Bloodstone Heart (29 page)

"Sounds wonderful."

"It is and it will be even more wonderful sharing it with you and starting our lives together there."

She held him and daydreamed of the home he described in Ireland. THEIR home.

"Since we are both in agreement, maybe we should head back to Connecticut and get some family time in with Anton and Dominic while I make some calls and get the renovations started in Ireland.
 
You should probably get your passport in order too.”

"Passport? I don't have a passport."

"Well, then we should get that taken care of right away. I'll give Dominic a call today and let him know that we will be back in a couple of days. I'll start making calls and start the wheels in motion."

"I love you, Mr. Bloomington."

He kissed her hand adorned with the engagement ring and said, "And I love you, soon to be MRS. Bloomington."

Chapter 22

      
Blake's cell phone rang around noon blinking "Dominic" across its screen.
 

"Dominic? Hi."

"Hello, Blake.
 
Good news."

"Yeah? Great."

"I got a call from Devon today."

"Yeah? It's official then?"

"Yes. She said yes, of course I had no doubt that would be her answer."

"Yeah. After what she went through to find him, it would be kind of weird for her to say no, huh?"

"Uh, right. Anyway, they will be back in two days and I was hoping to pull together a small surprise engagement party for them."

"That's very nice of you, Dominic. I know Devon would like that."

"You will come, won't you? Along with the others?"

"Uh, yeah. Rowan and I wouldn't miss it.
 
I can't speak for Dean and Sally, but I'll talk to them. However, there is the issue of Josh, still. We can't leave him here unprotected."

"Of course not.
 
No, he must come along. I insist."

"Okay, I'll talk to everyone and let you know."

"We don't have much time, so do it right away. As soon as I get confirmation from you, I will send tickets for all of you to come to Connecticut."

"Okay.
 
Sounds great, Dominic.
 
I'll try to let you know by this evening. I'm so glad it's finally out in the open, I was having a hard time keeping it from Rowan."

"I'll bet.
 
Okay, then I will wait for your response. Talk to you later."

"Right. Bye, Dominic."

"Good-bye, Blake."

As Blake ended the call Rowan walked into the room. "Did I hear you say Dominic?"

"Yeah, Sweet-cheeks, and I've got some news."

"Good I hope."

"Definitely. Devon proposed to Darby and they are officially engaged.
 
He gave her mom's ring and everything."

Rowan's face lit up and she started jumping up and down, holding her mouth like she was going to explode. "Oh my God!" she screamed over and over again, until the rest of the household came running.

“What is up?” Dean said in a panic.

At the top of Rowan's lungs she screamed, “Darby and Devon are getting married!”
 
Dean looked at Rowan very concerned, and then he looked at Blake who also looked a bit worried. Dean said, "Is she going to be okay, or are we going to have to slap her?" Sally jabbed him hard in his ribs to which he replied, "Ow! What was that for?"

Letting Rowan run her course of excitement, Blake admitted to Dean that he had known it was coming.
 
Rowan stopped immediately. "How long have you known?"

"Uh well, since before we left Connecticut. Why?"

"Blake Bloomington, you've been keeping this from me all this time?"

Noticing that Dean, Sally, and Josh had all taken a step back, he said warily, "Uhhhh...yes?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, because he hadn't asked her yet."

"So you knew even before Darby?"

"Well, yeah..." Blake answered matter-of-factly.

"Why would Devon tell you before he asked Darby?"

"Oh! Well, he wanted to use mom's ring, so he asked me if that was okay. Dominic had kept it for us and Devon wanted to make sure I was all right with taking it."

"So he gave her your mother's ring? Oh, that is just so sweet. I'll bet it's so beautiful."

"Uh, yeah. It's pretty nice. Anyway, Dominic wants to throw them an engagement party in a couple of days and wants all of us to fly out to surprise them."

"How sweet!" Rowan said.

"Josh, that includes you.
 
We can't leave you here unprotected."

Josh replied, "I don't know, Blake.
 
I appreciate the invite, but what if Lanie needs us and we aren't here to answer her call. Plus I don't really feel right with her out there all alone in danger, while I'm off having a good time at a party in Connecticut."

