“You know…things like an ATM machine or safe. He may be able to recall the last numbers that unlocked it without any trouble at all. Or he could potentially read information off of a desk or from a computer. I would have to test him to fully understand the scope of his abilities but we could do a quick test.”
That put my thoughts of Reid’s gift being hokey to rest. I recalled how he popped my locker in an instant when I forgot my combination. “Have you seen a lot of people with this ability?” I asked.
“Some, but none with his level of physicality. Most can also use their hands to hold divining rods and things like that. I think we should see what he can do.” Dr. West pulled a sheet of paper from my file. “Remember this? You drew it for me when you were six or seven.”
It was a simple drawing of a lion rearing up on its hind legs with shaggy fur. “I’m going to put it in an envelope and give it to Reid. I will tell him nothing about it and we can see what will happen.”
“But he doesn’t know you. Why would he tell you anything?” I questioned.
“Why am I not surprised? More questions!” Dr. West laughed. “Follow my lead and go into Exam One. I will bring you some Scopolamine tablets to refill your prescription. You think you could take one and relax on the ride home?”
“Yeah. I didn’t sleep at all last night. But that’s it? You think Reid’s psychometric but what does that have to do with my head rushes?”
“I’m afraid the diagnosis I have might be more for you than for him. Reid’s elevated level of iron in his blood might be working like a magnet when you are with him. It may be triggering an unexpected head rush in that it muffles the extrasensory parts of your brain. But head rushes are also triggered by extreme stress. This guy might be putting you under more stress than you are used to. Love is not always easy.” Dr. West crossed his arms, waiting for my rebuttal.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked defensively. I felt like he just dumped a bucket of cold water on me and I didn’t like it.
“I mean that I think you love the poor guy. Our capacity to care is wired into our brain and nervous system. Your nervous system is easy to overwhelm and it could be his love for you is the equivalent of you trying to drink from a fire hose. You are no ordinary girl but you are still a teenage girl,” Dr. West said with a twinkle in his eye. “Love is something none of us have any training for, but love and empathy are what make us uniquely human. That is the key to our survival. Well, looks like I’d better go get to know him. See you in Exam One.”
Dr. West left me in his office dumbfounded. I wanted to debate and argue why that was not the case but he was already walking out into the waiting room. I saw him shaking hands with Reid and sitting down beside him on one of the screens. He gave Reid the envelope with the drawing inside. Reid held it in his hand and continued talking with Dr. West. Then he abruptly stopped and stood up.
I hustled into Exam One. As I hopped up on the exam table I heard the click of the door.
“Reid, Whitney’s been having some trouble with her head rushes again. She said you were there for some of them. Is there anything you can tell us about when she blacks out? How long do they last, for instance?” Dr. West asked congenially. He had my chart in front of him and a pencil poised to take notes.
“I’ve only seen a few of them and they last for less than a minute. Perhaps only thirty seconds. It’s like she becomes unplugged. Once she said ‘time brings truth to light’ in Latin before she woke up,” Reid said with a shrug. He sat in a chair next to the exam table with his eyes on Dr. West. He was not looking at me.
“So you understand Latin?” Dr. West asked as if he was trying to clear up some confusion.
“Sure. I seem to have a knack for almost any language. Our chef is from Russia. She speaks Romanian and Russian. She taught me both,” Reid replied easily. I had never thought about why he didn’t take a language class at Gramercy. I had assumed he had tested out from when he was at St. Mark’s. Dr. West didn’t miss a beat and made sure I heard it loud and clear.
“Oh! Neat. You ARE a polyglot. I have a friend who is studying neurophysiologic methods of brain activity indexes of comprehension who would love to get a brain scan next time you are in town. So, you can understand almost any language if you hear it spoken, is that right?” Dr. West rambled on. I realized he was highlighting to me some of Reid’s other unique abilities in between his researcher mumbo-jumbo. I sat quietly and watched the exchange.
“You are quite an interesting guy. It’s no surprise to me that you are with Whitney since she is also quite an interesting girl. That envelope has a piece of paper inside. Without opening it, can you tell me anything about it?”
