“No. It doesn’t seem fair to you either. You two have to learn to compromise. That’s something May and I never did very well. You can learn from our mistakes. Being right isn’t as important as being happy, and I’m pretty sure you and Galen are happy.”
“When an incubus isn’t trying to pull me out a window, we’re very happy.”
“Then learn to compromise.”
“He has to compromise, too.”
“That’s a given.”
We lapsed into amiable silence for a bit, watching the trembling colt. I was the first to break it.
“This was wonderful to see. Thank you for letting me be part of it.”
“Part of it? You get to name him.”
I was taken aback. “Really?”
“Yup. It’s a big deal. He’s going to be stuck with that name for his whole life. Make sure it’s a good one.”
“I need to think on it. Is that okay?”
“Absolutely. Thinking is good. For now, let’s get out of here and leave the momma to tend to her baby. I think she’ll be looking forward to visitors later.”
“Okay.” I cast one more look at the foal over my shoulders. “He’s beautiful.”
“He is. Life has a lot of twists and turns, Hadley. You have to remember that there’s always good and bad no matter the day.”
I understood. “You’re still not going to let Galen sleep in the same room with me, are you?”
“I want a good day, so no.”
“I figured.”
“You’re a smart cookie.”
18
Eighteen
I couldn’t get over the foal. He was small, adorable and perfect ... and I wanted to give him a good name. Even when I returned to researching incubi he was at the back of my brain. May lost interest in helping at some point and wandered out to spend the afternoon with Wesley. That left me to do my own thing.
I got so lost in what I was doing that I didn’t hear the library door open. It was later than I realized – much later – and when Galen sat next to me on the couch I almost came out of my skin.
“What are you doing here?” Something occurred to me and I grabbed the front of his shirt so he couldn’t flee. “Are you here to rescue me? Did you see the error of your ways? Are you springing me early?”
He arched an eyebrow. “It’s almost five,” he said finally. “You’ve been here all day.”
I was taken aback. “Oh.” That didn’t sound right. How had the day passed so quickly? “I didn’t realize.”
“Obviously it wasn’t as torturous as you thought it was going to be.”
“It was mental torture.” I skirted his lips when he tried to kiss me in greeting. “I’m still mad at you.”
“Are you mad or just pretending to be mad? Your answer will dictate how I plan to woo you back to my side.”
His grin was cheeky. Under normal circumstances I would melt in the face of his smile. These weren’t normal circumstances, though. “I don’t pretend to be mad.”
“You do sometimes.” He poked my side. “Tell me what you did today.”
“I was stuck here. I didn’t do anything.”
“You must have done something.”
“Well ... I researched incubi with May. Oh, and I saw a horse born.” Despite my determination to remain cold and evasive, I couldn’t keep the excitement from my voice. “You have to see him. He’s so cool. Wesley says I can name him.”
“That’s a big responsibility.” Galen’s fingers went for the ends of my hair. “What are you leaning toward? Galen is a nice name.”
The look I shot him was withering. “I’m mad at you. I’m not naming my horse after you when I’m ticked off.”
“Your horse? What does Wesley have to say about you laying claim to him?”
“Wesley thinks I’m being a big baby. He hasn’t come out and said those words, but it’s written all over his face. I hate it.”
“I always knew your grandfather was a smart man.”
“He still won’t let us sleep together.”
“With a few issues,” Galen quickly corrected, smirking when he caught me grinning. “I missed you today.” He wrapped his arms around me and offered a lingering hug. “I missed not seeing you.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? You exiled me.”
“I most certainly did not.” Galen’s voice dropped and his eyes went dark. “I’m protecting you to the best of my ability. You may not like it, but I don’t know what else to do.” He pulled away from me and dropped his head in his hands. The misery etched across his handsome features was enough to tug on my heartstrings. “We searched every hotel ... and all the buildings on the beach. We asked everyone we came in contact with. No one has seen him.”
I took pity on him and edged closer, my hand automatically landing on his knee. “You can only do what you can do.”
“I know. But I don’t like this. I don’t like being afraid.”
“You don’t have to be afraid.” I meant it. “The next time I’m in the dream I’ll know not to try to get out of the room. I’ll just sit there.”
He was incredulous when he raised his eyes to mine. “And how do you think that’s going to work? You only woke up because you got out of the room. If you don’t try to escape you might be stuck there forever.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Well ... um ... then I’ll wake myself up right away. You don’t have to sit around worrying about me. That’s not what I want.”
“I don’t see where I have much choice.” He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m kind of fond of you, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I’m fond of you.” Even though I was angry, that remained true. “But I need to be part of this.”
“I know. I need you to be part of it. I just thought that if I could find this guy right away, that if I could somehow luck out, I would be able to save you from a big battle. It’s stupid but ... I guess I wanted to be the hero.”
Oddly enough, I understood. “You are a hero. Sometimes you’re even my hero. Right now I’m mad you planted me out here for the day, so you can’t be my hero until you grovel and beg. Something tells me you’ll be back on your throne relatively soon, though.”
