“Is she unhappy?” He asked. “Isn’t she supposed to, I don’t know, follow the light or something?”
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “She doesn’t seem unhappy,” Rosie offered.
He was truly concerned. He hadn’t shown any disbelief or wariness in her. Just like he said, he believed her.
“You really believe me?”
His head shifted back as he looked down at her, his brows drawn in confusion. “Of course, I do. I told you I would.”
His promise had meant nothing to her. People said things they didn’t mean all the time. They made promises they either never kept or never meant to keep in the first place.
“Did you not believe me?” He asked, sounding confused.
She shook her head. “It’s not that.” She hadn’t dared to believe him and that seemed like a totally different thing. “I just don’t tell anyone. Ever.”
“But you told me.” He sent her a half smile and reached his arm around her and pulled her into a hug. “I was hoping we could hang out. I could thank you every few seconds for saving my life.”
“That seems like it would get awkward really fast.” She joked, her cheek pressed against his chest, feeling his laugh rumble through her body.
“Now, we have something else to talk about.
Max's furnace was being replaced. It had been the cause of the carbon monoxide leak and he wasn’t in any hurry to get back there, so they decided to spend some time at the camper, hanging out.
She showed him in and went to her tiny kitchen area but Max just stood there staring at her before he closed the door behind him. Rosie looked at him in question.
"Should I hold the door open in case Hannah wants to come in?"
She rolled her eyes. "If Hannah wants to come in, she will. Believe me."
"Is that weird?"
"Every damn time," she answered without hesitating, then looked back to the kitchen. "Uh, one problem,” she winced. "I don't have much for food unless you don't mind eating granola bars and popcorn."
"Yeah, no," he shook his head and winced. "We'll go grab some takeout or something." Two seconds later he followed that with. "We'll get it delivered."
She wondered if Max wasn't feeling as well as he was letting on.
"Do you like pizza?" He asked.
"How are you feeling? Really?" She asked, ignoring his question.
He made a pained face causing her level of concern jump about ten notches. "I've got a headache like you read about but other than that, I'm good."
"Did you take something?"
"Not in a while," he admitted then tapped his phone's screen a few times and held it to his ear. "I'll take something after we eat."
He ordered pizza and salad then gave them specific directions to her camper.
She picked up some of the throw blankets and pillows from her little couch and put them off to the side. Then she setup her laptop on the table which was how she normally watched a movie or TV shows. Remembering her bag, she opened it up and placed her new crystals and stones around the camper. As instructed by Jay she placed a piece of quartz in each corner of the camper, from the far end where her small living area was to the other end, where the bed was. One went in the kitchen and one right across from that, where the little table was. She then put a stone on the first step heading out the door, tucked way in the back so she wouldn't kill herself tripping on it.
"What are you doing?" Max asked, looking on curiously.
She grabbed three more stones and turned around, kneeling at the side of her bed. She shoved the crystals between her mattress and box spring.
"I'm cleansing my energies." It sounded skeptical to her own ears. Even though she believed Jay and in what he did, it was hard to imagine anything helping her.
"Are your energies dirty?" Obviously, he didn't know any more about it than she did. "That sounded bad," he immediately corrected himself. "Are your energies in need of cleansing?"
She shrugged and smiled at him as she stood. "I'm all kinds of out of whack. This is supposed to help."
"What's that mean?"
"You want to watch a movie?"
"Sure." He followed her lead and began looking over her online movie list. "So, tell me more about your energy stuff."
"You don't want to hear that." She waved him off and threw some popcorn in the microwave.
He let out a laugh. "I'm doing my best from not sitting you down and grilling you about the whole thing. You just told me you see ghosts and what? Dream the future? If you think I don't have a million questions, then you don't know me very well."
She knew better than to believe he'd just let it go. He was a determined type of guy but also nurturing enough to not bulldoze her for information.
"Have you heard of The Third Eye?" She asked.
"Yeah, that hippie store downtown."
"That's the place. The owner, Jay, has been working with me trying to get me back to normal."
He sat and gave her his full attention. "I didn't know you weren't normal."
She laughed. "Well, if you didn't before, you do now."
"That's not what I meant. I didn't know there was something wrong."
Without realizing she was doing it she touched the side of her face where her scabs were nearly all gone.
"I've been having a few ongoing issues." She evaded his implied question.
"That have something to do with your bike accident?" At her sharp look, he explained the obvious. "You touched your face when I asked about it. I figured that was why."
She took a deep breath and came to sit next to him, looking over the movies on the computer with him.
"I've been off since then,” she agreed vaguely.
"What's that mean?"
She shrugged like it was no big deal. "Not being able to see some of the things I used to. Sleepwalking. Being stalked by a ghost in the woods."
He stilled her hand on the computer's touchpad.
"You're being stalked by a ghost?" He sounded alarmed.
With good reason, she thought.
She nodded. "That might be an exaggeration. I just see her in the woods sometimes."
"What does she want?"
