“Mi’s weird?”
“Mommy, my tooth is loose. See” Rowan announced from across the room, pulling my attention to her instead of my stubborn husband.
I answered Paxton and left him for my girls. God, I missed them. “You’ll see.”
My pancake was delicious, and I couldn’t believe how much I missed in less than a week. I swear they grew daily. Rowan didn’t lie, her front tooth would be missing in the next couple days. Ophelia skinned her knee and I felt horrible. It wasn’t the kiss it, cover it with a Band-Aid, all better kind. That one hurt, and there was no doubt she cried. She cried and I wasn’t there for her. That pissed me off. They both got new stuffed animals from the zoo truck. I half listened to what the hell that was while I glared at Paxton. Some bus came to the library, packed full of animals, all proceeds going towards the zoo. I wasn’t surprised by Rowan’s choice of a cat. She’d been asking for one for ages. Paxton was allergic, or so he said. I did laugh when Phi told me she got a fish. Of all things in a zoo, my girls chose a cat and a fish. Ophelia ran off to get her new fish while Rowan started the argument.
“Well, my cat is better because it can eat your fish.”
Of course Phi stopped. “No it can’t. My fish is bigger than your cat. My fish will eat your cat.”
“Fish don’t eat cats. Cats eat fish.”
“Some fish do. A shark can eat a cat.”
“Cats don’t go in the ocean.”
“Oh my, God. Stop it. Go get your fish,” I said once I realized how long their fight could go on. Hours. Days. Weeks.
“Your cat could fall off a boat,” Phi called. Spitting image of her daddy. I swear that girl would have taken a timeout before she would ever let Rowan have the last word.
Paxton and I exchanged a glance just as the doorbell rang.
“Is that your friend?” Rowan asked.
I answered with a yes, shaking my head at Ophelia when I heard Mi’s voice. Paxton was the one to scold her, not me. I stood back trying to give Mi the ‘sorry about my idiot husband’ look. She read it, and I read the understanding in her eyes.
“Ophelia Dawn Pierce. Don’t you ever do that again. You know better than that. What if that was a bad guy and he wanted to break into our house?” he questioned in a stern tone, hand lifting her chin to look at him.
“But it’s not a bad guy. It’s her.”
“You didn’t know that. Don’t open the door for strangers. Understand me?”
Phi looked up to him with puppy dog eyes and sad tone. “Yes. I won’t do it again.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you. Okay?” he said while feeding right out of her hand, voice softening with every word. And that right there was why I always had to be the bad guy. He melted like chocolate in her hand.
“Hi, Mi. Come on in. This is Ophelia and Rowan, and my lovely husband Paxton,” I said as I invited her in with an open hand, introducing her to my family.
Mi ignored Paxton and bent over to Rowan and Phi, shaking each little hand, one in each of hers. “I have heard so much about you. Very nice to meet you.”
Rowan didn’t really respond. She sort of shied away without a reaction.
Busybody Ophelia was another story. She wasn’t shy at all. “I like your necklace,” she said as she held the crystal in her hand.
“Thank you. I wasn’t sure what kind of energy I would walk into in your house. Crystals protect you from bad energy.”
I sucked in on my lips at Paxton’s eyes darted quickly to me.
“What. The. Fuck?” he mouthed to me without audible words.
“We have good energy,” Phi assured Mi.
I smiled at her confidence. Like she knew everything there was to know about the energy field in our house. I was sure she had never been introduced to that before.
“Santa brought us crystal necklaces last time,” Rowan finally spoke.
“He did?” I asked, my attention going right to Paxton.
He shrugged both shoulders and pointed to me, letting me know that I bought them. That meant something to me at that moment, but I wasn’t sure why. Maybe the thought of buying them something that was believed to protect them from something bad.
“You have very good energy. I’m surprised,” Mi said as her eyes landed on Paxton. She scanned him, head to toe while he looked at me, confusion written all over his face.
“Okay girls. Remember what we talked about? You’re going to go practice for your dance recital without fighting, and mommy and daddy are going to talk to Mi. Okay?”