He barked out a laugh. “I really don’t know how I managed to get through a day before you. I’m not joking about missing you. I kept looking up and down Main Street because I expected you to zip around the corner in your cart at any minute. You changed my life.”
“And you changed my life.” I tugged on his hair, probably harder than necessary. “But you can’t be Mr. Bossypants all the time. I don’t like it.”
“I know.” He kissed me softly. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“We need to work together. We’re stronger when we’re on the same team.”
“Yeah.” His fingers grazed my face as he brushed my hair back to make room next to my ear for his lips. “We’ll stick together from here on out.”
“Does that mean we can go home tonight?”
He didn’t look happy at the prospect. “I guess. I’m still afraid to do that. What if the incubus figures out a way to get past my defenses?”
“He won’t. Besides that, he would have to beat me, too. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty strong. I don’t think he can beat me.”
Galen chuckled as he wrapped his arms around my waist and stretched us both out on the couch. He buried his face in the hollow between my neck and shoulder and inhaled deeply. “You’re very strong. I’m not sure anyone can beat you. The problem is, you’re also still learning. I have faith you’ll learn everything you’re supposed to. I just don’t want you hurt in the process.”
“I’m not sure you can guarantee that won’t happen. Not everything is going to be easy.”
“No.” His stubbled cheek tickled my ear as he got comfortable. “It’s too bad we couldn’t talk Wesley into letting us share a bedroom. Then we might get a good night’s sleep.”
“I’m pretty sure that he’ll shoot you before he gives you his blessing to fornicate.”
“We don’t have to fornicate. I just want some sleep.”
That’s when I realized how truly exhausted he sounded. The mental aspect of the case was starting to grate on him. “You can sleep tonight,” I offered. “I have a plan to make sure nothing can entice me out of the windows.”
“What’s that?”
“We’ll tie all the indoor shutters together and put empty soda cans in front of them. The cans will make a lot of noise if someone tries to open the shutters. You’ll be able to relax. Besides that, now that I know what’s happening in the dream, I don’t think he’ll be able to catch me again.”
“That would be nice. I’m still not going to be able to sleep until I know he’s not coming after you.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that.” I shifted to stare into his eyes. “Why do you think he keeps coming after me even though his plan failed several times? Why not simply move on to another target?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed as he wrapped his arms tightly around my back. “The whole thing doesn’t make much sense, especially when you consider that two of the people affected have been men.”
I lifted my head when reality hit me square in the face. “I kind of forgot about that, even though we talked about it. Do we think that more than one thing is going on? I mean ... maybe there’s a killer cupid and an incubus on the loose.”
“I can’t rule it out, but I think there’s more to it than that. I just can’t wrap my head around it. There’s something I’m missing.”
I had faith in him. “Well, you’ll figure it out. You’re smarter than you look.”
He smiled. “Oh, yeah? How smart do I look?”
“Like you’ve decided to get through life on your looks.”
“Oh, well, thanks for that.”
I laughed at his hangdog expression. “Thankfully, I happen to like the deceptively smart and overtly pretty.” I grabbed his hair and gave him a kiss. “Did you bring dinner?”
The abrupt change in topic caused him to arch an eyebrow. “I did. Why? Are you suddenly starving to death or something?”
“I’m a little hungry,” I admitted. “It’s not just that. I think we should eat dinner with Wesley to be polite. Then I want to show you the foal. I can’t believe Wesley is letting me name it. Then I want to go home. I don’t like hiding out here. Besides, all that’s doing is making Wesley a target. I don’t want that.”
“Fair enough.” He graced me with another kiss. “I got Italian. I thought some pasta and pizza would be good.”
“I love Italian.”
“So do I.” His eyes locked with mine and something unsaid passed between us. It was an understanding of sorts. “I love you, too.” The words were out of his mouth before I had time to register what was happening.
I was suddenly breathless. “You do?”
He nodded, solemn. “I think I’ve loved you practically from the first moment I laid eyes on you. Sure, you irritated me to the point I wanted to shake you, but I still loved you. That’s why I’m so afraid. I need you to know that I’m not trying to lock you up because I don’t trust your instincts or think you’re unnecessary to the process. You’re necessary to my life, so I want you safe at all times. I can’t help how I feel.”
My cheeks warmed at the touching words. “And I love you.” I meant it. He was impossible not to love. “You still can’t boss me around. Wesley says relationships require compromise. That means both of us have to compromise.”
“I’m willing to compromise.”
“I am, too.”
“We’ll start with dinner here and then going back to the lighthouse,” he suggested. “We’ll work together to secure the place and then, hopefully, we’ll get some sleep.”
I was understandably dubious. “Just sleep?”
“Maybe a little more,” he murmured, cupping my chin. He looked happy despite the dour circumstances. “This was a big step for us.”
