Independence (16 page)

The object for our clan was an old cog wheel.

Even as she watched it all in my mind, I reached into the pocket of my jeans and rubbed the coarse metal with my fingers. She watched as I took note of all the happenings of the family. All the things they wanted to talk about and discuss. She watched me as I leaned back in my seat and took their ribbing good-naturedly about being the man of my house now, about being the big man on Jacobson campus as soon as I started work at the firm with the rest of the family…the wedding night.

Dad stopped that as soon as it started, but they still got in a few jokes about it before that. I
just
laughed it off.

But then we got d
own to business about Marcus and the search.

I gripped Maggie's fingers and squeezed them gently. Then I told her what we'd concluded.
"We're going to look for him
. Go a couple
of us
at a time and search for him e
verywhere we can think of. Dad has
already searched the compound and the houses and he's not there. Neither are the rest of them
. We have no idea where they are, but I won't stop until we find him."

"I believe you." She gulped and downcast her eyes. "I just hope it's not too late."

"It won't be," I assured her. "I believe in you completely."

"But I've had no luck coming up with a solution to the vision. And I know they needed to go ahead with the bonding or they would have gone mad, I know that, but what if we're just playing right into fate's hands about this. What if we can't stop it?"

I looked right before swerving through two lanes of traffic and pulling over in the emergency lane. I ignored the
honking horns as I threw it in p
ark and took her face in my hands. "If you believe in me, then believe in yourself, too. Because I'm going to work just as hard as you to make sure that that vision doesn't come true."

She nodded.
"
I want to just have faith that it'll all be OK. I want to so badly. I'm going to try."

"We're going to find Marcus and anyone else from the Watson clan who wants to come play, and then we're gonna kick their aces." I grinned, silently pleading with her to let me calm her. "See what I did there?"

She shook her head. "You are so cheesy."

"You like my cheese
."

"I like you any way I can get you," she said sweetly, but her pleading eyes begged me to make it all OK.

I pulled her chin up slowly, pressing my lips to her lips once. Then moving to her chin, just once. "
Don't spend another minute worrying about whether you're good enough or not
," I whispered against her skin. She sighed and inhaled deeply.
"You were born for this; for this task, for this life, for me."
She pulled back just enough to see me. Her eyes were more focused, like she truly wanted to believe it one hundred percent. "I was born for this," she re
peated and nodded. "F
or you."

"Absolutely," I said, but it sounded sort of growly. The corner of her mouth
rose
let
ting
me
k
now it was indeed growly and she loved it.

"Take me home, Mr. Jacobson."

I felt
a rumble go through my chest.

I pulled back onto the highway and made lickety-split time back to the apartment. Kyle and Lynne were still there. We said our goodnights and went straight to bed. Even though neither one of us fell asleep right away, I enjoyed her fingers as they danced across my skin
distractedly
. She was thinking about what she needed to do, about how she could find the bastard who kept ruining her day
s
. But no matter where her thoughts drifted, she always came back to one thing.

Me. Her. Bare feet. Red dress.

"I made coffee!" Lynne chimed as I came into the hall. I squinted at her.

"You are seriously chipper, Lynne."
"Yeah," she said and cocked her head to the side. "It's my thing."

"I guess it is," I agreed and chuckled as I took the cup she offered. "Where's Kyle?"
"Shower. Where's our Visionary?" she joked
in a syrupy voice
and smirked.

"Shower. Kyle better not be stealing all the hot water."
I swigged the coffee she made and almost choked on it.

"What?" she barked. "I make great coffee!"

"It's just hot," I lied.

"Hey!" we heard Kyle down the hall. "Turn off the water! You're freezing my-"

"Maggie's in the shower," I cut him off. "You don't live here and she does. Be grateful that I let you use the shower at all."

"Wow," he complained. "What a
little diva-boy you're turning out to be
." He slammed the door and Lynne gave me the stink-eye for messing with her significant as she grabbed the cream cheese from the fridge.

"Bagel?" she asked and placed one on a plate before sliding it across the counter to me.

"Thanks. Did y'all go grocery shopping?"
She licked her finger clean of cream cheese. "Just got a couple of things."

"We're getting married this weekend," I said pointedly. "You can stay 'til then, but after that-"

"What about the house you bought for Maggie. Won't you be going there?"

"It's complicated."

She stopped and stared. "
But Kyle told me it's a big deal. It's like," she waved her fingers dramatically, "the only way you can marry her. You did buy a house for her, right?"

I stayed silent. When I finally swung my gaze over to her, she was slack jawed. "Oh, stop, Lynne. I have it all under control."

She forgot my problems just like that and sighed. "I can't wait to see where we're going to live. Kyle's been keeping it secret of course, but he said it had a pink breakfast nook just for me."

"A pink breakfast nook," I said dryly. "Really?"

She scoffed. "Pink is the color of rebellion."

I laughed. "OK, Lynne. OK."

