Mystical Warrior (33 page)

“I’ve decided to give Mac my apartment so he and Henry can get acquainted with each other in a more intimate setting. If they continue living with you, Henry won’t know which one of you is his father, because Mac will rely on you to do everything.”

“And just where do you intend to live?”

She had to crane her neck to look up at him, and there was enough moonlight for him to see her mutinous glare. “I haven’t decided yet.” She suddenly sighed. “But I’ll let you know as soon as I do, so you can forward my mail.”

“Who in hell sends you mail?” he asked. Instead of asking her if she was out of her friggin’ mind!

“Winter writes to me all the time.” She stepped closer. “Would you happen to have any suggestions as to where I could live?”

Trace felt beads of perspiration break out on his forehead despite the freezing night air. “Not right this very minute, I don’t.”

She dropped her gaze, and he saw her shoulders slump.
She yawned again, quite loudly. “Well,” she said brightly, smiling up at him, “I’d better get to bed.”

Dammit to hell, he didn’t want her moving out!

Then say something, you ass. Tell her she can move in with you.

But she wants to be independent, you idiot.

Promise you won’t step on her toes. Not once. Never.

Are you forgetting she doesn’t even like men? If she believes husbands are more trouble than they’re worth, why would she think a boyfriend was any better?

Give her your word you won’t ever complain about her messing with your stuff. Not once. Never. And tell her you won’t leave your dirty clothes on the floor, you’ll get a haircut and shave every damned day, and she can babysit twenty kids if she wants. Just beg her to give you a chance to prove you really are a nice guy.

Are you forgetting that I ran out on her that day down in the safe room?

Then you swear to God you’ll never, ever run out on her again, no matter how scared you are.

I’m not scared; I’m just … I don’t want to … goddamn it, I don’t know what to do!

For chrissakes, you ass, just tell her you love her!

“Fiona, I—” Trace looked down and then spun one way and then the other. “Fiona? Goddamn it,” he growled, glaring up at the light shining out her kitchen window. How in hell had she managed to sneak past him?

“So, you’re talking to yourself now?” Rick asked, walking over to him.

“I thought I was talking to Fiona,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair and then rubbing the back of his neck with a sigh.

“She went upstairs two minutes ago, cousin. So, you coming down to the harbor with me or what? The Coast Guard should be arriving with our boat just about now.”

Trace gave one last glance up the stairs, then strode to Rick’s truck. “Yeah, I’m coming. And I don’t care if I have two broken legs; the next time I tell you I’m taking the day off work, you drive over here and drag me down to the docks at gunpoint if you have to.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Gabriella said, pulling some of Fiona’s clothes out of her closet. “I think Mac is really nice and handsome and everything, but I don’t know if I could ever marry someone like him.” She tossed the clothes onto the bed. “I’d be afraid when the priest asked me to say ‘I do’ that I’d faint dead away. Weren’t you scared? I mean, really, you came that close,” she said, holding her thumb and finger apart, “to marrying a magic maker.”

Fiona carefully folded a sweater, set it in the box, and picked up another one. “I was scared out of my mind.” She smiled over at her friend. “Until Trace showed up and told Mac’s father that it wasn’t going to happen.”

“Trace Huntsman, your hero,” Gabriella said dramatically, placing the back of her hand on her forehead. She laughed and headed to the bureau. “Did he sweep you into his arms and vow his undying love, so Mac’s father would believe your hearts belonged to each other?”

“No, he basically asked Mr. Oceanus if he wanted a daughter-in-law who slept with men she wasn’t married to.”

Gabriella bumped into the bureau and swung toward Fiona. “He told Mac’s father that you’re a fallen woman? The
cad!” But then she suddenly smiled. “It was a good idea, though, as it obviously worked.”

“No, I’m pretty sure Trace blowing a hole in the side of his ship is what worked.”