Reid tapped the envelope restlessly in his hand.
“Come, come. You are among friends here. I am about to give Whitney a poisonous tablet of belladonna to help her sleep. I need to know I can count on you to get her home.”
“What are you talking about?” Reid stood up in a fast motion. He placed himself directly in front of me. “What is going on here?” His sudden movement startled me. I could no longer see Dr. West, only Reid’s back.
“Is that why you gave me this paper?” Reid’s voice rose in accusation. “Are you warning me you are trying to kill her?”
“Whatever would make you say that?” Dr. West questioned. His face was a mask of calm. I flashed back to drawing the picture and gasped as I remembered what I said after I drew it. I told Dr. West the lion was my guardian and for him to keep it until he knew who should have it. I had forgotten! Chills of my intuition ran over me and tears filled my eyes. I didn’t want to leave the safety and comfort of Dr. West.
“I know you forgot. Otherwise you would have never allowed me to do it,” Dr. West replied, finishing our wordless conversation aloud. “Don’t get so upset, Wink. I will always be here to guide you. You have found the key to unlocking the next step in your journey. You must have foreseen your own blindness. You always were a clever girl.”
“Why are you two having a conversation around me?” Reid demanded. I noticed Dr. West said this aloud. He wanted Reid to hear it.
“Because we are trying to see if you know what is on that paper or not. If you do, we will speak more freely,” Dr. West responded as his eyes fused into blue resolute strength. I had seen his eyes harden before when he was losing patience. They were determined.
“Whoever holds this paper agrees to protect Whitney from harm,” Reid answered. The bulk of his body was in front of me. Clearly, he had accepted the responsibility.
“Yes, but I could have told you that in the lobby. How does Whitney know to believe you?” Dr. West pressed. He tapped his pencil on the file folder, wanting Reid to hurry up.
Reid sighed as he was forced to play his hand. “She drew it when she was six years old. She was scared. She was hooked up to a lot of machines and she didn’t like the noises they made. The lights were bright and the room was too cold. You came into the room and she felt safe again. You unhooked her from the machines and let her color pictures in your office instead. She made you this picture and told you to hold onto it. Whitney said that you would know when it was time to give her protection away,” Reid explained.
“Yes. And I have. Don’t worry, Reid. Whitney is immune to plant toxins. The drug Scopolamine is one of the only things that actually helps her to sleep and will keep her neurocardiogenic syncope at bay. It’s perfectly safe for her except it makes her very drowsy. At least now I can feel confident I can rely on you to get her home.”
I was remembering the smell of the wax crayon that filled my nose as I traced the yellow lion in red. It had seemed so innocent and harmless at the time. I had dismissed it but Dr. West had taken it seriously. The loss of Dr. West’s protection terrified me.
He had seen this day coming. I had not. I had not seen the head rush either and collapsed behind Reid on the exam table.
Chapter Ten: All That Glitters
I realized the trap too late. She was already in Reid
’s arms and all I could do was watch. Had he been ambushed or did he know if she had done it on purpose? I realized this question bothered me more than the questions I had been asking myself since arriving home from Dr. West’s office. I never would have come out on Kevin Flaherty’s ski boat if I had known Karen Eubanks had been invited.
Karen looked provocative in her white, ribbed tank top and short jean shorts. Her French mustard yellow hair was freshly permed and seemed too frilly for her tall, thick build. Her best feature was hidden behind a pair of mirrored sunglasses. As much as I would like to, I could not deny she had compelling brown eyes.
It was noticeable how much Karen brightened when she saw Reid and almost embarrassing how much physical contact she could justify. If Reid was an empath, how could he not know she was flirting with him and why wasn’t he doing a better job of avoiding her?
She was asking him dozens of questions about a party they had been to together late last winter. Her questions were trivial but the purr of sentimental remembrance was irritating. Reid took them in stride. I ignored her and tried to ignore my feelings of annoyance.
