Goddess Legacy: Goddess Series Book 1 (11 page)

She pulled in and went straight up to Calli’s bedroom. Her friend turned to her with a huge smile.

“I have a date!”

“Really? With who?” The happiness she felt for herself instantly shifted over to happiness for Calli. Legacy sat on the side of the bed and Calli sat beside her.

“This guy named Zach. You don’t know him. I went to the park with Ellen while you were at work. I met him there. Of course Ellen was flirting with him like she didn’t already have a boyfriend, but he paid her no attention.” She giggled.

“Calli, that’s great. When are you going out with him?” Legacy had hated telling her River was involved with someone else, so Legacy was thrilled Calli had her eye on someone else now.

“Tomorrow night. He’s taking me to dinner and then back to the park where we met. They’re playing a movie at the old ball field—it’s a classic romantic comedy—so we’ll have something to occupy our attention if the date isn’t going so well. But it’ll be outside and relaxing, so we’ll be free to talk and get to know each other if we click.”

“That sounds great. Maybe we can double sometime if you two do hit it off.”

“Ah, that sounds like fun!” She smirked. “Do you think Adin will kiss you this time?” She was barely able to ask without giggling.

“I don’t know. I think it’s probably too soon for that. You know he wants to take things slowly, so I think that omits any tongue action. For now.” Legacy wagged her eyebrows.

Legacy and Calli spent the next couple of hours theorizing about their impending dates, talking about Legacy’s mom, and reminiscing about growing up and how Adin had always been around. Adin and Legacy had been friends since they were little. She remembered playing games with him on the playground in elementary school, hanging out with him and his friends at the skating rink in middle school, and watching him play sports and grow into a very attractive man in high school. Not that he hadn’t always been attractive, but as she got older, she appreciated it more. His flawless features were devastatingly beautiful. But his beauty wasn’t just skin deep. He was a beautiful person through and through.

“What do you think River is doing tonight?” Calli asked in a nonchalant manner. She wasn’t fooling Legacy. It was obvious her best friend wanted to switch gears on their conversation. Not that they hadn’t talked about River. His Greek mythology information had dominated about thirty minutes of their conversation.

“Um, I don’t know. The store is closed by now, so he might be home,” Legacy offered with a shrug.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” Calli perked up and looked at her with hopeful eyes. Yeah, Calli might have a date, but she still appreciated eye candy.

“Sure.”

Calli freshened up—touching up her makeup, spraying on her French perfume. They walked down the stairs and out of the house.

“What do you think I should do if Adin doesn’t ask me back out again?” Legacy asked in an effort to distract her friend and hoping Callie wasn’t getting her hopes up about running into River outside.

Calli looked at her and appraised her expression before responding. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“But let’s say he doesn’t. Should I call him? If so, when? I mean, how soon is too soon to call a guy after a date?

“Legacy, this isn’t the twentieth century. If you want to call him afterward, you should call him. At the very least you could chat with him on Facebook. You did grow up with him. It’s not like he’s some new guy you hardly know. Besides, he took a big step in calling you and asking you out. Once he gets back in town, you two will probably be inseparable.” She giggled.

They were off Calli’s property and nearing River’s house now. It wasn’t as grand as Calli’s. It had a more modern flare to it. In fact, it almost had an institutional look. The gray tones made it look cold, and the straight lines of the design were too severe. Even the fence and gate resembled bars in a jail cell rather than an elegant addition to a private estate. But she guessed it went with the décor.

River’s car was out front, but Calli didn’t notice. Legacy realized then that she had left this detail out of their earlier conversation when Calli had grilled about her night out with him.

“You see that silver Mercedes?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s River’s car.”

“No way!”

“You sound surprised. Why? You drive a luxury car too.”

“Um, I know. I just mean that it’s a nice car. Very sporty.”

Legacy laughed at her response, and they slowed their pace. She felt a little weird spying on his house—she’d never even done that to Adin.

“There’s his mother,” Calli whispered.

