At the last gathering, Hunter’s hand-me-down dress shirt had hung off his shoulders and covered all but the tips of his fingers. Now, it strained across the muscles of his upper body. The cuffs ended a good three inches above his wrists.
Shep was eleven months older than Hunter, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the two boys. Shep scrunched his face into a grimace and ground his teeth. His whole body trembled.
Veins stood out on the backs of Hunter’s hand, but his arm didn’t so much as twitch. A smattering of fine blond hair dusted his upper lip and sparkled in the sunlight. He grinned at the crowd, obviously enjoying all the attention.
When his gaze met Channie’s, she lifted the plate to show him the pie, and mouthed, “For you.”
Shep slammed Hunter’s arm onto the stump they were using as a table then raised his fists over his head with a shout of triumph.
Hunter grabbed Shep’s arm. “I was distracted by Channie’s pie. I wanna rematch.”
Shep laughed and shook his head. “I’m gonna go get me a piece before it’s all gone.”
“Too late.” Channie had just come from the table. “This is the last piece and I got it for Hunter.”
Shep elbowed Hunter out of the way and reached for the plate. “To the victor go the spoils.”
“You don’t want this.” Channie dodged his grasp and tapped into her power-name, but Shep got his shield up in time to repel her persuasive magic.
“Oh yes I do.” He made another lunge towards Channie.
Hunter stiff-armed him with one hand and reached for the plate with the other. “You keep away from Channie.”
Shep arched an eyebrow as his gaze darted back and forth between Channie and Hunter. “I thought you and Lovie—”
“Uh-uh.” Hunter shook his head. It was hard to understand him with his mouth full of pie, but it sounded like he said, ‘Lovie’s just for fun.’
Shep snorted and rolled his eyes. “Does her daddy know?”
Hunter’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and glared at Shep. “You keep your big mouth shut, Shepherd Feenie.”
Shep smirked and held his hand out, palm up. “The only way to shut my mouth is to fill it with pie.”
Hunter pressed his lips together so hard a rim of white encircled his mouth, but he handed the plate to his brother.
Shep shoved the rest of the pie into his mouth. His eyelids fluttered closed as he groaned and smacked his lips.
Channie glared at him. “If you’re done with my plate, I’d like to have it back, now.”
He licked it like a dog then shoved it at her. “Thank’s for the pie, Miss Enchantment. It was delicious.”
Channie crossed her arms over her padded chest and stepped back. “You are not welcome. And you can just go put that plate in my momma’s basket. I’m not touching it after you slobbered all over it.”
Hunter took Channie’s hand and led her away from the group of laughing boys. “It was right nice of you to bring me that piece of pie.”
“I’m sorry your jerk of a brother stole it.”
“Me too. But I’m in enough trouble with Lovie's daddy. I don’t need Shep spreading rumors.”
“What’s going on with you two, anyway?” Channie licked her suddenly dry lips. “What’d you mean ‘Lovie's just for fun?’”
Hunter dropped Channie’s hand and shot her a sideways glance then scratched the back of his head. “There’s two kinds of girls. The kind you have fun with and the kind you marry.”
Channie untied her shawl and let the ends hang loose. She pulled her shoulders back, pushing her padded chest forward just a bit. “Why can’t a girl be both?”
“It don’t work that way.” Hunter’s eyebrows arched as his gaze traveled the length of Channie’s body. “Though lord knows, I wish it did.”
Channie grabbed the ends of her shawl but before she could tie them, Hunter stepped in front of her and took both her hands. “I shouldn’t have said that. You’re definitely the marrying kind of girl.”
Channie’s heart leapt into her throat. Was Hunter declaring his intentions? They were a little young to get engaged, but Momma and Daddy had gotten married when they were sixteen.
Hunter caressed the back of Channie’s hands with his thumbs. “And someday—”
A shrill whistle interrupted Hunter. Someone yelled, “Grab a partner and line up!”
Channie recognized “Fire on the Mountain” even before the fiddler joined in. Hunter grabbed her around the waist and ran with her to line up in front of the band.
