Sweet Water

by Lena North

  “He’s not sure he wants to be Mayor,” I whispered.

  “I know,” Danny said calmly. “He will be, though.”

  I made a small sound of protest, but he kept talking.

  “Dante will find his way eventually. Marshes needs him, and he just has to accept that he needs the village even more.” He paused and then he smiled a little. “Dante has a such a need to take care of people, Jinx. I’ve seen him protecting everyone around him all his life, even as a child, and it was never a chore or something he was taught. It was something he did naturally, instinctively. I’ve always figured it’s a part of being a d’Augustine.”

  “You will help him,” I said, not putting it as a question because there was no need when I already knew the answer.

  “Of course,” he replied calmly. “The Marconis has been advisors to the leaders here for as long as they have led.”

  Aha. Another thing that tied to the past.

  “Is Daniele a name that runs in your family?” I asked curiously.

  “It is,” he said and I thought he would elaborate, but Mrs. C stepped out on the back porch with a scowl on her face.

  “Daniele Marconi, what are you doing here?”

  “Mrs. C,” he said respectfully, but with a smile in his eyes. “I just wanted to invite Jinx to come and have dinner at the restaurant. She needs to get out, and Anetta will take good care of her.”

  “You know Dante doesn’t –”

  “I would be happy to come,” I interrupted, which earned me a glare from Mrs. C. “Please,” I added pleadingly, suddenly eager to get out into the village. “I feel good, I’m calm. I haven’t had any stomach pains at all for many days.”

  She sighed and nodded.

  “You’re right. You shouldn’t sit here cooped up with an old woman –”

  “Mrs. C, no,” I said, feeling awkward and stupid. “That’s not what I meant. I like being here. But you should have some time to relax, and I can’t remain sheltered forever. I need to try moving around in the village.”

  Her face softened and then she smiled a little.

  “You’re right, Jinx. If Dante says it’s okay, then a short while at the restaurant will do you good.”

  I wondered why she thought I needed to have Dante’s permission to do anything, and since he hadn’t bothered to talk to me for the past week, I didn’t plan to ask him for it.

  “Excellent, I’ll talk to Dante,” Danny said, and I stared at him.

  Had they all gone mad, thinking that I needed a guardian who decided what I could do?

  “I don’t need Dante’s permission,” I announced haughtily.

  “Of course you don’t,” Danny said with a grin that told me that he’d ask for it anyway. I was about to protest when he continued talking, hesitantly. “I also wanted to let you know that the house is almost done. Some paint, a few minor things, and we’re done. I talked to Mac, and he said that someone called Kit would come with some special equipment that you needed to know about. He wanted to know if you were well enough to receive it or if they should wait a while longer.”

  I guessed they were ready to move the crystal. Was I ready to start working again?

  “Mac said to tell you that there was no rush at all and that they didn’t mind waiting until you felt better,” Daniele added, reading my thoughts.

  I looked into his calm gaze and wondered what to do. Both Danny and Mrs. C had told me that I needed to learn how to say no, and I knew they were right. At the same time, I felt a tiny twinge of excitement at the thought of starting up my computer. I took a deep breath and then I made up my mind.

  “Tell Mac that they can come after the weekend,” I said. It was just Tuesday, so that would give me plenty of time to try working a couple of hours. If I found that I wouldn’t be able to manage, we could call them off. “Tell him that Kit can come and he can bring Wilder and Mary if either of them wants to come.”

  Daniele didn’t look happy, but he nodded and started to turn. I wasn’t finished, though.

  “Danny,” I called out, and he turned with a frown. “Please tell Mac that I’ll just put in a couple of hours each day. I’ll talk to Kit about it when he gets here, but they should know that this is what they can expect from me.”

  His face softened then, and when he nodded again, it was with a satisfied smile.

  “Okay, Jinx. Good call,” he said, nodded to Mrs. C, and left.

  “Will he ask Dante for permission about that too?” I asked sourly.

  “No need,” she replied promptly, and I started to smile, but then she continued, “You can do that yourself, he’s on his way over.”

  I turned to watch her move into the house, and then she called over her shoulder, “I’ll go down to the harbor and see what kind of fish they have left from today’s catch. You can invite Dante to stay for dinner, and tell him that I expect to see Snow as well.”

  She left, and I rushed into the house, cursing myself for being silly but still wanting to put on some nice clothes and maybe even a little makeup.

  I didn’t have to ask Dante for permission, and I guessed that Daniele had already talked to him. When he walked into the house, he caught the look on my face and immediately told me that the restaurant was great, but I should go there early to get some peace and quiet.

  I opened my mouth, not knowing what I wanted to say and certainly not thanking him for giving me the okay I’d never planned to ask for, but he kept talking.

  “Danny told me you wanted to try working a few hours and I think that’s a good idea. I told Mac it was okay for them to come here on Monday.”

  It was annoying that he’d just agreed when I’d spent energy on coming up with quite a lot of arguments both for why I should go to the restaurant and how it would be good for me to start working, and he must have seen the confusion on my face.

