Chapter 39 Road Trip!
THIRTY-NINE
Road Trip!
We stayed long enough at the studio to heat up a frozen lasagna for dinner and feed Otis, Daisy, and Jasper.
On the short drive home, Declan held my hand on his thigh.
“I don’t have any doubts about you commanding the room tomorrow.
I’m worried about that Swan woman. Like Orla said, she’s dangerous because she doesn’t think logically.
They killed that man to make a spell that wasn’t strong enough to unravel your wards, but they don’t learn from that. ”
He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed my exposed wrist. “Please don’t discount her. Sometimes the stupid and incompetent win.”
He parked and I unbuckled, leaning over to kiss him. “I promise to treat her like a viper with dementia. Okay?”
He kissed me back. “I guess it’ll have to be.”
When we got upstairs, I went straight to our bedroom to change and get cleaned up for bed. When I came out of the bathroom, Declan was sitting on the side of the bed, waiting for me.
“Which would be better?” he asked. “Should we lie down in the couch and watch a show so your brain can turn off or should we go to bed?”
“If I go to bed now, my brain will circle around the meeting for far too long. Let’s watch another mystery. Hey, which reminds me. Who was the killer?”
He stood, took my hand, and walked with me back to the living room.
“I have no idea. As soon as you fell asleep, I flipped to the baseball game.” He grabbed the remote and lay down on our extra-large sofa, patting the cushion in front of him so I could be the little spoon.
He pulled the blanket over us, then found the show we were watching, backing it up a bit until I remembered where we were.
Arm wrapped around me, his hand rested on my stomach. I felt him grinning against my temple.
I looked up. “What?”
“I feel her. You’re starting to show.”
“What?” I looked down where his hand was and he was right. My stomach was sticking out farther. “Holy crap. I know she’s there. Dad, John, and Robert have all assured me she’s there and healthy, but it seems more real if I can see her too.”
With more speed and agility than a big man should have, he was hovering above me.
He’d braced himself on his forearms to keep from crushing me.
Eyes glowing, he leaned down to kiss me until I was tugging on his shoulders, trying to get closer.
British mystery forgotten, he picked me up and carried me to bed.
I woke to Declan’s big, warm hand rubbing my back. “Sorry, love, but you didn’t tell me what time you had to get up. Is Bracken coming here to get you?”
I reached back, took his hand, and pulled it around me so his body warmed my back instead.
“I have time. The Wicches’ Council meets on their own first. We’re supposed to be there at one.
Bracken said it would be about a two-hour drive, but we’re leaving two and a half hours early, in case we hit traffic.
Everyone is supposed to meet here a little before ten thirty. ”
“Good. You go back to sleep. I’ll wake you when breakfast is ready.” He started to move, but I held onto his hand.
“You don’t have to make breakfast again,” I told him.
He kissed my shoulder. “Don’t be silly. A big day needs a big breakfast.” He rolled out of bed and got to it, turning on the fireplace as he left.
I didn’t think I’d be able to fall back asleep, but the soft bed and sound of the surf pulled me under. Sometime later, I woke to Declan pushing my hair out of my face and dropping a kiss on my cheek.
“Breakfast is ready when you are.” He nudged a small glass of juice into my hand. “It has Bracken’s drop in it.”
I sat up, drank it down, and handed it back to him. “Be there in a minute.”
He went back to the kitchen while I ran to the bathroom.
I liked keeping the bedroom windows open so I could smell the ocean and listen to the waves, but that often meant the room was quite chilly.
Even in the summer, Monterey was often overcast and cold, especially at night.
I needed warm slippers for these cold floors.
As I passed through the closet on the way back from the bathroom, I stopped to put on warm socks and a hoodie. When I walked into the kitchen, Declan noticed immediately.
“I can turn up the heat.” He didn’t feel the cold like I did. He wore only a thin pair of flannel sleep pants. Barefoot and bare-chested, he carried a plate of toast over to the table that already held big omelets for us both, along with bacon and juice. “I’ll fix the thermostat.”
“No. Sit. I’m fine. I’m the one who always wants the windows open. I need to remember to order myself a pair of warm slippers. Come on. Let’s have breakfast.”
It was delicious. He was so good at this.
Afterward, we took a long, hot shower, during which he washed and conditioned my hair, among other things.
When we got out, he dried quickly and went to dress for his day.
I assumed that by the time I was done dealing with my hair, he’d be down in his workshop.
He probably was, but he’d left me a sticky note, reading FYI the temp is 64 and partly cloudy in SF.
Apparently, the overprotective impulses were getting the best of him already.
Shaking my head, I dropped the note in the trash and looked through my clothes for something respectable and honest, without looking like I was trying too hard.
I considered saying fuck it and putting on a pair of overalls but decided Mom would be mortified.
I chose a soft lavender turtleneck with black trousers and boots.
I put on my dad’s earrings, just in case, then pulled on a pair of lavender gloves that matched the sweater.
I was done early, so I grabbed my beautiful ocean blue leather backpack and went down the internal staircase to Declan’s workshop.
He looked up as I hit the bottom of the stairs. “Look at you.” He put down his tool and walked across the concrete floor to me. “You’re stunning and look powerful as hell.”
I grinned. “You’re biased. And I’m powerful as hell in my overalls.”
He kissed me. “True.”
I leaned into him, trying to soak up as much love and comfort as I could before I left. “What are you working on?”
