“Well, now you’ve blown it. You’d actually make me choose between you and new music. Hmmm…” I tap my finger against my chin like it’s a tough decision.
He reaches over and takes my hand, wrapping his warm fingers around mine. “You know,” he says thoughtfully. “You’re not going to the afterlife anymore because Harmony is a spectacular mediator for the universe, and I’m not stuck in Ireland so that means you no longer need to keep it.”
“I definitely do need to.”
He flashes a small, fake pout and says, “Come on. We’re just about there.”
“Do I get to hear you sing, too?”
There’s a not so subtle pause before he says, “I don’t have a guitar.”
“That can be remedied as soon as we get to my house.”
“We’ll see. I think I was having a momentary lapse of sanity when I left it with Jared.”
I laugh at his answer and am thoroughly surprised he’s so self-conscious about something. “Do porcupines get embarrassed easily?” I ask and bat my eyelashes playfully at him.
“Yes,” he says and snatches the folded paper from my fingers.
I’m about to tackle him for my song back, but before I can launch my counter-attack, he stuffs the page into the back pocket of my shorts.
“It’s yours, but keep it out of sight, woman.”
The stream widens and rocks are stacked across it to form a small pool. I instantly know what I’m looking at. I release his hand and hurry over to the water’s edge, dipping my fingers in. The warmth of the tiny hot spring feels delicious and my muscles immediately crave a good soaking.
“This is so perfect. Thank you,” I say, and walk over to Nathaniel. I place my hands on his chest and lean up to kiss him. “After being in that wretched hospital bed, I couldn’t ask for a better surprise.”
Our kiss is tender and hesitant. We’ve had too much happen since our last kiss. Time plays mind tricks like that. It isn’t the amount of time apart, but the depth. I’m so looking forward to re-familiarizing my lips with his.
I breathe him in and kiss him once more. He runs his fingertips lightly over my hair and down my back. My response to him is instant, and I press my body up against his. It’s always that way for me. I intended to thank him with a sweet kiss, but all at once I want his entire body to melt into mine.
He breaks our kiss but keeps me pressed close to him.
“I’m not as sweet as you think,” he says. “I just can’t stop thinking about you.”
I rest my cheek against his chest. That’s exactly what makes him so sweet. I stare at the beauty of the forest around us. We’re deep in the heart of the mountains, surrounded by miles of old growth trees. Our solitude is pure treasure when I needed a bit of gold in my life.
“This place is part of my new job.”
“Lucky you,” I say.
“My client, well, past client — she’s feeling much better — wants my help as a caretaker for the ranch.”
“Vivi knows you’ll have to come and go because of your other job?” I ask.
“She knows all of it. So much has happened, Juliana. I need to tell you everything, and you have to tell me what I missed, but first let’s get in the water.”
He hands me the backpack where my black bikini is buried inside one of the zippered pockets. I also discover food and drinks, including a chocolate bar, brownies, and a container of mixed berries. Everything looks perfect.
Nathaniel lets me change in private and returns from wherever he was hiding wearing only blue swim trunks. I try not to stare, but God, he’s magnificent. Tall and lean and the muscles of his chest and arms make the butterflies in my stomach take flight. Then I notice him looking at me in a very similar way. I suddenly feel timid again as I slip down into the perfectly warm water.
Nathaniel sits opposite me. The fresh scar on his arm shows. I noticed another one on his leg. We’re both scarred. We don’t hold it against each other.
I feel him reaching around in the pool. I think he’s moving rocks to make himself more comfortable, but he grabs a hold of my very sensitive foot.
“What are you doing?” I nearly shriek.
“Hasn’t anyone massaged your foot before?”
“No! They’re ticklish,” I say as I try to pull it free.
“What? Like how ticklish?” he asks as he begins to torture me with his fingertips.
“Stop,” I say between fits of giggles. As I squirm, I bump into one of his long legs and grab his foot. Out of a primal need to give back what is given, I return the favor and test tickle the bottom of his foot.
“Whoa there! That’s not part of the deal,” he says, and with the distraction I’m able to yank my captive foot away.
With delight, I follow his retreating foot, giving it the full treatment. With his long legs, he can’t get away from me and he’s apparently way more sensitive than I am.
“Truce, truce,” he says and holds his hands up in the air.
I settle back into my spot where a smooth stone forms a cozy seat. I rest my head back against a boulder and close my eyes.
“Did I already say thank you? Nathaniel, this is….” I sigh. I can’t even think of the right word to describe this pleasure.
“Jules?”
“Hmmm?”
“Me too.”
I feel him reach for me beneath the water again. This time he takes my ankle and gently works the muscles of my foot with the pads of his thumbs. His hand moves up my calf pressing, squeezing, soothing. “That’s amazing,” I say and feel myself sigh again as I sink a little deeper into the water.
“Juliana, I’ve known rare moments of pure bliss. Where all is right and makes perfect sense, but it has never happened until I met you.”
My eyelids flutter open. Tenderness and love radiate from his gaze and it makes me feel like I’m being caressed by silky waves. Heat rushes through my body. More than just from the hot water. My soul is warm. How can a look do that?
