Chapter Twenty-One
Of all the possible ways to be woken in the morning, the incessant ringing of a never-ending doorbell was not one of my favourites.
When I reached the front door, bleary-eyed and still in my pyjamas, I found Lydia, her finger jammed into the button, a huge grin on her face.
‘OK, I’m here,’ I said, swiping her hand away from the door. ‘Quit it before Ashley comes out here and chops your arms off.’
‘I’m on my way to get the axe,’ a voice bellowed somewhere in the house. ‘She’d better be gone by the time I get down there.’
‘There was always a non-zero chance my relationship with your aunt was going to end in violence.’
Past my best friend, I saw Jackson’s Audi, the motor still running, double-parked in front of Bell House. While I tried to make sense of the situation, Lydia pushed past me into the house, looking me up and down.
‘You’re coming like that?’
‘Coming where like what?’
She met my nonplussed look with the loudest, heaviest sigh ever to exist.
‘Tell me you have not forgotten?’ she said, hands planted firmly on her hips. ‘Emily James Bell, you are the worst. Hopefully you’re a fast packer or we will leave without you.’
‘Lyds, it’s six a.m.,’ I replied. ‘I don’t know my own name. What are you talking about?’
‘Hilton Head? Vacation? With me?’
‘Hilton Head,’ I repeated with a groan. ‘Vacation. With you.’
‘Wow, Em, wow.’ She clucked her tongue as she marched herself upstairs. ‘Way to make a gal feel special.’
Between ghosting ghosts, returning Weres and nightmare visions, I had completely lost track of the calendar.
‘I did forget, I’m sorry,’ I said when she strolled past me and into the foyer. ‘You know I’d love to come but with things as they are, I don’t think I can leave town.’
‘With things the way they are I can’t think of a better time to get out of Savannah,’ she countered, already halfway up the stairs. ‘What if this is the last chance we ever get to take a vacation together?’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ I muttered, following her into my room, but she waved off my offence.
‘Even if the world doesn’t end, I still have to go back to school in a week. A lot of people might say that’s worse than the apocalypse.’
‘No,’ I replied. ‘They wouldn’t.’
Undeterred, Lydia opened my closet and began tossing potential outfits onto my bed: shorts, skirts, shirts.
‘It’s not that I don’t want to,’ I said, a blue linen sundress slapping me right in the face. ‘But things have changed since I saw you yesterday. Wyn thinks the wolf that attacked at the dance might be a lone wolf and—’
She stopped what she was doing and I cut myself off as her eyes flared.
‘Is this about Wyn? Are you choosing a guy over your best friend?’
‘No!’ I exclaimed. Angry Lydia was a scary Lydia. ‘Well, not entirely. I can’t just up and leave town when so much is in flux, whether Wyn is here or not.’
‘Yes, you can.’
Sometimes there was no use in debating with her.
‘Em, be reasonable. You could just as easily end the world in Hilton Head as Savannah,’ she said, returning to her task. ‘And you can bring Wyn. There’s heaps of room at the house. The two of you can catch me up on the Lone Ranger in the car.’
‘Lone wolf and it’s not funny.’
Jumping in front of her, I held out my arms, defending my clothes from her Terminator-like focus. ‘I’m only trying to protect you.’
With a caring but condescending tilt of her head, she pushed my arms gently down by my sides.
‘I know and I love you for that. But, Em, it’s three weeks until the next full moon, Hilton Head is only an hour away if you need to get back quick and it’s not as though you’ve had any creepy premonition that told you not to take a vacation – have you?’
‘No,’ I admitted. ‘Although there isn’t an official system where I put in for official leave. I can’t guarantee nothing will happen while I’m gone.’
Lydia walked me backwards to my bed until my thighs bumped against the mattress and I knew I was going to cave before she started speaking.
‘You need a break, you deserve a break. A tired witch is a sloppy witch, am I right? This is exactly what you need. One week of sun, s’mores and whatever else you choose to do with your time.
’ She pinched her shoulders together in a theatrical show of a shrug.
‘I don’t know, maybe it would be nice for you and Wyn to get out of town. ’
‘You’re not helping yourself,’ I replied, my heart skipping several beats at her not so subtle implication. ‘Wyn might not be able to come with us. Like I said—’
‘Lone wolf, I know, got it,’ she interrupted. ‘But think about it, no parents, no curfews, no Ashley. Just the two of you under the same roof. It’ll be dreamy.’
‘No parents? What about your grandmother? Didn’t you say this trip was the whole reason your mom is in town? What about Jeremy?’
