A chill ran down my body. “Jesus, Dad. What the heck do you think you’re going to find over there?”
He stared blankly at the space over my head, lost in his own sleep deprived brain. “The future.”
I let him swim around in his mind for a few moments before purposefully clearing my throat. “Uh, Dad? Speaking of the future.” I pursed my lips for a second. “Particularly mine…and Silas’s.”
That got his attention.
“Andelyn.”
“Andie, Dad.”
He opened his mouth to protest but I beat him to it. “Look. The two people, the two men I love more than anything in this world are going to leave me in a few hours. They’ll be going down into a bottomless pit that no one has touched in over three thousand years.” The old man’s eyes began to sparkle with uncertainty and a hint of betrayal. But it washed away as quickly as it came. “Silas and I are in love. We’ve been seeing one another for over a year now. It’s getting pretty serious, and if this trip is as dangerous as you say, then I thought you should know. And know how important it is to me that you both be safe. It absolutely kills me that I’m being left out of this one.”
Dad stared at me, deep in contemplation. A blank gaze rooted somewhere…I’d never know. And in a split second he snapped-to with a friendly smile. The smile I didn’t know I missed until that very moment. “Of course, Dear.” He gave a nod. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back before you know it.”
I gave no response. Only sighed as I stood before leaning across the desk to peck Dad on the cheek. Our relationship was a strange one. My mother was an alcoholic of the worst kind and left him when I was just a baby. I grew up home-schooled. A condition I absolutely demanded at the tender age of six years old. Dad went digging for dinosaurs. My dad climbed mountains and uncovered hidden caves. My dad…was far more interesting than four walls and mindless tasks mixed with a couple dozen whiney children. That was the very moment in my life when I went from seven years old to forty-seven. As he used to say.
I turned my neck ever so slightly as I reached the door. “Love you.”
“Love you, too, Peach,” he replied, already lost in his work again, as I left the room.
I smiled at my childhood pet name that he never let go of, and slipped through the house back to my bedroom, just across from the one Silas slept in. I considered going in. Waking him up to tell him the news, that I’d lifted the weight from my shoulders and told my father about us. But part of me said no. Let him sleep.
I flung myself on my bed, curling in the nest of blankets I never ever bothered to tidy up, and soon fell into a deep sleep. I dreamed of a place that I often did. A warm, sunny oasis surrounded by mountains of sand. The best of both worlds; a vulture cawing in the far distance and the fresh dew of a forest morning. Silas was never there, but it smelled of him. The scent of sunshine on my skin mixed with something cinnamon-y. I closed my eyes and tilted my face to the hot sun, inhaling the heady aroma.
Suddenly, to my right, the sound of Dad’s voice rang through the air. He was angry. My eyes followed the direction of the sound and the dreamscape melted away just as fast as it had manifested. I awoke disoriented. Annoyed. But the sound of Dad’s low, pissed off tone still crept through the air and into my room.
I stumbled out of bed, quietly shuffling my tired feet across the old wooden floors and peeked out through the narrow opening of my bedroom door. There he was. The partial view of the back of that green sweater. Stiff and rigid with anger, unable to fully release due to his proximity to my earshot.
But I had good ears.
“You think that justifies it?” Dad spat in an angry whisper.
“Look, Alistair, I’m sorry, but Andie wanted to keep it a secret. This was her choice, I only happened to agree.” The low-key cheekiness dripped from his words and I grinned.
“And what of this trip? You and I both know what we’re going to find down there.” Dad seemed to be calming himself, but the anger was replaced with a heavy sadness. “What would you have me tell her? You’re going to break her heart–”
“I’ll come back,” Silas snipped, before my father barely finished. “I’ll do what I need to do, and I’ll come back. Alistair, I never meant to fall in love with your daughter. But…here we are.”
“Are you having second thoughts?”
For a moment, I thought Dad had meant second thoughts about me, but Silas’s reply changed that notion.