I nodded, solemn. “It was. I only wish it would’ve come on a day when I wasn’t convinced you’re a butthead.”
He snickered. “Well, there are plenty of those days ahead of us.”
“I certainly hope so.”
“I know so. I feel it here.” He tapped the spot above his heart. “Now, give me a kiss. I’m starving, and I want to talk to Wesley. I have a few ideas for places to search and he has a good head on his shoulders. He’s a hunter. I want to hear what he thinks.”
“I’m starving, too.”
“Good. See. We’re already compromising.”
IF WESLEY NOTICED THE GOOEY looks Galen and I kept shooting each other he didn’t show it. He dug into the pasta Galen provided with gusto and paid very little attention to the way Galen split his breadsticks in two and gave me half so I could dip them in the sauce.
“What did you come up with today?” Wesley asked. He looked legitimately interested. “I suppose it’s too much to ask that you caught the incubus.”
“Not only didn’t we catch him, no one seems to recognize the sketch I put together,” Galen replied. “All the cupids deny recognizing his face.”
“Do you believe them?”
“Some of them have to be telling the truth. Some of them ... .” His gaze darkened as he dipped his breadstick in marinara sauce. “The problem is that the cupids keep things close to the vest. The infighting in that group is tremendous. I mean ... it’s off the charts. They don’t turn on each other no matter what, though. They handle all their fights internally. We still don’t know who killed who fifteen years ago.”
“I remember that scene.” Wesley took on a far-off expression. “I went to help at the hotel where it happened. I thought there was a need for first aid. But the cupids didn’t trust us to help them. The ones who were dazed in the fight would rather sit there and bleed than let outsiders tend to them.”
“They’re a persnickety bunch,” Galen agreed, leaning back in his chair. “I tried to talk to Judy and Darlene today. They both pride themselves on knowing everybody’s business. They both claimed they don’t know the man in the sketch.”
Something occurred to me. “You don’t think Booker’s mother was involved, do you?” I was horrified at the thought. “That will be terrible for him.”
“I don’t know Judy all that well,” Galen admitted. “Booker and I weren’t exactly friendly as kids.”
“That’s because you were too busy competing,” Wesley pointed out, earning a scowl.
“We weren’t competing. We were just ... well ... we were kind of competing.”
I shot him a look.
“Fine.” He threw up his hands. “We wanted to beat the snot out of each other regularly. He always managed to steal my girlfriends, and it drove me crazy.”
I snickered, genuinely amused. “I already know all this. I don’t know why you try to save face the way you do.”
“I don’t either. It’s just ... I’m a little old for middle school games. As for Judy, she was at the school all the time. She argued with the principal because she said that Booker’s grades didn’t reflect his intellect. She thought the teachers were somehow at fault. She argued with the coaches because he didn’t show an aptitude for any sport.”
I wrinkled my forehead, confused. “I thought you guys competed against each other ... at least in football.”
“We didn’t really have a football team,” Galen reminded me. “There weren’t any schools to play against. All our teams were essentially intramural. We competed against ourselves for the most part.
“I mean, we had a few flag football games here and there, but that’s not a favorite sport of the island,” he continued. “We surfed against each other from time to time ... and there was an incident during a rowing competition. For the most part, though, our competitions were usually carried out in a field of girls.”
I scowled. “I don’t want to hear this.”
“I never
loved any of them,” he reassured me. “Your spot in my heart is safe.”
“Oh, thanks.” My cheeks burned. “You’re kind of sweet when you want to be.”
“Just you wait.”
“Oh, geez.” Wesley shook his head. “I see you two have taken yet another step in your little soap opera.”
Galen snorted. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“I really feel as if I want to smack you around because she’s my granddaughter, and in my head I sometimes think of her as a child,” Wesley supplied. “Unfortunately, she’s an adult and nothing you guys are doing is forbidden. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“You’ll live.” His hand moved to my back. “If you could get over yourself, we would spend the night out here. But because you won’t budge on that separate bedrooms thing we’re going back to the lighthouse.”
“Oh, don’t blame that on me.” Wesley made a face that caused me to choke on my spaghetti. “You were always going back to the lighthouse. She wouldn’t have it any other way. You might’ve been able to push her off on me for a few hours, but when it comes down to it you melt like a chocolate bar in the sun when she asks you to do anything.”
“No.” Galen vehemently shook his head. “We compromised.”
“Right. You compromised and she won.”
“We both won,” I corrected, searing him with a dark look. “We agreed that we need to work on this together. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re stronger as a team.”
“Well, that’s something I can get behind.” Wesley wiped the corners of his mouth with his napkin. “Don’t forget to see your horse on the way out. I expect you to give me a name for him by the end of the week.”
I turned a set of expectant eyes on Galen. “See. I told you he was my horse.”
“I stand corrected. I still think Galen is a fine name for a steed.”
“I’m not done thinking about that yet.”
“Just food for thought.”
19
Nineteen
To Spell With It Page 17