Rosie couldn't remember the killer’s face but she remembered his eyes and the feeling of his hands pressing down on her throat. Her mind went to her mother and she immediately wiped both memories from her mind.
Rosie took a deep breath, looked away from him and let herself be honest with him, even if it was only a half truth.
"She wants to be found."
14
Rosie woke to a strip of sunlight in her eyes. She lifted her hand to block the light and looked around.
"Good morning," Max's voice, deep and rough from sleep, came from behind her. His voice rumbled through her and she realized they were both still on her little couch.
"Oh God," she groaned as she tried to sit up, her back aching. "Why did we sleep on the couch?".
He laughed and wrapped an arm around the top of her chest, pulling her back to him. "You fell asleep watching some creepy zombie show. I was too scared to walk home."
"I didn't expect you to walk home," she argued. "But, the bed would have been more comfortable."
"After you fell asleep I put on a documentary. Guess I crashed too."
She closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of his hard chest behind her, his breath puffing in her hair.
"Is she here?"
Rosie's eyes popped open and she looked around.
"Who?"
"Hannah," he said it like it was obvious.
"No.” She sat up and looked back at him. "She's probably outside with Gizmo."
"He can see her too."
“They like to chase each other around. Remember that day when you were here and Gizmo came flying out of the woods?" At his nod, she continued. "Hannah was right behind him."
"She always did like getting into trouble with other animals."
"Yeah, well, she's why your poor sheep ha
s been hiding in that corner. Hannah just corrals her there and barks her fool head off."
He tilted his head and stared at her. "Is that who you were shooing that day?"
"The minute she ran off the sheep did too. I felt bad for her."
"That's crazy," he exclaimed bewildered.
Rosie knew he didn't mean to say she was crazy. She was aware how unbelievable her talents could be, but the words struck a nerve. It put her right back in the Coleman Institute where she never wanted to be again.
He pulled her back and kissed her hair.
"What you can do is crazy. Unbelievable." He sighed. "It sounds bad no matter how I say it. I believe you, Rosie and I don't think you're crazy. Not even a little bit."
"I didn't say anything."
"Don't worry. Your eyes said it all."
"I'm sorry," she started.
"You have nothing to be sorry about." His stomach growled. "Other than trying to starve me.”
She looked around. "Is there any left-over pizza?"
"Yeah right," he scoffed. "I polished that off last night. Let's go get breakfast."
"Don't you have a job?" She sat up and pulled out of his arms, turning to face him.
"You're sexy in the morning." He had a smile on his face but his golden eyes seared her with heat.
She covered her face in embarrassment. "Don't do that."
He laughed again. "Do what? Tell you you're sexy?"
"Yes!" She squeaked with a giggle that made her feel ridiculous.
His hands wrapped around the sides of her head and he pulled her closer but she ducked her head.
"I'm not kissing you before I brush my teeth."
"You better get in the bathroom and get working then, because I'm not waiting much longer to kiss you," he warned.
Heart pounding, she fled to the bathroom to clean herself up. When she finished Max was gone, so she took the opportunity to throw on a pair of her favorite ripped jeans, a sweater, and her well-loved flowered combat boots. She found Max waiting right outside the door watching the woods.
When he saw her, he sent her that full bodied, sexy smile.
"My turn," he said before he slipped past her and into the camper.
She didn't think he meant for his smile to be that sexy. Frankly, he'd sent it her way a few times and she'd interpreted it as completely platonic. But this morning it seemed different somehow, more poignant. It was strange to be so attracted to Max. Not that she'd never experienced attraction but she'd never felt comfortable enough to act on it. She'd never cuddled on a couch before and had definitely never slept with a man – even if it was just sleeping and nothing more.
Rosie took a few steps forward and squatted down, scratching Gizmo behind his ears. She rubbed her hands back and forth through his thick fur as he stood and rubbed one side of his body against her palm and then the other. Hannah looked on in question, her tail thumping against the ground.
"Sorry Hannah. I can't touch you," she told the shaggy dog.
The camper door opened behind her and Rosie stood nervously, turning to find Max watching her. She resisted the urge to shove her hands in her pockets which she was glad for because he reached her in three quick strides. She needed her hands to balance when he grabbed her head and swiftly brought his lips to hers, her hands filled with the front of his shirt.
"I used your toothbrush," he said, right before his lips touched hers, soft and hot, insisting she reciprocate. She didn't hesitate to join in, opening her mouth and touching her tongue to his lips. He groaned, his hands sliding down to her shoulders and back, ending on her butt. He pulled her tighter against him which made squeak in surprise.
Suddenly her feet were off the ground and she was spun around, her back pressed to the outside of her camper. Their mouths moved hungrily against each other and she instinctively threaded her fingers through his hair. His hips pressed against the apex of her thighs, sending tiny jolts of lightning through her core. The next time he pressed against her she pressed back. Max made a deep growling sound.
The sound of a siren pierced the air. Rosie let out a strangled scream while Max dropped her legs and shielded her from the intrusion. He turned around, blocking her view.
