Chapter Fifteen
Mel woke up confused. She remembered sitting with Daniel on the porch swing and then being sick, but everything else was a fog.
She’d asked Daniel for prosecco and lying on the couch while he brought her something sweet and fizzy to settle her stomach. It hadn’t been prosecco, but it had kicked like it. Now she was muzzy-headed and hungover, and her mouth tasted funny.
What on earth happened?
She remembered a little girl—a toddler with red hair.
A sound came from the sitting area across the room. Daniel put up his cell phone as he got up from one of the chairs.
“What did you do to me?” she croaked.
“I wasn’t me. Blame Nick’s cooking,” he said. “Have you got any allergies? Something you had last night really did a number on you.”
Mel swallowed. “No. I’m not allergic to anything. I don’t think.”
“Really?”
Grace walked in the door. “So, how’s the patient this morning?” She set a tray on the bedside table.
“Patient?” Mel pushed herself up. “What happened?”
Daniel came around the other side of the bed. He’d carried her at some point last night. She remembered the smell of him and the feel of those strong arms around her.
“You tell me,” Grace said. “What do you remember?”
Daniel lurked beside the bed, looking worried. He’d been worried last night too.
“Uh. I was sitting on the swing. You were bandaging my feet.” She had to think about it. It felt like her head was wrapped in cotton. “Uh, the lights were out because…because…”
“I’m going to check your vitals, if that’s all right?”
Mel nodded.
Grace took Mel’s wrist and looked at her watch. Grace, the doctor, making sure she wasn’t going to die of food poisoning. How embarrassing.
“I’ve never had allergies. I’ve never had anything like this before.” She looked at Daniel and had a sudden flash of him flat on his back on the porch.
When had that happened? She reached for her pendant and breathed.
The cotton in her head seemed to be clearing, as well as the strange taste in her mouth. Grace was adjusting a blood pressure cuff around her arm.
“Anything else?” Daniel asked.
“Fireflies! I remember fireflies,” Mel said. Then she realized she was still in her T-shirt from last night, but her jeans were missing, and her bra. She plucked at her T-shirt. “Who?”
Daniel held his hands up. “I just carried you up. Grace took care of all that. Honest.” He flashed that soft, warm smile.
Mel turned to Grace, who was holding her wrist. “Thanks. I am so embarrassed.”
“Nothing to be embarrassed about. Just something you ate. Things went downhill from there,” Daniel explained.
He’s lying. She realized she was using the talento and slammed up her shield.
Grace flinched.
“Grace?” Daniel said. “You okay?”
“Hmmm? Oh, Lily kicked me.” Grace patted her stomach.
Lily. Silver-green eyes and curly red hair. A too-knowing look on a cherub’s face. But Lily wasn’t born yet.
Mel looked up at Daniel, then realized she must be scowling and attempted a smile.
“You spent the whole night here? In the chair? Listening to me snore?”
It was Daniel’s turn to look embarrassed. “Someone had to keep an eye on you. And you don’t snore.”
“But I remember you falling off the swing,” she said. “Did you hit your head?”
“You dropped your cup and I slipped in the espresso. Went down like a felled tree. Total klutz.”
Another lie. She had watched him fight even while struggling with those debilitating headaches. He moved with the grace of someone certain of his body and his strength.
“So odd that I can’t remember.” Mel shook her head. “But thank you for sitting with me.”
Grace unwrapped the blood pressure cuff. “Your vitals are fine. I think you’ll live.”
“Did I drink something after I lost my dinner?” Mel asked, unable to piece the images she recalled into anything coherent. She remembered throwing up off the edge of the porch, though.
“That was my fault. I talked Grace into giving you something for your stomach. I think it packed a punch,” Daniel said.
“I should have said no,” Grace added, giving Daniel a stern look.
Even without her gift, Mel could tell that much was true. Daniel looked guilty. What the hell was going on here?
“Thanks so much, Professor,” she said.
Grace smiled. “You seem to be back among the living, but I want you to get up on your feet for me. Make sure you’re steady.” She pointed at Daniel. “You. Out.”
Daniel left. “I’ll make sure Ouida has her delicate-stomach breakfast underway.”
“But I’m starved,” Mel complained. “I’d rather have the I-could-eat-a-horse breakfast special, if it’s all the same to you.”
Daniel beat a hasty retreat, probably in fear of some kind of retribution for the stomach remedy that had kicked her in the teeth.
“You better run!” Mel said.
Uncle Danny. The cherub had called him Uncle Danny.
Where had that come from? Mel rubbed at her temples and was surprised to find that she felt great. No sour stomach, no more muzzy head, and her mouth tasted like prosecco, sparkly and sweet.