“No, of course not.” Silas exhaled deeply. Regretfully. “No, it must be done. You can change the world with this discovery. Set them on the right path again, while I work to fix things. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s late and we have a plane to catch in three hours.”
“We’re not done talking about this,” Dad replied.
The only sound that came back was the hard click of Silas’s bedroom door. I lightly galloped back to my bed and dove under the covers just as my own door creaked open and I could all but feel Dad’s head poke in. Checking to make sure I hadn’t heard his strange conversation with Silas.
I waited a few moments for him to close the door and listened to the sound of his footsteps disappearing back through the house before hopping out of bed. I bounded to my door and darted across the hall. Without knocking, I slipped inside and locked the door behind me. Silas hadn’t returned to bed yet and his silhouette spun around in the moonlight shining in through the window.
“Andie?”
“What the hell was that all about?” I asked.
His tone mirrored the sharpness of mine. “You told your father about us after I specifically expressed that we wait.”
“Sorry,” I shrugged, “Couldn’t help it.”
He sat on the edge of the bed, near the foot, and stuck his hands through those dark waves atop his head. “I really wish you hadn’t. It’s so hard to keep up with you. It had been your insistence all along that he never know.”
“No,” I corrected, “I didn’t want him to know yet. Until I was ready.” I sauntered over to where Silas sat and stood at his feet, slowly brushing my leg against his knee. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” he replied and then lifted his head. Strong hands gripped my hips, sliding around to haul me closer. I let out a small, involuntary gasp. Silas’s face pressed against my belly where he left a long, lingering kiss before glancing up at me with those eyes. God damn, those eyes. “I could never be mad at you.”
“Good,” I said, unable to hide my sly grin.
I pushed against his chest until he fell back to the bed and then sidled my legs to either side of the glorious man beneath me. I wore nothing more than a pair of sweatpants and a tattered black t-shirt with tiny paint splatters on it but, in that moment, I could have been wearing a leather corset for how I felt. How my body reacted to his, instantly reaching that boiling point. That heart racing sensation of being with the one you were madly in love with. I climbed the length of his body and brought our lips together in one deep, passionate kiss. The kind you never wanted to end.
Silas’s hands squeezed at my sides and migrated upward before pleasantly wringing through my dense brown hair, his mouth open and devouring mine. Our breaths were heavy and quick. His hands effortlessly ripped the t-shirt over my head and that’s when I realized he’d already been shirtless as the warmth of his bare skin seeped into mine.
“God damnit, I love you,” I said in a hot, breathy whisper that vibrated through the darkness of the room.
Silas laughed, sending a rattling through both our bodies. A hand swept the hair from my face and cupped around the side of my neck, his thumb brushing my ear. “You’re an exquisite creature, Andie. You know that, right?”
I reached around and snapped open the clasp of my bra, grinning. “I know.”
Chapter Three
We lay naked in the moonlight that filtered in through the thin white curtain. My skin looked alabaster next to his soft, natural tan. The only thing I wore was the necklace Silas had given me earlier which he mindlessly fiddle
d with as I lay at his side. My eyes closed.
“I’m going to miss you,” he said quietly.
I opened my eyes and studied his stoic face. “Why do you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
“As if it means more. Like…I’ll never see you again.”
I reached over and traced the crease that formed at the side of his mouth when he smiled.
“Nonsense. We’ll see one another again. When this is all over.”
I had no reply, unable to hide my agitated nerves. I hated not knowing what was going on. But I knew he and Dad would never tell me. At least not until they found what they were looking for.
“It’s a plane ride away,” Silas continued to assure me. His fingers pinched the stone of my necklace and brought it up between our two faces. “And as long you have this, you’ll have me. With you, always.”
My lips pursed in thought. “Promise?”