"I can have all the phones forwarded to us in Connecticut, so we won't miss any calls. As for the party, well, Melanie would kill us if we left you here unprotected after all she's done."

"I guess that's true, but..."

"No 'buts' you're going," Blake said as he smacked Josh in the shoulder.
 
"So, Sally? Dean? Are you in?"

Sally looked at Dean nodding, and Dean replied, "Yeah sure. We're up for celebrating, but only if Rowan doesn't make that high pitched scream again..."

Sally jabbed him again hard in the ribs.
 

"Ow!
 
Would you quit doing that? You've got the boniest little elbows," he said which got him another jab. "Stop doing that. Between your jabs and her screaming, I'm going to be one hurting werewolf."

“Whiner,” Blake said.
 

Dean said, "Don't start with me, bat boy."

"I told you not to call me that. I can't turn into a bat and I am almost seventy-five years older than you, dog breath."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, bat boy," Dean said waving his hand dismissively. Blake quickly put Dean in a headlock and the girls knew it was their cue to leave the boys to wrestle while they talked wedding stuff. Josh just shook his head and went to Darby's room where he sat on the bed and rubbed the enormous white belly of Harry, who purred like a maniac.

Chapter 23

      
Today Melanie had driven right by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. It was quite a sight to see in the sunlight. Though she could see it from quite a distance, it was most impressive up close. She didn't go to the old courthouse nearby, but she did write on the matchbook for Missouri that the courthouse was the sight where the famous Dred Scott case was tried in 1846, in which Dred Scott sued for his freedom along with his wife and two daughters and was denied. It was turned over by the Supreme Court in 1857 and was an integral part of the Civil War.

She had run her credit card in Topeka, Kansas and was staying the night in Belleville, Missouri. She made a phone call and made reservations with her credit card for Lori and Chris Summers to fly from Nashville to Salt Lake City. She would have the tickets sent to their house. She hoped that Dimitri was checking all these credit card receipts or all of this would be for naught. Tomorrow it was Fort Smith, Oklahoma and Collerville, Tennessee, but for now it was time to sleep.

This morning was like any other morning in California for Josh.
 
He woke to a large cat standing on his chest, puncturing his skin with his huge claws kneading Josh's bare chest. It wasn't terribly painful, but there certainly was no sleeping through it.

By 10:00 A.M. the Federal Express truck pulled up to deliver an overnight envelope full of red-eye tickets for all in the house.
 
Josh still couldn't help but feel guilty about attending a party while Melanie was on the road, hopefully avoiding danger.
 
He was starting to get that pent up feeling of frustration again at not coming up with a plan.
 
Surely they had enough information to somehow get Melanie out of danger, but if there was, no one was spilling the beans.
 
The only hope was that in meeting the Larsens, maybe with all of them together, they could come up with something.
 

From what he could gather, Dominic seemed to be an inexhaustible means of information.
 
If nothing else, he would get to meet the man who had sent them everything they knew up until now aside from the actual bloodstone heart itself.
 
He knew that Dominic would be very excited to see it given his great love of history and legendary artifacts.
 

The household was teaming with activity as the girls twittered about wedding stuff and giggled like schoolgirls with unabashed excitement.
 
The guys packed in a nanosecond compared to the girls.
 
It seemed to take the girls most of the day to pack.
 

Blake made a bunch of phone calls forwarding phones and interviewing for a job for about an hour. Before Josh knew it, they were all in Rowan's SUV and headed for the airport.

Josh found it very entertaining to open his mind to Blake and Dean as Dean tried not to be nervous about the flight even though this was his fourth flight in a matter of months, but Blake had it well in control.
 
He could keep Dean good and relaxed with beer so as not to let Sally know of his fear.
 
He thought this information should be his and Dean's alone, aside from the wink he gave Josh when he realized Josh was listening in on his thoughts.

It was good to be in control of his thoughts now, where as a month ago, Josh couldn't imagine himself being on a plane with 200 plus people without his mind overloading. He was very appreciative of Blake's help in that area.
 
He had taught him more in a few weeks than he ever thought possible. Now if only he could get Lanie back and out of danger, all would be right with the world.

Over the course of the recent days, Anton had been pursuing Jules. He sent her blood red roses with dark blue delphinium almost the color of her eyes with a card that simply said: