B0075M2D1U EBOK (6 page)

“
Sure,” I answered, still shaking from the fact that Nick Martino had actually wrapped his arms around me in an embrace for two whole seconds. I don’t think I’ll ever shower again. Okay, that’s being a bit dramatic. But I couldn’t believe it! Mr. Hotness just touched me!

“
Cool. How about Wednesday?”

I shook my head in apology, “I can’t, I have to work, but I’m free on Thursday night. In fact, I told Jeremy and Anya that I’d go with them to that adventure golf place in Cadillac. Do you wanna go? We can pick you up.”

“
Sounds good. Just pick me up at the restaurant. I have to work during the day, but I’ll be done by six,” he said as he was walking backwards towards the kitchen.

“’
Kay, we’ll pick you up around 6:30 then. See ya,” I waved as I turned towards my friends who were quickly approaching.

Brennan had a puzzled look on his face as he asked, “What’s everyone talking about? It seems like everyone is all riled up. I can sense the tension in the air.”

I told them about the Frederick’s tree farm catching fire as we walked back across the gravel parking lot to Jeremy’s mom’s car. Again, everyone was shocked at the news. Being as curious as we were, we decided to drive past the Frederick’s tree farm to get a first-hand look at what had happened.

We could smell it before we could see it.

It was the overpowering smell of burnt pine and wet, charred bark. It hung heavy in the hot summer air, kind of like when you pour water over your campfire to extinguish the last burning embers, except this also had the sickening strong smell of the burning pine needles. It smelled like a Christmas Day nightmare. As we pulled over on the gravel shoulder of the road near the scene of the fire, we could still see black smoke and a kind of grayish cloud that seemed to be hovering around the Frederick’s house. Half of the town was there, milling around, talking, whispering, and shaking their heads. We stepped out of the car and we couldn’t believe our eyes. About half of their Christmas trees were burned. Rows and rows of young trees, now black, burnt, withering dead things. Completely gone. I looked over and saw a tear in Anya’s eye. Brennan’s brow was furrowed and his mouth was pressed together as if he was suppressing some deep emotion. I suppose the fairies, who were so connected to the energy of the earth and trees, would be pretty upset. Jeremy was very still too. The only movement from his usually jumpy body was the slight, disappointing shake of his head. We stood there in silence for a moment, taking in the awful sight. I saw Mr. Frederick, who was a retired Major from the military, just standing there. He stood with his arm around Mrs. Frederick, holding her close as she cried on his shoulder. I shook my head. It was just so sad.

“
I’m going to go see if they have any more information on how it got started,” Jeremy said, glancing over at the group of firefighters standing in their gear, covered in soot. “Okay,” I answered, “But remember, you’re not here to hit on any of them! They’re working!” I hissed. He just shook his head at me and snickered, “Hey, a boy can look, can’t he?” He winked and jogged over to the closest fire truck where there seemed to be a convergence of firefighters standing around. Leave it to Jeremy to use a tragedy to meet a hot guy. Talk about a horny teenager.

“
Who could do such a horrible thing? Nick said this was the third fire this week,” I said.

Anya’s eyes got big as she sharply looked over at me. “The third fire?” she asked, with such seriousness it scared me.

“
Yeah,” I slowly answered, “Apparently, there have been a couple of fires in the woods from campers this week too.”

“
Hmmm,” was all Anya said as she pressed her lips together with a look of contemplation on her face.

“
Campers. Sure,” Brennan repeated, mirroring his sister’s grim expression. Anya and Brennan exchanged a worried look. Brennan shook his head at her and looked straight ahead at the black cloud hovering over the rows of burnt trees. I looked back and forth between them and asked, “What’s wrong guys?” Something more was obviously bothering them. “It’s probably nothing,” Anya said, shaking her head.

“
What’s probably nothing?” I asked. It wasn’t like the two of them to be so close-mouthed and serious like this. They didn’t answer. Whatever it was must have been bad though. Because they couldn’t lie to cover it up, they simply kept their mouths shut. Darn their fairy stubbornness! They stood there looking out at the scene before us, with ghostly, blank stares. Even though it was a warm night, I felt a chill run up my spine.