Kevin grinned when I asked to ski first. Being off the boat for a few minutes would save my sanity even though my muscles would pay for it tomorrow. I didn’t like feeling this way and I could feel my flight instinct kicking into gear. My response to flee Karen was strong. Reid looked surprised. He knew I wasn’t a big fan of being in the river. I wondered if it was clear to him that I would rather be in the water than watching them.
I strapped on my life jacket and jumped off the ski deck into the Potomac. Within a few moments, the boat was trolling away from me and I lined up my skis. Kevin signaled to me and I nodded. He gave the boat a burst of speed and I popped up onto the water. My shoulder sockets burned, but I held on tight. The distance from Reid and Karen allowed me to take stock of my emotions. I wasn’t the jealous type. Why did I feel so annoyed? Even Liz Cooley wouldn’t have bothered me this much. I finally placed what was bothering me with Karen. It was her tone of ownership. Even though I was sitting right there, Karen acted like Reid belonged to her.
I finally had to let go when my arms couldn’t hold on any longer. Kevin pivoted the boat around. I scaled the ladder back onto the ski deck in time to answer Kevin’s question as to who wanted to go next. I couldn’t resist pointing out that it was always ladies first. I handed my life jacket to Karen. Kevin’s blue eyes seemed to flint with laughter as I managed to get Karen out of the boat as I climbed back into it.
“Nice job,” Kevin said vaguely to me as Karen flipped her legs over the side. His gaze was directed to Karen leaving the boat. I shrugged my shoulders at my transparent scheme.
“Desperate times…”
Karen’s needy voice interrupted me by calling for help with the line. It was caught around a ski and she couldn’t fix it. Reid was in the back of the boat and he got up to help her. His eyes flashed to mine and seemed to ask for my understanding. I thought given the circumstances, I was doing a pretty good job.
“Go ahead,” I said dismissively. I may not appreciate her company but I wouldn’t deny Reid from helping her. He peeled off his Pink Floyd T-shirt and dove in. He swam out to her and easily flipped the rope free. Her giggles and gushes of thanks carried across the water and managed to sear my ears.
It dawned on me too late that Karen may have just engineered a tidy ploy. The thought occurred to me when I saw Karen bungle the ski time after time. It kept floating to the surface instead of staying on her foot. She and Reid seemed quite close and she kept splashing him in an unsophisticated but flirtatious way.
Kevin gave me a pained look. “Sorry, I ran into her on my way down to the boat. She invited herself to come along. You know me, Mr. Nice Guy. I can’t say no to anyone. I guess you already know what that’s like since the same could be said for Reid. Only in a different context,” Kevin said wryly. He sat restlessly in the captain’s chair and tapped his foot on the floor. He looked at them in the water as if The Reid and Karen Show was an irritating, repeat episode.
“Meaning?” I asked. I tried to ignore Karen’s squeal of laughter. Now she was asking for Reid’s help getting her other foot in the ski. Oh brother, I thought. No doubt Karen was wishing she had more than two feet.
“Come on. You have got to know Karen is in love with Reid. She is always throwing herself at him. They were locked in a room together for over an hour at a party a few months ago. I guess they were just talking.” Kevin gave a fake cough. “Yeah, right.” Kevin effectively poured salt over the fresh abrasion of watching Reid and Karen together in the water. He smiled gently as if to apologize to be the one to tell me while I mentally dusted myself off.
“Has that happened recently?” I innocently questioned Kevin. Rumors about Reid and some girl were always circulating after he first came to Gramercy. It only intensified when he grabbed the varsity quarterback position and became a team captain for lacrosse. I could feel the jealous vibration from Kevin loud and clear.
“No, I don’t think they’ve been together since you’ve been around. But then again, I guess it’s none of my business,” Kevin said lightly even though he wielded his weighty accusation like a sledgehammer. “I just hope you don’t end up getting hurt, Whitney. A nice girl like you needs someone with more substance.”
I supposed a lot of guys were jealous of Reid. I rallied my wits and considered how to disarm him. “Oh really?” I asked, with an arched eyebrow. “How do you know I am nice?”