Ms. Gorgos was glaring right at them. Legacy felt a chill as she remembered River’s warning about his mother. She did have some kind of cold exterior.

The girls both smiled and waved at her like friendly neighbors would, and her glare softened just before she turned and went back into the house.

“That was weird. Wonder if she was mentally throwing some evil goddess voodoo at us,” Calli said with a smirk.

Legacy chuckled at Calli’s sarcasm, but she wondered how truthful River was being about his mother. Maybe she needed to talk to him some more, sooner rather than later.

They both stopped walking and turned back around when the gate opened. River was walking toward them.

“Keep your cool,” Legacy whispered to Calli while they were still out of earshot.

Calli took a deep breath while he approached.

“Hey, what are you two out doing?” River asked when he reached them.

“Getting some fresh air,” Legacy answered, not waiting on Calli, fearing she’d act like she did the first time she spoke to him.

“What are you doing out here?” Calli asked without skipping a beat this time.

“Getting some fresh air,” River said with a half-smile.

“Are you working tomorrow?” she asked River, hoping this conversation would not deviate to that uncomfortable topic about
sugar
like last time.

“Yes, I’ll be manning the store. My mom wants us going through a lot of old paperwork.”

“Good maybe then you’ll tell me some more about you know what,” Legacy said with a raised eyebrow.

“We’ll see. I am doing some of my own research, and I have to tell you, if I’m on the right track, your family is pretty fascinating.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to elaborate just yet. I’m still digging, and I don’t want to tell you something that isn’t really true.”

“But if you’ve already found out something, how could it not be true?”

“It’s complicated.” His tone was serene, and she could tell he wasn’t going to explain. Fine. She would get it out of him, eventually. She’d rather wait until they were alone anyway. Not that she wouldn’t tell Calli everything, but for some reason, River seemed more at ease around her if it was just the two of them.

“I’ll get it out of you—one day.”

“You won’t have to try hard,” he whispered back. Suddenly, his expression looked pained.

“River!” Ms. Gorgos called from the front door.

“Sorry, I have to go. She needs help gathering the documents.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.

He smiled and nodded. His eyes lingered on her.

“Bye,” Calli said softly.

He flashed a brilliant smile at her as he turned to walk back through the gate. “See you later,” he finally responded before turning completely around.

Calli and Legacy kept walking in the same direction until they came upon the pond in the undeveloped area and then they turned back. She was glad Calli hadn’t turned around and walked right back home after running into River. That would have been too obvious. At least now Calli had the added benefit of walking by his house again. Unfortunately for her, he didn’t come back out.

With it being late and Legacy having to work in the morning, they went to bed when they returned. Since it was cool outside, they slept with the windows open in her room. It hadn’t taken Legacy long to fall asleep.

Or find herself in another dream.

Instead of being strictly about a tornado, this dream was about the weather in general. She knew a tornado was coming, but as soon as she realized she needed to take cover, the sky turned a vivid pink color. So pink it was blinding. Without the warning of thunder, lightning fell from the sky, but this was no ordinary lightning. Instead of flashing forcefully with an electrical fervor, it glittered and fell like confetti, disappearing before it reached her. Another different characteristic, the strange little girl did not make an appearance. But she was not alone.

As she took cover from the peculiar lightning, Adin was sitting at a patio table under a side porch of a traditional house. She didn’t recognize the house, but it was pretty. It looked like a newer house, but built with the cadence of yesteryear. It wasn’t the house that stood out, though. The most intriguing aspect of this vision was Adin.

He watched her approach him without getting up. Once she was at the table, he looked at her and handed her a broach. It looked like one of those pieces of jewelry she found in Lissa’s room. It was old and very ornate. There wasn’t a special design, except it had the numbers 1887 painted in the center of the enamel.

“Be careful,” he whispered with a protective look in his eyes.

Then it was over.

She woke to the sound of Calli’s dogs barking outside. The window had apparently muffled their barks the previous mornings; it did not shield them now.