He chuckled, low and stifled as he drew a thin line across my forehead with the tip of a finger. “Is that all it takes? A simple promise to ease that mind of yours?” Silas placed the warmth of his mouth on mine. “It may take months, years even. But your father and I will find what we’re looking for and when we do, when I complete my…this project, I’ll come back to you. I swear it.”
“I’m just so pissed that I can’t come this time,” I grumbled like a child. “I’ve never missed a big dig like this. But the past year, I feel like I’m being left out of the loop of things.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Silas replied and yawned. “Besides, I do recall you registering for that Summer program willingly. Plus, it’s only the second year in the course. You said so yourself, you’ve got too much to miss. You’re not home schooled anymore, Andie. University actually requires your lovely presence.”
I slapped his chest playfully. “Shut up.”
I loved how he got me. Like, truly, whole heartedly got me. My discontent for large crowds of mindless people. On the inside, it unraveled me to no end being stuck in classes all day. Already knowing more than half of the material being blathered in my face. Listening to the droning sounds of classmates all around me.
But it had been my choice. I was going too far as my father’s “side-kick” and wanted so badly to prove my ability to be an archeologist. But I heard the whispers around campus of my connections. Alistair Godfrey’s daughter. Surely, she got in through golden coat strings.
But I didn’t.
I made damn well sure of that. I applied to university for Archeology under the legal name of my mother. Sheppard. It was the surname on my birth certificate, after all, because they’d never married. I only assumed Dad’s last name of Godfrey after she died, but the paperwork had never been filed. Never left one of the haphazard surfaces of Dad’s office, most likely.
Underneath me, Silas’s arm squeezed as he pulled me closer to his warm body and I drifted off into a comfortable, dreamless sleep. Free of the worry that Dad would come and find me there, I allowed myself to sleep like I hadn’t slept in years. Like a carefree baby.
When I awoke, I couldn’t have guessed what time it was. The only things to indicate how many minutes may have passed was the intrusive morning sun glaring in through the sheer drapes and the cold, empty spot in the bed next to me.
I rolled over with a groan.
I was alone. Totally and utterly alone. By now, Dad and Silas were on a plane headed for Africa. Egypt, to be more exact. I was left behind to suffer out my self-made prison and attend classes. I flung the blankets from my body and hauled myself upright as I caught sight of a piece of paper falling to the floor. I stretched down and plucked it from the hardwood. It was a tiny piece, just a slip, with three short words scrawled with pen.
Wait for me.
I tossed it on the nightstand before I stood and stretched. Wait for him, I guffawed to myself. As if I ever had a choice. I was so madly in love with Silas that no man could compare. Not even close. And he knew it.
Finally, I glanced at the clock to figure out just what time it was and jumped to my feet.
“Shit!”
My first class was in twenty minutes. I splashed some water over my tired face and raked fingers through my wild brown hair, wresting it into a messy bun. A quick brush of the teeth and a fumble with deodorant before I was on my way.
Dad’s house was pretty much on campus, which meant I could sprint to class in about eight minutes. It was an old sorority house from years ago and I absolutely loved growing up in it. The old timey architecture, the dark wooden finishes. Walls of deep green and burgundy. Like living on the set of an old movie.
I crossed a busy street and Building Four came into view. Just the place I was headed to. But I had to get coffee first. After a night like last night, coffee was vital if I was expected to get through the day. I made a pit stop at the migrating coffee cart on campus and smiled when I recognized the familiar face on the other side.
“Morning, Andie,” greeted Jon, the coffee cart guy.
My coffee cart guy. I saw Jon every single day for the last year and a half, talked to him. Conversed about actual stuff. Which was more than I could say for anyone else in my life aside from Dad and Silas. I groaned inwardly at the realization.
“Extra large black,” I said under the guise of big sunglasses.
Jon handed me the white paper cup as I plucked a fiver out of my jeans pocket. “Woah, why do you look like shit?”
I gave a slight laugh. “Long night. Dad and Silas left this morning.”
