine.”
“Yes.”
The squad car still waited behind them, Simon’s car blocked in between. When Simon looked ready, Zac flashed his lights once, and Simon did the same. Jacob pulled out, giving Simon and then Zac time to enter traffic ahead of him. Zac hit the gas, and in a minute, Jacob’s car turned right when he and Simon continued straight. Jacob was the kind of guy to whom Zac could almost imagine telling the whole truth.
“Where are we going?” Rachel said.
“To my place, I guess.”
No answer, but her shoulders hunched, and her breathing deepened with a strained control. She stayed quiet, but it was a reprise of the sound he knew too well. A battle for air when terror crushed everything inside, lungs included. He took his phone from the center console and dialed. Rachel didn’t look up.
“Zac,” David said from the other end of the line.
“Hey. We’re about five minutes from my place. You still there?”
“I and Tiana. Finn and Cady are settled in their hotel room.”
Zac’s hands tightened on the wheel and the phone. “Sure about that?”
“They won’t leave us. I have Finn’s word.”
A lot of that going around tonight. Zac cleared his throat. “How are they?”
“As expected.” David’s voice hushed. “Cady is consumed in anger.”
“Yeah.” And not only anger.
“You were right, my friend. Had I not stayed, we wouldn’t have heard from them again.”
“Thanks for doing it.”
“They are cast down but not destroyed.” A long, depleted sigh came over the phone.
“I know the feeling.”
“Aye.” A pause, a shift of the mood that filtered through the connection. “Do you indeed?”
“Well, I know Corinthians, anyway.”
David chuckled. “Of course.”
“And both of them are following the same Way.”
“You would call yourself a follower now?”
Beside him Rachel had dropped her chin to her chest, and her breaths weren’t easing.
“We need to postpone the topic,” Zac said. “See you in a minute.”
“Aye,” David said.
Zac ended the call and dropped the phone back into a cup holder.
“Was that David Galloway?”
“It was.”
“I’m going to keep breathing until we get there.”
And then? Despite all, a smile found his mouth. “Good plan, kiddo.”
Minutes later he parked in his apartment lot beside his favored tree. David’s Jeep sat a few spaces away.
Rachel pressed her spine into the corner of the door frame and the seat. If only she might know the sanctuary of family. Was that God’s plan for her? Zac unbuckled his seat belt and leaned to set his palm on her shoulder.
“I can’t do this,” she said.
Simon was out of his car, striding up to the building’s main door. It opened, and David and Tiana stepped out. Rachel stared at all of them, whimpering between breaths. Zac got out of the SUV, pocketed the keys, and walked around to her door. She cringed away from him when he opened it.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “I know you’re scared.”
Her eyes were fixed on him. Pleading.
“I told you I’d help you.”
A single blink.
“When a room starts shrinking on me, if I can’t get out and go somewhere else, I try to imagine what the sky looks like right then. So here’s what I want you to imagine, Rachel. You’re in your car, driving. It’s quiet, just the wind around you. No one’s looking. You can sing as loud as you want to, and no one hears. It’s just you.”
She shut her eyes. “Just me.”
“Now, if I was in the car with you, would that be okay?”
“I—I think so.”
“Because you know me.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, now. If it wasn’t me in the car, maybe it would be David or Tiana instead.”
Her breath caught.
“David was alone like you, even longer than you were alone. When he meets you, he’s going to understand.”
“Now?”
“They’ll wait until you’re ready.”
She sat another minute, breaths slowing and steadying. Zac looked over his shoulder at the three standing just outside the door, not approaching, and Simon nodded. Bless the man; he’d explained everything. David stood to one side behind him, arms folded but loosely. Tiana stood on his other side. Their positions weren’t an accident, would allow Rachel space when she approached. At last she climbed out of the vehicle and looked up the long walkway to the porch.
“Cady and Finn?”
“They’re not here.”
Side by side they walked up to the apartments, until Rachel stopped at the bottom of the entryway steps.
“Hello, Rachel,” David said.
“Hello, David Galloway.”
“Hi,” Tiana said, her tone warm but reserved.
“I don’t know you.” Rachel backed up one step.
“Tiana Burton.”
“You’re not …”
“Ageless? Nope.”
“No.” Rachel eyed her. “You wouldn’t be.”
Tiana’s eyebrows arched. “Oh?”
“Doc never would have given you the serum.”
In the air around them, the sudden thickness felt tangible. Tiana’s shoulders drew back, but she didn’t otherwise move.
“I see,” she said.
Zac hadn’t thought of it before, but Rachel was right. An old anger pulled his face into a grimace. Times were different then was both fact and excuse. Tiana’s gaze remained on Rachel, a flicker of vulnerability there until she blinked it away.
“I’m here because I’m with David.”
“I—I’m sorry,” Rachel said. “I’m not good with people, and there are so many of you.”
Tiana stepped down off the porch and held out her hand. “I’m glad to meet you, Rachel.”
Rachel stared at Tiana’s hand and hunched her shoulders.
Tiana lowered her hand, a wrinkle forming between her eyes. If Rachel didn’t explain, Zac would later, but he hated that, hated the hurt in Tiana’s face and every experience that put it there.
Rachel’s breathing evened as her focus was pulled from her anxiety to Tiana’s misinterpretation. “I’m sorry. I can’t touch anyone right now. It isn’t you.”
Tiana’s eyes cleared, and she nodded.
Zac motioned them all forward and addressed Rachel. “Can we go in?”
“N–no. Too many.”
David and Simon s
tood back too far to hear her splintered words, but at Tiana’s pointed look they descended the stairs.
“Let’s part ways for tonight,” Zac said.
Rachel’s breathing grew strained as she looked up at David. “I made the cure. I gave it to them, all four of them.”
Zac darted a look around the lot, past the end of the porch on either side. No mortals anywhere around. Still, her words caused his stance to shift, one foot to the other.
And she kept going. “They weren’t supposed to die, but—”
“Enough,” Simon said.
Rachel gave a start. “I just wanted David to hear it from me.”
“Then we take the topic indoors.”
“It’s a grievous thing that’s happened,” David said. “I know that, Rachel.”
She looked up and met their eyes, each of them for a long moment, the seeking gaze she’d given Zac a few times before. “It is grievous.”
Bare trees rattled in a half-hearted night wind, distant traffic whirred along the highway that led to Harbor Vale’s main street. They stood there together, and no one had words to throw off the weight of Rachel’s.
Zac wanted to invite them in, all of them, but Rachel needed a chance to calm herself. Standing under their gazes seemed to be eroding her from the outside in, a tide against which she was too frail to stand. Zac stepped past David to the heavy foyer door and tugged it open; someone had propped it with the wood-block stopper.
“Come in, Rachel.”
She gaped at him.
“We’ll see the rest of you tomorrow.”
Light poured from the two-level foyer onto all of them, warmer than the white porch bulb. Rachel took a few steps nearer, stopped, and stepped forward again like a fawn venturing from thicket to clearing.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll come in.”
“Thank you,” Zac said to the others. “For everything you did today.”
“Anytime,” Tiana said, and David nodded.
Zac’s throat closed around his gratitude, and a pang of fondness hit his chest. He smiled and ignored Simon’s frown.
“G’night,” he said, but when he turned to follow Rachel inside, David caught the door. “What?”
“Do you plan to stay awake all night?”
“Coffee.” Zac shrugged.
“Right,” Simon said. “And when you doze off, she injects you and drives away and in the morning we find you bedridden with gray hair.”
From Sky to Sky Page 25