“Morning, beautiful.” Steven’s voice was raspy. The pillow next to me was cool, but I could tell that he hadn’t been awake for long.
I yawned, covering my mouth with both hands and rubbed my eyes.
“You gotta stop doing that, babe,” Steven said. He reached for my hands and held them tightly in his own. “You’re gonna ruin the skin around your eyes.”
I snorted. “Come on,” I said. “I’m only twenty-one. Don’t you think I have a few years left to worry about that?”
Steven snickered. I felt the bed shifting with his weight as he leaned over and kissed my forehead. He smelled good – musky, but in a clean way. Almost like sandalwood.
“You’re twenty-two,” Steven said. He tapped the tip of my nose with his finger. “Or did you forget that, too?”
I opened my eyes and laughed. Already, the desire to vanish into half-sleep for eternity was starting to fade and seem ridiculous. It always did when I was around people. Whenever I had to make conversation or think about the real world, I couldn’t disappear inside my subconscious.
“I remember,” I groaned as I sat up in bed and yawned again, stretching my arms over my head.
Steven shook his head. “You still sleep like a kid, though.” He snorted. “That was some storm we had last night. You hear that?”
I shook my head and frowned. “What storm?”
“It was huge,” Steven said. He ran his hands through his thick, brown hair. “Thunder and lightning. Shit, I think there was hail.” He raised an eyebrow at me.
I blinked. “Wow! I must have really been out.”
Steven nodded. “Six cocktails before dinner will do that to ya,” he said. He pulled me into a clumsy embrace, rubbing my back with one of his oversized hands. “How ya feelin’, kid?”
I licked my lips and swallowed. “Hungover.” Actually, until I said that, I hadn’t been feeling particularly bad. But now that I was sitting up in bed, my head ached like it was filled with wet cement. My lips and tongue were dry and papery, and I was so thirsty that my gut was cramped and twisted.
“Poor kid.” Steven handed me a cup of water. “I put this here last night, but you didn’t even wake up.”
I drank greedily until my stomach felt like it would burst. Burping softly, I wiped my lips and handed the cup back to Steven.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”
“Good.” Steven flashed a big grin toward me. “Because I have a plan for today.”
“You do?” I frowned. “I have to study, remember? The GRE is next week.”
Steven looked guilty. “So, I may have done something about that,” he said uneasily. He shifted forward and crossed his fingers in his lap. “Remember how you told me the other day that you weren’t sure if you’d be ready by next week?”
I nodded.
“Well, I called the board and rescheduled your test for next month. I know your internship is over in a couple of weeks, and since I’m making more now, I thought you could use the extra free time to study.”
My jaw dropped. “Steven!” I grinned. “I can’t believe you did that!” I shook my head and laughed. “I know that should probably piss me off, but I don’t care. Wow. Best birthday present ever. Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”
Steven shrugged. His face lit up with a shy smile – the kind I hadn’t actually seen in years. All of a sudden, I was fifteen years old again.
“You look happy,” Steven said. He grinned, and all traces of the adolescent gawkiness disappeared.
“I am,” I said. “Why, do I normally not look like it?”
Steven opened his mouth and then shrugged. “I know you’ve been under a lot of stress lately,” he said. “But I bet when you get into grad school and really get settled, things will be easier.”
I bit my lip. “I hope you’re right.”
“Anyway, get dressed,” Steven said. He stretched and bounded off the bed in a single fluid motion. “Wear something comfortable,” he said with a wink.
I giggled. “I can’t believe you’re trying to surprise me,” I said. “This is so not like you!”
Steven flashed me a grin before walking into the hall. “I know, babe,” he said. “See you soon.”
When I was alone again, I yawned and rubbed my eyes. My little moment of selfish escapism had passed, and I was already starting to emerge from the fog of my hangover. At twenty-two, I wasn’t exactly old. ‘Still,’ I thought weakly as I climbed out of bed, ‘really shouldn’t be pounding tequila whenever I have the chance.’