I stare down into the swirling pool. He’s just so…. It’s like staring into heaven. He’s almost too good. Too perfect. What if I’m not enough for him?
“Don’t hide from who you are,” he says, reading me easily. “There’s only one Juliana Crowson in this world. You’re made of the earth and the sky and the stars. Like we all are. How can that be anything less than perfection?”
I’m unable to speak. I’m afraid I’ll mess up the most amazing moment of my life.
He slides across the tiny pool of steaming water and settles next to my side, our legs pressed against each others. He looks down at me and runs a fingertip along my jaw. I raise my gaze to his, and he leans in to brush his lips over mine.
“It’s hard for me, but I’ll try to stop pointing out how incredible you are. Maybe,” he adds with another one of his roguish grins.
“Maybe I don’t want you to.”
He raises my hand out of the water and kisses the top of my left ring finger. “I promise myself to you, Juliana. As I am now, or in my next life. Be with me? Forever and longer.”
I answer him with a kiss. A kiss that says I’ll have him and he can have me. Forever and longer.
*Definition of Haunt from the Merriam-Webster dictionary
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Other Works Available
An Angel Falls series
Death Lies Between Us #1
Angel Dreams #2
Haunting Me #3
Book #4 coming soon!
The Misplaced (A Ghost Hunting Novella with Chris Abeyta)
Historical Time Travel series
The Night Medicine
Witches of Lane Coun
ty
Heart of the Secret
Granite Lake Romance
Unwrapping Treasure
Chasing Treasure
Other Books
When We’re Entwined
About the Author
When Jody isn’t navigating the terrain of her imagination and writing it down, she can be found exploring the wilderness of Colorado with her family, or in the kitchen baking cookies & brownies - and trying not to eat them all. She’s passionate about continuing to learn and reads anything and everything that catches her interest. Jody is a Reiki master and has taught Hatha yoga for over a decade.
Death Lies Between Us, book one in the An Angel Falls series, is a best-seller and the winner of RomCon’s Readers’ Crown award for best Paranormal Romance in 2014.
Jody A. Kessler invites you to stop by her website and see what’s new at: www.JodyAKessler.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook at Jody A. Kessler , or on Twitter @JodyAKessler.
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From the Author
I would like to say a special thank you to Jamie, S. Oneill, my family, friends, editors, beta readers, and fans for their continued support. I couldn’t do this without you.
Read a Preview of The Night Medicine
A historical time travel adventure.
Chapter One
The smell of the place was perpetually stale and sour. Its source could have been the wood planks of the creaking floorboards, where beer had been spilled for decades, but more likely it was the aroma wafting off of the patrons that frequent Growler’s Tavern. Hank Williams or Dwight Yoakam were usually singing out of the jukebox, which was wedged beneath the single high window that faced the main street through town. Someone was always plinking quarters into the machine and punching buttons in search of more modern music, but they weren’t going to find it in this joint.
The potpourri of odors, the low lights, the sorrowful twang of classic country music, and the ever-flowing tap were part of Growler’s dingy appeal, but none of these reasons were why Dean Wolfsblood sat at the bar drinking bottles of Corona until someone insisted on giving him a ride home.
More often than not, he wouldn’t speak to anyone. He was there because the bartender was his cousin and she would serve him until Morning Star had risen. He never talked about his problems unless they had to do with broken equipment at the mine or why the parts didn’t show up on time. Occasionally, the subject changed to who’d been fired or walked off the job. The conversation had to stay neutral so that any man sitting at the bar could contribute his two cents, and Dean could leave all of his sharp-edged memories buried where the haze of alcohol dulled the gleam of the proverbial knife twisting in his heart.
“I can’t cart your sorry butt home tonight,” the bartender told him as she wiped the bar top in front of Dean. “I have a date.”
Dean sucked in a deep breath and wagered in his mind how he could get out of hearing about his cousin’s latest victim. “Your caring heart is the eighth wonder of the world, Gena, but I didn’t ask for a ride.”
“I’m not about to let you drive anywhere.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he muttered and took another swig of beer.
“You promise?” She cocked a brow skeptically.
“Don’t give me that look. I’m meeting up with an old buddy from the Corps. He’ll take me home.”
“Not if he’s been drinking too.”
“Cut it out, Gena. He doesn’t drink. Never has. Thinks it’s snake venom for us N-D-N’s.”
“Sounds like a decent guy,” she said as she rinsed the towel out in the sink.
“He might be. He might be an ass. I never paid much attention. We were too busy making sure we didn’t get blown up.”
“So you were stationed in Iraq together?” She paused in front of her cousin, speculating about how loaded he already was.
Dean didn’t look up to meet her gaze. These days, making eye contact with anyone meant that he would have to see the worry lines etched around their eyes and the sympathetic half-smiles that just made him feel worse.
He stared at his hand wrapped around the bottle instead. “Iraq and Afghanistan. We shared a few tours. Badger’s a hell of a shot. Quick with intel, and saved my rear end more than once.”