Keeping an arm around me, he walked me back to his workbench. “Look at my sketches and tell me what you think.”
He had plans for cribs and a changing table.
“I decided it made more sense and was less confusing as to where stuff was if the changing tables were identical, other than the wood. I want to do a weathered gray wood for the gallery nursery so it matches the rest of the wood over there, and a dark walnut here.”
I ran my finger over the drawing. I could almost feel the grain of the wood. “I love that idea.”
“Good. I told you about the crib I want to do for the nursery upstairs. For the second one, I was thinking of something like our headboard, but with the trees cut out, so you could add green glass.” He scratched his beard.
“Then she’ll have an ocean crib in her room with a forest view and a forest crib in her nursery on the ocean. ”
I nodded slowly, thinking. “The gallery nursery has no windows. Instead of a mural, I think I’ll have Cam’s crew paint in there and I’ll fill the walls with photos. I need to think about that.”
Declan looked over at the large open freight door that led to the back of the property, hearing what I couldn’t. “That’s Bracken’s SUV. And that’s Elizabeth’s car right behind him,” he said.
A moment later, Bracken parked by the open door and Elizabeth pulled in right next to him. They all walked in together.
“Good morning, Arwyn,” Elizabeth said. “Look, Faith. You and your cousin both chose purple today, and you both look gorgeous.” Faith wore black pants and boots like I did.
On top, though, she wore a white lace camisole under a lilac wrap-around sweater.
The color was striking against her warm brown skin.
Declan grinned at Faith. “You look like a beautiful ballerina in that sweater.”
She waved away the compliments, looking both embarrassed and pleased.
“And here’s your mom,” Declan said.
When Mom walked in a minute later, wearing a trim, plum silk dress, we all laughed. It took her a second to register what Faith and I were wearing before she shook her head. “I see the Three were all on the same wavelength this morning.”
“Is this weird?” Faith asked. “Should one of us change?”
“Don’t do that,” Declan said. “You make a strong, coordinated front.” He turned to Bracken. “No impulse for purple?”
The corner of his lips turned up, and he adjusted the handkerchief in the breast pocket of his tweed jacket so it was visible. Violet. The laughter started again.
“All right,” Mom said. “Do we have everything we need? Does anyone want a drink for the road or a bathroom break before we go?”
I rolled my eyes. “Now that you say it, I do.” I ran to the bathroom Declan had in his workshop. When I came out, Declan had his hand in my backpack.
“I added a few more protein bars, in case you get hungry,” he told me. “I also refilled your water bottle. The octopus is still pretty full.” He studied the front of my sweater. “Are you wearing your pearl?”
I nodded and moved my hair so he could see the earrings my dad had given me when I’d graduated from high school.
At the time, I hadn’t known they were from him.
A lustrous pearl sat in the center of fiery blue-green opals.
They looked like magical flowers on my ears.
They were also like a walkie-talkie to my dad, if I was in trouble.
“Good.” He closed my backpack and shouldered it.
“I’m going to need that now.” I held out my hand.
He took it in his own and said, “This is heavy with all the equipment in it. Besides, I’m walking you to Bracken’s ride anyway.”
We all went out to my great-uncle’s Bronco. Faith and I sat in the back seat, Mom and Bracken in the front.
Declan passed me the backpack and leaned in to give me a kiss goodbye. “Don’t forget to call,” he murmured.
“I won’t,” I told him. “Faith, remind me to call Declan when we all leave unharmed.”
Declan gave me a look as Faith laughed. He squeezed my gloved hand and then closed my door, stepping out of the way. I waved as Bracken backed up and drove toward the gate. Declan stood with his hands on his hips, his expression solemn as he watched us go.
“He worries,” Mom murmured.
“I know.”
Bracken pulled out onto the road, heading north. “Sybil, can you give me the address so I can program it in?”
She did it for him. When the directions popped up on his dashboard screen, he said, “Pacifica? I thought we were going to San Francisco.”
“That was my mistake,” Mom said. “The meetings used to be in San Francisco. Apparently one of the members owns a little restaurant in Pacifica with a back room they’ve used for Council meetings for at least a decade. I was contacted this morning with the address.”
I scoffed. “Were they concerned we’d go early to set bombs if they let us know a couple of days ago?”
Faith laughed. “Are they really that afraid of us?”
Mom shrugged. “Catherine Swan is on the Panel of Five and has been for over twenty years. Who knows what she’s been telling the other wicche families about us.
Lydia Wong is a kind, intelligent woman and her tone at the beginning of our phone call had me worried.
Thank goodness she knew Bracken. That was what turned the tide for us. ”
She stared out the window as Bracken merged onto the freeway. “I think we all need to be calm and logical in our dealings with others today. Big emotions will play into her narrative that we’re evil, unhinged wicches.”
“Got it,” I said. “Everyone act normal and don’t be suspicious.”
Faith, who had been looking more worried by the second, turned to me, her expression relaxing.
“And remember,” I told her. “You’re the innocent maiden of this group. No one’s coming after you.”
Mom turned in her seat to Faith. “Oh, darling, no. I didn’t mean to worry you.
I promised your parents on my life that I would bring you back untouched.
I don’t plan to lose my life today. And honestly, dear”—she held out her hand to take Faith’s—“we could kick all their asses. We don’t like to say it because it’s rude. ”