She swung her feet out of bed and stood. “I feel… Wow, I feel great. And hungry. I mentioned that, right?”
Grace nodded. “I suggest sticking with Ouida’s special breakfast, though. I’m sorry for the number that stomach blend did on you. Some people react strongly to herbal remedies.”
“Hey, the way I feel now, I’ll take some of that to go.”
Grace really smiled then. “Good. See you downstairs.”
Mel had a shower first. As she stood under the pounding hot water, she tried to remember what had happened.
They had gone out onto the porch for espresso and those luscious orange-and-chocolate biscotti Nick had made.
Grace had put something on her blisters.
She still had the bandages on her heels and her hand.
Then there had been an enchanting story about fireflies.
A single firefly cannot subdue the darkness, but thousands can kindle magic.
Was that in the story? The voice had been so young to say something so poetic.
She remembered grief—a sense of loss. Or a fear of loss.
Nothing else came to her until she went looking for her jeans. She had a strange image of espresso splashing on her legs as Daniel slid sideways off the porch swing. So the jeans must be off being laundered somewhere.
Okay, she had spilled her espresso and become ill. But there was something—something important, something enormous, just at the edge of memory.
She pulled on a new pair of black slacks and a teal cami, with her patchwork jacket on top. The bandage on her right foot rolled up into her slacks. She fished it out and checked her heel.
Nothing. Not even raw skin. She twisted her foot every way she could—no sign of a blister anywhere. Pulling her left foot up, she took the bandage off the heel. Nothing there either. No pink skin. Nothing.
That wasn’t possible, was it?
She gasped when her phone began to ring on the bedside table. It was her mother’s ringtone. At this hour? She took a deep breath and answered. “Good morning.”
“Are you on the road?” Her mother sounded a bit tense.
“No. I’m still up on the mountain. Why?”
“Is there any way you can get here by tomorrow morning?”
“What’s wrong? Is Dad—?”
“Your dad’s fine, but Heather’s stuck in Albuquerque with a cracked engine block. She thinks she might make it by tomorrow morning.” Heather acted as her dad’s assistant in the show.
“Got it. I can get a flight out of Knoxville. I’ll leave my car there.”
“You think you can? He was going to switch to the solo show, but—”
“Not flashy enough for opening day. I’ve got the miles. I’ll get the reservations and call you when I’m on my way.”
“Wait! I ran your cards again. It’s filled with choices and crossroads and confusion, and there was a new card in addition to the Moon—the Star. It’s strange. There are a lot of major arcana cards around you right now, sweetheart.” Her mother took a breath. “What in the world is going on?”
“I don’t know. I’ll tell you what I can when I get there.”
“All right but be careful.”
“I will.”
“No, I don’t mean it that way. This crossroads, whatever it is, it is significant. There are decisions being made around you and about you and… they feel…” There was a long silence.
“What?”
“Enormous,” her mother said. “Just be careful.”
Mel looked at the place on her hand where there should have been a burn but wasn’t. “I will.”
She hung up and was packed in a matter of minutes. Of course, she met Daniel starting up the stairs. She hadn’t needed a tarot deck to see that coming.
“I remember that jacket,” he said, smiling. “Made it easy to spot you in Florence.”
“Yes. I managed to rescue it from the fire. It was still in this.” She held up her backpack. “Thank goodness I never unpack.”
Daniel noticed she was carrying both the backpack and her suitcase. His smile wavered.
“My mom called,” she said. “I’ve got to fly to Dallas.”
“Today? Is someone—”
“It’s nothing bad. The festival opens tomorrow morning, and my dad’s assistant isn’t going to make it in time. He does a great solo show, but his best bits need an assistant.”
Daniel’s face cleared. “Anything I can do?”
“I was going to ask you to brew up some of my hangover remedy. But I feel much better now, other than being starved. I guess I should eat something while I make some reservations.”
“I’ll handle the reservations for you.” Daniel took the pack and led her to the kitchen, where Ouida was hard at work. “You eat.”
“There you are,” Ouida said from the stove. “Gracie told me you’d need my special breakfast this morning. For touchy stomachs.”
“For very empty stomachs. Does that special breakfast include biscuits?” Mel asked.
Ouida smiled. “Toast is better with this, but biscuits are fine.”
“Another convert,” Daniel said. “You’ve learned the true secret of Woodruff Mountain.”
She sat and ate what Ouida put in front of her, which turned out to be the best bowl of hot, homemade rice pudding she’d ever had, while Daniel pulled out her laptop and followed her instructions as he made her an airline reservation.