Take Me Away, page 6
Alone.
Lonely.
I stood up, confused that the thing that always comforted me was making me uncomfortable.
Swearing, I grabbed my T-shirt off the rock and headed towards the gentler path that wound back down to the parking lot.
Being alone didn’t feel good today. So when I saw the lone climber making her way toward me, I didn’t turn and try to avoid her.
Today was a weird day.
When her eyes lighted on mine, she gave me a friendly grin. "Derek! You exist!“ she called up the trail. .
I smiled back because Brynn Reese was one of the only people I could stand. I leaned against a tree to wait for her to reach me. "Hi Brynn,” I said. "How are the kids?"
She rolled her eyes. “You always say that," she said. "They're not my kids. They're just my class."
"Same thing," I teased. "You're the one who thought it would be a good career path to spend your life wiping noses."
"I'll have you know that first grade is a heck a lot more than wiping noses," she grumped.
"School just started up again?" I asked. Aria had asked me if I knew about small talk. I’d apparently learned it at warp speed.
Brynn nodded. "I have this one kid, I cannot get stop him from eating the Play-Doh. I've been to the store like six times now, getting a new supply, but he just chows down on it like it's an all-you-can-eat buffet"
I wrinkled my nose. "Can you eat Play-Doh?”
She shrugged. "Well it is non-toxic, so I guess so."
"What does it taste like?"
She shrugged again. "Salty." I gave her a look. "What? On-the-job hazards."
"I can't believe you’re a teacher.”
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's been a couple years now. Get with the times."
"I'm still not used to it. Do the parents know that you used to be the queen of keg stands?"
An odd look passed across her face. "Actually, yeah, they do. Jesse's oldest is in my class now."
At the sound of the name, I stiffened out of old habit.
Brynn’s eyes softened. "He's doing good, Derek. I wish you guys would talk again. You were so close."
I turned back to the trail. "Yeah," I grunted, taking a step. She stood there for a second longer, then, reading my body language, she sighed. I wasn't looking at her, but I could feel the hurt radiating off her in waves. "Glad he's doing well," I ventured.
"He is. He's going to be fine. The new prosthesis fits beautifully.”
I could feel her ready herself to say something else and held up my hand to ward off her praise. “Good,” I said shortly. “But is he going to walk again?"
"Well?” she wheedled. “No. But you know that."
“Yes, I do," I said, and this time I really turned away.
I heard Brynn exhale one more time before she finally turned and left me blessedly alone. “You should tell him what you did for him!” she called. But the sound of the falls was so loud that I could pretend I didn’t hear her.
My mind whirled as I got into my Jeep. I needed to get back to my workshop. A new prototype was taking shape in my brain as I drove. I’d have to do some research and see if the type of joint I was envisioning was feasible, but if it was it had the potential to be a lot more comfortable. Might even feel like it belonged there.
I hurried home and rushed back to my desk to start sketching without bothering to shut the door behind me.
The faint sound of music floated down from the great house. Soft and soothing, it was the perfect backdrop for my work. Aria must have hooked up her sound system again. But if she was trying to annoy me, she’d chosen the wrong soundtrack. I worked steadily with her music helping me along.
Until I heard a new song.
This song was beautiful. Plaintive in a way that made me sit up straighter. My sketches dropped - half finished - to the floor.
“What the heck is that?” I asked the air. I turned towards the great house and watched the windows, hoping she’d step out onto the deck so I could ask. Then
I abandoned my prototype and stepped out onto my porch, the better to watch for her.
It was markedly cooler than it had been this morning and I regretted not grabbing a jacket to throw over my thin t-shirt. The weather was changing, the temperature dropping. Puffy white clouds scudded quickly across the sky, ahead of a line of gray off to the west. It was a fall sky for sure, the sun lower along the horizon giving everything a golden autumnal glow.
The song changed.
My first thought was that life had somehow acquired a soundtrack, that thunderous classical music was accompanying the sweeping view of Whaleback Mountain and the blaze of autumn leaves upon it. Hell, if I were a movie director, I would write music for this view that sounded exactly the same way.
I drifted up the lawn like a man under a spell.
The closer I got to the great house, the more concentrated the sound became. Until it distilled into one spot. The glass-walled atrium off the east-facing deck. I looked around the side.
Then I stopped.
Through the glass I could see her, her long, sinuous body weaving and bobbing as she sat at the baby grand piano that dominated the floor-space. Mr. Dolan had kept it in memory of his late wife but as far as I knew, he never touched it. Now it thundered with long suppressed music.
But it wasn’t the surprise piano that had me frozen in my tracks.
With her eyes closed and her fingers moving so quickly across the keys that they blurred, she coaxed a rolling wave of sound from the lower register. Then she quieted everything down to a lilting refrain that sounded like icy winds, cold winter nights, and the things I'd lost over the years.