“Ah, that sucks,” Jon replied genuinely. Then he brightened and leaned forward on the tiny metal counter. “Well, hey. You should totally come out with us tonight.”
I chewed at the side of my mouth. “Yeah, and where’s this?”
“Just across the street. That Irish pub.” He pointed over my shoulder. “There’s a band playing.”
I took a giant swig of my scalding coffee and hissed when it burnt my tongue. “Uh, yeah, I’ll think about it.”
Jon rolled his eyes and handed me my change. “Sure, sure. I’ve heard that before. You never come out, Andie. What the hell do you do all the time?”
I zipped up my black leather bomber and forced a smile. “Keep the change.”
The rest of the day continued on in that same disjointed motion. I was a couple minutes late for class. A fact that my prof made evidently clear to every single person in the room when he mockingly began to clap loudly at my arrival until I took my seat.
All eyes were on me as the class went on. I yanked the hood of my grey sweatshirt out from inside my jacket and pulled it as far down over my head as possible without losing my view of the prof’s lecture, indulging in my massive and delicious coffee.
I raced home at the end of the day, dying for bed. But when I finally got there, the emptiness of the old Victorian home was chilling. I couldn’t settle. Everything was too quiet, and the smell of Dad’s cigars had already begun to dissipate. So, I curled up on the couch with some leftover lasagna, a textbook, and a blanket as I binged some TV until I crashed sometime after midnight.
I awoke the next morning, groggy and stiff from sleeping on the couch. The taste of lasagna gone sour in my mouth. With a groan, I reached to grab my phone from the floor and found two text messages pop up on the screen.
Just landed. Long flight. Be safe, love Dad.
Your father is not impressed with the news. He’s grumpy. But he can’t stay mad at me for long LOL Just heading for the hotel. Will call later. My heart, Silas.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall of that damn plane. To my father, I think I’ll always be seven years old, even though I’m sure I never was a proper child. Not one that cared for cartoons and coloring books, anyway. I was sure he’d eventually be okay with the idea of Silas and I together, I just hoped that time came soon. I let the phone drop back to the floor and rolled myself up in the heavy blanket, thankful it was Saturday. I’d be a lazy couch bum until one of them called me later.
But t
hat call never came.
I wandered the house all day, migrating from kitchen to bathroom and back to the couch again. I did some studying while checking my phone every hour and succumbed to the spiraling disappointment of an empty notification screen every time. Maybe they were busy. Or perhaps exhausted from the sleepless night and a fifteen-hour flight. Either way, I needed a distraction.
I went for a long run to try and clear my head of the nagging worry over my father and the man I loved. What did they talk about on the plane? Was Dad really that upset? Or was he just caught off guard with the news right before an important trip? Would the distance create doubts in Silas’s head about our relationship?
No, I couldn’t think like that.
I shook the idea from my brain as I rounded the corner back to my house. There was something between us, something…more. It wasn’t just attraction. A part of me changed from the very moment I laid on eyes on him; ready to graduate high school early and head to college, eager to please my father. But it was his eyes that did it. Hypnotizingly beautiful. Green and gold, just like the forest and mountains of sand from my dream. Two worlds living in one man. They grabbed me, pulled me in, and never let go.
After I’d run off as much energy as I could, I unlocked the front door. Huffing for air and sweating like a hog, I checked my phone for the hundredth time and moaned in frustration. I stole a quick glance at the old grandfather clock. It was after eleven at night. Too late to call my father’s colleague and contact at the university, Prof. Danes. My finger hovered over his number in my phone for a few moments. Tempted. But I tossed my cell on the kitchen counter and headed for the shower instead.
The next two days were no different, aside from my growing worry for Dad and Silas. No texts, no phone calls. Not from them, anyway. When I awoke Monday morning to find zero notifications once more, I decided that was enough. My fingers typed away and sent off two messages.
Ancient Hearts: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 1) Page 2