  “Hey,” he murmured when I crossed my arm across my chest and raised my chin. “You didn’t ask for permission, and you still got exactly what you wanted.”

  Damn it, I thought. Dante was right, and suddenly I felt my lips quiver a little with a smile.

  “You look better,” he said and walked through the house and stepped out on the back porch.

  I followed him, feeling awkward and not knowing why. He’d held me as I slept and we’d talked in the darkness, but it suddenly felt like that had been in another time. The late afternoon sun was glaring, and I pushed my hair back, wondering if he noticed that the dark circles under my eyes had started to fade and that I’d gained some weight. I was wearing one of the dresses I’d gotten in the village, and it had a lovely, colorful print.

  “Um. Can I get you something to drink?” I asked, thinking that this was surely the appropriate question to ask when you had company.

  It suddenly struck me that I’d never had guests in my condo. Wilder and Mary had been over, of course, but they weren’t guests, and I’d never invited anyone else.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” I replied immediately, not wanting to share another piece of how pathetic my life had been.

  He sighed and tugged at my hand until I stood directly in front of him.

  “Jiminella, please,” he started, and I raised my head to look at him.

  I’d missed hearing my ridiculous name.

  “I’ll be honest with you, okay?” he asked.

  “Okay,” I whispered, not sure what he meant. “Your beard looks good,” my stupid mouth blurted out.

  He grinned and tilted his head a little to the side but then his eyes became determined.

  “You said that you were broken, and I have to tell you that I disagree with that. I don't think that you're broken, Jiminella, you're just a little bruised. You also said that you needed to fix whatever was wrong on your own, and I’ll absolutely let you do that. But you need to know that I won’t stay away.”

  I blinked.

  “Wh –”

  “We don’t know each other very well,” he said.

&nb
sp; When he didn’t continue, I turned my face toward Mrs. C’s beautiful garden.

  “No,” I murmured.

  “Jiminella, look at me,” he said, and when I did, he spoke, quickly and confidently, “I would really like to get to know you better, and I think we should spend more time together.”

  I stared at him, feeling utterly lost.

  “Okay,” I said weakly.

  “You’re sure?” he asked.

  “Yes?” I replied but it came out kind of as a question, so I repeated myself, “Yes.”

  He started laughing, and then he said smoothly, “Good. Then yes, I’d like something to drink.”

  Without saying a word, I turned and walked inside, thinking that for the first time in my life I knew what it felt like to be stupid. I had no clue what had just happened, though my best guess was that he’d told me in a very nice way that we should be friends. Okay, I thought. So what if I had dreamed just a little in the past week about being something entirely different to him? We’d be friends, that wasn’t such a bad thing. I poured two glasses of lemonade and walked outside, with a wide grin pasted firmly on my face.

  That smile faded when he started talking.

  “Okay, now that we’ve agreed on that, we should discuss security,” he said.

  “No,” I replied immediately.

  I’d had time to think about what I’d tell him, and that would be – nothing at all.

  “Wh –”

  I cut him off.

  “Wilder’s house, the lab… They can handle that.”

  “But –”

  I cut him off again, but he was starting to look annoyed so I pleaded with him to understand, hoping I’d allay his anger

  “Dante. I’ll discuss the lab with Kit when he gets here, but we had it all planned out and there no need for you to –”

  “Will you stop it?” he interrupted impatiently.

  I closed my mouth and tried to gather my thoughts.

  “I won’t interfere with the security for your lab, why would I? It’s Wilder’s house, and I know well that she and Hawker can keep it safe,” he made a pause and added sourly, “Or, more likely, that they’ll push you and Kit into keeping it safe.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but he kept talking.

  “But when it comes to security in this village you have absolutely no say so, Jiminella. I might not be the Mayor here, but there’s no one else so until we’ve sorted that out I will make sure that the people living here are safe. And for the time being, you are living here.”

  He glared at me, and I really wanted to argue with him, but he had a point and I didn’t want to fight about nothing. Or even about something.

  “I’m not ordering you to do anything, but I ask you to tell me why someone would go through your things,” he said and added, “Please,” which in spite of his voice being gentle again sounded more like an order than a request.

  “It’s nothing,” I said immediately.

  “If it’s nothing then why won’t you talk about it?” he asked.

  Crap. He had me on that one.

  “Um,” I said, stalling for time and frantically trying to figure out what to tell him.

  “Tell me,” he prompted.

  “Okay,” I started, still not sure how much I could share. “You know that I hold a few patents?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I could have kept working on them, and made them something else, but I didn’t. Instead, I licensed my patents to a few companies making mostly surveillance equipment.”

  “Okay,” he said, not understanding and waiting for me to elaborate.

  “It gives me a good income, Dante,” I said weakly because this was where we got to parts of my past that I didn’t want to share.

  “What is it you could you have developed?”

  “You’re better off not knowing,” I said calmly, hoping that he’d accept that.

  “Okay,” he said after a while. “So, if I get this right…”

  He trailed off, collecting his thoughts and then he looked calmly at me.

