Why are they all here?
It’s so weird.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mohegan.
When her eyes open, she smiles for the first time in three days and it’s better than winning lotto.
“Hey, Liv. Feeling better?”
Last night, the nurse on duty said that if I didn’t go home she’d commit me. That’s why today, I sneak past the healers while their shifts change. I’m not listening to any more crap about visitors.
“Want that,” Olivia rasps and points at the water bottle with a shaky finger.
“Sure, babe.” First kissing her forehead, I place the straw into her cracked lips, damn pleased she’s asking for fluids.
After she finishes she clears her throat and coughs. “Was my dad here? Dave Harding?”
I push her hair out of her eyes and take her hand. “I had no idea he was your father. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You never asked.”
That’s it. That’s the snarky girl I’ve been missing. Pretty soon she’ll be well enough to take home.
I squeeze her hand. “C’mon now, Liv. He’s probably the most famous male healer in the states.”
Her response is a grunt and a scowl. “To me, he’s just Holiday. When he comes back, tell him to go away. God, I need to sit up or throw up.”
When she struggles, I adjust a pillow behind her back and pulse more healing energy into her.
She pushes my palm away. “Don’t. I’m fine. Really. Just sit.”
I ease down into the one chair beside her bed. “Your father’s in the cafeteria, catching up with your mother. They haven’t left the hospital, once.”
She frowns and lets out a little moan. “Shit. Is my mom okay.”
“I think so, just worried about you. Why?”
“Long story. But if you see her crying, you’ll let me know?”
“Liv?” I bring her knuckles to my lips.
“What?”
“I think you need to be more concerned about you.”
“Why? I’m fine.” She makes a face full of pain, then thumps her head back down on the pillow. “Shit. I will be. Eventually.”
This isn’t the time to give her hell but it’s been pent up inside me for three, long days. “None of this would’ve happened if you’d simply obeyed me.”
Her eyes grow dark and her aura flares. “Obeyed? Seriously? What is this? The fifteenth century? Are you my lord and master, now?”
“Shit. Don’t change the subject. It doesn’t matter what we are. You should’ve stayed put.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.” She drags her feet over the side of the bed and I rush over to catch her before she falls onto the floor.
Feeling like a complete ass, I lay her back down and cover her with a blanket while she curses me up a storm.
That’s when her parents walk in and I walk out.
Her dad follows me out the door. “Coffee?”
“Yeah, sure. Why not?” We haven’t yet talked about me and Liv, and it’s time.
To tell the truth, I’m rather in awe of Dave Harding. He’s always been a kind of hero to me. It freaks me out that I almost got his daughter killed and I’m sure, by the way his aura spikes, he’s not happy with me, either.
After we sit in the cafeteria, I try to explain. “Listen, Mr. Harding, I told her to stay put. Your daughter doesn’t listen worth shit.”
Now he’s the one shaking his head. “I figured as much. She’s too much like me and not enough like her mother. So, tell me, what the hell were you all doing in New Orleans?”
I give him the low-down from the time I was in Philly until he showed up at the carriage house to help me save Olivia.
“I sensed there was trouble but had no idea what I’d find. Lucky for you, you’re a healer or I might need to kill you.”
“I’d truly appreciate it if you wouldn’t, sir.” I’m not liking how this conversation is turning.
“Hmph.” Harding stares into space for about sixty seconds, leans over the table, his voice low and threatening. “Okay, here’s the part where I tell you to stay away from her. I’ve heard about you. You’re a God-damned loose cannon.”
“That’s a bit like the pot calling the caldron black, isn’t it?”
What he said is true but damned if I’ll take that kind of shit from him. He’s had decades of finding and getting into lots more trouble than me.
“I admit, I got a bit of dirt on me boy, but you? You surpass me, by far. Olivia is too naïve, too good a soul to get mixed up with the likes of you.”
“Shouldn’t she be allowed to decide?” My stupid chest constricts at the thought of leaving her.