“We want to talk to Mi, too.”
Mi moved Ophelia’s hair behind her back and smiled down at her. “Tell you what. You let us talk about business for a little bit, and I’ll teach you a magic trick. Deal?”
“A real magic trick?” Rowan questioned, interest piqued.
“Yes, and you can show all your friends, but you can’t tell them the magic part. Only you can know how it’s done. Okay?”
I loved how Mi was with my girls. Instant connection, unlike my fake neighbors, and they loved her.
“Okay,” they agreed in unison.
We all stared after them, hopping along, excited to learn magic when my mini me turned back. Ophelia suddenly stopped and turned her worried eyes right to me. “You’re not going to leave, right Mommy?”
The sting in my heart burned deep and I hated Paxton again. “No, baby. I promise.”
She smiled and skipped off with her sister.
“Damn,” Mi said quietly, hearing the same anxious tone from Phi.
“I hate you,” I said, eyes darting quickly to Paxton.
The look on his face told me he hated himself. Good. Stupid bastard.
“Let’s go to the patio,” he suggested. Paxton pointed to the French doors and Mi led the way. “You said she was weird, not crazy,” he whispered.
I elbowed him while holding in a laugh. “Let’s sit on that side so we can see the girls.”
“No, they’ll be out here in two seconds,” Paxton countered.
I turned and gave him a cold stare down. “I’m okay with that.” I was okay with it. I didn’t want them out of my sight, but he was also right.
We hadn’t been seated for more than thirty seconds when Phi opened the door. “We’re done. Can we play outside now?”
I looked to Paxton and he answered. “You didn’t practice. You can go play on the swings.”
“And the sandbox?” she questioned.
“The sandbox is right beside the swings.”
“You said we can only play on the swings.”
“Ophelia,” he said with the tone that she knew meant to knock it off. She stopped acting like him and ran down to the massive playset that Paxton built in our back yard. He couldn’t build a normal one. This thing had it all. Enough to keep them busy while we had the conversation that had me on edge in anticipation.
“What, Mi? What do you know?”
“First of all you have to pinky swear that you’re not going to call Nick and tell on me.”
“Of course I wouldn’t. You’re the only friend I have in the world.”
Paxton nudged my leg with his knee and looked at me with—love? What the hell? “I’m your friend, Gabriella.”
I gave him a once over, stopping at his eyes, and assured him otherwise. It was said lightheartedly, but with a point. He knew the point, thanks to Ophelia’s apprehension of me leaving her. “You are not my friend.”
He smiled genuinely at me, but I didn’t’ buy it. I was mad. I turned to Mi’s surprised expression instead.
“What?”
“I just, I—I don’t know if this is a good idea anymore.”
I frowned out of confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I wasn’t expecting this. I thought you hated him. I thought I would be helping you to regain some of your past. I don’t know if that’s such a good idea anymore. Maybe I should just go.”
I gave her a look like I had just eaten a sour lemon. “What? Are
you crazy? I do hate him. You have to tell me. What do you mean some of my past?”
Mi’s chest filled with air and her eyes went to Paxton and then back to me. “Can we talk alone first?”
“It wouldn’t do any good. He’s got the place bugged.”
Paxton didn’t defensively lie out of that one like I thought he would. He smirked and pointed to one of the security cameras above our heads, right in the corner, facing Mi.
“Just tell me, Mi. Please.”
Her eyes looked to her nails as she spoke. “Okay, but I don’t want to cause any more trouble for you. Nick and I had a fight yesterday morning, and I wanted to tell him I was sorry. I dropped by his office with his favorite Reuben, and overheard him and Lane. That’s the only reason I snooped. He told Lane that there was no way those videos could fall into anyone’s hands, that the file was on an old laptop that he didn’t even use anymore. Lane told him that he didn’t care, and he wanted it destroyed. Of course, I knew what laptop he spoke of. There’s two of them in our closet. He keeps saying that he will get the files off them so we can get rid of them, but he never does.”