Since Calli was still asleep, Legacy gathered her toiletries and took a shower. She stood in there contemplating her dream as the hot water sluiced off her. Why was she having dreams about the weather? The tornado must represent something. She knew dreams usually weren’t literal. She learned from Lissa that dreams were usually a manifestation of some subconscious emotion.

She got out of the shower and put on her typical work outfit. She grabbed some Pop Tarts from the kitchen and strolled out of the house. She hadn’t burned up enough time in the shower, so she could afford to take her time getting to work.

On the ride there, she watched the sunrise. The sky was pink. The same vivid pink of her dream last night. Weird. But it was still magnificent. The exquisite sunrise was truly mesmerizing. The thin clouds coming up from the south were transparent against the large orange ball, casting a brilliant sheen over the horizon. She kept glancing at the sky while driving to work and watching the thin clouds getting thicker while the comfortable breeze flowing into her car windows picked up. A front must be moving in. She hoped the weather would be beautiful tomorrow for her date to the botanical garden. Her mind went from looking at pretty flowers to fantasizing about Adin pulling her behind one of the rose bushes tomorrow and making out with her. Her face heated as the fantasy continued, which also kicked up her nerves.

She pulled into the parking lot and started for the front door. She tripped twice—once from a pothole, the other she could find no external culprit. Her nerves were in overdrive. She needed to get into the store and get this day going quickly so tomorrow would get here that much faster.

“Good morning!” she yelled as she walked through the unlocked door.

“Legacy?” River called from the back of the store. “What are you doing here so early?” he asked as he walked into view.

“Calli’s dogs woke me up. I decided to come on in so I wouldn’t wake her. You?”

“We’ve already made two trips here.” He laughed. “Yale called in sick. She has that
Beautiful Friday Syndrome
,” he said with a chuckle.

“I hope she isn’t really sick.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be
all
better come Monday.” He smirked. “Mom’s closing the store today since Yale won’t be here and business has been kinda slow. She really wants us to tackle the paperwork.”

She walked to the break room to put up her things and saw all the boxes they’d have to go through. “Ugh. This is going to take forever,” she groaned.

“Yep. We’ll be going through some stuff that we had in storage and throwing out what isn’t needed anymore. A lot of this is old documentation that’s been scanned and stored on a hard drive. We need to shred the old papers and repack the other stuff. The objective is to store fewer boxes than what was originally packed away.”

“Got it.”

They spent the morning going through the boxes as needed, but River seemed to be distracted from the menial task. And Legacy couldn’t be sure because they hadn’t talked much, but it seemed as if he was flirting with her. Every time he handed her a stack of papers to shred, his hand lingered on hers. He would brush his thumb against her thumb, rub her shoulder to get her attention, and once he caught a stray strand of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. She didn’t know what to say, so she kept her mouth shut while she worked.

“Are you ready to take a break?” he asked after they’d spent a few hours going through the boxes.

“Sure.” She shrugged.

He grabbed a couple of drinks out of the vending machine, and they stayed in the same seats they’d been in all morning.

“I’m glad my mom hasn’t come in here to spy on us. She’s been in a bad mood since last night.”

“Why?”

“Long story,” he said cryptically.

“We still have a ton of boxes to go through. I think we have plenty of time for a long story.”

He shook his head and glanced at the door, then looked back at her. Right then, Ms. Gorgos walked in.

“I’m going to order some sandwiches from the deli for everyone. Legacy, is turkey okay with you?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“River, I’ll be back in about an hour. I’m going to run to the bank and make a deposit before I get the sandwiches.”

“Okay,” he said without looking at her.

He took another drink of his soda while Ms. Gorgos walked out. After a few seconds, he got up and looked out the window of the door. Legacy assumed he was watching his mother leave because when he turned back, around he was smiling.

“She didn’t seem to be in a bad mood to me,” Legacy said matter-of-factly while River sat down.

“Of course not,” he said as he raised his eyebrows.