“Man up. Think about what a life with you would do to her and decide. If you care for her, you’ll leave.”
“Excuse me, sir, but is that what you did?” My jibe hits the mark and the tops of his cheeks grow red.
“When I got Olivia’s mother pregnant, I did the best I could. My wife and little girl wanted for nothing and I never put them in danger. Can you say the same?” He uses his glower to drive his point home.
“No sir.” My chair scrapes the linoleum as I stand and after texting Eduda, I leave behind the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Olivia.
Waking, I look around the hospital room and my heart stops. “Mom? Where did Mohegan and Holiday go?”
“You mean your father?” She looks up from her Kindle with a frown.
“You know that’s who I mean.”
I never use dad, daddy, or anything that would signify a paternal connection. Ejaculating into my mother and showing up once or twice a year is not a father in my book.
“Your father took your nice young man down to the cafeteria.”
That’s it. Time to haul my ass out of bed but when I try, a whole shitload of alarms in the equipment tower starts bleeping and blinking.
A nurse runs in. “Ms. Harding, please! You need to lay back down.”
I untangle the sheets from around my feet and pull at the needle attached to a long, narrow hose. “But –”
“No buts.” The healing nurse slaps my hands that are busy pulling off bandages, then shoots a glower at my mom. “Is this woman bothering you?”
“I am her mother!”
I turn to the nurse. “I rest my case.”
“No more upsetting my patient or I don’t care who you are, out you go.” The nurse points an index finger out the door and she’s right. For my mental health and hers, my Mom needs to go. I lay flat, waiting until my heartrate monitor goes back to normal.
“Listen Mom, I appreciate you coming to New Orleans but as you can see, I’m fine. Why don’t you and Holiday head back to Rochester? I swear, I’ll come visit for Thanksgiving. That’s just a week away.”
“Who’s going to take care of you back in that horrible shop of yours?” Her lower lip goes out with a big tear forming in her eye.
“I’m going to stay with Jack and Zoe. They got plenty of room and remember? Zoe’s a half-healer.”
“I’m just trying to help. Why won’t let me?” Crocodile tears form in the corners of her eyes.
Oh-oh, here it comes, the big guilt trip.
“Because when me and you are in the same room for more than a couple hours, we end up wanting to kill each other.”
After a long, drawn-out sigh, she nods and opens her Kindle. “I’ll stay until they release you, okay?”
“Sure, that’d be great, Mom. Thanks for understanding.”
Her healing seeps into me and I fall back asleep. When I open my eyes, Holiday’s in my room instead of Mohegan.
God damn it. I just knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from interfering in my life.
“What did you do?”
He stands at my bedside and takes my other hand. “What you and the biker both already knew, honey. He told me to tell you goodbye.”
My heartrate skyrockets and red lights start flashi
ng from the electronics attached to wires on my chest.
Immediately, Holiday takes my hand. “Take my energy.”
“Fuck you. I won’t take a damn thing from you. Get out! Both of you. Now! Nurse! God damn it, somebody help me!”
My mother flutters about the room, like a God-damned moth and finally some ladies in uniforms remove both of my loving, yet dreadfully, dysfunctional parents.
Alone, I allow myself to break down and cry.
What the fuck? I get that Mohegan was mad but to just up and leave me? How could he?
For the rest of my time in the hospital, I don’t talk to either my mother or my father. It’s their fucked-up relationship that made me what I am today, a lonely, spinster tea-witch. Just when I thought there might be more, they screwed that up, too.
My doctor, staring into an expensive iPad, comes to see me the day I’m to be discharged.
“What is it?” Lady luck’s been in the shitter so I brace for bad news.
“I wanted to make sure so I had them run the test again. I just got the results. You’re pregnant.” She beams as if announcing the birth of Christ.
My mouth drops open and my brain explodes with a whirlwind of emotions.