All the Feenie boys were light on their feet, but Hunter was by far the best dancer in the entire Ozark region. He whirled and twirled Channie ‘till she was so dizzy she could barely stand. His feet were a blur as he beat out a rhythm on the ground that had people dropping out to watch. When the music stopped, he kissed the back of Channie’s hand, thanked her for the dance … and disappeared.
An hour later, Channie still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Hunter, but she spotted Lovie Schmidt’s family. Lovie was not with them.
When Momma started in on Abby for losing track of the trips, Channie jumped to her feet. “I’ll go look for ‘em.”
She headed straight for the barn.
Lovie's high-pitched giggle boiled Channie’s blood. But it was the husky sound of Hunter’s voice that drove a knife through her heart.
“Pleeease, Lovie. You’re making me crazy.”
Channie froze then took a shaky breath and peeked through a gap between the rotting boards of the barn door. Dust motes swirled in the golden hued light of the setting sun.
Hunter pressed Lovie against the back wall. He held her wrists above her head with one hand and tangled the other in her hair.
Lovie’s lips parted as she lifted her chin.
Hunter kissed his way up her throat to her mouth.
Channie turned and fled into the lengthening shadows of the woods. Brambles snagged the fabric of her new dress and clawed at her skin; but she barely felt it. Why would Hunter practically propose to her then run off and do that with Lovie?
“Channie?” Aunt Wisdom’s voice drifted through the woods. “Where are you, sweetheart?”
Channie swiped the tears out of her eyes and turned towards the sound of Aunt Wisdom’s voice. She reached out with her magic. “Over here.”
The soft glow of a kerosene lantern wove a trail of light between the trees.
Aunt Wisdom set the lantern on the ground then wrapped her arms around Channie. “He’s not worth it.”
Channie pulled back and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Aunt Wisdom brushed the hair off Channie’s forehead. “That Feenie boy does not deserve you.”
“What makes you think this is about Hunter?” There was no point denying she was upset, but she might be able to salvage a scrap of pride.
“Well, my first clue was the way you lit up while you were dancing with him.”
“You read my energy field?” Channie pulled away from Aunt Wisdom.
“I didn’t have to. You were glowing like a sky full of lightening bugs.”
Channie buried her face in her hands and groaned. “Everyone knows?” Could this get any more humiliating?
Aunt Wisdom tugged Channie’s hands away from her face. “No one’s judging you, sweetheart. But that Feenie boy didn’t do himself any favors tonight.”
“Why doesn’t Hunter like me the way he likes Lovie Schmidt?”
Aunt Wisdom gripped Channie’s chin between her thumb and index finger then tilted her face up. “You do not want any boy to like you the way they all like Lovie Schmidt.”
“But it hurts.” Channie pressed her hands against her chest, as if that could ease the pain. “It feels like Hunter ripped my heart out and stomped on it.”
Aunt Wisdom hugged her again. “I know baby, I know.” She kissed the top of Channie’s head. “Someday, you’re going to find an honorable man. A man willing to place
your happiness above his own. A man willing to sacrifice everything for your benefit. A man willing to lay down his very life, to protect you.”
“Where am I gonna find a man like that?”
“I have no idea.” Aunt Wisdom picked up her lantern then wrapped an arm around Channie’s waist. She guided her back towards the clearing — taking a large detour away from the barn. “But I do know this much … he won’t be from around here.”
February 14, 2010
Hunter smiled as the cold, grey light of pre-dawn invaded the family room. He’d been awake for hours, but knew better than to get up before there was enough light to see his way past the maze of toys on the floor. He rolled his bedding into a loose log, and stuffed it behind the sofa. He’d been so excited about the Valentine’s Day surprise he and Josh had planned for the girls that he’d had a hard time drifting off. But excitement wasn’t the only thing that had interrupted his sleep. He pulled the middle cushion off the sofa and discovered the culprit that had poked and prodded him all night—Thomas the Train. He set the little toy engine inside the depot next to Toby and Percy then threaded his way past the wall-to-wall maze of wooden tracks, bridges and buildings that made up the make-believe Island of Sodor.