Gabriella filled her arms with undergarments, carried them to the bed, and dropped them into one of the empty boxes. “I think it’s very generous of you to give up your apartment to Mac and Henry, but do you really want to go live all by yourself in that big house Eve found for you to rent? I know her friend Susan Wakely lived there all alone, but it’s more secluded than this place. And when Maddy drove me by it this morning, I noticed it’s surrounded by woods. Won’t you be scared?”

Fiona folded the box closed, then turned and sat down on the bed. Yes, Eve had called her friend Susan, who had run off with one of the MacKeage men last summer and now lived in Pine Creek, and asked Susan if she would be willing to rent her house. “I have Misneach, and Trace promised to show me how to shoot a gun.”

Gabriella sat down beside her. “But won’t you get lonely living all by yourself?” She nudged Fiona’s shoulder with her own. “I could still be your roommate, and we could still open a child-care business together, couldn’t we?”

“Not if you plan to be a nurse or a doctor, Gabriella,” she said, taking the girl’s hand. “I would love for us to be roommates, but it’ll be easier for you to concentrate on your studies if you live with William and Maddy until you go away to college.”

“But it’s too hard,” Gabriella said, standing up. “There are a whole bunch of difficult subjects I have to take to get accepted at a college. School’s not just about learning how
to read and write; I have to study things like biology and chemistry and mathematics, all of which have nothing to do with practical living. Why do I need to know what’s inside a person’s blood to stop them from bleeding to death? And why are there all sorts of chemicals to cure a disease when plants do a better job?”

Fiona walked over to her. “You must learn everything you can so people won’t be able to take advantage of you. Knowledge is power, Gabriella, and ignorance is imprisonment. Think back to your old time, and remember how the learned ruled and the ignorant toiled.” She took hold of the young girl’s shoulders. “You must learn everything you can about this wondrous new world, so you can rule yourself.”

“You’re not going to school. Aren’t you afraid people will take advantage of you?”

“If I were eighteen, I’d be going. But right now, I have to focus on my dream before I grow too old to bear children. In the meantime, I will be haunting the library and reading everything I can get my hands on, as well as watching all of those wonderful science and history channels on television. I might not become a doctor, but I’ll never stop learning.” She gave her friend’s shoulders a squeeze. “Take your second chance and run with it, Gabriella, because the true gift of this century is that women can be
anything
we want.” She grabbed a box and carried it into the kitchen. “Come on, let’s take everything down to the porch so we can organize this place before Mac gets home.”

Gabriella followed, also carrying a box. “Did you see the look on Henry’s face when we drove in this morning? He got truly excited when you told him the truck had the power of several hundred horses.”

Fiona opened the door and carried her box outside. “It was very sweet of Maddy to take Mac shopping to buy Henry some new clothes.”

“I think Henry felt better about leaving you when he saw Sarah in the backseat,” Gabriella said. “And when Mr. Getze brings the children on Monday, the boy will have someone closer to his age to play with.” She dropped the box on the porch next to the house, beside the one Fiona had set down. “Oh, I forgot,” she said as she straightened. “You’ll be watching the children at your new place.” She suddenly smiled. “Maybe Mac can bring Henry over there to play with them.”

“I’m sure he will,” Fiona drawled, heading back upstairs. “He’s already offered to hire me to watch Henry while he goes to buy a truck and then learns to drive it.”

“Omigod, I hope he doesn’t let William teach him,” Gabriella said with a laugh. “Is Mac truly powerless now?”

“It appears so. He told me Trace persuaded his father to give him a year to learn how to be a father himself, but apparently the deal didn’t include getting his powers back.” She headed into the second bedroom. “Personally, I think that’s a good thing. Here, help me take the door off this cupboard.”

“Why is it a good thing?” Gabriella asked, frowning at the cupboard.

“Because now Mac will be forced to deal with Henry like any normal father. Here, put this mattress over the porch rail to air it out.”

“Why do you have a mattress in a cupboard?”

“Because bogeymen never think to look in cupboards.”

Gabriella just blinked at her. “Then why are we taking off the door?”

