Shadow of Time - Book 1: (Paranormal Romance) (17 page)

The smell of scorched
veggie burgers brought her back to reality, though.

“Hey, what’s burning?” Ben shouted, pulling at the ground sheet
balled up inside the Chevy’s trunk.

“Oh, shoot.”
Groaning, she tried to save her veggie burgers by flipping them again. Oh well – the other side didn’t look so bad.

Josh stormed out of the log cabin
holding another pair of tongs to help her out. “Firefighter to the rescue,” he chuckled. “Food hasn’t been your best friend tonight so far, huh? First that onion and now the burgers.”

Hann
ah rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I think it’s me. Don’t blame the food.”

“Good thing I’m always around when you’re in trouble.”

Hannah snorted. “Oh yeah? Maybe it’s you.
You’re
trouble.”

Josh fell silent and stared at her, the smile fading from his lips. Gingerly, he to
ok a step back.

Okay. Clearly, she’d said something wrong. But what? “I was just fooling arou
nd. Sorry.”

Josh
let out a shaky breath and nodded. “Yeah. I know.”

“Sorry,” she clumsily repeated.

“It’s okay,” he said curtly, turning around to help Ben fold the ground sheet.

Hannah sighed.
If only she could find out which buttons to push and which ones to leave alone, or discover what his touchy-feely subjects were. Because she sure as hell wasn’t going to stay away from him. The attraction between them was so strong she felt it in every fiber of her body. Even now, when he was standing at a good twenty paces away from her, she could sense his presence, his aura reaching out to her.

Sure,
being with Josh would be challenging. But it would be even more difficult to not be with him.

“Man, that trek
through the rez made me hungry.” Ben burped, gulping down his last swig of beer. “Let me do the dishes and leave you two turtledoves outside.” He got up and piled up the plates to take them to the kitchen.

Josh grinned. “Thanks,
shik’is
. It’s dreamcatcher time.”

Hannah
got up and fetched the paper bag from the living room. Hopefully, Josh wouldn’t notice she’d already cut off a piece from the leather strap to make a necklace for her medicine bundle. It was astonishing how much the magical item influenced her peace of mind. She could feel the leather press against her ribcage, just right of her heart. It made calmness spread throughout her body. All fear was gone. In fact, she was even slightly curious what would happen if she ever ran into the skinwalkers again.

Josh was pensively staring into the flame of the lantern
on the table when she returned. Josh looked up and pulled her down next to him, so close she could feel the warmth of his skin, making Hannah blush lightly. “Hi,” she mumbled. “Here’s the stuff we need.”

He pulled the ring
made of twigs from the bag. Hannah watched Josh wind the strap around the first bit of the ring, moving his long, slender fingers slowly on purpose so she could see how he did it. “Now you try.” He handed her the dreamcatcher hoop. His fingers touched hers for just a split second, but it made her shiver pleasantly. Carefully, she tried to imitate Josh and wind the strap around the twigs as tight as she could.

“Like this?” she asked quietly, looking aside.

“Yeah – like that,” he replied in a husky voice. “
Jó nizhóní
. You’re doing great.”

It
felt inexplicably comfortable when he talked to her in Diné Bizaad. Somehow, it reminded her of her dreams of him, talking to her in his own language. Could she risk telling him something about her visions?

Josh
picked up the white thread, then took both her hands and showed her the best way to attach it to the ring and start the weaving pattern. As he was watching her weave, he suddenly brought up dreams himself.

“The Diné believe the night sky is filled with thoughts, good and bad ones,” he softly told her. “They can enter a person’s dream
s. The dreamcatcher catches those thoughts, giving you the good ones only.”

Hannah finished the first round of stitches,
starting the second round with Josh’s instructions.

“When the entire inner part of the ring is filled with
the woven thread, you leave a small hole in the middle. That’s the gateway for the good dreams to enter your mind. The bad dreams get stuck in the web and dissipate in the first light of day.”

Hannah
looked up to see if Ben was still busy in the kitchen, but the light above the counter was out. The window looking out over the porch was dark. In the flickering light of the candle flame, Hannah saw her own face reflected in the glass, Josh’s face right next to her. He watched her with an almost imperceptible smile. The soft light gave them both a halo, and for a moment, Hannah could almost understand what kind of aura Amber perceived whenever she observed the two of them together.

Josh’s smile
grew cheeky as he turned toward her and pressed a light kiss to her cheek, so soft it felt like a butterfly landing on her skin.

“Stop weaving for a minute,”
he whispered close to her face, taking the ring from her hands and picking up the silver wire from the table. “I’m going to weave in some silver. And turquoise.”

“There’s no turq
uoise bead in the bag,” Hannah pointed out.

Josh laughed warmly. “I know
. You’ll get mine.”