First is disbelief. “This can’t be. My fallopian tubes don’t work. No eggs.”
Her smile is kind as she motions me to sit in the wheelchair before I fall down. “Have you been in contact with any strange spells, recently?”
Emotion number two, I freak. What if the evil spell caused the pregnancy and I have something like in Rosemary’s Baby or The Omen?
The healer peers at me oddly, no doubt the weirdness in my aura confusing her. “Well, however you got there, congratulations, honey.”
A warm, maternal, hug soothes all my fears as she backs me out of my room and heads for the elevator.
A baby? I am so friggin’ happy. “Thank you. Thank you so much for everything.”
“I can give you the name of a good OBGYN healer, if you want.”
“Uh, yes. That would be great.” So many questions race through my head, I don’t know where to start and now I’m freaking out again.
For a moment, I consider telling my Mom but then think better of it. She’ll make me more nuts and insist on either coming home with me or worse yet, me going home with her.
Pregnant? With Mohegan’s magical baby?
Holy fuck. What the hell do I do now?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mohegan.
I feel like a complete piece of shit for not saying goodbye to Olivia but I just couldn’t face her. She would’ve looked at me with those green eyes, her aura full of betrayal and I would’ve changed my mind about leaving, no matter what her father said.
On the company jet back to Chicago, all I can do is think of her; the way she smiles, the way she fits so perfectly inside my arms, the way she screams when she comes. I’ve never wanted anyone or anything so damn much.
Inside my office, a dusty stack of laptops is piled up on my chair. Folded cardboard boxes rest against one wall, along with a sales banner, and some other junk I don’t recognize. I guess I’ve been on the road for longer than I realized.
Clearing some space, I connect to the internet and stare at emails, clicking mindlessly.
The Guild sent over thirty messages since I last logged on. Apparently, I should be funding rehab centers and finding staff. Oh yeah, there’s a small matter of a virus escaping to places it shouldn’t have. At least Labeau and her crew are all rounded up and under arrest.
Shit. I stand and stretch. This is not where I want to be.
Eduda hasn’t said much since arriving. Now, he makes himself at home in my office, moves some monitors, and sits down across from my desk. “What happened with Dave Harding?”
“Nothing happened. He suggested I get lost and I agreed.”
“And yet your whole emotional state says something completely different.” He touches my arm and I pull back, refusing to deal with his disapproval.
Instead I busy myself by stacking piles of junk onto other piles. “I’d rather not talk about her, okay?”
“Stop evading. What did he say?” My grandfather can be a nosy busybody when he puts his mind to it.
Finally, I sigh, lean back in my office chair and look him square in the face. “The truth, Eduda. A man like me can’t have a woman like her. I almost got her killed, twice.”
He rakes a hand through his long white hair, the wrinkles beside his eyes growing deep. “That may be true for him but you and Olivia need to make your own path. What does she think?”
“It doesn’t matter, it’s over.” A vise squeezes my heart even as the words exit my mouth.
My grandfather stands. “Who’re you trying to convince? Me or you?”
I slam my laptop closed and raise my voice, not caring who in the cube farm will hear. “He’s got the exact same curse as me, Eduda! Who would know better how to deal with this than him? Shit. It fucking hurts so fucking bad.”
My eyes water, I wipe them with the back of my sleeve and stand to meet his outstretched hands. His hug is the same one I got as a kid. After, he pats me on the back and leaves me alone for the rest of the day.
Much later, I check my phone on my way home. There’s three texts from her.
Olivia: ‘Talk to me.’
Olivia: ‘Where are you?’
Olivia: ‘God Damn it. Call me.’
I delete them but can’t bring myself to remove her number from my contact list. Then, I place a bottle of whiskey on my kitchen table and don’t bother with a glass.
Around midnight, the bottle significantly depleted, I stop arguing with myself and drunk-text Olivia.
Me: Hey, you there?
Olivia: Yes.