Remembering Steven’s advice on dressing comfortably, I pulled on my favorite distressed-boyfriend jeans and a flowy peasant top that hung off one shoulder. I grabbed a jacket – spring in New Hampshire feels like a warm version of winter, even on sunny days – and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Downstairs, I found Steven and Karen sitting at the table together. Steven was sipping coffee and glancing down at the news on his tablet. I laughed, and he looked up.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said, sliding into an empty chair. “You just look so much like a teacher right now. It’s funny.”
Steven smirked. “I am a teacher,” he said smugly. “At least, I like to think so.”
“Hey, Elizabeth,” Karen said. “I made bacon. Want some?”
My stomach rumbled, and I nodded. Karen passed me a plate loaded with greasy slices, and I grabbed a few. The salty, savory taste spread through my mouth, and I closed my eyes.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. “This is good.”
“Not a problem.” Karen smiled politely before getting up and walking out of the kitchen. I glanced after her for a few seconds before turning my attention to Steven.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing,” I said. “She’s nice. She’s a good roommate.”
“Especially because she makes bacon,” Steven teased. “But yeah, she’s fine.” He yawned. “Still hoping this whole place will be ours someday.”
I frowned. I loved the big, old farmhouse where we all lived, but I couldn’t see just Steven and myself living there. I knew that I wouldn’t exactly be making much in grad school, and Steven made a decent salary as a teacher, but it wasn’t the kind of money that could buy a house. Until recently, we’d had another roommate, Paul. But he’d left for a military deployment. We’d found Karen on Craigslist about two weeks later, and, while she was quiet, I thought she was a good fit.
“Come on,” Steven said before I had a chance to ask him about it. “Let’s go.”
--
Steven drove us out of Jaffrey toward Pitcher Mountain. “I thought we could take a lazy hike,” he said. “Then maybe we could go into Peterborough for lunch. There’s a new deli that looks good – lots of craft beer on tap.”
I nodded. “That sounds nice,” I said. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sun’s warmth on my face. I wasn’t much of a hiker – Steven was by far the more athletic – but I loved the idea of spending a lazy day in the sun with my boyfriend.
To my relief, Steven suggested the easier path. Pitcher Mountain wasn’t huge – only a little more than two thousand feet – and in the summer, it was covered with patches of blueberries. I had to admit that it looked beautiful in the early spring. Buds covered the trees, and the grass was just beginning to glow again from a long, dreary winter.
We walked together in silence. Steven reached for my hand and squeezed. “I know I don’t tell you a lot,” he said in a low voice as we rounded a corner and started uphill. “But I appreciate you, Elizabeth. You mean so much to me.”
I bit my lip, smiling self-consciously. “I know,” I said softly. I squeezed Steven’s hand, and he squeezed back. “We’ve been through a lot together.”
“We have,” Steven said. He cleared his throat, and I waited, wondering if he would say anything else. But then he swallowed. I watched as a muscle ticked in his jaw.
“I’m happy we’re together now,” I said. “I hate
d when you weren’t here.”
“I know.” Steven sighed. He ran a hand through his hair. In the sun, it looked almost blond again, like it had when we were kids. “But maybe I had to go away for a while, you know? I had to realize how much we meant to each other.”
I nodded. “I know. I missed you every day.”
Steven squeezed my hand. “I missed you, too,” he said. Suddenly, he stopped walking. “Elizabeth, I love you.”
“I love you, too.” My heart skipped a beat in my chest, and I felt my fingers trembling. Steven locked eyes with me, then dropped down on one knee. I gasped as he pulled a small, velvet box from his pocket and opened it up to reveal a sparkling diamond solitaire.
“Oh, my god,” I murmured. “What is this?”
“Marry me, Elizabeth,” Steven said. “I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Make me the happiest man on Earth and say yes.”
Tears flooded my eyes, and I started nodding rapidly, bobbing my head up and down. “Yes,” I whispered hotly. “Yes.”
Steven leapt from the ground and pulled me into a tight embrace. He nuzzled my hair, and I tilted my face up to meet his lips. We kissed, and I felt tears spilling from my eyes as Steven locked his arms around me.
“I feel like I’m going to hyperventilate,” I said, wiping my eyes and laughing. “I feel like I’m having a heart attack!”
Steven pulled the solitaire ring from the box and slid it on the third finger of my left hand. It fit perfectly, and I stared down, enraptured by the shiny diamond twinkling on my hand. It was large, but understated – a simple round cut set in six prongs of white gold.
“This is so beautiful,” I said softly. “How did you find this?”
Steven grinned. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me close. “I had a lucky guess,” he said. He kissed the side of my forehead.
Right then, I was so glad to be alive. I couldn’t believe how happy I was. Being engaged seemed natural. Steven and I had been together for almost seven years – not counting the two years we were apart – and he was my best friend. Whenever I closed my eyes and thought about the future, Steven was there by my side.
“I love you,” I said softly. The tears came back to my eyes. “I wish Monica was here.”
Steven squeezed me again. “Do you ever think about what happened to her?”
A lump formed in my throat, and I nodded. “Every day,” I admitted quietly. “I can’t not think about her, you know?”
Steven nodded. “I know.” He sighed. “I do, too.”
“David probably killed her,” I said bitterly. “Asshole.”
Steven clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Yep,” he said. “That’s probably what happened.”
Chapter Two
Elizabeth – Seven Years Earlier
“Elizabeth, come on,” Monica whined. She crossed her arms over her narrow chest and stared at me. “You know we can’t throw a party. Especially not right now.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why not? Your parents aren’t coming back until Monday; they won’t ever know.” We kept walking away from the school, toward home on the main road.
“It’s not that,” Monica said. “You know Jamie and Brian don’t care.” She narrowed her brown eyes. She paused and stood rooted firmly on the side of the road. A car passed, and her blonde hair whirled in the breeze, obscuring her face.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“It’s everything else,” Monica said. “You know – all this shit that’s been going on around here.” She sighed and closed her eyes. For a moment, her pale features were so still that she looked like a corpse. Then she opened her lids and sighed dramatically.
“Like what?” I stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
“My neighbor, Gene, found all six of his dairy cows dead,” Monica said. “Like, last week. Someone had snuck into the field and slit their throats.”
I shivered. “That’s creepy,” I said. “But I don’t think someone who killed a bunch of cows is going to attack us because we have a party.”
“It’s not just that,” Monica insisted. As always, when she was getting worked up about something, her voice rose to a higher pitch. “Whoever did it splashed the blood all over the side of Gene’s house.”
“It was probably a bunch of bored jocks,” I said. I groaned as a truck full of football players drove past, staring at Monica and me with obvious teenage lust in their eyes. “Like those assholes,” I muttered.
“It’s not just Gene’s cows, though,” Monica said. “What about all those people who’ve had robberies and burglaries lately?”
I frowned. “I think my mom mentioned something about that,” I said.
“Yeah,” Monica said. She gestured wildly with her hands. “Like, someone breaks in and makes a mess, but they don’t take anything. Why would anyone do that?”
I shrugged. “My mom said something about how if someone wants drug money, they’re not going to take the time to sell anything. Maybe nobody has cash lying around anymore.”
Monica shrugged. “It seems…worse than that,” she said. A deep crease appeared in her pale forehead. “I don’t know.”
“Come on, wouldn’t it be safer if we had a party? Lots of people around,” I said. I jerked my head in the direction of home. “Let’s go.”
“Yeah but if something bad happened, their parents would sue Jamie and Brian,” Monica said darkly. “Everyone hates my family as it is.”
“You worry too much,” I said firmly. “Nothing is going to happen, Monica. Everything’s fine. It’s just a party.”
“You just want an excuse to call Steven,” Monica teased. She smirked.
I blushed hotly. “That is not true,” I said firmly. “I don’t care about him.”
“Yes, you do,” Monica said.
“He hasn’t called me in weeks,” I said flatly. It was hard to keep from deflating when I thought of Steven D’Amico. A popular junior at our high school, I’d had a crush on him since the first time I saw him. He wasn’t a jerk, either; that was one of the things I liked about him. He was cool, but he wasn’t like the rest of the assholes who played football.
Monica rolled her eyes. “His mother is nuts,” she said. “She probably got jealous.”
In spite of myself, I snickered. “Their family is a little weird.” My stomach twisted, and I tried to shrug off the bad feeling creeping into it.
“A little weird? Are you serious?”
‘Shit,’ I thought. ‘Why did I have to say that?’
“A little weird, honestly, Elizabeth?” Monica asked bossily.
“Just because Andrea is a freak doesn’t mean Steven is,” I said. “Come on, she was scared. She’s like a little kid.”
“She is a little kid,” Monica said sourly. “She’s only fourteen.”
“Just because she skipped kindergarten doesn’t mean she’s smarter than you,” I said carefully.
“Obviously,” Monica replied. “If she were smart, she wouldn’t have acted like such a little kid last year.”
I cringed. The previous year, Monica and Andrea had held a séance in Monica’s attic. Monica and I had been doing that for years. It had been one of our favorite things to do as kids. But since we got into high school, we stopped. Then one day, Andrea came up to Monica and asked if she could help her contact her recently dead grandmother. I still wasn’t sure exactly what had happened – I hadn’t been there – but somehow, the séance had gone badly. Andrea had run out of Monica’s house, sobbing uncontrollably. Mrs. D’Amico had called Monica’s parents, and while they hadn’t punished Monica, they’d warned her not to do that again.
“She couldn’t help it,” I said. “She’s so naïve.”
“She’s a little brat,” Monica said. “She seriously told me that I’m possessed.”
I snorted. “That’s ridiculous,” I said.
“I know.” Monica’s brown eyes flashed with anger. “Steven’s lucky he’s not c
razy like his stupid sister. Have fun dealing with her when you and Steven start dating.”
“We’re not going to start dating,” I said stubbornly. “I told you. He’s been ignoring me for weeks.”
“Poor baby,” Monica said dryly. “So, you really want a stupid party, huh?”
I nodded.
“And you wanna call Steven and ask if he can come?”
I nodded again.
“Fine,” Monica said. “But if my house is a wreck, you’re staying to help me clean it up. And no disappearing upstairs with Steven! Don’t leave me alone.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
“I’m serious, Elizabeth.”
“I said okay!”
“Good.” Monica looked satisfied for the first time since we’d begun our walk home. “I’m going to call David and ask if he can drive down. I haven’t seen him in, like, a month.”
I bit my lip. “Sounds good,” I lied. “I’ll be over around seven.”
Monica and I hugged and then we parted ways. We lived on opposite sides of the small town…granted, that was less than a quarter of mile. Monica’s parents, Jamie and Brian, were old hippies. Before they’d had Monica, they’d actually lived in a nudist colony. They had an old farmhouse on the outskirts of Jaffrey. I lived with my parents and my younger brother, Aidan, in a newer development. Jaffrey was a small place – I’d known most of my classmates since elementary school – but I didn’t mind. I wasn’t one of those people who was dying to get out to a big city. I’d always loved living in New Hampshire because it felt so different than everywhere else. It wasn’t for everyone. That was why I liked it so much.
Monica, on the other hand, was constantly unhappy that her parents had picked such a ‘desert.’ She couldn’t wait to graduate and go to college in the biggest city she could find. Every summer, she went to camp for teen members of Mensa, and that was where she had met David.
When Monica had come home from camp about three months ago, she’d gushed about David until I thought my head was going to explode. I’d never really seen her get like that about anyone before. Monica was the understated to my loud; hearing her talk about a guy for hours on end was a little unnerving. By the time I met David, my expectations were sky-high.
Outcast (Moonlight Wolves Book 4) Page 19