“Until Mac can get Henry a proper bed, I thought the boy might like sleeping in here. It’ll be cozy and make him feel protected, but I want to take the door off because I don’t want him to think he’s hiding from anything.” She nudged her friend to get her moving. “I hope Maddy remembers to buy Henry some books and toys today.”

They spent the rest of the morning preparing the apartment for Mac and a good deal of the afternoon preparing several simple meals Mac would only have to heat up on the stove. By three o’clock, Fiona and Gabriella were sitting on the porch, throwing a stick for Misneach to chase as they talked about all the different things Gabriella could be—including, but not exclusively, a mother.

Maddy finally pulled into the dooryard and shut off the truck, and Mac got out and opened the back passenger door. He leaned inside, and when he straightened, Fiona smiled at the sight of his sleeping son in his arms.

“Take him upstairs,” she whispered, “and put him in the cupboard in the second bedroom. There’s a bed all made up for him in there.”

She saw Mac hesitate as he eyed Trace’s kitchen door and gave him a gentle nudge toward her stairs.

No, they were
his
stairs now, she reminded herself.

“Everything’s ready in your new home, Mac,” she said, giving him another shove. “And you need to begin as you intend to go on.”

He walked off carrying Henry, and Maddy and Sarah and Gabriella came over with their hands full of shopping bags.

“It was quite a day,” Maddy said with a tired sigh. “I swear I don’t know who was worse, Mac or Henry. Mac wouldn’t even consider buying stone-washed jeans,
insisting that his son wasn’t wearing pants that looked used, and Henry kept wandering off to gawk at everything.” She nudged her daughter with her hip. “If it wasn’t for Sarah dragging him back every five minutes, we’d still be hunting for the kid.”

“Mr. Oceanus sure can holler loud,” Sarah said, grinning.

Maddy laughed. “Once, when we couldn’t find either Henry or Sarah, Mac shouted Henry’s name so loud everyone in the store stopped in their tracks. I’m surprised you didn’t hear his roar in Midnight Bay.” She stepped closer to Fiona and lowered her voice. “He was a ball of sweat the entire time, and I thought he was going to break down and cry when I said we could go home. He pulled me aside and offered to pay me a month’s salary if I leave him behind the next time Henry needs something.”

“We can’t let him buy his way out of his responsibilities,” Fiona whispered as they walked toward the stairs. “Surely he’ll calm down once he realizes Henry’s not going to break if he makes a mistake here and there.”

“You know, I actually caught Henry patting Mac’s arm a couple of times. I’m afraid the poor kid’s going to end up parenting his father.” She stopped and handed her bags to Gabriella. “You guys take everything upstairs and leave it in the kitchen. Sarah, you can show Gabriella what we bought.”

Maddy turned back to Fiona when they left with Misneach racing up behind them.

“Mac said Trace told him about a woman in the mountains who runs a camp for single parents and their kids. And he said Trace suggested he and Henry should attend a few of the sessions. I really like the idea, but Mac said he doesn’t want to leave Midnight Bay. What do you think?”

“Oh, I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Fiona said. “But probably not right away. Mac needs to learn to drive and get more comfortable with Henry. Maybe in a month or two.”

“Yeah, I thought the same thing,” Maddy said, nodding. “Come on, let’s put your boxes in my truck, and I’ll drive you over to your new house and help you get settled in. Gabriella and Sarah can stay here and babysit Mac.”

“Thank you, but Kenzie plans to take me over later, so he can have a good look around and make sure everything is safe. You and Sarah and Gabriella can head on home.” She chuckled. “Mac will probably have a nap after his trying day, and I think I’ll sneak downstairs and watch my show on Trace’s new television while I wait for Kenzie,” she said, anxious to be alone so she could … think.

The dooryard was hauntingly quiet less than ten minutes later. But instead of going inside to watch her show, Fiona sat down on Trace’s porch steps and buried her face in her hands on her knees with a sob.

Dammit, she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to be the indecisive lout’s girlfriend!