Chapter 7

I woke up way too early the next morning. But trust me, it wasn’t intentional. By the time we left the circus at the Frederick’s tree farm, (and Jeremy got his fill of flirting with the firemen) it was quite late. Then I tossed and turned half of the night because I just couldn’t shake those ghostly, blank stares from Anya and Brennan. Other than a few meaningful looks at each other, they had been mostly silent the entire way home. It was very unlike them to be so somber, especially pain-in-the-ass Brennan. I finally fell asleep at some wee-hour of the morning, only to be awakened by my annoying brother jumping on the end of my bed. I thrust my pillow over my head and sank deeper under the covers, “What the hell are you doing LEOTARD? I’m tryin’ to sleep here!” I yelled from under my pillow. Leo kept up with the jumping, and now that I was hiding from him deep under my covers, he began singing, very loudly, “Scooby Scooby Dooooo, where are youuuu? We have some fun for you now!”

“
ARRGGhhhh!” I yelled and whipped my pillow at him. He caught it and continued jumping. “And quit the jumping!” I screamed, “Yer gonna make me hurl!” Leo laughed and finally stopped. “Mom told me to wake you up. She’s got new flowers you’re supposed to help her plant… ‘member? Awww, c’mon,” he started shaking my leg and taunted, “I’ll give you a Scooby snack.”

“
GET OUT!” I yelled as I leaned forward to shove him off my bed. He leaned away just out of my reach and ran towards the door. “Slow on the uptake Scoobs!” and with that, my brother bounded down the stairs.

I lazily stretched my arms above my head and yawned. “RUUUUBBYYYY!” I heard my mother yell up the stairs. Geesh. It’s like Grand Central Station around here. For Pete’s sake, it’s Sunday morning! I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on some cutoffs and an old t-shirt and headed downstairs.

As I walked into the kitchen to pour myself some cereal, my mother was heading out the back door. She paused when she saw me enter the kitchen. “Those new Moon Flower plants came yesterday evening from Aunt Sue! Remember? You said you wanted to help me transplant them!”

“
That’s right, Ma. I remember. Just lemme eat my cereal first, ‘kay?” My mom gave a quick nod, “See you out there in five!”

My mother was like a kid in a candy shop when it came to her flowers. Although, I can’t say I’m much different. I just loved being in the garden with her. We didn’t share a lot of things, but we both loved working in the garden. My mother always told me, “You can bury a lot of your problems in the dirt.” I had to agree. Plus, seeing the magic of the fairies playing in the garden always put a smile on my face.

I finished my cereal and walked barefoot out the back door to see what my mother had in store for me.

I had never seen a Moon Flower before, but my mother had described them to me with great detail. I looked around at the potted plants scattered across the lawn waiting to be transplanted and tried to imagine them blooming. My mother told me that it was a beautiful bright white, flower, round like a full-moon. In my opinion, the coolest thing about this flower was that that it bloomed in the evening and it can be pollinated by night-flying moths. The flower stays open and is fragrant all through the warm summer evenings, but the petals shrivel and die when touched by the morning sun. It reminded me of an enchanted flower out of a fairy tale…something I used to read about in storybooks when I was a kid. As my mother babbled on and on about this new flower we were planting, she began laughing as she told me about my Aunt Sue’s experience with the Moon Flowers. My Aunt Sue is kind of a hippy. Okay, not kind of. She is a hippy. About twelve years older than my mother (yeah, you could say my mom’s birth was a “surprise,”) Aunt Sue was like a flower child of the sixties. Apparently, the Moon Flower seeds can be hallucinogenic. Without getting into details, let’s just say that Aunt Sue tended to have a wild streak in her and her early experiences with the Moon Flower involved my Grandpa having to drive three states away to bring her home. I couldn’t believe how nutso my Aunt Sue was sometimes. The more stories I heard about her, the more I wondered how my mother turned out so normal and boring.

As I helped my mother transfer the delicate plants from the pots into the ground, she warned me for the hundredth time, “Be sure not to touch your mouth. The seeds are poisonous, especially for animals. Now go put some over there, in the garden bed near the path to the lake. I think the white flowers will really stand out against all the green over there,” she ordered as she crawled around on her hands and knees, carefully tending to the soil and watering what we had just planted. I walked barefoot through the grass and carried a tray of the potted plants over to the back of the yard. As I knelt down in the cool, soft ground, I quickly scanned the garden for fairies. Huh. That was weird. Not one in sight. Usually, I see at least a few fluttering about. I started turning the soil with my small shovel, then dug several holes. I gently placed the plants in the freshly dug holes and packed the dirt in around them. I glanced at my hands and let out a big sigh. So much for my freshly painted Silver Moon Mist fingernails. They were covered in dirt. Well, at least the polish was named appropriately! Moon Mist polish, Moon Flower. I chuckled at my own little joke.