Kevin laughed. “Good point. At least I know you are funny.”
Reid flexed his way up onto the ski deck. I watched his biceps pop as he climbed aboard, sloshing water with his quick movement. His Billabong board shorts edged further down to his hipbones and the boat shifted with his weight.
Karen was floating behind the boat in the Potomac. I was thinking good riddance when Reid suddenly pulled me onto his lap. I wiggled free. I was rankled from being wet and had not cleared my mind in time. Darn it! Now he knew I was annoyed with Karen.
“Don’t worry, Whit. She’s just being friendly. I’m taking you out to dinner tonight and you can have me all to yourself,” Reid joked, and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. He easily pulled me back onto his lap, laughing. I didn’t think this was all that humorous. Would he even address it if she were of no concern? I thought about what Reid would say if that was Sean and I in the water.
“Reid, you’ve got your work cut out for you,” Kevin broke in. “Whitney doesn’t seem like the forgiving type. I keep telling her I’m Mr. Nice Guy and that she should oust you for me but she seems determined to learn the hard way.”
I felt the tips of my ears get hot with embarrassment. “I’m too mean to date Mr. Nice Guy. I’m about to ruin everyone’s fun and point out the storm clouds in the sky. It’s time to turn back, I’m afraid.”
A few minutes later Kevin pulled the boat up to the Wallace dock. Reid jumped off the bow to bring the boat alongside so I could get off. I saw Karen toss a towel up to Reid and it was followed by a loud splash.
“Oh my God! My keys just went into the river!” Karen wailed. Reid wrapped the line on the cleat and without hesitation he dove off the dock.
The boat rocked quietly as the minutes seemed to tick by and Reid did not surface. I was getting increasingly nervous. We were all looking over the side for him. I took off my madras shorts and walked up to the bow, ready to go in after him. He could have hit something when he dove in and injured himself. The water couldn’t be that deep here.
I was antsy. Too much time had passed and I jumped in. Kevin grabbed a floatation ring from the boat to throw to me if I needed it. I swam to where I saw Reid dive in and went under, trying to find him. The water was murky and I couldn’t see anything. My heart was rattling into full panic.
Then I felt his hand grab on to my ankle.
“Must be my lucky day,” he said as I surfaced. I waffled between relief and anger. “I found you AND Karen’s keys. Nice to know you’d t
ry to save me.”
“Reid! You scared me! You were under for almost three minutes!” Now that I knew he was safe, anger jockeyed for emotional position over relief.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. But that’s pretty much how I feel when you check out from one of your head rushes.”
I had nothing to say to that. The past few minutes left me speechless. Reid had not surfaced for at least three minutes. The water was so brackish that I could hardly see my hand in front of my face, much less a set of car keys on the bottom. This was not something a regular person could have accomplished.
I swam back to the dock. Kevin handed me my shorts and my canvas bag. I said thanks and a generic goodbye. By the time Reid had climbed out of the water I was too far up the walk to the house to look back to see if Karen was giving him a hug farewell.
Before I could imagine that disturbing scene in my mind, he was next to me. “Come on. Was it that bad?” Reid asked as we walked toward the house and Kevin’s boat rumbled away from the dock.
I didn’t want to give Karen any power so I chose to misinterpret the question. “My shoulders will be fine in a day or two. Kevin really floored it.” I rubbed my shoulder. “I haven’t skied for a while.”
I was getting better at anticipating him and I cleared my mind of Karen. A second later, Reid’s hands were on my shoulders. My tense muscles loosened in relaxation. He knew exactly where they needed pressure. I had finally found a benefit to his empath skill, I thought with a laugh.
“You know what works really well on sore muscles? Water pressure. I have really great jets in my shower. You could try it out if you like.” I felt like clay in his hands. My protective instinct flared as I realized he could not only give a great shoulder massage but he could use his touch to completely unravel me.
I disconnected myself from the sensation and thought about what Dr. West said about Mr. Parks. I needed to regain my mental discipline. Reid was lulling me into relaxation and I needed to be anything but complacent.
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