18. Chapter 18
What a night. Sienna’s head spun with too much information, too much worry, too much emotion. Which was why she was sitting on the couch with a glass of too much wine.
The girls had cleaned up their toys and drawings from earlier, and Megan and Tessa had shuttled them upstairs to bed a while ago with a promise of joining Sienna for a drink. She took a sip of wine as she thought back to John standing in the foyer with Bella in his arms and Lily hugging his legs.
Good Lord. What a sight.
He’d looked like a deer caught in the headlights. And it made her heart ache that he hadn’t had love and affection in his life. With the girls, love was a full-tilt roller coaster ride. John needed to strap himself in and hold on.
She sighed. At least he didn’t talk about leaving tonight especially after hearing about the Templars following Tessa. Although his willingness to use himself as bait made Sienna’s stomach turn. When had he become so important to her?
Voices pulled Sienna from her thoughts when Tessa and Megan walked into the room. And unfortunately they were both sporting Cheshire-cat grins.
Sienna’s nerves jumped to attention. “What?”
Instead of responding, Megan sat on one side of her and Tessa on the other. Now her nerves were dancing the tango.
Tessa poured a glass of wine and handed it to Megan before pouring one for herself and taking a leisurely sip.
Sienna’s inner voice screamed, Spit it out already!
“Lily was telling me about dinner and dancing,” Tessa said.
Sienna shrugged, working hard to settle her thumping heart. “What about it?”
Tessa chuckled and looked at Megan. “Hah! ‘What about it?’ she says. You. Danced. With. John.”
“He walked in on the girls and I dancing and had the nerve to smirk at my dance moves. I goaded him into dancing. Told him I would find something for his generation and played a waltz from hundreds of years ago.”
Megan laughed out loud. “Oh, I would have loved to see that. That could have gone south really fast.”
Sienna smiled. “I know. But he stepped up and…”
“And what?” Tessa pushed.
“And he really knows how to dance.” And that was all she was saying about that. “Did Lily tell you that he danced with her too?”
“Oh yes. She couldn’t stop talking about it.”
“Lily asked him. It’s very hard to say no to your daughter,” Sienna said.
Tessa’s eyes softened. “Don’t I know it.”
Sienna blew out a breath. “I’m pretty sure that they both knew he was coming over before he showed up. They had Marilyn set an extra place setting and had her make a pepperoni and sausage pizza that he declared was his favorite kind.”
Tessa nodded. “They knew all right. Lily wanted me to give you something.” Tessa opened the drawer in the coffee table where the girls had put their sketchbooks and crayons.
She pulled out Lily’s book and held up a drawing of a man and woman face-to-face with their stick arms around each other.
Two little girls were standing on either side with their hands in the air and big smiles.
Sienna set down her glass as chills ran along her spine. “Wow.”
“It gets me every time too,” Tessa said.
Sienna squeezed her hand. “I know.” Then she reached for Megan’s hand. “Bella knew you were coming home too. She called out your name and I explained you were out for the night and then you showed up minutes later.”
Megan closed her eyes for a moment. “It was wishful thinking that she wouldn’t develop powers, but they’re coming whether Eric and I are ready or not.”
Sienna’s heart thumped louder. “We won’t let anything happen to the girls.”
Megan nodded. “I’m glad John suggested I write to Mia so we can try and put an end to all of this. Adam gave me the log-in information to the chat group.”
“What are you going to say?” Tessa asked.
“I’m going to go with your earlier suggestion.
Try and coax her to communicate by reminding her of our past. Each class Mia taught started with a quote on the whiteboard.
She would ask the class what they thought about it, and then she would seamlessly insert the quote and all the students’ comments into her lecture for that day.
I’m going to send her a quote to see if I can get her talking. Now it’s just a matter of picking one.”
“Good idea,” Sienna said.
“What did you think of John’s suggestion?” Tessa asked.
Sienna frowned. “Not a fan of him being bait.”
“None of us are,” Megan said. “The girls are both smitten with him.”
Tessa turned to fully face Sienna. “I don’t think they’re the only ones.”
Sienna’s neck heated and she willed the heat not to make it to her face. “Don’t start, Tessa.”
“What? I mean, I get it. He has that grumpy lumberjack vibe going.”
Megan smiled. “And you like that?”
“Why do you think I persuaded Adam to keep his beard? It is very useful.”
“Eww. Brother. TMI,” Sienna said with a shudder.
Tessa laughed. “And now that we’re getting to know John better, we can see that his gruff exterior has been hiding his mushy interior.”
“Mushy?” Megan snickered.
Sienna held up her hands. “We’re not talking about this. John is threatening to leave once you’re done with his journals, and that would be a mistake.”
“Because?” Megan asked.
She didn’t need them tag teaming her. “Because I can’t get over the idea that he’s the key to breaking the curse.”
“Not because you might be catching feelings for him?” Tessa pushed.
Sienna needed more wine. She reached for the glass and took a sip—okay, more like a gulp. “There will be no catching of anything around here. I have a clan to run and a curse to break. I’m sure once John is free of the curse, he’ll be on his way.”
And she didn’t blame him. He’d been controlled for centuries by something out of his control.
Something his grandmother (she hesitated to even call her that) did to him.
Knowing him, he wouldn’t want to leave any reminders of his past behind, which meant escaping their clan sooner rather than later.
Sienna needed to be okay with that even if Veronica kept booing in her head.
Megan pulled out her phone. “I know what I’m going to say to Mia,” she said as she typed.
“Aren’t you worried about using your phone?” Sienna asked.
“Not really. I have the location in the chat group turned off, and according to Jonas, an average user can’t track an IP through this group. But even if they could, Mia already knows where I am.”
“Let’s see what you wrote,” Tessa said.
“It’s a quote by Degas.” Megan handed the phone to Sienna so that they could all read the screen.
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
What do you want us to see, Mia?
“That’s all you’re writing?” Tessa said.
“Yes,” Megan said. “Do you want to hit send, Sienna?”
Sienna lifted her finger over the small arrow on the screen and hesitated for a moment, whispering a prayer to the universe that Mia finally answered them before hitting send.