I was transfixed. I had no idea how long I stood there. I didn't want to disturb her. This was the kind of concert rich people paid astronomical sums of money for, but she was playing it all for herself.
All for me.
The music rolled up into a crescendo, and then, with a last, thunderous chord, her hands slipped from the keys and fell into her lap like two tired, fluttering birds. She opened her eyes, sleepily…
And then screamed.
Chapter Twelve
Derek
"Holy shit, what are you doing?” she yelled, standing up so quickly that the piano bench crashed behind her, spilling out all of the sheet music that had been stored inside.
I held up my hands to ward off her fear. "I didn't want to interrupt!" I called through the glass.
"How long have you been there?" she demanded
I didn't know what to say. "You're really good," I called, trying to stall.
"How long have you been there?”
Her eyes were shining like she was about to cry. I looked at her, then looked down helplessly at my hands. "I actually have no idea.”
"What do you want?"
I winced. “I wanted to… find out what song that was.”
She pressed her hand to her forehead. “Oh.” She waved to the door. “Come in, it’s unlocked.”
“Yeah?” I pushed open the door and tried not to betray how happy it made me that she invited me in.
She took another look at me. “Why do you look like you’re heading out into the wilderness?”
I looked down at my clothes. I hadn’t bothered to change when I got home from the falls. Or shower, even. Mud still clung to my damp shoes and there was a rip at the hem of my shorts that I hadn’t noticed until now. ”Just came back, actually,” I lied. "I went on a hike."
She raised her eyebrows. ”Oh yeah? Where to?"
“Up the falls. "
She narrowed her eyes. “When you say ‘up the falls’…”
"Yes," I nodded. "Meaning, I climbed them."
“With your bare hands?”
"There are ropes," I laughed.
"Are they safe?"
"I'm still here, aren't I?"
She looked skeptical. "I suppose you are," she said. "But that doesn't mean that they wouldn't break any second."
"They haven't broken in the long time I've been doing this hike." Then I looked at her more closely. "You've never hiked up the falls? And you grew up here? Wait, are you sure you grew up here?"
She laughed. "You know damn well I grew up here. I'm just not a hiker."
“Well you’re fit enough to be one.”
She stared at me and I realized I’d just confessed to looking at her body.
I looked away, embarrassed.
When she spoke again, her voice had taken on a different quality. "You should take me," she said. "Since you know so much about that hike."
“I should.”
She fixed me with her gaze for a second, and I was forced to stare right at her face. Yesterday, I had been certain her eyes were blue, but today I saw they were the same color as the lake on a cloudy day.
“So I hiked, what about you?” I heard myself say. “How did you spend the day?”
“Figuring out who I am.” She said it so lightly that it took a moment for the gravity of her words to take effect. She ran her hand along the piano. “Music helps.”
“So did you figure yourself out?”
She didn’t look at me, but she did stand up from the piano and square her shoulders. “No,” she said softly. “But I’ve decided I’m staying here until I do.” She turned to face me and I was surprised to see the tears in her eyes. “I need to stay here Derek.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that.”
“You can’t make me leave, okay? I’ve got no place else.” She looked away. “I need it more than you do.”
I balled my fists at my sides. “How do you figure?”
She eyed my hands warily.
I unclenched them.
She closed her eyes and exhaled before speaking. “You have friends here. I know you do. You’d barely notice the move. But this is the only place in the world I know is mine, so…” She drew closer with every word until I could feel her breath pass across my cheek as she whispered, “Please. I need you to go.”
Her eyelashes fluttered as she looked back down again. I could smell her shampoo and feel the warmth rising off her skin. Her hair tumbled all around her, shielding her face like a curtain. I had to tilt my head down and to the side just to see her.
She inhaled sharply and looked up.
The tremble of her lower lip was captivating. I wanted to stop its quiver so badly that I was inches from her face before I caught myself.
But she’d already shied away.
“I wasn’t going to…”
“Don’t…”
“I won’t.” I shook my head. “But tell me one thing.”
She blinked.
“Did he do that?” I brushed my hand just over her side.
She stiffened. “Who?”
“The guy you’re hiding from.” I would regret sending that anonymous email until the day I died. I’d used my skills to hack her boyfriend’s phone and then I’d used what I found there to hurt her. Why?
I no longer had a clue.
There was nothing I could do to change what I’d done. But maybe now I could use my skills to help her instead.
“What are you talking about? What guy?” She lifted her chin bravely.
"You don't have to tell me anything. But he won't do it again."
“How can you know that?”
“Because I’m going to keep you safe.
The slightest whisper of a gasp was all the thanks I needed. “I have nightmares sometimes. That he comes back. "
The idea made me growl. "It would never happen. You're safe. "
“Here? With you?"
I swallowed and let myself take her hand. “Yeah,” I realized. “You're safe with me."
Chapter Thirteen
Aria
I wanted to believe him. “How?”
