“And in those dreams I wear a big white dress?”
“Yes.”
It was hard for him to admit. I knew that. Still … . “It’s not just the dress, Aric,” I said. “I could probably compromise on the dress. For the record, I will never compromise on the tiara, though.”
Aric snorted.
“I just … I had dreams, too,” I said. “I thought we would exchange vows in a quiet little ceremony and then get really drunk with all of our friends. By the time night fell Rafael would be able to join us and … we would be able to start our life together without twenty pounds of white dress weighing us down.”
“Is Rafael coming?”
Of course he would fixate on that. “He said he wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said. “That’s what he told me when we talked, by the way. The ceremony is during the day, but he promised to come to the reception. Are you going to pitch a fit about that?”
Vampires and wolves don’t get along. It didn’t help that I flirted with the idea of having a relationship with Rafael during junior year when Aric and I were broken up. Because I was already in love with Aric, that relationship never got off the ground. Aric was still slightly bitter about it.
“I think it’s a great idea,” he said, taking me by surprise. “If he shows up after the wedding, the ring is going to act as a great big sign that says that your mine whenever he looks at you.”
“You know he’s not interested in me, right?”
“I don’t know that.”
“He never really was interested in me,” I argued. “For a brief time he thought he might be, but he was right. We have absolutely nothing in common. He’s the one who told me I would make up with you before I decided I wanted to do it.
“He knew I loved you from the beginning,” I continued. “He stood up for you even when I thought I hated you that year. He was loyal to you. That should count for something.”
“It does count for something,” Aric said. “I know I’m irrational where he’s concerned. I can’t help it. That year almost killed me.”
“It wasn’t exactly puppies and ice cream for me.”
Despite the serious nature of the conversation, Aric snickered. “Well, we don’t have to worry about that again,” he said, reaching out to snag my hand. “In a few days we’ll be Mr. and Mrs. Zoe Lake. That’s something that’s going to stick forever, so don’t even think about ever getting out of it.”
“I wouldn’t want to get out of it,” I said.
“Good.”
“Without you I would starve to death.” I scampered out of Aric’s reach, laughing as his hand brushed past my waist. I hopped through the trees and landed next to the river, the totem about twenty feet from where we emerged. “There it is.”
Aric’s face remained neutral as he strode toward the totem, lifting his nose to the air to scent the area as he circled it. I gave him a few minutes to do his wolf thing and then joined him.
“Is it our friends from the ice cream shop?”
“I’m not sure,” Aric replied, wrinkling his nose. “I can smell a wolf, but only one, and I’m honestly not sure it’s one of the guys from the other day. The scent is faint.”
“What do you think it means?”
“See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.”
I made an exaggerated “well, duh” face. “Oh, really? I never would’ve figured that out on my own.” I smacked his arm. “I was asking whether you thought it was a warning … or a message … or just a really ugly piece of sculpture someone dumped to get rid of.”
“I think it’s too coincidental to be an accident,” Aric replied. “It was put here for a purpose.”
“What purpose?”
“This is your favorite spot,” Aric answered, running his fingers over the wood. “Someone knows you come down here once a week to get away from me.”
“I don’t do it to get away from you,” I protested. “I do it to … think.”
“About?”
“Usually what a pain you’ve just been,” I said.
“Very cute,” Aric said, poking my cheek. “I don’t know what to think about this thing. What did Paris think of it?”
“She thought it was creepy looking, but she didn’t feel any power emanating from it or anything like that.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t feel anything from it,” I replied. “It’s ugly and I don’t like it, but it doesn’t feel dangerous.”
“Do you think you could sense whether it was dangerous?” Aric asked, tugging on the totem and kicking at the ground to gauge how securely it was planted.
“I don’t know,” I said. “My guess is yes, though. I don’t feel anything when I look at it.”
“Well, your gut hasn’t steered us wrong so far,” Aric said. “That doesn’t mean I want to leave this hanging around. Do you want to set something on fire?”
“Are you sure you want to do that before we show it to your father?”
“That’s a good point,” Aric said, digging in his pocket for his cell phone. He snapped a series of photographs, making sure he got it every angle, and then took a step away. “Light it up, baby.”
I didn’t have to be told twice. After a long day – and an even longer dinner full of glaring mothers – I needed an outlet for my frustration. I briefly pressed my eyes shut, opening the magical door in my brain to let the fire out. I kept the burn controlled, letting only a small amount of heat out before slamming the door shut. When I opened my eyes again, the totem was engulfed but the rest of the area was unscathed.
“You’re getting really good at that,” Aric said, smiling. “Your control is fantastic these days.” He extended his hand and I wordlessly took it. “Pretty soon you’re going to be able to set fire to whatever you want without even thinking about it.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” I hedged. “In fact … I believe the more thinking I do about my magic the better.”
“Is this because you shredded the roses and linens?”
“I meant to shred the linens. I’m not going to lie. That was on purpose.”