“You said he’s a Blackfoot too? You’ll have to introduce me.”
Dean risked looking up at his cousin and saw the undeniable expression of an interested woman. A coy smirk touched the corners of her mouth as she tucked her hair behind an ear.
“Listen lil’ ‘cuz,” he warned. “I’ll have no part in hooking you up with Badger Lowell. Didn’t you just tell me you have a date tonight?”
He’d gone and done it. He could feel himself being sucked into her black hole of male drama. Dean bit down on his tongue, forcing himself not to get any deeper into this firing hole.
She shrugged like it was inconsequential for her to be inquiring about a man when she’s currently dating another. “It’s always good to have a backup plan. So, since your friend’s a Marine…”
“Former Marine,” Dean interrupted.
“Is he all ripped and muscular like you?” Deviousness twinkled in her dark eyes.
He glanced down at his biceps, frowned, and shook his head, wondering again how he ended up in this absurd conversation. “I have no clue.”
Dean could remember Gena planning her future wedding all the way back in middle school. Her teeny-bopper appraisal of every male specimen within a three hundred mile radius drove him nuts. Not much had changed since she’d grown up. She still wanted the whole package: marriage, a house, and kids. Dean thought she wanted it too much, and that it was her longing that kept her from acquiring it. He had seen too many people caught in the trap of wanting it all, and not being able to see what was right in front of them as they looked too far into the future. He never voiced these thoughts aloud, however. Gena was a good cousin, more like his sister, and they had always gotten along well. He didn’t need to ruin their relationship with his own unwanted opinions.
But the thoughts about his lonely cousin continued to nag at him over the buzz from the beer. Maybe he should be easier on her. She could just be taking advantage of the situation at hand. She worked all the time, between running the local daycare center and managing the bar on the weekends. How else was she ever going to land a guy if she didn’t go after opportunities where she saw them? He certainly wasn’t the one to consult when it came to life plans. He once had the life she wanted so badly, and look where it had landed him.
Disbelieving how far he’d let this train get away from the station, he said, “Turn on a baseball game, will ‘ya?” He stared up at the television suspended from the ceiling. The game mattered little to him, but he wanted a believable way out of this conversation.
A woman Dean didn’t recognize walked behind the bar and grabbed the remote control. “I got it,” she said.
Gena turned to her replacement and flashed a wide smile. “Hey, thanks again for coming in.”
As the girl pointed the remote at the T.V., Dean stole a look at her. He appraised her long, braided hair and narrow figure appreciatively. She wore dark jeans that reminded him of something his ex-wife might wear, but this woman had plain tennis shoes on, whereas Marissa would have worn something with deadly points and heels that no one should ever walk in. He never could understand where her toes were inside those awful shoes, but he had enough sense to know that she liked them, so he didn’t question her choice. Once again affirming that it’s better to keep his mouth shut.
“I don’t see a listing for any games tonight,” the mystery woman said as she scrolled through the guide.
“It was my attempt at shutting down Gena’s man-dar.”
The two women exchanged a look that told Dean that he should definitely stop talking. He hid behind his beer as the new bartender asked, “How about Sports Center?”
“Sure,” he answered and pret
ended to look toward the door, wondering how long it would take Badger to show.
A couple of weeks earlier, Badger had found Dean’s grandmother listed in the phone directory. His Marine pal was coming all the way from Newfoundland where he had been contracted to maintain equipment for a gold mine during the last two years. Badger told her that his contract had ended, he was done with Canada, and was coming back to the States. Grandma Rosemary invited Badger out to Montana for a visit. That was all it took, and now Dean was faced with having to confront his past.
He finished his bottle of beer and contemplated how numb he’d like to be for the meeting. Beer may not be sufficient for the task.
His Marine days were part of the time in his life that he no longer thought about. That experience was securely tied in with meeting his wife and starting his family. He buried those thoughts two years ago, but he couldn’t tell Badger not to come. They had too much in common to ignore and throw away. Badger claimed to be a full-blooded Kainah Blackfoot; a Blood. He said his parents left Montana to find work in Colorado years before he was ever born, and then ended up in Butte when his father started working for a copper mine. That’s where Badger had grown up.
Dean was an Amsskaapipikani, a South Piegan, but they were both Blackfoot, and it was rare to find anyone from home in the service. Strangers in their youth, sheer luck and synchronicity landed them in the same unit in the Marine Corps, deploying to Iraq. Badger was a few years older than Dean, but no one could ever tell because of his baby face and broad smile. Everyone in their squadron assumed they would be fast friends, including Badger. He was always eager to talk about home and tribal councils and the summer pow-wows, but Dean didn’t understand Badger’s motivations and remained cautious around the man. At least at first.
Dean grew up on the reservation and Badger had never lived on one. It was hard for Dean to understand why Badger wanted to know so much about life there. It was home and nothing all that special, but Badge acted like he had missed out on something great. Dean tried to convince him that all he was missing was a bunch of boring nothing, but Badger never believed it, and pumped him for information constantly.
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