Me: I should’ve said goodbye.
Olivia: Yeah. I know.
That’s it?
Me: Sorry. I thought it for the best.
Olivia: Whatever.
That clamp around my heart tightens. Dammit. I shouldn’t’ve texted but now that I got her attention, I can’t seem to stop myself. All I can think of is her sweet mouth, her essence, her goodness. Yeah, it’s selfish but I want her always and because of the spell, she’ll have to agree.
Me: When do you want me to come visit?
Olivia: Ask Holiday. He’s the one with all the answers.
After that, no matter what I text, or how many times I call, she refuses to respond. When I wake and look at my phone, I groan. I made over twenty outgoing calls over the course of three hours.
Shit.
I decide then and there to stop drinking and erase her number. She needs to go back to her tea making and I need to get my life back in order. After, I can get on my bike and do what I do best.
I get up, take a shower, and head to work. I don’t bother to heal my own damn hangover. It’s the perfect reminder of what an asshole I am.
Rather than drive, I walk to the office while a frigid wind whips off the lake. When snow swirls and lands on my beard, I wrap my scarf tighter. With my chin tucked in my jacket and hands in my pocket, I up my pace, slipping and sliding on the icy sidewalk.
Once inside the building, I nod to Karen at the front desk and hop into the elevator. All the damn time I hear Olivia’s laughter ringing in my ears and feel the pull of her as if we were still connected.
My whole damn being is a sorry mess.
What a cluster-fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Olivia.
Maybe I should’ve answered one of Mohegan’s calls last night. Instead, I placed my phone on my bed stand and watched it vibrate until it hit the floor. I convinced myself I didn’t answer because I didn’t want to wear out my welcome at Zoe’s by screaming into the phone but it was really because I didn’t want the heartbreak of a final goodbye.
My best friend comes into her spare bedroom with a breakfast tray. “Want to talk about it?”
“No.” Tears drip down my cheeks.
She places the toast a
nd eggs on the bedside table, sits next to me, and pulls me into a hug. “Ahh, shit. Is this all about Mohegan?”
I nod between silent sobs and she hands me a box of tissues. “Jack told me you had some kind of connection. I thought you and the biker were good.”
While blowing my nose, I wish I could get rid of him just as easily. Then, I sip on her tea with shaky hands and calm enough to speak between hiccoughs.
“He didn’t… even… say goodbye.”
Zoe smiles sadly and shakes her head. “It’s not easy. Loving an alpha.”
“What the fuck is wrong with me? Every time I close my eyes, I see him. When I wake up, I think he’ll call and when he does, I don’t answer.”
“Sounds like true love, to me.” She pats my knee when I continue bawling like an infant.
“I barely had a chance to get to know him. But I thought… Oh, shit, Zoe. For the first time in my life I thought there could be more than just friends-with-benefits.”
“I know, hun. I know.” She rocks with me and hums a healing song that isn’t meant to make me feel better. It’s supposed to make me let out all my pain and I do. Lord, I do.
Finally, I swallow, my eyes so puffy I can barely open them. “And you will not believe this. I’m pregnant.”
Her eyes go wide. “I thought the doctors said your tubes didn’t work. Your mom said the same… Damn, even I was sure.”
“Check me. Go ahead.”
She puts her hands on my stomach, eyes growing wider and wider. “Oh my God.”
A small flame forms in her palm and shoots off like fireworks as she dances around the room. At that, Charlie wakes in the other bedroom and starts to fuss.
“C’mon. Get out of bed. I’ll nurse the baby while we figure out what to do. This is awesome! Congratulations!”
A few hours later, Zoe whips up some lunch while I shovel tiny spoonfuls of squash into the baby. I can’t help but smile when the little boy giggles and mashes food with his tiny fists. Yeah, I’m damn sad about Mohegan but happy to be having a precious little babe of my own.
Mohegan: A Siren's Spell Romance Page 12