“I know,” Aric said, leading me away from the totem. My fire was hot enough to burn it quickly. It would take only a few moments before the entire thing was reduced to ash. “I thought it was funny.”
“You’re the only one.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Zoe,” Aric said. “Our fathers thought it was funny, too. They’re too terrified of our mothers to admit it.”
“I didn’t mean for the roses to happen,” I said, biting my lip. “That could’ve gone really bad.”
“It didn’t, though,” Aric said, moving to head back to the house. “You realized you were angry and focused on the most harmless thing in the room. That’s a win to me. Before, you might’ve accidentally blown up the couch or something. I’m not going to get angry because you channeled your emotions into something that didn’t hurt anyone. I’ll never be angry about that.”
“Are you ever afraid of me?” I don’t know what propelled me to ask the question, but suddenly I needed to know the answer.
Aric’s face was earnest, devoid of all recrimination and reflecting only love when he turned to me. “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure that you’re the one thing in this world I will never fear,” Aric said. “I will fear for you. I will fear for us. I will never fear you, though. Don’t ever think that.”
His answer warmed me. “Thank you.”
Aric jerked me to him and gave me a long hug. “I love you. I don’t fear you.” His words were barely a whisper yet they echoed throughout my head.
We remained like that for a few moments before wordlessly separating and returning to our trek. Aric kept his arm around my waist for the entire walk. I was the first one to break the silence as we approached the house.
“I wish we could get in the hot tub,” I said. “An hour with you and a bottle of wine sounds just about perfect right now.”
> “I could be talked into getting in the hot tub,” Aric said. “I have no problem having sex in public. It’s their fault for invading our house.”
I didn’t want to laugh, but I couldn’t help myself. “You have no problem having sex in front of my father?”
“Did you have to ruin my moment?”
I was still laughing when we landed on the lawn, and almost collided with our mothers. They stood close to the trees, their arms crossed over their chests, and they looked to be in no mood for games.
“What happened now?” Aric asked. “Whatever it was, we weren’t even here so you can’t blame us.”
“Where were you?” Helen asked.
“We were … taking a walk,” Aric said. His answer didn’t surprise me. I knew he didn’t want to give our mothers another thing to fret about with the wedding closing in. “We needed some time to talk.”
“Does that mean you’ll agree to our wedding decisions?” Mom asked.
Aric and I exchanged a quick look. “It means that I’m willing to revisit the dress situation,” I offered, earning a heartfelt smile from Aric. “I will not reconsider the tiara, though.”
“Fine,” Mom said. “I can live with that.”
“Great.”
“Now,” Helen said, pointing toward the house. “We need to get moving and pick more linens after Zoe’s … accident … this afternoon. We also have a cake tasting set up for tomorrow because you two were so lukewarm on the whole thing the other day. We’ll have to pay double to get the cake done on time.”
“That sounds awesome,” I said.
Aric pressed his lips together to keep from laughing while my mother cuffed me.
“No one needs your sarcasm, young lady.”
“Who says I was being sarcastic?”
“Your tone.”
I linked my fingers with Aric’s as we trailed behind our chatting mothers, taking the opportunity to send him a fond memory of our first night in the hot tub together. He looked positively morose when we hit the stairs heading to the deck.
“You’re breaking my heart, baby.”
“Just think, in a few days we’ll get to go back to that life,” I said. “It will feel like Heaven.”
“I can live with that.”
13
Thirteen
My dreams were jumbled that night, and it wasn’t until I woke the next morning that I realized why. I’d gone out of my way to entertain Aric with some of my favorite memories, even though in sleep I couldn’t be sure he saw them. He had a lazy grin on his handsome face when I shifted my eyes to him.
“Are you awake?” I whispered, almost worried to hear the answer. Would he think I was acting as schmaltzy as I felt in the dreams?
“Why are you asking that if you think I’m asleep?” Aric whispered back, keeping his eyes closed.
Well, that answered that question. “I didn’t know if you … saw anything … last night.”
Aric’s eyes were slow to open, the warm orbs hitting me with a twinkle of amusement. “I did see something,” Aric said, tightening his arms around my waist. “I saw that time we went skinny dipping in the river and you were convinced something brushed up against you.”
“I still maintain there was a snake down there – and not yours,” I said, although I couldn’t help but laugh. I loved that memory, too.
“I also liked that you picked the day you moved into the apartment with me after graduation,” Aric said. “That was one of my favorite days, too. I even liked the argument about closet space.”
I snickered. “Who won that argument?”
“There’s a reason I designed this bedroom with two walk-in closets,” Aric said, his fingers tracing a lazy circle on the back of my neck. “Tonight I want you to show me the first time I brought you here … the time after it looked like a house but before we moved in.”
I snorted. “You just want me to revisit that memory because you got lucky on the floor.”
Aric didn’t bother denying it. “Three times.”
“You’re kind of a pig.”
“I know,” Aric said.
We lapsed into comfortable silence, happy to keep the world at bay for a few more minutes. Once we got out of bed we’d have to face our mothers, and no one wanted that.