“What files,” I asked, eyebrows frowned inward.
“I didn’t really watch them. I only opened the first one, but only watched a few minutes of it. Then I sent them to my email, so I could send them to you.”
I knew the answer before I even asked. “What was it? Was it me?”
“Yes, in Nicks office.”
“Why was I in Nick’s office?”
“I’m not sure. Like I said, I didn’t think it was my business. I didn’t watch them.”
“Send them to her email,” Paxton ordered.
I waited for his dominate ego to be squashed by Mi.
She gave him the exact look I knew she would. Haughty. “Excuse me? Who are you again? You probably control that, too. Right?”
“Send them, Mi,” I said, not wanting a pissing match between Mi and Paxton. It would be like Ro-ro and Phi, lasting for hours.
“You can’t let Nick find out.”
“Was the fight over me?”
Her eyes leaving mine assured me that it was. “Yeah, but you know I’m here for you. I wasn’t about to throw you out to the lions. I just wasn’t expecting him to be the cat.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Paxton asked, tail feathers in the air as Mi set off his ego.
“It means you love her. I can read people through the energy around them. He’s not a bad guy, Gabby, just stupid as hell,” she said, fierce eyes softening, moving from Paxton to me.
And the claws came out with the sudden attitude. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.”
“Calm down there, tiger. I don’t need to know you. Here, you should have a pair of Hematite’s,” Mi said. She pulled a wallet from the purse crossing her shoulder, and retrieved a cloth bag. Patrick from Sponge Bob smiled at me from the little pouch. Only Mi. Paxton gave me the look that said my friend was cookoo while we heard rocks being tossed in the bag. Rocks. Mi carried a bag of rocks in her purse. She was crazy.
The girls cautiously joined us, looking to their dad to determine whether or not they were about to be run off. I raised my arm, allowing them permission to join us. We weren’t talking about anything they couldn’t hear. Nothing was disclosed. Not one damn thing. I had to wait again. I watched Mi place something in her hand while she searched her bag for more rocks. Good grief.
“This is magnetic hematite. They always have to stay together. If I give you each one, do you promise to always bring them together? At least once a day? If you do that, they’ll never lose their power and you’ll always have each other. Can you do that” Mi asked both girls, portraying big eyes, opened hands, and nods in agreement. She pulled a set of the stones apart and held them in her hands while staring at the girls with deep concentration. “This one is calling to you, and this one to you,” she explained while placing a small stone in each little hand.
Rowan and Phi examined the black nuggets in their hands and followed Mi’s instructions.
“Move them close together.”
The magnetic rocks clicked, coming together with great force while the girls stared in awe, but I wasn’t sure why. We had magnets all over the refrigerator. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been introduced to the mineral before.
“Wow, that is magic,” Rowan exclaimed.
“No, this is the magic. Watch this,” she said as she pulled two more stones apart, one in each hand. “Which stone is calling to you, Pax?”
I glanced over in search of anger from the nickname. Dumbfounded, I watched him zone in on the two stones, concentrated while he chose.
Paxton took the stone from her hand and Mi handed me the other one. The smaller one. His ego was too big for the lesser stone. “I’m not surprised you took that one,” she confessed as she separated Rowan and Phi’s stones. “Here’s the magic,” she said in a whimsical voice, totally engrossing my girls in her strange beliefs.
Mi dug around her purse, pulling a homemade keychain from her bag. “Hold your stone to this,” she instructed the girls.
“It doesn’t stick,” Phi said puzzled.
“Right, because they’re not strong enough alone. Now hold it to your moms.”
Both girls smiled when all three rocks came together as one. She coached Paxton into trying next, holding the keyring to his stone. It was strong enough to pull it from Mi’s hand when she loosened her grip. The girls gasped in awe as Mi explained that their dad had the most powerful stone, but they all had to come together at least once a day to recharge them and stay strong as a family. Her voice sounded dramatic as she moved all of our hands together, letting Paxton’s pull all of our stones together as one.