"You told him about the breakfast nook?" Kyle said as he pulled his shirt over his head and kissed her cheek. "You can't tell him these things." He leaned on the counter beside her and bit into her bagel before speaking with his mouth full. "He's married to the leader of our race and we're not supposed to tell you anything about the house before the wedding."

"Oh, please. He's not going to tell anyone. Besides," she said and I saw the evil twinkle in her eye, "he's got his own secrets. Don't you, Caleb."

"Shh," I said as I heard Maggie's thoughts saying she was almost dressed. "I told you, I've got it under control."

Maggie came out and I smiled at her. She was wearing a baby blue tank top with that necklace her dad gave her. The one with the jumble of charms on the end. And those jeans again, the ones that made it impossible to not stare at.

Yeah. Those.

She walked to me easily and kissed me on my dimple before
wiggling herself in between me and the counter.
"What's up?" she asked us.

Seven times two plus fourteen minus three times five is one twenty five.

The square root of one eighty four thirteen point five six.

She looked at me over her shoulder. "Why are you doing math?"

"No reason." Eighty nine divided by six is fourteen point eight three.

"What are y'all talking about out here?" she asked, but secretly she knew.

"Nothing," Lynne said and quickly grabbed a cup. She poured the liquid first and then asked, "Coffee?" she shoved it into Maggie's hand.

"Um, sure." She sipped it and I cringed at tasting it through Maggie. I had to taste that horrible mess twice. "Ugh," she complained before she could stop it. "I mean…mmmm."

Lynne sulked while we laughed. "Aw," Kyle said and pulled her to him. "I hate coffee anyway so you never have to worry about that with me."

My phone buzzed with a text. I pulled it out while Kyle and Lynne's sickening banter went back and forth. It was from Dad.

Your mom said to bring Maggie to Gran for a dress fitting. You can come help me at the office while she's doing that.

I sighed. It was time to tell him that I had no intentions of being a
n
architect. I wanted to wait until after the wedding, but I wasn't sure I could anymore. I relayed the message to Maggie and she turned to Lynne and told her that she wanted her and Kyle to share our day
, so she needed to go to Gran's with her
. Kyle's eyes bulged at the idea, but oblivious Lynne squealed and hugged her emphatically.

Kyle asked me
if I was
sure I was OK with sharing the d
ay with them. "Of course," I said. "No better w
ay to make a statement that things really are going to change."

"I guess."
"Unless you don't want to," I told him.

"Are you kidding?" He threw his arm
around my shoulder. "Dude…" he smiled and shook his head, "we've only been talking about this since we were twelve."

"Yeah," I smiled. "When you had a crush on that chick from the Constantine clan."

He pushed me
and retreated while he laughed. "You did not just bring that up!"

"Oh, yes I did." I made a girly face and fluttered my eyelashes. "Kyle, oh, please show me your muscles again!"
"You are so dea
d if you don't shut it, dude
," he laughed his words.

I ran to the other side of the counter where Maggie was to get away from him. "Oh, Kyle!" He charged, but I dodged as Maggie giggled in between us. "I love your hair. It's so cute. Take me the roof, Kyle!"
He reached around her to me and I felt how his strength had increased since his ascension. But so had mine.
I yanked him around and pushed his back to the wall. He punched my gut just enough to make me "oomph" and then wrapped his arms around my stomach to tackle me.

The girls giggled at us as we wrestled in my kitchen. It had been too long. He actually felt like my cousin again.

Later I dropped Maggie and Lynne off at Kyle's to see Gran, and he and I went in to Dad and Uncle Max's office to 'work' for the day. Kyle was ecstatic, I was not. I sighed as we climbed the stairs and waved to Rick, the building guard. And then waved to my aunt
Sue who worked as one of the office secretaries, then the rest of our family who worked there. Dad and Uncle Max were working on something when I knocked. He looked up and smiled in elation. Man, I hated to ruin that.

I sighed. Here we go.

Maggie

I had to give it to her. Even with Gran's older hands and shaky disposition, she only managed to stick m
e with her pins three times
. It was hilarious how Caleb checked on me the
first time, and by the third he was grumbling about Gran taking it easy.

Then he called and asked if Bish could come and take Lynne and I to the apartment since his dad had swamped him and Kyle both with paperwork. So that's what we did.
I also got Bish to take me by Dad's to pick up some of my stuff. Dad and Fiona were gone and I was happy about that. Dad would be all depressed at seeing my stuff leave the house.

I decided since I had a little time without Caleb I'd see about making dinner. So I called Rachel and got a recipe and instructions for something easy
,
and made Bish stop by the store for me to get everything I needed. Lynne told me she wanted her and Kyle to go out and do something. I just wanted to have a night in with Caleb.

Bish dropped us off and he and Jen went to Peter's. I left my huge bag of clothes on the chair in Caleb's room, because I had no idea what to do with them, and went to take a shower. Though wearing Caleb's clothes made me feel like I was being hugged by fabric, I wanted my cute clothes back.

So as soon as w
e heard the key in the knob, Lynne
was go
ne to meet Kyle and I waited at the stove while I stirred
.