“I wish I knew how you were doing it,” Aric said, brushing a kiss against my forehead.
“I honestly don’t know,” I replied. “I didn’t realize I was capable of doing it until you woke up from my dream.”
“It makes me wonder what else you can do and don’t realize,” Aric said. “It also makes me jealous.”
“I … .” Hmm. Which one of those problems did I want to tackle first? “I have a feeling that more powers are going to reveal themselves when we least expect them. Are you okay with that?” I opted for the heavier problem first.
“I am okay with that,” Aric said.
“What if I can’t control them?” I prodded. “I don’t think you’ll be happy with them then.”
“Zoe, you’ve done amazingly well with the powers you already have and your learning curve is off the charts,” Aric said. “I have faith you’ll tackle them one at a time. Personally, I’m in love with this new power. I love it almost as much as I love you.”
“That’s probably because it’s only showed us good things so far,” I said. “We’ve had a few bad moments in our past, too.”
“I know,” Aric said. “I can live with those.”
“I thought you didn’t want to be reminded of our year apart?”
“I don’t,” Aric said. “I don’t believe in changing the past, though. That year apart got us here. I’m happy here. I wouldn’t change it.”
“Not even the part where I cried for several months straight?”
Aric’s expression softened. “You weren’t the only one crying. And no, not even that.”
“You’re an odd man.”
“I know,” Aric said, sighing as he stretched. “Are you hungry? I’ll cook breakfast if you show me that day I first showed you the almost-finished house.”
I grabbed his hand to still him as he moved to get out of the bed. “You said you were jealous of the new … talent,” I said, searching for the right word to describe the memory gift and coming up empty. “Why?”
“There are a few memories I would like to show you,” Aric said, tapping my nose. “As it is, we’re getting everything from your point of view. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but I would like to show you a few things from my perspective.”
“Like sex?”
Aric looked as if he was going to argue and then merely shrugged. “There’s more I’d like to show you, but I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a big part of it.”
“That’s because you’re a pervert.”
“I might be a pervert, “Aric conceded, grabbing me around the waist and causing me to squeal as he rolled on top of me. He lowered his voice until it gave me chills as he pressed his lips close to my ear. “Something tells me you like me being a pervert.”
Something told me he was right. Something also told me all the laughing and screeching was going to be a thing when we finally joined everyone in the other room. I opted to live with it rather than quiet. We deserved a morning of bliss.
“GOOD MORNING everyone,” Aric said, breezing into the kitchen an hour later with me on his heels. He was a lot more chipper than I, mostly because he got energized after sex and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. My muddled mind didn’t stop me from pulling up short when I saw the strange man sitting at the table between my mother and Helen.
“Zoe, what do you want for breakfast?” Aric asked, his attention trained on the refrigerator instead of our family. “I’m guessing you want eggs, hash browns and toast. Do you want sausage or bacon? You’ve already had your sausage allotment for the day, so I’m guessing bacon will do for the both of us.” He slid me a sly wink as I tamped down my mortification.
“Aric.” My voice was a low rasp and he ignored
it.
“What’s on everyone’s agenda today?”
Helen was the first to break the uncomfortable silence settling across the rest of the room. “We have a guest, Aric.”
Aric finally shifted his head and took in the table’s occupants, pursing his lips as James dropped his head in his hands and Dad scorched him with a death glare. Mom’s expression was unreadable, but Paris and Kelsey were so giddy they both shook as they hid their mouths to avoid mirth detection from my mother and Helen.
“Huh.”
“That’s all you have to say?” I asked dryly.
“I’m kind of hoping it’s a dream,” Aric said. “You’re not doing this to spite me, are you? I’ll let the day we did it on the floor three times go from the memory circle if you make this nightmare go away.”
I exhaled heavily. “This is real.”
“And I guess that means you’re a real priest,” Aric said, locking gazes with our guest. “How the hell are you?” He was going for levity, but this was probably the wrong room for him to practice his comedy act.
I elbowed him in the stomach. “You can’t say hell in front of a priest,” I hissed. “He’ll make you say a bunch of prayers and flog yourself if you’re not careful.”
Aric arched an eyebrow at the flogging reference and I instantly knew what he was thinking.
“Don’t even think about it,” I warned. “You’ll go to Hell. I plan on going to Heaven because I’m such a good girl.”
Aric opted to ignore the statement. “Just so I’m clear, this isn’t a dream and you’re a real priest, right?”
“Aric, this is Father Francis DeVry,” Helen said through gritted teeth. “We’re talking to him about officiating the ceremony.”
I screwed up my face in confusion. “We’re not Catholic.”
“Eat your breakfast, Zoe,” Mom ordered, causing me to shift my gaze to Aric.
“You’re not Catholic, right?” I asked. “It seems I would know if you were Catholic.”
“I’m not Catholic,” Aric confirmed. “Why? Would that make a difference?”
“No.”
“Then why did you ask?”
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