Spiral of Bliss: The Complete Boxed Set

by Nina Lane

  No. He wasn’t that arrogant.

  Was he?

  I closed my eyes and tried to keep my breath even. I heard Archer and Ben talking above me, felt Archer’s hand on mine, but I let myself drift.

  It hadn’t actually been a difficult decision to let him choose my tattoo design. I trusted Archer in more ways than I’d ever trusted anyone.

  “All right, Kelsey.” Ben wiped the tattoo with a soft cloth. “Ready to see it?”

  My stomach knotted again as I sat up slowly. Though the tattoo was on my left upper arm where I could see it if I looked down, Ben gave me a handheld mirror.

  “You can also check it out in the full-length over there,” he said, nodding toward the mirror against the wall.

  I held up the mirror. The tattoo was an intricate, shaded gray cloud with two golden bolts of lightning flashing from it amidst a shower of rain. Along the edge of one of the lightning bolts, in delicate flowing script, were the words Storm Girl.

  “What do you think?” Archer sounded a little nervous.

  I stared at the tattoo. It was small, colorful and…

  “I love it,” I said.

  “You do?”

  My heart twisted with ribbons of emotion—pleasure, gratitude, and relief that Archer knew me as well as I’d hoped he did. I looked at him and smiled.

  “I absolutely love it,” I said. “It’s perfect.”

  And it would remind me of him every time I saw it. I should have been unnerved by that realization, but instead I liked the idea of having a reminder of Archer West, one that would go along with the collection of memories I had subconsciously been storing away. The memories I’d hold on to when we parted ways. The ones no one else would know about.

  I looked at the tattoo again. My souvenir.

  “Can this be our secret?” I asked Archer. “Just between us?”

  “One of many.” He extended his hand. “Pinkie swear.”

  I wrapped my pinkie finger around his. I wished neither of us had to let go.

  “Because of the grant, they got fifteen new computers,” Tess said. “And they integrated the synoptic lab into the rotating fluids dynamic lab. They even have access to the supercomputing lab’s mainframes.”

  “Lucky bastards,” I muttered.

  “Yeah.”

  “Does Stan Baxter know yet?” I asked.

  “I heard he’s going to the board of trustees again to complain about the state of our equipment, so I think so,” Tess said.

  My envy over another university’s state-of-the-art lab equipment was quickly surpassed by guilt. Though Stan Baxter had been on my case this year, I knew he was intensely committed to King’s University and its students. That was just one of the reasons he was so insistent that I prove my own dedication.

  Now Stan was going to fight for better computers and equipment in our synoptic lab. I made a mental note to ask him about it and find out what I could do to help. We’d all be at an increasing disadvantage if we had to continue working with outdated equipment, which in turn could hurt the reputation of the entire university.

  The phone rang. I hit the speaker button, my gaze still on the radar. “Kelsey March.”

  “Kelsey, it’s Peter Danforth.”

  “Oh, Peter, I’ve been waiting for your call.”

  “You have?”

  “No.”

  Tess laughed.

  “Ha ha,” Peter said drily. “Is that Tess? Hi, Tess.”

  “Hi, Peter. You’d better talk fast. Kelsey is scowling.”

  “Okay, okay. Kelsey, rumor has it you got some phenomenal tornado footage on your recent chase.”

  Shock bolted through me. Tess jerked around to stare at me. I grabbed the receiver and shut off the speaker phone.

  “Where did you hear that rumor?” I asked Peter.

  “From that guy who went with you. Who is he, anyway?”

  “None of your business. What did he tell you about the video? When did he tell you?”

  “I ran into him on campus, and he said you got footage. I tried to get the tape from Colton, but he played dumb, like he didn’t know what I was talking about.”

  “Colton didn’t know,” I snapped, my anger rising hot. “I never sent him the video.”

  “Why not?”

  I turned away from Tess, not wanting to see the expression on her face. All of my students would be upset to know I hadn’t shared that incredible footage with them. And I could never explain why I still hadn’t. That video belonged to me and Archer alone.

  Except that he’d told Peter about it.

  “Peter, get your ass out of my business,” I said. “The video wasn’t that great, so forget about it.”

  “Yeah, right. You promised me that when you had a scoop, you’d give it to me first. I’d say close-up video of a tornado qualifies as a scoop.”

  “How did you know it was close-up?”

  “You just told me.”

  “You little shit.”

  “Look, I’ve been waiting forever for you to give me something,” Peter retorted. “I don’t want to be a shit about this, and I sure as hell don’t want to get on your bad side, but come on. You’ve been stringing me along for over a year, and I’ve still got nothing. Reporting on the Spiral Project would make my career. But you won’t even give me lousy footage of a tornado, so why would I believe you when you tell me again that I’ll be the first to know when something big happens?”

  I tightened my hand on the receiver. Even through my anger, I registered the truth of his speech.

  “Kelsey?”

  “I’m here.” I let out my breath slowly. It was a video, for heaven’s sake. Yes, it was Archer’s and my video, and yes, it was intensely personal, but it wasn’t like I’d be sharing a declaration of our love.