He would have loved to have something like this when he was a kid, but his family had a hard time scraping together enough food to fill the bellies of five hungry boys, much less spend money on something as frivolous as toys. He and his brothers had to make do with match boxes for train engines, wooden spools of thread for tankers and scratches in the dirt for tracks. They’d grown up without television or much contact with the outside world, so they didn’t know what they were missing.
Hunter grumbled and complained about the triplets’ toys taking over the family room, but secretly enjoyed rearranging the tracks every night to surprise them. If they weren’t downstairs by the time he finished breakfast, he’d go wake them up so he could show them what he’d done before he and Channie left for their secret rendezvous with Josh and Kassie. The current layout of Sodor was his best design yet and he wanted to see their faces when they saw it for the first time.
“Ow! Dammit.” Hunter lifted his right foot and dug a blue Lego brick out of his heel. He put it in the shoe box labeled “Daddy’s toys” above the refrigerator with the others. Anytime anyone stepped on one of those little plastic devices of torture, it went into the box. The first week of enforcing the rule yielded enough bricks to build a model house. At this rate, Diego would have enough to add the roof by Wednesday.
Hunter poured himself a bowl of Froot Loops then gazed out the window over the kitchen sink as he ate. It must have snowed at least two feet yesterday, but the few clouds in the sky this morning were nothing but soft, wispy puffs of orange, pink and purple. He was tempted to call Kassie and tell her to get her lovely ass out of bed to see the sunrise. But he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t appreciate the wake up call.
His phone buzzed in the other room. Maybe Kassie had gotten up early after all. Hunter set his bowl on the counter and darted back into the family room. He pulled his most prized possession out from under the sofa and frowned when he read the text from Josh.
<911 Dad’s coming cancel DDD Warn C and K>
Hunter sank into the sofa and stared at the screen. He and Josh had been planning this Valentine’s date for over a month. But there was no way they’d be able to pull it off if Mr. Abrim, was tagging along.
He’d laid down the law and told Josh he couldn’t see Channie no more after her daddy threatened to shoot him. And Kassie’s momma didn’t want her daughter dating nobody on account of her being pregnant.
Hunter couldn’t for the life of him see the logic in that. It wasn’t like she was gonna get knocked up again. Luckily, Josh’d come up with a plan. He called it “double dating deception” or “DDD.”
Hunter pretended to court Channie while Josh pretended he wanted to hang out with Kassie to keep her mind off her troubles. She was his cousin but they were more like brother and sister. When they all got away from prying eyes, they switched. Mr. Abrims must have gotten suspicious. Josh was a lousy liar so Hunter wasn’t surprised, but he was horribly disappointed. He pulled his pillow out from behind the sofa and laid down. No point getting up early, now.
He’d just drifted off when his phone buzzed again. This time it was Kassie.
“Hey, it’s back on. Meet us at the park-n-ride.”
Hunter sat up and grinned. “That’s awesome! I knew you’d figure something out. I cain’t wait to see you. Love ya, sugar bunch!”
“… Love you too. Bye.”
He’d told Kassie he loved her two weeks ago after sneaking in through her bedroom window. She only lived about a mile away from Channie’s house, where Hunter was currently living, so it was just too tempting not to sneak over there at least once a week. No one else knew about their secret trysts, not even Josh or Channie. It was risky enough as it was.
Hunter grabbed his new shirt and a clean pair of jeans out from under the sofa then headed upstairs to take a shower. He set his clothes on the floor, next to the bathroom door. He’d ironed his shirt and jeans last night and didn’t want to get them all steamy and wrinkled before his big date. He wished he could’ve just used a cleansing spell, but he hadn’t quite mastered the shaving aspect of it. The one and only time he’d tried it, he’d given himself the worst case of razor burn he’d ever had. And his face wasn’t the only thing the spell worked on. It was a good thing he’d remembered to protect the hair on his head before casting the spell or he would’ve been bald. He’d canceled his mid-week date with Kassie to give the rash a chance to fade so she wouldn’t think he had a social disease.
