Shadow of Time - Book 1: (Paranormal Romance) (2 page)

2.

This couldn’t be happening.

How could she have missed that it was Josh? Then again, he’d changed in four years’ time. Nobody aged seventeen should even be allowed to look that grown-up. Ben’s younger, scrawny Navajo side-kick was most definitely a thing of the past.

All of a sudden,
Hannah was painfully aware of the creases in her T-shirt, her poor excuse for a hairdo and the bags under her eyes. On top of that, there was sheer panic. Panic because all those trivial things apparently acutely mattered to her so much. She had to get a grip. He was seventeen and she was twenty-three. She was miles above all this.

Hannah
forced herself to let out her breath, releasing her death grip on the table at the same time. Still turned around in her seat, she shouted to Ben: “Your beer is getting warm! Hurry up.” Then her eyes darted to Josh, who was now coming up to the table.

“Oh
– hey,” she managed to say in a surprised tone of voice. Again, the same line. Sure, why not? Since it had worked so well the first time around.

“Hi
.” He sank down on the chair next to her. “Again.”

“So… I already met you this a
fternoon.” Hannah tried to give him a casual smile, quickly reaching out to shake Josh’s hand. He grabbed hers and she felt the water on his skin. He’d just been swimming in the lake. Drops of water still clung to his broad shoulders, and his hair was wet at the tips.

“Yep.” H
is grin suddenly made him look cheeky and young, but incredibly irresistible. “I must say, it was a touching reunion.”

Hannah laug
hed nervously. “So, you recognized me?”

“
Of course. But I guess you didn’t see it was me.”

Hannah bit her lip.
“No.”

“I see
,” he said softly. “Is that why you blushed when I said hi?”

Hannah froze
, praying to the heavens she wouldn’t blush yet again. “Um, yes. I was a bit surprised, I guess.” She slowly pulled her hand from his, quickly grabbing her glass to busy herself.

“
So you already ran into each other today?” Ben asked with a smile, apparently unaware of the tension between them. “Small world, right?” He gulped down some beer and pulled a face. “Yuck. It’s too warm.”

“Order a new one,” Josh suggested. “And while you’re at it, order me an apple juice.”

“Fine with me. I forgot my wallet. Hannah’s buying tonight.”

“Am I
?” Hannah raised her eyebrows. “You think I’ll be more generous now that Josh is sitting with us?”

“I’m counting on it,” Ben replied with a smug face. “
Josh, what would you like to eat?”

“
I could do with some grilled trout.”

Hannah nodded. “Great,
that’s what we were having anyway. I’ll go tell them to put some extra trout on the grill.”

“I can go,” Ben offered.

“Nah, I’ll go. I have to go to the restroom anyway.”

Plus
she didn’t want to be stuck on her own with Josh all of a sudden. She got up and made her way through the crowd seated at the small wooden tables on the deck. After going into the restaurant and changing their order with the first waiter she spotted, she went to the ladies’ room to give herself a good talking-to in the mirror over the sinks.

“Hannah Darson,” she told herself sternly, while trying to
untangle her messy hair. “You’re going to act normally around Josh. You’ve known him since he was shitting his diapers. You taught him how to color inside the lines. You helped him build sandcastles on the beach. This will end
right here
.”

She closed her eyes,
remembering how Josh had stepped onto the deck and approached their table – his swimming trunks just a little bit too low-slung on his hips, his shoulders just a little bit too broad for a seventeen-year-old, the muscles in his arms just a little bit too taut to take her eyes off them, and the look in his eyes just a bit too wise for his age.

No. This would not be so easy.

When Hannah came back, Ben was just lighting a cigarette.

“Nasty habit,” Josh remarked.

“Isn’t tobacco a holy plant in your culture?” Ben threw back, taking a drag.

Josh grinned. “Still.”
He eyed Hannah as she sat down again.

“Don’t ask me to back you up,” she said
. “I only quit myself a few months ago.”

“You
were a smoker? I don’t remember that.”

“Just for a short while
. During my last year with Greg, when I started working. Mainly stress-related, I guess.”

“Oh,” Josh said,
staring into his glass of apple juice. He was silent for a moment. “So… you guys broke up?”

“Yeah,
about eight months ago.”

“And now?
Are you dating someone else?”

D
iscussing her love life with him was the strangest sensation. Last time she’d seen Josh, he’d just been a young boy. Hannah cleared her throat and quickly shook her head. “No, actually. I’m fine on my own. You know, a bit of me-time. I need freedom.”

In the silence that followed, she cringed. In hindsight, that
hadn’t come out the way she wanted. In fact, she positively sounded like she wasn’t interested in dating for the next ten years. All she needed was a T-shirt saying ‘Don’t Ask Me Out’.

“Y
ou know, you’ve always needed freedom,” Josh suddenly said warmly. “You’re like a butterfly. Beautiful, fragile, and hard to catch.”

Hannah
blinked. What the hell was she supposed to say to that?

Fortunately,
Ben saved her from another awkward silence. “Are you exploring your Navajo background again, Josh? White Americans don’t believe in totem animals, FYI.”

