Nathan's Vow (4 page)

"Call me the minute you come
up with anything.  If I'm not at the office, call my cell."

She nodded and sank down onto the
bed with the bear.  After an uneasy goodbye, Nathan left.  Gillian hugged the
bear to her and prayed she'd have some quick answers.

#

Eight hours later, Nathan drove
home and saw Gillian's car still in his driveway.  What did that mean?  She
hadn't called him, but she was still here.  Success or failure?

He'd experienced a visceral
reaction to her he'd never felt with another woman.  He'd almost kissed her. 
Why?  She wasn't anything like the lean, long-legged women he sometimes dated. 
But her big brown eyes, her wispy hair, her feminine curves affected him in a
way that both disconcerted and aroused him.  He couldn't seem to control her
effect on him and that's what puzzled and miffed him at the same time.

Hurrying inside, he took a quick
look around downstairs.  No Gillian.  He climbed the stairs two at a time and
stopped at the closed door of his daughters' room.  Sometimes, when the worry
and loss was almost overwhelming, he hated Leona.  But then he remembered her
flight was his fault.  A spoiled only-child, his ex-wife had always gotten
everything she wanted...except her father's love and approval.  Though
outwardly beautiful and poised, that lack had made her deeply insecure.

The insecurity drove her to be the
best mother she could be, but it also made Maddie and Dana her focus for life. 
Nathan had threatened that focus.  He swore.  If only he could do the past five
years over again.

Opening the bedroom door, he didn't
know what to expect.  What he saw urged him to either laugh or tear his hair
out, he wasn't sure which.  Gillian sat on the floor with her legs curled under
her at the low table in the sitting area, crayon in hand, as she colored a
picture in Dana's coloring book.  He knew it was Dana's because the coloring
was confined to the lines.

Gillian looked up when he came in,
as if surprised to see him.  "What time is it?"

He glanced at his watch. 
"Almost five-thirty."

She straightened and rubbed the
small of her back.  "I guess that's why I'm getting stiff."

"Gillian?"

She met his gaze.  "Nothing,
yet.  I would have called you."

Disappointed, frustrated, and
unnerved because her soft voice was playing over his body as potently as a
woman's touch when his daughters should be the only thing on his mind, he
snapped, "So you decided coloring would help you pass the time until you
could tell me that?"

She stood and wrapped her arms around
herself.  "Nathan, I don't think this is going to work.  Maybe you should
find someone else."

"No!"  His vehement
response surprised him as well as her.

Her arms slid to her sides as she
raised her chin and squared her shoulders.  "Something is blocking my
concentration."

She was only reading him a page
when a volume lay behind her words.  "You can't unblock it?"

"You don't understand."

"Explain it to me."

"It's personal."

He stepped close to her, knowing he
was playing with fire.  "Tell me."

"Nathan..."

He lightly clasped her shoulders
and commanded again gently, "Tell me."

"I left Indiana to get away
from my..."

"Gift," he supplied.

She gave a small shrug.  "I've
been in California for twelve weeks.  At first I was exhausted.  I ate, I
slept, I learned how to do nails, and that was it.  No feelings, no pictures,
no tapping into someone else's energy.  I began to feel like a normal person. 
I started liking my life here, its easiness and peacefulness."

"But at the shopping center,
you saw the boy's mother."

"Yes.  It was a surprise.  Not
altogether a welcome one."

"But it happened.  You still
have your gift."

Frowning, she bit her lower lip. 
Finally she said, "I know. But I think part of me is fighting it.  I do my
best when I'm open and relaxed, and I can't seem to get that way now."

"What happened today?"

"Nothing.  That's the
problem.  I held your daughters' dresses.  I sat in the midst of their toys. 
But nothing came.  So I thought if I colored in Dana's coloring book
maybe--"

Nathan's heart almost stopped. 
"How do you know it's Dana's?"

"Because she's the
four-year-old--"

"How do you know she's
four?"

"You told me."

He shook his head.  "I just
showed you the picture.  I didn't tell you their ages.  I also didn't tell you
which was which."