‘Stuck at work, thank the Goddess. Mom is meeting us there on Friday, said she had some things to take care of in town, and Virginia isn’t coming at all, she’s having another one of her migraines. You and your boy could get some real, quality alone time.’
My mind raced back a few hours. He wanted it to be perfect.
‘What if,’ Lydia handed me her phone. ‘You call and let him decide?’
The cell phone was too heavy in my hand. What if he said no? What if he said yes? The sun was only just over the horizon and I was already sweating.
‘I’ll call him, just not right now,’ I promised, passing the phone back. ‘Why don’t you go and we’ll follow later today or maybe tomorrow? Wyn has his truck, we can drive down together and meet you there.’
The smile on her face froze and I could practically see her brain working behind her eyes.
‘Do y’all have any coffee?’ she asked sweetly. ‘I’m just dying for a cup.’
‘Probably?’ I replied, thrown by her response. ‘Ashley usually has the coffeemaker set to brew around now.’
She brightened at once.
‘Would you be a doll and grab me a cup? I just need to use your bathroom and I’ll text Jackson, let him know the new plan.’
‘Great, perfect.’
I was violently relieved and already halfway out the door, but before I made it to the top of the stairs, I saw Ashley in her robe and slippers on her way up carrying two travel mugs and a bulging paper bag.
‘What’s this?’ I asked when she held out the bounty.
‘For you and Wyn. Coffee and croissants for the car ride. I could hear her from all the way downstairs.’
‘You didn’t hear it all – we’re not leaving until later.’
She rolled her eyes and pushed me back into my room.
Lydia was not in the bathroom.
Lydia was stuffing all my clothes into my backpack.
‘Hate to say it, but she’s right,’ Ashley said, leaning against the wall. ‘Hilton Head isn’t far away and I reckon it’ll do you some good to get away. Clear your head.’
‘Wait, did I hear what I thought I heard?’ Lydia stopped what she was doing and looked up, spinning around and searching the ceiling. ‘Did the flying pigs come in early this season? Did Ashley Bell just admit I’m right?’
‘But I’m not leaving right now,’ I insisted to both of them. ‘I can’t.’
‘About that,’ Lydia said brightly, back at her task and wrist deep in a pile of my T-shirts. ‘I texted Wyn and he was already awake and totally down, so get dressed, baby, we need to hit the road. Now, do you not own a single bathing suit or am I going crazy?’
‘I’ll see you next week.’ Ashley pressed the travel cups into my hands. ‘If the Weres declare war, I’ll let you know.’
‘Thanks,’ I replied before taking a very long, very deep drink of coffee. ‘Appreciate it.’
The drive from Bell House to Hilton Head was only an hour, including one stop to pick up Wyn, another to get Starbucks for Jackson and a fifteen-minute backtrack when Lydia realized she’d left her phone in my bedroom.
Nestled next to Wyn in the backseat, I let the twins fill the silence for most of the ride, alternating my attention from the pretty scenery outside the car and the beautiful man sitting beside me inside the car.
Wyn hadn’t said much either, still yawning when we collected him from the carriage house apartment where he stayed in Savannah, but from the moment he fastened his seatbelt, he hadn’t let go of my hand once.
‘Almost there,’ Lydia announced, her bare feet up on the car dash, phone held up to the open window. ‘First we need to go to the store then we’ll get brunch at Lowcountry Backyard then I want to get ice cream at The Ice Cream Cone then—’
‘Lyds, it ain’t even eight a.m.,’ Jackson said. ‘I for one would like to get to the house and relax before you start dragging me all over town. Some of us have been listening to you since five.’
‘Happy to drive if you need a break,’ Wyn offered helpfully, leaning forward to rest an elbow on the back of his seat. Jackson responded by flooring the gas so hard, Wyn was pushed backwards and my stomach flipped like we were on a rollercoaster.
‘Thanks, but nobody drives this car but me.’
‘Bullshit,’ Lydia scoffed, slapping her brother’s arm until he eased off the gas. ‘I drive it all the time. So does your buddy, Franklin, half the basketball team, that girl you loaned it to that time who brought it back with a flat tyre …’
‘And that’s why no one drives it but me anymore.’
He put his foot down again and swerved into the exit lane, pulling off the highway and effectively ending the conversation. The rearview mirror reflected a stormy set to his brow, narrowed eyes staring dead ahead, and I felt my insides drop again, nothing to do with the speed of the car.
‘Here we are, home sweet home.’