The conversation continued, mainly between Ben and Josh. Hannah decided to play wallflower for the rest of the evening, so she wouldn’t blurt out more stupid remarks or blush again when Josh teased her.

“I’ll pick you up in my car tomorrow,” Josh told Ben after their trout dinner. “We should go fishing. Grilling your own fish is so much better.”

“Y
ou have your own car?” Hannah asked in surprise, temporarily forgetting she wanted to stay out of the conversation.

“Yeah, a Mustang.
My family gave it to me when I passed driver’s ed.”

“
How about that motorcycle? Don’t tell me you own a vehicle fleet on the rez.”

“No. I borrow
the bike from my cousin sometimes.”

“You have a license for the bike, too?”

Josh shrugged. “No one’s ever pulled me over,” he replied placidly. “Don’t tell on me.” He gave her a conspiratorial smile, and her heart skipped a beat. Why did he have the power to do this to her?

“Are you planning on passing the test at some point, though?” she
quickly went on.

“Yeah, whe
n I turn eighteen and get some extra money.” Josh leaned into her. “It’s my birthday soon, so maybe that will ease your mind.”

“That’s right
!” Ben exclaimed. “Beginning of August, right? Are you going to have a party?”

“O
f course he will,” Hannah said. “He’s going to be a real man!” Hopefully, Josh hadn’t caught her scooting away as he leaned into her like that. She thought he was man enough
now
to make her heartbeat go through the roof when he came so close.

Jos
h laughed. “Actually, I already am. In our tribe, the initiation ritual where a boy turns into a man takes place on the boy’s fourteenth birthday. We all take a vision quest.”

Ben whistled
. “Wow, you grew up early.”

“You’r
e right.” Josh grew silent, staring into the distance. He suddenly seemed lost in thought.

Hannah
observed Ben in surprise. How strange Josh had been through an important ritual without telling Ben about it. Judging from the confused look in Ben’s eyes, this was the first time he heard about Josh’s vision quest.

“Well, I still think you should
throw a party,” she said, breaking the uneasy silence.

Josh blinked and nodded slowly, coming back to reality. “Yeah,
I will. Consider yourselves invited.”

The waitress showed up to clear the t
able and put down three dessert menus. Ben quickly picked out what he wanted, and took Hannah by the hand when the jazz band in the corner started playing ‘I ‘ve Got You Under My Skin’.

“Come on, let’s dance,” he suggested, pulling her from her seat.

Hannah followed her brother to the edge of the deck, where they stepped onto the sand. Within minutes, more dancing couples had joined them on the beach.

“I’
m so glad I’m going to be here all summer,” Hannah sighed, beaming at Ben. “My first year of teaching was kind of stressful. I needed this. It’s just like old times.”

Ben smiled
. “That’s why I said you should spend your vacation in St. Mary’s Port. It’s the best place to relax and let go of things. I knew you’d enjoy a nostalgic summer.”

The song
had come to an end. With a start, Hannah saw Josh coming toward them from the corner of her eye. Her heart sped up to a hum. Was he going to ask her to –

Josh casually tapped Ben on the shoulder.
“Can I have the next dance?”

“Sure.
” Ben shrugged, letting go of his sister. Hannah felt her heart in her throat when Josh lightly put one hand on her back and used the other to grab her hand.

“Do I have your permission too?” Josh asked
with a smile as Ben walked back to the table.

“Y
- yes.” She was momentarily lost for words.

“
Wow, you sound eager,” he said dryly.

Hannah
laughed nervously, realizing she sounded just like the giggling freshman girls she’d taught this year. Maybe she should have been more understanding toward them – she wasn’t doing a whole lot better at the moment.

“Uh
m…” Hannah started out, fumbling indecisively. “I don’t really know what to do.” Because obviously, she’d been wasting her money taking dancing lessons for two years. She couldn’t come up with anything.
Anything
. Except pressing her body against him and hoping it would look like some sort of dance.

Josh s
miled. “Come here.” He pulled her even closer. Hannah felt his body against hers, his hand on her lower back.

“Put your chin on my shoulder,” he mumbled in
to her ear.

“But –
I won’t be able to see where we’re going.” Immediately, she realized just how stupid that sounded. Like Josh would abduct her while dancing on the beach, with her brother in plain sight.

She heard him chuckle. “I’ll giv
e you a live report. Okay?”

Hannah
gave up and put her head on his shoulder. She stared at the tables on the deck, the beach stretching out behind them, and the blood-red evening sky. If only the beauty of the surroundings would calm her, but it didn’t. The warmth coming off Josh’s body and his arms around her completely confused her. Although Josh had promised her a live report, he didn’t speak at all during their dance together. He turned her around in a circular dance that had no name, but she didn’t care. It felt perfect.

Did
Josh even have the slightest idea of the effect he had on her? She would have loved to glance up and see the look in his eyes, but she didn’t dare. Hannah’s gaze wandered over his shoulders, where small grains of sand were stuck to his skin, catching the light from the setting sun. They reminded her of stardust, and of the starry skies she’d always looked up at when she was a little girl, lying in the grass, finding the constellations.

Her
eye fell on a birthmark under Josh’s collarbone. It was shaped like an animal. Strange – she couldn’t remember seeing it before.