Gillian closed her eyes for a
moment, tried to forget the hold of Nathan's hands on her shoulders and his
close physical presence.  But it was impossible.  She was more aware of him
than ever.

Opening her eyes, she stared
straight into his.  "I don't know if this is going to work." 

"I think it already has. 
Sitting here today, you must have gotten a sense of Dana."

His fingers slid back and forth
across her shoulder in what he meant to be a comforting gesture, she supposed. 
It didn't feel comforting.  His touch seemed to link up with energy in her
solar plexus that went absolutely haywire.  "I might have guessed their
ages from their clothes."

"Is that what you think?"

"I don't know for sure.  But I
do know you can't be breathing down my neck through all of this.  Your scrutiny
won't help.  It will only hinder."

"Stay here tonight."

Her stomach flip-flopped. 
"What?"

"Stay in the house with me,
eat dinner, sleep in Dana's bed."

"But I don't know you."

His thumb slid across her bare
neck, creating a riot of shivers.  "I think you know what matters.  I need
to find my daughters.  I won't harm you."

There was more than one type of
harm.  "Nathan, I can come back early tomorrow morning--"

"Tell me you don't think
staying here will help."

She knew better than he did that she
could tune into the girls' energy more easily surrounded by their possessions. 
"I can't."

"The bedroom door locks,
Gillian.  If you don't trust that, you can ask a friend to stay the night if
you feel we need a chaperone."

As attracted as she was to Nathan,
as powerful as the vibrations were between them, she trusted him.  It was gut
instinct.  She didn't want more people than necessary knowing what she was
doing.  "I'd rather we keep this between the two of us."

"You're sure?"

Nathan didn't realize how a
situation like this could snowball.  She did.  "We don't need a
chaperone."

His blue eyes darkened, his head
lowered almost imperceptibly, but enough that his face was slightly closer to
hers.  He paused for a moment, then he raised his head.  They both knew if he
kissed her, she wouldn't stay the night and she might not return at all.

He lifted his hands from her
shoulders.  "Why don't I drive you to your place and you can get your
toothbrush and whatever else you might need.  We can stop for something to eat
on the way back or pick up pizza or Chinese."

"All right.  Maybe during the
drive you can tell me what happened with your ex-wife and why she disappeared. 
That information could help me."

Gillian could feel Nathan distance
himself from her, but she didn't understand why.  Was he worried that if she
knew his story, she wouldn't want to help him?  There was something she needed
to know before she got involved any deeper.  "Should the police be called
in on this or are they already involved?"

"No police.  Jake and I
discussed it over and over after consulting a lawyer.  We both know how the
system works--the domestic courts, judges with rulings as creative as the
lawyers who fight for them.  It's a crap shoot.  And I don't want to file
charges against Leona so she's facing a felony.  I know her.  The more I give
her to fear, the harder she will be to find.  I want to see my daughters again,
not jeopardize the rest of my years with them."  He strode to the door. 
"Give me five minutes to change and I'll meet you downstairs.

As Nathan left the room, Gillian
studied the open door.  This man packed a powerful punch.  Staying the night
might be a very unwise decision.

#

Nathan stopped at the foot of the
stairs, Gillian's duffel bag and hanger with her outfit for work the next day
in his hand.  "I'll take these up to the girls' room.  Why don't you take
the food out onto the patio?"

Gillian went through the living
room and unlocked the sliding glass doors, wondering what lay beyond.  She
hadn't explored earlier in the day but had stayed in the girls' room, hoping to
learn something important.  But she hadn't.

Balancing the bag with the Chinese
food in one arm, she opened the door and stepped outside.  The sun, low on the
horizon, glanced off the cover of a rectangular-shaped pool.  Tables and chairs
sat along the flagstone border.  A wooden fence with a hefty latch surrounded
the pool area.  To the right, a jungle gym and swingset in primary colors led
to the edge of the property bordered by sycamores and alders.

Gillian unlatched the gate and went
to a table by the pool. She'd hoped to get more personal information from
Nathan as they drove to her apartment, but he'd kept the conversation focused
on Maddie and Dana.  She sensed he didn't want to tell her about his
relationship with Leona.  Why?  Because he was still in love with his ex-wife
and didn't want to show he was vulnerable?

Gillian had missed all the signs
with Brian.  She'd been too close to the situation with him to see, hear, or
feel clearly.  The product of a bitter divorce herself, she had encouraged
Brian's friendship with his ex-wife for the sake of their son.  But that
friendship had developed into a rekindling of old fires and a reconciliation.

After taking the cartons of food
from the bag, Gillian went to the kitchen in search of silverware.  Nathan
found her there.  He smiled when he saw the utensils.  "I have chopsticks
if you'd rather use them."

"Forks are fine."

"Iced tea or soda?" he
asked, crossing to the refrigerator.

"Water, please."  She'd
prefer to keep her body clear of caffeine or sugar.  As he pulled out a pitcher
of tea and one of water, she asked, "The girls love the pool, don't
they?"

He looked startled for a moment. 
"Yes.  They're like fish. They've never had any fear of the water.  Leona
took Dana for lessons when she was a toddler.  She took Maddie when she was a
year old.  At two she was becoming a handful.  She'd just started sleeping in a
single bed before..."  He stopped.

Gillian gave him a moment. 
"Nathan, we need to talk about Leona."

The pitcher of iced tea landed on
the counter with a thud, the water next to it.  "What do you need to
know?"

In his white polo shirt and black
shorts, with his dark good looks and tan, Nathan was the most attractive male
she'd ever encountered.  But she could feel a barrier around him that went
along with the defensiveness in his tone.  "How connected is she to Dana
and Maddie?"

He turned his back and took glasses
from the rich maple cupboard.  "They're her life."

"So they're close?"

"Yes."

His one word answer was sharp, and
she wondered how much she could push.  "Why did she take them?"

He swung around and faced her. 
"It doesn't matter why.  What matters is that she did.  They're not in any
danger while they're with her, I'm sure of that.  Her world revolves around
them.  And money's not a problem.  Her father is bankrolling her and probably
knows where she is, though he denies it."

Leona's father might be a
possibility to explore.  Although Gillian wanted to pursue her line of
questions, she was afraid Nathan would clam up.  Besides, she wasn't sure if
she wanted to know about him and Leona for her own sake or to help find the
girls.  "Can you provide me with separate photographs of Maddie, Dana, and
Leona?  I might be able to tune into one better than another."

After pouring iced tea into one of
the glasses, he filled another with water.  "Sure."

Hoping he wouldn't get defensive
each time she asked for personal information, she explained, "Nathan, I
have to ask questions to find out if the information I'm feeling is correct, if
I'm in the right time."

He set the glass of water on the
counter.  "I don't understand."

"When I feel something or see
something, I can't always tell if it's in the past, the present, or the
future."

"But you'll tell me whatever
does come up?"

"If it relates to the
girls."

Pausing for a moment, he then
asked, "What if it relates to me?"

He'd asked the question with an
intensity she couldn't take lightly.  "If I think you should know, I'll
tell you."

His eyes probed hers.  "You
handle your gift very carefully, don't you?"

"I have to.  For my own peace
of mind."

He nodded as if he understood, but
she wondered if anybody could.

After they'd eaten and Nathan had
given her a tour of the grounds as they walked off supper, Gillian said good
night and went to the girls' room to settle in.  She laid a notebook and pen
next to the one bed.  Sometimes in the middle of the night, she'd have a vision
that seemed like a dream.  If she wrote it down, it often made sense in the
morning.

Taking her toothbrush and a white
cotton nightgown and robe from her duffel bag, she went into the girls'
bathroom.  The shower felt good as she tried to calm her body as well as her
mind so she could be receptive to any energy she might receive.  But she couldn't
forget Nathan's casual ease as they'd discussed the difference between California and Indiana, or his smile when she'd tried the chopsticks after all and ended up
with more lo mein on her hand than in her mouth.

Trying to turn off the pictures,
she blew her hair dry, deciding not to calm the waves with the straightening
iron.  Feeling tired but not particularly sleepy, she opened the bathroom door
intending to spend some time jotting down impressions as she settled in Dana's
bed.