Of course they stuck. They were magnets. Four hands held the stones, bringing them together as one, but without all four, the littles couldn’t hold onto the ring.
“There’s the magic,” she whispered.
“No pressure there,” Paxton mumbled, dropping his to the pocket of his jeans. “Are you going to send the file? I don’t have time to sit around here and discuss rocks. I’ve got work to do.”
Mi ignored him and continued to talk to the girls, clicking their stones with each other’s. “You can keep them in a safe place. Just make sure you bring them together every night before bed, okay?”
“Okay,” the girls agreed. I smiled at the little things they cared about. Simple things.
“Good job. Can you let me talk to your parents for a minute?”
Rowan and Ophelia ran off with their magic, happy and content.
“That’s not really magic,” Paxton assured her, raining on his own parade. He didn’t rain on mine, and I was sure from Mi’s demeanor, hers was untouched, too. It was magic to me, and to them. I knew they would never lose those stones.
“Yeah, I didn’t mean for that to happen. I was going to teach them how to pull a quarter out of someone’s ear. What’s your sign?”
Paxton frowned. “Excuse me?”
“I feel like you’re a Sagittarius or maybe a Scorpio like me.”
“He’s a Scorpio,” I tattled, unsure why. I mean, I read the silly little horoscope in the paper every morning, but I can’t say it was anything more than entertainment.
“Figures. Scorpio suns should never get married. They’re too cruel and manipulative. Hot and cold, secretive and vengeful. Hardly traits that are good in any marriage. I think all Scorpios should get a swift kick in the ass before they’re allowed to get married. We’re very loyal and loving, but most of us need a beating first to get all those negative qualities out. We normally gravitate toward the weak. I’m surprised at how much power you have around him, Gabby. I wasn’t really expecting that. I thought for sure you would be weak in his presence.”
I don’t know why I took great pleasure in hearing her say that, but I did. It wasn’t like Paxton bought into any of her crazy stuff anyway. Although she sort of was right on with her description of him. I could even se
e that in her a little, in the way she was with Nick. A happy version of Paxton.
“I’ve got to go to work. Nice meeting you,” Paxton said with a nod.
I watched him walk away, knowing he was headed toward his office and not a job site. He would have kissed the girls and told them goodbye.
“Is that really a camera?” Mi questioned with a stretched neck and a narrowed eyes toward the well-hidden camera.
“It’s for my protection,” I answered, sarcastically.
“Right. I shouldn’t have come, Gabby. You’re okay here. I really believe that. I think you and Paxton will be fine if you talk. You gotta tell him what you’re thinking. He can’t read your mind.”
“Yeah, well, we don’t really have that kind of relationship.”
“Yes you do. That man is falling all over in love with you. He can’t even see straight, he’s so in love with you.”
Mi was crazy. I didn’t see what she saw. “I spent the night in jail. Do you remember that? I was the crazy chick begging your boyfriend to hypnotize me.”
“Okay, yeah. You have a point, but—. I feel like he’s sorry, like he knew he took it a little too far. I’m just saying that I don’t think you should watch the video’s anymore. I think you should pretend that they never existed.”
“But why? I don’t get it, Mi.”
“Look, from what I caught from Nick and Lane, they’re pretty detailed. Just like the one where you described your accident. I think there’s a hidden secret there. One that may be better off left in the past. Go get your nephew and forget them.”
I looked down, filling my lungs with humid air and then back to her. “I can’t, Mi. What if there’s something about my twin? I need to see them. It could be the only way I ever learn anything about my past. I need that.”
An audible breath was heard while Mi took the same air into her lungs. “Okay, but, I’m sending them to you one at a time. That way it’s your call, not his,” she said to the camera in the corner. “I won’t send another one until I hear from you. Just text me my dog’s name and I’ll send you the next one. He doesn’t know that. I also think you should watch them together, with Paxton. I still think you should leave it in the past, and move forward, but if you insist, at least share the secrets with your husband. You can’t build a positive environment on lies. Just saying.”
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