Hannah’s eyes widened as
she saw his hands fumbling for the small braid in his hair. He held it up in front of her. “Why don’t you take it out,” he said. It was the turquoise bead he always wore in his hair, together with the small red feather symbolizing his father’s clan.

“But,” she stammered. “But that’s your
– thingie. You always wear that.”

“That’s right,” he nodded solemnly
. “It is my thingie. And now I’m giving it to you.” The corners of his mouth tipped up in a smile.

“
Well – okay,” Hannah gingerly accepted. She carefully took the bead out of his hair, putting the red feather with the other feathers from the paper bag. Mouth agape, she watched Josh weave the bead and the silver wire into a tiny shape in the upper left corner of the dreamcatcher, on top of the work she’d already done. He tied a knot, wove the white thread a bit further and then gave the ring back to Hannah.

“Wow! It looks like a l
ittle butterfly,” she mumbled, staring at the pattern he’d made.

“No, seriously? What a coincidence,” he snickered.

“Oh, shut
up
.” She pushed him playfully, unsure what attitude to adopt. This meant a lot to her. Josh had given away the bead symbolizing his clan to decorate her dreamcatcher.

He didn’t reply, but leaned into her and kissed her slowly and softly on the mouth. They were both completely silent for a moment. No sound was heard, apart from the radio in the kitchen playing a mournful piano tune. Josh put his hand on her knee
, sending a tingling sensation up her thigh. He came closer still, his hair tickling her cheek, his other hand stroking her neck. If only she wasn’t holding that stupid dreamcatcher. All she wanted now was to fling her arms around his neck, press herself up against him and kiss him like there was no tomorrow. But if she dropped the dreamcatcher and started groping Josh instead, she’d probably ruin his work.

Dazedly, she opened her eyes when Josh let go of her and ended the kiss. He rubbed his cheek against hers.

“You shouldn’t lose the thread,” he whispered, his breath faster than usual. His eyes wandered to the dreamcatcher in Hannah’s hands.

“When you kiss me, I always lose the thread.” She smiled shyly.

Josh smiled back, his cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink. He gently caressed her upper arm and stared at his own tanned hand on her light skin. “When I start touching you, all I want is to hold you forever. But that feeling also scares me.” He looked up with uncertainty in his eyes, his voice wavering. “I haven’t opened up to anyone like this, not for a very long time.”

Puzzled,
Hannah blinked her eyes. What was he talking about? He hadn’t been a bachelor for
that
long. She took hold of his hand, looking into his dark, melancholy eyes.

“I’
d like to, though. You can’t imagine how much,” he continued softly.

Hannah nodded. “You need time. That’s okay.” A
ctually, it was sort of weird, but she could see Josh meant every word he said. He was battling some demons in his head, that much was clear.

At that moment, Ben st
epped out of the log cabin. “Hey, that’s one cool dreamcatcher! You made that all by yourself?”

“Not the bead and the butterfly. But the rest, yes.”

“Good to know. If you ever get tired of teaching high-school French to pimply teenagers, you should start your own New Age store selling those things.”

Hannah chuckled. Silently, she worked on, finishing the weaving and helping Josh
fix the three large feathers to the bottom of the ring. He stuck his tiny red feather under the large bead in the middle, and finally used the last bit of leather strap to make a loop at the top so she could hang the dreamcatcher on a peg in the wall. “Here you go,” he said, dangling it on her outstretched index finger and pressing a kiss on the palm of her hand.

“I can’t thank you enough.” Hannah was completely enthralled by the wonderful piece of Diné art
she’d made almost entirely by herself.

“You do
n’t know that.” Josh got a mischievous dimple in his cheek. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

Ben chuckled. “He’s challenging you, sis. What are you
going to do about it?”

Blushing, Hannah
threw her arms around Josh and snuggled up against him.

“Thanks,” she mumbled against his neck, kissing him just
below his jawline. His arms pulled her closer, and she was where she belonged.

Later that night Amber, Ivy
, and Emily joined them for drinks. Ivy told them stories about her visit to Window Rock earlier that day. “Our parents also want to visit Canyon de Chelly. That’s going to be a two-day trip at least.”

Amber nudged Emily. “Y
ou want to join us? I bet my parents wouldn’t mind.”

“Yeah, sure! I’m sure I can fit it in.”

Hannah sat up when she heard the name of the canyon from her dreams. She’d been there years ago, when she was fifteen. Actually, she was dying to visit the place again. “Sounds cool. Can Ben and I come, too?”

“Of course you can. The more, the merrier.”

“What about you?” Hannah asked Josh. Would she be able to remember anything important if she visited the canyon with him? Not the happiest memories, probably. If Amber’s theory was correct, she’d decided to break up with him in a previous life near that canyon.

“No, I don’t think I’ll have time
. I still have to drop by Tuba City to take care of college stuff.”

“Are you looking forward to going to
college after summer?” Ivy asked.