  “You could have invented something dangerous. Something that someone, criminals or government, would love to get their hands on. They suspect that you didn’t stop your research, and they are looking for proof that you didn’t.”

  “Well,” I started, but he kept talking.

  “And since you’ve held those patents for quite some time, they have been looking for that proof for years.”

  “Well,” I said again but he suddenly straightened, and there was a hard look on his face.

  “That’s who broke into your condo in Prosper. They were there when you got home, and they took you down. Broke your ribs and would have hurt you more if you hadn’t been lucky enough that they left the door half open so when you started screaming, they had to stop what they were doing,” he stated. Then his eyes narrowed, and he glared at me. “You kept the door open deliberately. You knew who they were and what to do, so you kept the door open and started screaming until they walked away.”

  “Who did you talk to?” I asked. “Mac?”

  “Yeah, I talked to Mac. I saw your ribs and asked him what had happened. Found out he didn’t know, so he asked Johns.”

  “Hawker knows?” I asked.

  “Hawker knows,” he confirmed. “What none of us understand is why you didn’t tell any of them that you were injured.”

  “I’ve lived with this for a long time, Dante. They’ve never… It’s never been like that before. They usually just ask, and I say no.”

  I swallowed, but when he kept looking at me, I tried to explain.

  “Do you know Hawker Johns?”

  “Know of him,” Dante said.

  “Then you know. If I told him there was any kind of danger associated with me, he’d never in a million years let me hang out with his daughter.”

  “But –”

  I talked over him, not caring anymore that it would make me sound like a pathetic loser.

  “I have two friends, Dante. Mary and Wilder. If Hawker made me stay away from Wilder, then I’d lose both. I’d have no one then, and for many years I didn’t. You can’t know what that’s like, but I do. I can’t…”

  I stopped talking when he took hold of my hand and squeezed it gently.

  “I don’t know Johns, not personally, but I know Wilder and Mac. Honey, you have got to be hallucinating if you think either of them would let him do that.”

  He squeezed my hand harder, and I looked up at him.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you. We’ll increase security around the village, and put a security system on Mrs. C’s house. You know what to get, so let me know, and I’ll have Daniele get it installed.”

  I nodded, not sure what to say and not trusting my voice.

  “You should tell Wilder,” he added gently. “There’s no need to involve her father, unless she wants to, and from what I hear… She can handle him.”

  I nodded again, and then I confessed, “He’s really scary, Dante.”

  He smiled then.

  “I didn’t think anything scared you, Jiminella?”

  “Have you actually met the man?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Yes, well, we’ll talk again when you have. Until you do, search the net for images of scary wolves, and you’ll be well prepared.”

  He started laughing, and I smiled, but it was mostly with relief. I’d shared some of my past and Dante not been angry or backed off. Maybe things would be okay after all, I thought.

  “Hey,” Snow called out from the door. “Share the joke?”

  “Hey, Snow,” I said and got to my feet. “Mrs. C invited you to dinner?”

  “Invited?” she giggled. “Ordered would be more accurate, but since I wanted to come, I didn’t mind.”

  Chapter Ten

  Peace of mind

  The restaurant was almost empty, and I felt foolish crossing the room toward where Anetta and a couple of teenage girls were preparing for customers,
but I also relaxed a little. I didn’t look forward to answering all the questions I was sure the gossip-prone villagers would ask about my illness. Telling Danny about it had been okay, but it was also very personal, so I’d decided to be evasive and hoped they’d all accept that.

  “Jinx,” Anetta called out as she walked toward me. “Danny told me about the bad shrimps he apparently sent over to Mrs. C,” she added with a broad smile. “First you save his life, and then he poisons you as thanks.”

  I laughed with her, but when she hugged me, I whispered into her ear, “There’s no need for either of you to take the blame, Anetta. I could –”

  “Shh,” she interrupted. “There’s no need for you to explain anything and people in this village are nosy. This way will be easier for you, and we’re happy to do it.”

  I stepped back, and our eyes met. Hers were a pale blue, and they were serious but there was somehow laughter lurking in them as if life was just one huge joke to her.

  “You can sit anywhere,” she murmured and swept her arm out in a wide arc.

  I looked around and found a small table in a corner. There was a long bench lining the side of the room providing seating for the tables in that section, so I sat down on it and leaned my back against the wall. In front of me, I had a fantastic view through wide sliding glass doors. It wasn't summer yet, but the weather was warm, and since the doors were wide open there was a faint evening breeze carrying the scent of the ocean into the restaurant.

  “Start with this, my sister makes it,” Anetta murmured next to me.

  She put a basket of bread and a small white plate with butter on the table, and one of the girls put a pitcher and a large glass next to it.

  “Thanks,” I murmured.

  The bread smelled wonderful, and I realized that was hungry. I also felt a little bit foolish for sitting there and letting her wait on me. I wondered if I should I ask for the menu, or if they had specials on a board somewhere.

  “Mrs. C called and gave us instructions about your food,” Anetta said, and I could tell that keeping a straight face was difficult for her.