“Signal dampeners,” he said immediately. “I already have this place nearly off the grid, but…” He held out his hand. “Give me your phone just in case. I can sweep it for trackers and get your location locked down.”
“Give you my phone?”
“Do you trust me?” He grinned that grin again. There was something different about him today. He looked…he looked like he gave a shit again.
And the result was... devastating.
He’d shaved off some of the scruff that clouded his features. His jawline now appeared burnished in gold. Instead of lowering his eyes every time I spoke to him, he kept them level with mine, sometimes letting them fall to my lips.
“Maybe?” But I handed over my phone anyway.
“Give me a few hours to double check everything,” he said as he slipped it into his pocket. “And then I’ll come back to get you.”
“Get me for… what?”
That grin again. “A sunset hike?”
I pressed my hand to my chest. “Today?” I squeaked.
His grin slid from his face. “Aria, if you’re not ready, I’m not going to push you. But I want… I want to show you I can keep you safe… keep my promise. Staying here is all well and good, but can you really do that for the rest of your life?”
“I kind of planned on it?”
“Can’t argue with that,” he sighed.
And… to my surprise…
He didn’t.
Chapter Fourteen
Aria
He disappeared for nearly a week.
I had no idea what he was up to, and I was a little afraid to ask.
But when he returned my phone to me, it wasn’t ringing any more.
And that was… everything.
Derek blocked my number in such a way that when Killian called me, he still got my usual voicemail message. But his threats and curses were re-routed to some place in Pakistan where they were logged and date-stamped and filed away until I needed them. But I’d didn’t have to hear them until I was ready.
He’d downloaded all my voicemails and then deleted them off my phone. He did the same with my text messages. And he did something super fancy with my phone’s signal so if I called someone, it never stayed at the same tower for long. My call would bounce seamlessly from signal to signal, making my location completely untraceable.
“What if I need to call 9-1-1?” I’d asked him.
“Oh, I already set the signal to be stable for emergency calls.”
I could have kissed him.
I almost did.
But if he noticed the way my cheeks flushed, he didn’t say anything. “Thank you,” I whispered. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
“You don’t owe me anything.” He shoved his hands gruffly into his pockets.
“I kind of do though, right?” I poked my tongue into the side of my cheek.
“No?” His blank stare was kind of adorable.
I take that back, it was wholly and completely adorable.
“I owe you a hike?”
He did a double take. “What?”
I looked out the window. I’d been here just over two weeks, but already the weather was changing. “I don’t think the warm weather is going to last much longer.”
He nodded. “Before long this place is going to be buried under snow.”
“Really? Already?”
“They’re calling for it in the forecast next week.”
I cleared my throat. “Ah, Reckless Falls' winters. I haven’t missed those.”
He stalked away for a second, then turned back, suddenly all business. “Have you had the propane tank filled yet?”
“I haven’t needed to. It’s warm.”
“Yes, it’s warm today, but next week the temperature’s dropping.”
I turned back to the piano and ran my fingers over the keys. “I’ve got time,” I said softly.
“What about a plow service, have you lined them up yet?”
“Not yet…”
“And the furnace, have you had it serviced?”
“Jesus, Derek!” I exploded. “What is this?”
“I told you I’d help you, so I’m helping.”
I rolled my eyes heavenward. “You really haven’t been around people very much lately, have you?”
I heard him snort. “Small talk?”
“It requires practice.”
“Isn’t that what I’m getting right now?”
“Is that all I’m good for?” I laughed. “Lessons on how to be human?”
He shrugged that one-shouldered shrug of his. “I help you, you help me. Fair trade?”
“More than fair, so long as you throw in hiking guide services on top of it.” I uncrossed my legs and stood up. I was wearing my favorite pair of boots. They weren’t exactly hiking boots, but they would have to do. If I didn’t do this now, I’d lose my nerve. “Right now.”
He looked me up and down and back up again. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Chapter Fifteen
Derek
She climbed into my Jeep with a wary look on her face.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked for the millionth time.
She nodded. “I’m safe. I know I am. Just… don’t get too far ahead of me, okay?”
I swallowed down the lump that formed in my throat and then put the Jeep in drive. “Tell me something.”
“About?”
“Um, well.” Small talk was more difficult than it looked. “Is it just you and your ex in the band?” I knew the answer to this question already, but hey, it was a start.
She shook her head. “There’re three other guys too. All Brits.”
“How’d you end up with a bunch of stuffy British guys?”
She grinned. “Nothing stuffy about these guys. They like to fight almost as much as they like to rock out. Niall, Jules and Ewan.” She smiled wistfully. “I miss them. They were like the big brothers I never had. They sort of adopted me and showed me the ropes. They never really wanted to get big, though. That was all Killian.” She paused for a second. “I can’t wait to be able to safely return their calls. Thank you for that, Derek.”
“Stop thanking me,” I begged.
She laughed. “How do you even know how to do stuff like that?”