  A declaration of our love? What the—

  “All right,” I snapped irritably. “I’ll send you the video.”

  “You will?” Peter sounded surprised.

  “Yeah. You might have impressed me with that assertive speech.”

  “For real?”

  “Well, not anymore since you just said for real.”

  “Oh.”

  I shook my head and fought a reluctant smile. “Check your email.”

  “Wow, thanks, Kelsey. This is awesome.”

  I hung up and turned to face Tess. She was typing determinedly on the keyboard, as if she hadn’t been listening to every word.

  “Tess, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” I said. “I was going to send you the footage from the road, but…”

  “Forget it, Kelsey. You don’t owe us anything.”

  That wasn’t true. I owed my grad students more than I could say. They were the only ones who had supported the Spiral Project from the start.

  I accessed the video on my phone and sent it to Peter, then connected the phone to the computer. After fast-forwarding through images of the clouds, sky, and fields, the downdraft, and the interview Archer had taken of me, the tornado roared across the screen. My shouts mingled with Archer’s yells, our excitement crackling and tangible.

  “Archer!”

  “Holy fucking shit.”

  “Film it!”

  “Go! Go!”

  “Kelsey, this is incredible.” Tess turned to stare at me, her eyes wide. “I’ve never seen video shot so close.”

  I nodded. My heart was pounding again and my mind wanted to fast-forward to two hours later when Archer and I were in the motel room. I rubbed the Storm Girl tattoo through my sleeve, the spot still tender.

  “I’ve already done a quick verification from the video.” I forced myself to use my professor voice. “But I haven’t done a rigorous validation yet.”

  “I can get that started, if you want,” Tess offered.

  “Sure. Thanks.” I
pushed away from the desk and grabbed my satchel.

  I still heard the roar of the tornado in my head as I drove home. I needed some time alone before I talked to Archer about this. I didn’t like the thought that our storm chase had meant more to me than it did to him.

  I dropped my stuff on the kitchen counter and went down to my craft room. I spent the next hour painting a smooth, hollow egg with a star pattern of red, blue, and purple, letting the familiar design ease my tension.

  “I’m not always myself when I’m with you,” I’d once told Archer.

  “Yeah, you are.” His deep, warm voice echoed in my memory. “You just don’t know it yet.”

  Kissing him in a corner booth of a dive bar. Giving over. Eating dinner in my dining nook. Stretched out on the sofa, my head pillowed against his thigh. Hot dancing in a nightclub. Mind-blowing sex. Outrunning a tornado. Painting eggs.

  Archer was right. With him, I was everything I was. I knew that now.

  But what would I be when he left?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  ARCHER

  ONCE I FINISHED THE TILE FLOORS in the kitchen, Dean and I started installing the new maple cabinets. We didn’t talk much, but we worked well together and got most of the kitchen finished within a few days.

  Liv came by often, sometimes with Nicholas and sometimes alone. She brought lunch, drinks, cookies, and samples of paint or wood trim. Whenever she came in, Dean always stopped whatever he was doing and went to join her.

  I tried to leave them alone, after Liv insisted that I take a break and eat whatever she’d brought from the café, but sometimes I overheard them talking or saw them exchange a hug or kiss.

  Dean called her “beauty.” Sometimes she called him “professor,” in a voice that was both teasing and full of admiration. He touched her hair a lot. She looked at him like he was a superhero. He looked at her like she was a miracle.

  It should have been sappy, but it wasn’t. I realized that Liv and Dean had the first good marriage I’d ever seen. And though I’d always envied how easily everything came to Dean, I knew he and Liv had had rough times. Seeing them now, I was glad their relationship had worked out so well.

  I guessed that was because sometimes people just belonged together. And when they not only found each other, but fought for each other and won, even I knew the universe got it right.

  After working for a few hours on the kitchen, I took a break and sat on the front porch steps. Kelsey’s car came up the drive. Liv and Dean sat outside the trailer, drinking take-out coffees that she’d brought and looking through a catalog of door handles and hardware.

  Kelsey got out of her car and came toward me with that long-legged, go-to-hell walk that I’d loved from the beginning. The blue streak in her hair glowed in the sunlight.

  My risk-taking, brilliant scientist girl. She needed storms. She needed her mother and her secret craft room. She needed to chase tornados, to be pushed to her limits, to predict the unpredictable. And even if she didn’t know it yet, she needed me.

  She tossed her bag on the porch steps and put her hands on her hips.

  I frowned. “What?”

  “You told Peter Danforth about the tornado video.”

  “Peter… oh, that student of yours. Yeah, I saw him on campus.”

  “He’s not my student anymore. He’s a reporter with Channel Four news.”

  “Oh.”

  “You shouldn’t have said anything to him about the video,” Kelsey continued. She sounded defensive.

  “I didn’t know it was a secret. You sent it to your grad students, didn’t you?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Now I was getting irritated. “You said you were going to at the motel.”

  “I changed my mind, all right?” Kelsey snapped. “I wanted to keep it private.”

  “Well, I didn’t know that.”

  “I know you didn’t.” Her eyes flashed. “It just would have been nice if you’d thought before you spoke.”

  What the hell was this about?

