by Sadie Sears
“That sounds amazing,” I whispered, then strengthened my voice. “I went to college for investigative journalism but left in my senior year for personal reasons.”
“Hey, if you ever get the urge to move to a small town, hit me up. We need all the help we can get, and I don’t care about degrees, as long as you prove your stuff.” She smiled blandly. “Nobody wants to live in a small town, but a lot more interesting stuff happens in these little hamlets than anyone realizes.”
I grinned at her. “You’ll be on my list of first people to tell if I decide to stay in Spruce.”
Belle’s phone rang on her desk. She snatched it up before it finished its first ring. “Belle,” she barked. Such a big voice from such a tiny woman. Seconds later, she slammed it back into the receiver. “I gotta run,” she said. “Call me if you want a job!” And with a flurry of long, gorgeous black hair, she was gone, leaving us sitting at her desk.
“Off to chase a lead,” I murmured, jealous to my bones.
Jessica laughed. “Come on. Let’s go eat at Sacred Spaces. If they don’t have a class going, they let me sit and have lunch there sometimes in the front room. It’s peaceful and we can people watch.”
Mildly concerned about my ankle, I decided to enjoy the moment and walked along with Jessica. The town really was picturesque, and now I had the possibility of a job. Could this really happen? Could I get away from my parents, start a real life, make things work with Vince? It sounded amazing and too good to be true.
And speaking of too good to be true, as we neared the yoga studio, my phone rang in my pocket. I recognized the ringtone. Sighing, I pulled out the trilling phone. “It’s my mom,” I said. “I have to check in with her.”
“No, you don’t,” Jessica said.
But guilt rode me so hard for thinking about trying to distance myself from my parents that I nearly felt sick at my stomach. “I do.” Looking around, I spotted a side entrance to the park across the road. “I’ll meet you back here,” I said. As I crossed the road and answered the phone, Jessica sighed.
“Okay,” she said in a voice that told me she disapproved. But she hadn’t grown up with my parents. I didn’t have much of a choice; I couldn’t leave them hanging.
“Hey, Mom,” I said, expecting one hell of a guilt trip.
But it was my father. “You fucked up the paperwork for the Pearhouse merger.”
The news hit me like an arrow straight to the chest. He wasn’t worried about me at all, just upset that paperwork had to be redone. “I’m sorry,” I said woodenly. “I’ve been busy. I’m going to stay in Vermont a little longer. I’ll see you in Boston for Christmas.”
“What about these paperwork issues?” he demanded. “That needs fixing immediately.”
“I can do that from here. There’s no reason I can’t continue to work remotely.”
My mother’s voice came over the phone next. Oh, I was on speaker. Great. “That’s selfish, Damini, you know we depend on you. Why haven’t you called us?”
“Mother, I did try to call, several times.” Yesterday. I didn’t add that part on. No need for them to know I’d been trapped in a snowstorm, really.
“We received no such calls. The only one I know of was last night. You must return home,” Mother said.
They were being utterly unreasonable, but what had I expected?
“Mother, I was in a small hiking accident. I’m recovering here with a sprained ankle.” Maybe if they knew I didn’t want to navigate the airport, they’d lay off.
“What? I knew your little adventure trips would land you injured,” Mother said. “I’ll send someone to collect you at once. You won’t have to walk through the airport if I send the jet.”
The company jet. Great. “No, it’s fine,” I said. “My friend Jessica is taking good care of me, and I can do any work I need to from here.”
The line went dead. They were discussing it with the phone muted. “Fine,” my father said. “Get the merger sorted out, and we expect you well before Christmas, as soon as your ankle feels better.”
Before I could reply, they cut off the call.
I hadn’t even realized how far I’d walked, but a black iron bench was a few feet away. I stepped forward and sank onto it, utterly devastated. I hadn’t even been able to tell them it wasn’t Jessica taking care of me. I hadn’t had the nerve.
Jessica walked around the corner. “There you are, what’s wrong?”
“My real life just smashed into this one.” I tried to sit up and unslump my shoulders, but the weight of my disappointment dragged me down. “I think I have to go back to Boston.” If I didn’t, they might come to get me. That was the last thing I wanted, my family descending on Spruce and ruining the magic of the place.
“Stay one more night,” she said. “Besides, there’s another storm coming. You can’t drive to the airport in it.”
I brightened up. That was something, at least. They couldn’t force me to come home if I was stuck in the snow here in Spruce.
10
Vince
Damini had only spent one day at my house and it already felt strange that she wasn’t here with me. After Cam and I picked her truck up from the trailhead, I parked it close to the house where it wouldn’t be in anyone else’s way. My driveway had a couple vehicles in it, in addition to the box truck with my furniture. At least a few people were there.
I stepped inside to a lot of noise upstairs and in the dining room, and a wonderful smell that told me that someone had made lunch. Poking my head into the dining room first, Dom and Sam sanded the floor, prepping for the new finish. Footsteps approached from behind me and I turned to find Taurus approaching.
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Came to check on the bushes, make sure they were doing okay. They’re not holly like you wanted, but mountain laurel is nicer to look at in the spring.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t envy you, rooting around in that snow.”
Taurus laughed at my lame pun. “Well, I didn’t like the idea of that gaping hole back there. Leath and I got them situated in a partial barrier around the gazebo so that—”
“Gazebo?” I blinked at him. “The girls didn’t mention a gazebo yesterday. I assumed you were filling the hole with plants.”
“Oh, well, I was in town when you got back yesterday. Cam called and told me what had happened, so I thought it’d be a nice touch for you two.” Taurus smiled and shrugged. “We prepped the site yesterday. It got delivered a little while ago and we finished planting the rest.”
These were my brothers, my family. I hugged Taurus and may have shed a manly tear that I wiped away before he could poke fun. They were already thinking of ways to adjust our planned remodel for the potential addition of my mate.
“Speaking of, where is she?”
“Oh, I left her in town to hang out with her friend from college so Cam and I could go pick up her abandoned truck on the mountain. She’ll be back later.”
“Well, Sophie made lunch if you haven’t eaten already. Ben and I are meeting clients today, but it looks like everything is almost done here.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Sam is upstairs if you need him.”
I walked him to the door. “Thanks a lot for all your help, man. Sorry you spent it out in the snow.”
He grinned at me. “No problem, Vince. I like a challenge, and nothing is more challenging than trying to convince a bush to root in frozen ground, or the ground to take it.”
That was something I couldn’t exactly relate to. Leath and Taurus talked about plants like they were living things with their own personalities. The wind didn’t speak to me like that. I could tell when a storm was coming, like the one that would be sweeping through that night, and I could control the wind in a limited area. I longed for the day when my powers would be done growing up.
I spent the afternoon with Sam and Cameron upstairs in Shae’s old room. The ladies had jobs to get back to and school was still in session for another couple of weeks, much to
the girls’ dismay, so it was quieter than when everyone was here yesterday. We were in the process of building floor-to-ceiling wrap-around bookshelves for my ever-growing collection. Sophie had once commented on the empty shelves at Cameron’s; she hadn’t seen my space back when I lived in the attic. Stacks after stacks of books crammed into my room.
“What’s on your mind?” Cam asked suddenly after Sam went downstairs to help Dom.
I glanced up at him, where he was busy fastening the next industrial pipe flange to the wall. We were breaking away from the traditional wooden cases and going with a more steampunk look. Plus, while it cost more, it saved a ton of time and I loved the personality it gave the room. It looked especially good with the metallic bronze paint that the girls had picked out when we first came up with the idea.
“I can feel something nagging at you,” he explained. As an ether dragon, Cam was an empath and could read moods. Even ones we didn’t know we were in.
I sighed and set aside the brush I was using to stain the shelves. “Nothing is wrong, exactly. I just feel like this is too easy, you know?”
“How so?” He raised a skeptical eyebrow at me. “What you had in North Carolina was too easy, then it fell apart. This is destiny bringing you back together after the first mishap.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” I continued. “She said last night that she was thinking about staying here, and I’m ecstatic about that. I don’t want her to go anywhere. I’m just afraid her parents are going to come in and steal her away again.”
The cordless drill whirred four times, then Cam looked back over his shoulder. “If you two come clean about what really happened all those years ago, then you’ll be prepared for any manipulation they try again. Don’t worry, Vince, she loves you, and you love her. Your reunion was perfectly timed with your new house. It’ll work out.”
He had a point there. Even I hadn’t seen that one coming. I’d only moved out of Cam’s house because I didn’t want to feel like a third wheel in his and Sophie’s happy relationship. When I’d suggested getting my own place and Shae mentioned her old house, it had been a happy coincidence. Then, when I got settled into my own place, my lost love happened to come back into my life?
Destiny.
Cameron was right. This time it would be perfect. I had no delusions that her parents wouldn’t try to cause us problems, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle together. Reassured, I got back to work. The room was coming along amazingly. Downstairs, I heard Dom and Sam bustling about, which meant that they were probably done with the dining room floor.
We started assembling the pipes to the threaded flanges while the last shelf dried. That was the easiest part. Lila had spent a majority of the previous day sanding and painting them black in the spare room, and they really stood out against the bronze nicely. They went all the way around the room, including above and below the windows.
The sun was starting to set by the time we got everything put together and it looked amazing. Cam followed me downstairs, where Sam and Dom had just hung curtains in the dining room after they brought in the furniture. I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. My house was coming together, and I hoped Damini loved it as much as I did.
We brought in box after box full of books, making it an assembly line when the other two started toting them upstairs after we dropped them in the door. There were still two chairs and a small table that would go in my mini library, but I’d have to wait until I got the boxes cleared out before I’d have room for them. After the boxes went inside, they left me to organize my books and wait on Damini to get back.
“If you need anything else, we’re just a call away,” Cam reminded me on his way out.
Sorting and alphabetizing were cathartic for me. The vast majority of what I owned was fiction, so I started with the smaller subjects first. Mythology and historical books sorted by place and time period. Nonfiction, mostly memoirs by my favorite historical figures and authors and a handful of how-to books. Then fiction, alphabetized by the author’s last name.