It was after noon by the time my mother and I finished up with the planting. Thoroughly covered in mud, and sweaty from all of our hard work out in the hot summer sun, we retreated to the air-conditioned house for some cold lemonade and lunch. I couldn’t wait to see what the flowers looked like when their roots were established and they opened in the setting sun. Mom said it would take several days, but hopefully we would soon have the beautiful, white Moon Flowers glowing in the evening.

Chapter 8

The next few days were uneventful. Other than the rain storm that came through on Tuesday night, absolutely nothing happened. I worked every day at the craft and hobby store and I only saw Anya once, briefly. I hadn’t seen Brennan since my date with Nick, and I don’t think Leo saw him either. Usually, if Brennan’s not annoying the crap out of me, he’s out messing around with Leo. It was Wednesday evening, and I was scheduled to work until I closed the store at 9 p.m. By the time I finished up with all of my closing duties and rode my bike home, it would be almost ten. I don’t know why the store stayed open that late in the summer. It’s not like someone’s going to have a pipe-cleaner and felt emergency at 8:55 p.m., but whatever. At least I was getting paid. I was sitting on a stool behind the counter working the one register in the store, when the tinkling bells on the doors notified me that a customer was walking in. I looked up from the magazine I was reading and saw Anya breeze through the doorway. I smiled and waved.

She smiled as beautifully as always, and her ice-blue eyes sparkled, “Hi Ruby! I just wanted to stop in to confirm our outing. We’re still going miniature golfing with Jeremy and Nick tomorrow evening, right?”

I nodded, “That’s the plan… I hope.” I was a little nervous that Nick may have forgotten. I hadn’t talked to him in four days, so I wasn’t sure if he would remember. Just then, the tinkling bells rang out again, as the glass door pushed open. Geesh, all of a sudden we were getting an evening rush. Anya glanced over to see who was walking in and grinned. I looked over and saw Nick saunter up to the counter. I gulped. God, he was so good-looking. He was wearing flip flops, his orange and white board shorts again and an almost too-tight orange t-shirt that was stretched over his broad, tanned shoulders. “Well,” Anya started, “Speak of the devil!” Nick looked puzzled and looked at Anya, then at me, with a questioning look on his face. “Oh,” I said, “Anya was just stopping by to make sure we were all still going out tomorrow…We
are
still going, right?” I smiled hopefully at Nick.

“
Definitely,” he smiled assuredly in return. “Here, I brought you this. You said you love ice cream, and since we couldn’t go out tonight
and
we didn’t get a chance to finish our dessert the other night, I thought you might like it.” He placed a clear plastic container with a strawberry sundae on the counter in front of me. I couldn’t believe it. Nick Martino, Mr. Hotness himself, brought
me
ice cream. I think I might faint. Seriously, I must be dreaming. “Thank you! It’s wonderful!” I gushed. I wished for a second that it was chocolate and then brushed the thought out of my mind. Ice cream is ice cream. As long it’s not coffee or lemon, I was happy. Plus, who can complain when someone as gorgeous as Nick brings it?

“
Well,” Anya interrupted, “On that note, I think I’ll leave you two alone.” She winked at me and headed for the door. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow night,” she waved as she walked out of the store.

As I scooped up a spoonful of the sweet strawberry sundae that he brought me, I asked, “So, did you go to the beach today?” I let my eyes wander down his body, gazing at how gorgeous and muscular he looked. I quickly looked down at my ice cream when I realized he was aware of my lingering stare.

“
Yeah,” he knowingly smiled. I blushed, embarrassed of being caught in the act of my inappropriate ogle. He continued, “Did you hear what happened at the marina though?” I shook my head in response, as I had just shoved another huge spoonful of ice cream in my mouth. After all, it was easier to avoid my nervous word vomit tendency if I kept my mouth full of food. Maybe I’d look like less of a dork. Nick went on, “It was nuts. Almost all of the boats docked there were turned over. You should’ve seen it!” My eyes got huge with surprise as I swallowed my ice cream and my mouth fell open. “All of the boats?!?” I incredulously asked. He nodded, “Just about. There were a few still upright, and luckily, it’s still early in the season so there’s not too many docked there yet. But still…Can you believe it? They figure that the storm last night must have gotten pretty wicked and turned ‘em over.”