She’d been thrilled with his ‘man-scaping,’ and thought he’d shaved his entire body just for her. Now he had to do it before every date. Using a razor tripled the time it took him to take a shower, but it wasn’t worth the pain to do it with a spell. Things would be so much easier if he could just tell Kassie the truth. But Empties weren’t allowed to know about magic, unless they were married to a mage.
Hunter was shaving a very sensitive area when Channie banged on the door. “Hurry up in there! If you use all the hot water again, I swear I’m gonna skin you alive.”
“Hold your dang horses, woman.” Pretending to court Channie was hard work. He had to make it look real enough to fool Channie’s family, but not real enough to require a chaperone every time they left the house. But the worst part of their fake courtship, was that it made it harder for Hunter to get over Channie. Living in the same house didn’t help either, but what choice did he have? He wiped the mirror down with his towel and frowned at his reflection. You had your chance and blew it. Channie’s heart belong’s to Josh. It’s time to move on.
It was part of his morning ritual to remind himself that Channie was taken. He’d tried to stop loving her after her secret marriage to Josh, but his heart refused to listen. He started messing around with Kassie in an attempt to distract himself. It worked pretty good—for up to an hour twice a week—but he hadn’t expected to fall in love with her, too. Turns out you can love two people at the same time. Loving Kassie didn’t make him love Channie any less or heal the hole in his heart. All it did was make him more vulnerable. Kassie had just as much power to hurt him as Channie ever did.
The doorknob rattled. This time it was Diego, Channie’s brother-in-law and designated man of the house while her folks were gone. “Come on, man. We’ve got a line out here.”
Hunter wrapped his damp towel around his hips and sauntered into the hall. A cloud of steam billowed out behind him. Channie usually parked her pretty little self in her bedroom doorway across from the bathroom so she could glare at Hunter whenever she had to wait more than five minutes. Her door was open, but she wasn’t there. Just as well. She was blind to every guy except Josh. She wouldn’t notice Hunter if he paraded around in front of her buck-naked.
The trips darted into the bathroom one right after the other. All
three of them dropped their pajama bottoms and peed into the toilet at the same time.
Hunter picked his clothes up off the floor and slipped into Channie’s room to change.
Diego’s energy field pulsed with territorial energy as he followed Hunter into her room. What did he think he was going to do? Rifle through her skivvies? “We need to have a chat about respecting Channie before you leave.”
“What are you talking about?” Hunter was very careful around Channie’s family. He held her hand occasionally to sell the courtship ruse, but he hadn’t so much as kissed her cheek. Not that she’d let him if he tried. “Where is she? I thought she was in a hurry to take a shower.”
“She gave up waiting on you and decided to use her parent’s bathroom.”
Hunter’s stomach clenched. Channie knew better than to go into her folks room while they were gone. If her momma found out, she’d beat the girl to within an inch of her life. “I’ll cast a cleansing spell in there when she’s done.”
“Abby’ll take care of it. It’s on her list of chores. Her folks’ll be expecting to find traces of Abby’s magic when they get home. But that’s not what I wanted to discuss. You just spent half an hour in there.” Diego nodded towards the bathroom. “That might work when you’re only going out for a few hours. But you’re going to be together all day and half the night. You’re gonna need to use willpower. Can I trust you?”
Heat shot up Hunter’s neck, across his cheeks, all the way to his scalp when he figured out what Diego was talking about. His whole head and the upper half of his chest burned. He wanted to set the man straight, but that would only create more suspicion. It was better to let him think he’d revved his own engine to empty the tanks before going out with Channie. “I give you my word of honor. I ain’t gonna lay so much as one finger on that girl.”
Kassie was a different matter altogether, but Diego didn’t need to know that. In fact, he couldn’t know that. If he thought Hunter was cheating on Channie, he’d cut off his balls.
“Do you mind?” He shifted his gaze to the door then back to Diego’s face. Hunter wasn’t overly modest, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to let Diego see what all he’d shaved. “I’d like to get dressed.”
Believe: The Complete Channie Series Page 137