That was where Damini found me a while later. She came in with a tense smile on her face. I was, naturally, buried between piles of books, so she came over to help.
“This place is looking great.” Her soft voice set my dragon to nearly purring.
“Thanks,” I said. “How was your time with Jessica? Did you have fun?”
She nodded uncertainly. “Yeah, it was great.”
We dove into the stacks together, loading up shelf after shelf. I was having a great time, really feeling the domesticity that I’d always longed for with Damini. Then I glanced back at her face as she handed me the next stack of books. Her smile was gone, and her silence didn’t feel as comfortable as mine.
“Hey.” I tipped her chin up to meet her beautiful eyes. “You’re quiet. Did something happen?”
She nodded again, averting her eyes. “I, uh, got a phone call today. From my parents.”
My stomach flipped with dread, but I didn’t react. “Is everything okay with them?”
“Oh, everything is fine with them,” she said, waving her hands, “but I… I need to get back to Boston tonight.”
My heart cracked, just a small fracture. “Am I losing you again?”
“No!” Damini grabbed my face, kissing me hard. I tried to hold on to her, but she pulled away. “No, it’s not like that. We’ll find a way this time, I promise. Maybe we can do, I don’t know, long-distance for a bit.”
“Damini—”
She covered my mouth with her hand. “Just long enough for me to wrap things up with the family business and submit my resignation. Then I can find some work closer to Spruce and come back to you.”
“You don’t need to work if you don’t want to,” I insisted. “I can take care of you.”
Damini shook her head and smiled. “I would be miserable just sitting around all day while you’re out being hired to do dragon things. I need to do something, anything so that I don’t feel any more useless than I already do.”
That, I could understand. Dragons were born helpers and if I was told that someone was going to take care of me, that I wouldn’t have to do anything, I probably still would volunteer if not find a job. If she felt the same urge, I wouldn’t be the one to hold her back from it. If she needed to work, then she absolutely could. Or not. Whatever.
I climbed out of the book towers and held her. “Do we wanna order some take-out for dinner?”
“I brought some food back from Snowshoe Brew, if you want it.” Her voice was muffled in my chest, but she squeezed me tighter. “I’m not really hungry right now.”
We went downstairs and lounged on the couch. My appetite wasn’t much either, but I snacked on some of the stuff in the bag on the coffee table. Damini’s mood was subdued, and it made me feel worse.
“If I asked you to come to Boston with me, would you?” She sat up enough to look at me.
“I’d be willing to go anywhere as long as you are there,” I told her. “If that means leaving behind Spruce and my family, I will for you, but your parents will never approve of me. They’ve proven that much once before.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Maybe they’ve changed, Vince. It was nine years ago.”
“Did you tell them about us?” I shifted to see her better. “Did you tell your parents that we reconnected here? That we’re seeing each other again?”
Damini sighed and turned her head away. “No. I just… I need more time before I can approach them about it.”
I felt sick to my stomach. There was nothing good about that response. She’d kept us a secret back in college, and I went along with it because I’d recognized how much she cared about her family, but I’d learned my lesson about that. I didn’t want to go through all of that again. We were repeating history.
But she looked so sad that I couldn’t tell her any of that. “We don’t need to tell them right away, I suppose.” I pulled her back into my side, feeling nauseous. “I can wait a little lo
nger.”
We sat there together for a long time until Damini passed out on my shoulder. I maneuvered my arm underneath her and picked her up, carrying her to the bed upstairs. For a while, I lay beside her, just watching her in her exhausted sleep. I fought the pull of depression at the thought that she’d bow to her parents’ will and leave me again.
My skin started itching, a sure sign that my dragon needed to break free and fly. I pressed a lingering kiss to Damini’s forehead and eased off the bed, stripping out of my clothes. Outside, I shifted into my smaller dragon form and took off through the hole in the canopy. It was much easier to get through in that form.
The world below me was blanketed in white and a light snowfall had started up again. The lights of Spruce twinkled far below, the huge tree in front of the town hall, all the decorations on the lampposts. Spruce was a town that took Christmas seriously. They spared no expense, and it was done very tastefully, like the front of a brand name Christmas card or one of those cheesy holiday romance movies.
I circled outside of the downtown area, flying over Sam’s house. The lights were on the inside, and I could see him and Gretta through the bay window. I flew over my old home, the creepy yet beautiful mansion where Cameron lived with Sophie and Shae. Cameron opened up the balcony door in his room and raised his hand to me. I turned away and kept flying. He’d probably sensed my mood coming from a mile away.
Across the street from the mansion was a small grove of trees. I spiraled down toward them and landed in the soft snow. From the cover of the trees, I watched the sleepy little townsfolk going about their evening.
In the short few months that we’d been there, the place had really become home to me. We were getting to know the locals by name. Leath had invited me to play chess with the old folks in front of the barbershop, which I’d accepted a few times. Naturally, I’d let the old ladies win, but I wasn’t so easy on Frank and Harry. They’d caught on to my deception and used the same technique themselves to get brownie points with the ladies.