  I spread my hands in frustration.

  “Why is this such a big deal?” I asked.

  “Because it was special, okay?” Kelsey retorted. “The video. It’s you, me, and a tornado. I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. And I didn’t want to share it with anyone else.”

  I stepped back, her confession hitting me right in the middle of my chest. A flush rose to Kelsey’s cheeks, as if she’d just said something that embarrassed her. I reached out to touch the blue stripe in her hair.

  “I’ve never experienced anyone like you in my life,” I said.

  She looked at my chest. “I didn’t know if you felt the same way about it that I did.”

  “Hey.” I put my hand under her chin and lifted her face. “I never wanted that tornado to stop. I wanted to stay on the road with you forever, chasing storms. And I’m sorry I screwed up by telling that kid about the video. I thought you’d already sent it out.”

  “I know. I was going to but…” She shrugged. “I would have had to eventually. The footage is too good not to share, and of course my students need to analyze it too.”

  “What happened when you talked to Peter?” I asked.

  “He asked for the video, and I gave it to him. I had been promising him something for a while now.”

  “So that’ll be good publicity for you, right? Spread the word about your tornado research and the Spiral Project.” I put my arms around her waist and tugged her close. “We can make another really private video, if you want.”

  She made a harrumphing noise, even as she leaned closer and pressed her mouth to mine.

  “What are you doing today?” I asked, brushing my lips across her cheek to nibble at her ear.

  “Running errands.” She shivered. “Stop that.”

  “You really want me to?”

  “No. But I saw Liv and Dean over there, and I don’t want to put on a display.”

  I lifted my head reluctantly. Kelsey gave me a quick kiss before moving past me toward the trailer.

  I followed, watching her gorgeous ass as we walked. We sat in the empty lawn chairs across from Liv and Dean.

  “Hi, Kels.” Liv reached into the coffee holder for a cup and handed it to Kelsey. “I brought extra in case you or one of the crew were here.”

  Kelsey took the cup, tilting her head toward me. “Did you bring chocolate milk for this one?”

  “No,” Liv said. “Should I have?”

  Dean almost grinned. “You still drink chocolate milk?” he asked me.

  “Every chance I get.”

  “Do you still like those ketchup-and-cheese sandwiches?”

  “Nah. I prefer peanut butter these days. With strawberry jam.”

  Kelsey rolled her eyes. Liv smiled.

  “When Archer and I were kids, we used to have this tree house in the backyard,” Dean told them. “We’d pretend to be explorers, and we’d pack lunches in our backpacks before climbing up there. He always ate ketchup-and-cheese sandwiches on raisin bread and had chocolate milk. We’d spend all day in that tree house.”

  I was surprised he remembered the tree house at all, much less the details of what we’d done there.

  “The Castle,” I said.

  “Oh, yeah.” Recognition sparked in Dean’s expression. “We called it The Castle. Sometimes we pretended to be knights defending our fortress.”

  “You pretended to be a knight?” Liv asked him in amusement. “Really?”

  He reached over to squeeze her knee. “We also pretended to be pirates, superheroes in a hideout… what else?”

  “Space explorers,” I said. “Detectives. Bandits, cowboys, ship captains.”

  Dean shook his head. “I haven’t thought about that in ages.”

  “We never took it down,” I
said. “The tree house. It might still be there.”

  “With the house sold, we’ll never know.”

  “You should build one for Nicholas,” I told Dean, gesturing to the wooded area around the property. “When he’s older. He seems to really like being outside. Bet he’d love a tree house.”

  Dean nodded. “He would. We’ll call it The Castle Two.”

  I almost offered to help build it, which was stupid since Nicholas was several years away from needing a tree house. But still, I liked the idea of drawing up blueprints, collecting material, building a tree house that was far more sturdy and elaborate than the one Dean and I had constructed. Nicholas’s tree house could even have real windows and hinged doors. Maybe it could have two rooms or a balcony.

  I took a swallow of coffee and pushed the thought aside. I was leaving soon. I was glad I’d come, but I’d never intended to stay. Even if I’d wanted to, I didn’t belong in Mirror Lake. This was a place for people like Liv and Dean. For professors up for tenure like Kelsey. Not for guys like me.

  I felt Kelsey looking at me. I had the sudden urge to touch her as easily as Dean touched Liv. Just to reach over and squeeze her knee, hold her hand. Anything to enforce the fact that she was mine.

  “Archer, remember I told you about the Historical Society party tomorrow night?” Liv asked. “Would you like to come?”

  I’d almost forgotten about the invitation. I glanced at Dean and waited for a look of caution or for him to suggest that maybe I had other things to do.

  Instead he said, “You can borrow one of my suits again.”

  I shook my head. “No, thanks. I’m going to stay in tomorrow night.”

  “Too bad.” Liv looked disappointed. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

  I could change my mind, I thought as I shoved to my feet. But my mind didn’t want to change me.

  The sound of another car engine came up the drive. A gray Lexus pulled up beside Kelsey’s car, and a man wearing a suit and tie got out of the driver’s side.

  Tension gripped me. My fists tightened with an old defensive instinct, the sense that danger was near.