"You're such an asshole," he said.
"Nothing going on my ass." It was Dallas. "I have a bone to pick with her."
"Yeah, well, she's busy."
Dallas laughed. "You can feel her up while I talk to her."
Max laughed too, their banter casual. "Not gonna happen."
"Come on," Dallas complained. "He sent me looking for you all over goddamn town, you know."
He was talking to her. She peeked out from behind Max and looked at Dallas, rugged and imposing in his uniform.
"You didn't find me."
It was a lie and he knew it. "Whatever you need to tell yourself, honey. I want to know why you disappeared."
Max took a step away from her and faced her, silently telling her he'd like to know the answer too.
She looked between them and stubbornly kept quiet, folding her arms over her chest.
"You called me in the middle of the night," Dallas said with a frustrated sigh. "Hysterical, begging me for help and then you disappeared."
She shrugged. "You came. You went with Max. That's why I called you."
His head reared back and he stared at her in confusion. "Did you think I'd forget you were there? Why didn't you come with us?"
"You didn't need me. You had it covered."
"That's not the point," Dallas argued and turned his frustrated gaze to Max. "Did you not talk to her about this?"
Max looked uncomfortable. "It hadn't come up yet."
Rosie realized whatever they were talking about was something they had discussed before. She took a step back, away from Max which he immediately noticed. He grabbed her hand and didn't let her get any further.
"No," he told her firmly then turned to Dallas. "Just go, man. I'll call you later."
She watched Dallas fight his desire to stay and argue although she didn't know what he was so mad about. Max's grip was tight on her wrist, not giving her any room to wiggle away.
He finally threw up his hands and rolled his eyes. "This is nuts, you know. People don't call for help and disappear. That's some crazy shit, Rosie." He spun on his heel, got in his cruiser and drove away.
"It's just hard to understand, that's all," Max's voice was gentle. "You weren't there when I woke up. I was confused. Dallas couldn’t find you when he showed up at my house and no one remembered you leaving. Then we couldn't find you."
She took a deep breath to calm her heart rate. It was the thing she hadn't even been able to explain even to herself. That inexplicable reason she stayed in the shadows. Her deep-rooted fear of living in the light and all it entailed. The shadows were where people like Rosie lived, where she could hide and no one noticed her.
Somehow, here, they'd noticed her.
"I don't know why I hid," she whispered. "I'm just used to hiding."
He cupped her shoulders and turned her to face him, not letting go. "Baby, you can hide from everyone else but you can't hide from us. We're you're friends."
Frustrated, she told him the same thing she'd told Wendy. "I don't want any friends! I don't need friends!"
"But you have us," he said simply.
"I didn't ask for friends."
"I know."
"I'm better at hiding."
"Nah," he smiled down at her. "You just think that. We'll get it all figured out."
"Don't do that," she snapped.
"Do what?" He asked, unruffled by her frustration and anger.
“Don't make promises you can't keep."
"What? That we'll get it all figured out? I believe that, Rosie."
"You don't even know what you're trying to figure out. I don't know what my problem is half the time." She held a hand to her forehead in frustration. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
He leaned in quickly and placed a ki
ss on her lips, catching her completely off guard.
“We'll figure it out." He slipped her hand inside his and tugged her toward her bike. "Come on. You can ride on the handlebars."
They ended up at Max's where he whipped up some egg sandwiches. She hadn't said much since they arrived, just sat on the other side of the counter watching as he worked in the kitchen. Max was comfortable in everything he did, from working on his farm to cooking in the kitchen. She wished she could be so at ease with everything. She wondered what it would be like to just enjoy being who you were and being comfortable in that.
He slid a hot sandwich across the counter to her and sat down.
"Are you working tonight?"
She nodded, her mouth full.
"Wendy said you’ve been mostly in the office but picked up new clients. How’s that going?"
"I've never met them. They aren't home when I'm there."
"Do you like it so far?"
"It's alright," she admitted. "Not much different than before other than the hours. How's the lamb?"
She'd thought about the baby sheep a few times over the last few days, wondering how it was faring with the big girls.
Max's face lit up with a smile. "She's great. We feed her and she spends all of her time with Cocoa."
"The bigger sheep?"
"The one you said Hannah was bugging."
Rosie nodded.
"Is she here?"
"Hannah?" He'd been looking around suspiciously since they walked through the door, like he expected her to pop up and beg for scraps at his feet.
"She ran out back when we got here."
"So, she came with us?"
"Ran beside the bike."
He shook his head in disbelief and muttered, "So crazy."
Max let her finish her sandwich before he started with more questions. "Okay,” he pulled her plate aside and faced her. "Time to talk more about the bomb you dropped on me last night."
Warily she leaned away from him. "I don't do parlor tricks."
"Parlor tricks?" He asked confused. "I don't need you to prove anything to me. I want to know about whatever's been going on since your bike accident."
"Oh," she said.
"You said there's someone stalking you. That she wants to be found."
Chasing Happy Page 13