The White Witch (13 page)

I shake my head and swallow the lump in my throat. “How do I find you if I need you?”

“You can do what you did today.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a phone. “Or you can text me.” He types out his phone number in a message and gives me the phone so that I can type in my own number. I shake my head and smile as I tap the screen saving my information. “What? Sometimes technology can be a bit more convenient than magic.” He chuckles as I give him his phone. “I will see you soon.”

“Katelyn!”

I hear my name being called and I turn in the direction where my car is. “I have to g-” When I turn again, Gamaliel is gone. I take a deep breath and begin walking toward the bench when I see Logan’s car parked beside mine. I begin looking around and see Logan standing near a food stand in the distance.

I walk up the path feeling the sand scrape against the concrete walkway and I quickly look down at my hands and knees to see if there is any dirt on them from the forest. Nothing. It is as if I was never there.

“Angel!” Logan walks toward me in his black cargo shorts, black nike sneakers and grey shirt stretched across his pecks as his biceps force their way out of the sleeves.
Seriously? It’s like he was plucked out of a magazine or something
.

“Hey!” I walk faster until I reach him and he wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me up off the ground and kissing my lips.

“Where’ve you been?” he kisses me again before putting me down. “I was driving by and saw your Jeep, so I pulled in. I walked around everywhere and couldn’t find you. I even texted you.”

I pull my phone out of my pocket and check the screen, but I have no missed calls or messages. I turn the phone to face him, so he could see.

“Wow, that is weird.” He pulls out his phone verifying that he sent them. “I’ll have to call the cell company and see what’s up with my phone.”

I wonder briefly if it had to do with me walking through a portal and being on the other side of the world.
Um maybe
, I giggle to myself.

“Anyway, Happy Birthday, baby.” He leans down giving me another kiss. “Just came down for a walk on the beach?”

“Yeah, I also like to walk the trails sometimes to clear my head.”

“Oh.” Logan takes a step back. “Do you want me to go? I don’t want to barge in on your chill time or anything. I know you probably feel like I’m freakin’ suffocating you by now.”

I furrow my brow and slap him playfully on the arm. “I think no such thing! I love hanging out with you, and no, I do not want you to leave as a matter of fact. I was actually just thinking of you when I heard you call out my name.”

“Really?” Logan steps forward, wrapping his arm around me. “What were you thinking of?”

“This.” I lift up on the balls of my feet and press my lips to his.

“Mmm, I like thinking of this.” He smiles on my lips as he takes a step back. “I gotta say, someone is looking pretty damn sexy today.”

I look down at my black fitted tanktop, my jeans and my sneakers. “Um, sexy was yesterday. This is regular old me.”

Logan grabs my hand and pulls me close. “Yesterday was stunning and yes, sexy. But there is nothing sexier than when you are being you.”

I smile and reach down into my pocket where Paul Simon’s Father and Daughter is playing and a picture of my dad is flashing on my screen. “Hey dad.” I listen as my father begins to tell me that he’d rather I leave the Boston trip for a weekend that he and Liz can come with me. “I know dad, but I was thinking that this way, I can see what it’s like to make the drive because there will be times if I go there, that I will be coming down to see you. It will only be a day trip. I should be back by nightfall. I promise.” I roll my eyes and Logan huffs a laugh. “Yes, we will make the trip together in a couple of weekends… Okay… Love you too.”

“Paul Simon?” Logan questions.

“Hey, I may be a sarcastic badass, but deep down, I’m still daddy’s girl.”

He lifts his hands, freeing himself of accusations. “Hey, I thought it was pretty cute.”

I squint my eyes at him.

“So, not that I was eavesdropping, but what drive are you making?”

“Oh!” I start, completely not thinking of what Logan would say or if he would ask to come. “I just wanted to take a drive out to Boston tomorrow and take a walk around the campus.”

“Oh, okay. You alright going alone? I can go with you if you want.” The corner of his lip rises.

“I think it would be good for me to go by myself. Just to get an idea of what the drive will be like and all that, since I’m leaning toward going to that school anyway.”

Logan looks me over. “Okay. That’s a good thing anyway, because then you won’t be too far from me.” His smile grows wider. “So, birthday girl, what are your plans for today?”

“I didn’t really have any. I was thinking of swinging by the rink to see how things are going, and I definitely wanted to see you. So I guess that works out pretty well, seeing as how you are already here, maybe you can come with?” I bat my eyelashes at him and smile.

Logan laughs. “Which car?”

“Hm,” I look at my new Jeep and then back to him. “Why don’t we drop the Jeep off at my house and then go to the rink?”

I pull into my driveway and as I lock my car and walk to Logan’s tahoe that is running idly in the street, I see a silver gun metal grey SUV stopped down the street. I had never seen that car before, and though I can’t make out the person sitting inside because of the dark tinted window, I do know that someone is sitting there. I write myself off as paranoid and get into Logan’s SUV.

“You okay?” Logan asks before shifting into drive and pulling away from the curb.

“Yep.” I smile and it seems to satisfy him.

The drive to the rink is quiet for the most part. I find myself looking in the sideview mirror a few times and I think I see the SUV a couple of times, but I lose it quickly in the traffic. I see Logan checking his rearview a few times as well and I wonder if he is trying to see what I am looking at. He reaches over and slides his hand over mine, entwining our fingers together. I find myself drifting to this morning’s events and Gamaliel’s warnings. My heart becomes heavy with worry for Logan and for my parents.

“Kate?” Logan squeezes my hand.

“Huh?” I shake my head from the daze.

“Hi, welcome back.” He laughs at his reference of me spacing out. “We’re here.”

We step down from the SUV and I find myself searching the parking lot for the gunmetal grey SUV but I don’t see it and am momentarily relieved.

We walk in to a bombardment of ice skaters, coaches, parents, siblings and vendors.

“Wow!” Logan looks around at the enormity of the event and his gaze rests on the skaters warming up on the ice. “Holy crap! Did you see that? If I tried that I’d break my leg in like three places!”

I laugh out loud and pull Logan along through the crowd towards the back of the building where my father’s office is.

I wave at a few of the employees and stop for some hugs and “Happy Birthdays” along the way.

“Wow, for someone who likes to push people away, you seem pretty popular here.”

“Well, when you’re the boss’s daughter, it doesn’t matter how weird you are, people will be nice to you.”

Logan rolls his eyes. “I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with you being the boss’s daughter.” I open the door to my dad’s office and find him sitting at his desk eating a hotdog with Liz sitting across from him doing the same.

“Sneaking in a late lunch?” I laugh as we walk in.

“You saw how crazy it is out there.” Liz chimes in with a sigh.

“Mr. and Mrs. Miller, we can go get you something else for lunch or dinner if you’d like.” Logan says as he steps forward, still holding my hand.

“Very kind of you, Logan, but we will be fine with this. Today’s events finish at seven, so we will leave the staff cleaning up and either head home or ask if you two wanted to meet for dinner?”

“You guys are exhausted and we have celebrated my birthday like three times over. You two go home and next weekend or during the week we can all go out to dinner.” I let go of Logan’s hand and walk over, giving my dad a hug.

“I’m pretty sure I have the most thoughtful daughter in the world here Logan.” He says as he releases me and pats my back.

“That you do, Mr. Miller.”

“Bah, we’re past that. Besides, any man that can make my daughter smile the way you do, well…” My dad waves his hand in the air. “It’ll be Rick and Liz, if you please.” He chuckled.

“Thank you Mr. Mi-… Rick.” Logan smiles and I think I see his cheeks get a little red.

“So, what are you two up to tonight?” Liz gulps down what I am sure is her usual of water with lemon.

“Meh, just hanging out and maybe grabbing a bite later.” I shrug my shoulders and slide my hand back into Logan’s. “I’ll text you guys later and keep you posted on what time I should be home.”

I convince Logan to go to the coffee shop that we had been at on our first night together. Though it is pretty full, the red sofa we had sat in is vacant, so Logan tells me to go save it while he orders our chai lattes. I make my way over and sit down, though I cannot shake the feeling of someone watching me. I look around the coffee shop and everyone around is engrossed in conversations, or playing on their phones, or on their tablets or laptops
. You’re getting paranoid, Kate. Stop it.
My attention is drawn to the parking lot where I see the gunmetal grey SUV.
Shit.
I try to look inside, but again, the tints are so dark, there is no deciphering its inhabitants. I shift my gaze to Logan who is walking toward me and I smile. By the time I look back, the SUV is pulling out of the parking lot.

“Alright, what gives babe?” Logan plops himself down right next to me and rests his elbows on his quads.

“What do you mean?” I feign innocence, but I realize that my smile may not have been as genuine as I would have liked it to be.

“You know exactly what I mean.” He rubs his face and sighs hard. “It’s hard enough knowing that there is something you need to tell me, but won’t. But keeping things from me all day, and lying when I ask you about them, I mean, how am I supposed to feel about that?”

I sigh and bury my face in my hands, feeling a wavy curtain of hair encircle me.

“You tell me that you think I am in danger, or you are in danger, or I am in danger because of you and you don’t tell me what it is?” He says in a harsh whisper.

Michelle comes over with a round black tray filled with coffee mugs of all different shapes and sizes.  She reaches for the only two that are identical and puts them on the table in front of us and winks at me. I smile weakly and look at the steaming cups of tea that I have suddenly lost my appetite for.

Logan shifts in the seat, sitting with one leg hiked up so he can face me, waiting.

“You’re right.” I finally admit, turning to sit in the same fashion, facing him. “I just…. Gosh, this is so effing hard!” I drop my gaze to my fingers that have not stopped moving.  I rack my brain trying to figure out where to start. “Okay, as for today, I’m sorry.” Logan reaches forward, grabbing my hands, forcing me to stop my fiddling, and I look up at him. “I learned something this morning. Something about my past that was… well,
is
, pretty scary. It is the reason you and likely Liz and my dad are in danger.” I drop my gaze again, but bring it back up. “I even…  I even wondered if it would be better for you if I wasn’t around you.”

Logan furrows his brow and looks at me as though I have slapped him in the face. “Rather than allow me to face this with you? To help you, if I could?”

“That’s just it,” I sigh, not knowing how much to divulge, especially here. “I don’t know that you can help me.”

“Of course not! You won’t even tell me what it is that is going on!” Logan turns and rubs his face again, stopping for a moment while he stares at the table. “Do you realize, that even without trying, you are pushing me away.”

My eyes water. “Log-”

“Please, Katelyn, don’t.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, avoiding looking at me. “You know what’s the hardest part about all this?” he finally lifts his gaze at me and his blue eyes are sparkling beneath the lights. “I think I already know and it doesn’t bother me. And to be honest, if the roles were reversed, and you asked me,” He puts a hand on my arm and a wave of calm rushes through me. Not a little at a time like before, but a calm I can feel coursing through my body. “I would have told you.”

My eyes open wide and tears fall as my heart shatters.

“Come on, I’ll take you home.” He stands from the loveseat and what’s left of my heart sinks into my stomach.

I shake my head, not wanting to move. I want to beg him to stay, but what right do I have?

“Don’t do this, Katelyn.”

I wipe my eyes, stopping myself from crying like I have done so many times before. Though it never hurt this bad and it never was so hard to do. I stand, looking at the two steaming cups of chai that we never touched. The only two cups on that tray that were identical. A wave of nausea consumes me as I walk behind Logan out of the coffee shop.