| |
I ended up sleeping on my sofa. Bridget kind of demanded it. And yes, when I say kind of, what I really meant was that she insisted. If I was going to get any sleep at all that night, it was going to happen on that blasted sofa. Not my nice, comfortable bed.
Not that my sofa was uncomfortable. It wasn’t. As much as I was into antiques and the look of things, when it came to my personal furniture? I wanted all the comfort I could get. I’m not sure that it’s a witch thing, but it is sure as heck an Opal Ravenswind thing.
The next morning, Nancy and I ate our cereal and toast for breakfast, and then I drove her to school. I checked in on the shop, but everything seemed okay. Besides, my amulet should warn me if that happened to not be the case. So, I went home intending to settle down to work on those dresses. They wouldn’t be the matter of an afternoon’s sewing, and I was quickly running out of time.
After all, I couldn’t very well wallow in my grief for long. That wasn’t how Mom had raised me. Take what life hands you and deal with it. Try as hard as you can to make it better, but once you’ve done what you could do, let it go to the Goddess.
That was Mom’s entire philosophy of life in a nutshell. Couldn’t fault her for it, either. It made sense to me.
My plans for a day sewing, however, were kind of interrupted when I got back home to find a motorcycle in my front yard. A motorcycle I knew very well, I might add.
A wild-haired Gray was standing beside it. He walked over as I parked the car. When I glanced up at him, I almost did a double-take. The man did not look good. And if his hair was wild, which I gave the motorcycle credit for, his eyes were even wilder. He rather looked like a man possessed.
At the very least, he looked like a man that hadn’t had a wink of sleep in the past twenty-four-hour period or more. Probably quite a bit more.
It wasn’t very charitable of me, but I’ll admit the look of him made me happy. Cheered me right up again. Baby Pearl must be doing her job very well, indeed.
“Can we talk?”
I nodded, then led the way into the house. Once we were settled, I stared into his eyes. Before he started, I had a question.
“How is everyone holding up? Is Kimberly okay?”
He took a staggered breath. “She’s... stressed. Her, Mason, and... Pearl, are all back at the trailer.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t Mason be in school?”
“He should. But Kimberly is making an exception for today.”
Hiding my smile was getting harder. I had a funny feeling that no one in that tiny trailer got much sleep last night.
“So, talk already.”
Gray swallowed. “Is Pearl really... your mom?”
I thought about that for a minute. “Baby Pearl is baby Pearl. Through and through. If you and Kimberly think she’s possessed or something, well, you’re flat out wrong. We don’t do that kind of thing. Even thinking about doing something like that could cost a witch her magic. Not something a single one of us would ever risk.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
I chewed on my cheek for a few seconds. “You’ve heard of reincarnation, right? It’s kind of like that.” Or maybe it was exactly like that. I hadn’t ever really researched the idea of past lives. Up until baby Pearl had looked at me with those big baby blues of hers, I hadn’t ever really believed in the concept. Now I did.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that baby Pearl was born with my mother’s soul. And, from what I’ve seen out of her, she knows who she is too. I don’t think that’s normal. Which means the Goddess made an exception in her case and let her keep her memories. At least some of them.” Like how to fly a broom, for instance.
“And what does that mean?”
I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine on that one, I’m afraid. The Goddess hasn’t discussed her plans and reasoning with me on this. I just know what is.”
He swallowed again. “Okay.” He drew out the word for all it was worth. “Then I guess my next question is... how long have you known? Did you know before she was born?”
Sitting up a little straighter, I let my eyes bore straight into his. “If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, the answer is no. I didn’t befriend Kimberly and her family because of the baby she was carrying. I didn’t have a single iota of a clue that she was carrying around a child with my mother’s soul. Kimberly and Mason were already family to me before I found that out.”
“And when, exactly, did you find out?”
I hesitated. “Baby Pearl was born at ten o’clock on All Hallows Eve. I’d say I knew right around ten o’five.”
Gray nodded. “I see.” He shifted in the chair. “Right now, Kimberly is hurting, but I was having a hard time putting everything together. I think I have a better picture now.”
“You think you can help Kimberly through this? I wasn’t kidding when I told her that she needed me.”
He barked out a laugh. “Oh, believe me, we need you. It might take her a day or two to come to that realization, though. Kimberly can be a bit...”
“I believe the word you are searching for is stubborn.”
“That would be one word for it, yes. And if it concerns her kids, I can’t dissuade her, you know. This has to be her decision.”
“Agreed.” I was quiet for a minute. “And as long as we’re putting all of our cards on the table, I should tell you that I know what you are.”
His swallow was even bigger this time. “I kind of thought you might. It was a risk I had to take to save Tory. I’d do it again, too, if I had to.”
“Of course you would. Any decent human... or wolf... would.” I wanted to make it very plain that I wasn’t just whistling Dixie. I really knew he was a werewolf.
“You seem to be handling that knowledge very well. I’m going to assume you’ve known that we exist for a time now. I’d be interested in knowing how.”
“Do you know Patricia Bluespring?”
He nodded slowly. “I see.”
“It wasn’t her choice to rat out the whole werewolf thing, just so you know. But it was kind of a life or death situation. She chose life, and I’m glad my family was in a position to help her.”
“I’m glad too. Patty’s an odd duck, but then aren’t we all?”
He stood. I’m guessing in preparation to leave. But I wasn’t quite ready for that yet. I had something else up my sleeve. Luckily, it was something that I had already gotten Orville’s blessings on.
“Can I ask you a point-blank question?”
Gray looked at me for a minute before answering. “Well, it’s not like we have many secrets from each other, now is it? So sure, go ahead.”
“What are your intentions toward Kimberly?”
His head jerked back. Must not have been the question he’d been expecting. “I’d like to marry her.”
“And her kids?”
Another swallow. That Adam’s apple of his was getting quite the workout today. “I want to be a family. I’ve been alone for a long time. With Kimberly and her brood... I’m not. I’m home.” He hesitated. “But at the same time, my tiny little travel trailer is kind of busting at the seams right now.”
I smiled at him. “Pretty small quarters even for a man living alone. Let alone adding an entire family into the mix.”
“Yeah.”
I stood too, but instead of walking toward the door I jerked my head toward the stairs. “Come upstairs, if you have a minute. There’s something I want to show you.”
He followed me up the stairs and into baby Pearl’s room. My heart about broke all over again seeing that empty crib. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be empty much longer.
I reached up and pulled the rope to bring down the attic steps. Then I motioned for him to go up. I never felt right climbing steps with someone at my back. He gave me an odd look, but he did. Showed a lot of trust, that.
Once we were both in the attic, he just looked at me. “So, what did you want to show me?”
I motioned around us. “This.”
My attic wasn’t some fancy ordeal like Sapphire’s was in her new mansion. It was just one long, somewhat square open space. But it had a nice, if old, wooden floor and plastered walls. The ceiling still showed the beams of the roof, but that could be remedied in time if need be.
“If you truly want to be a family with Kimberly and her kids, then you all are going to need a much bigger space. I have space right here. I was thinking, if the dust settles to the point of Kimberly and her kids moving back in, we could always move you in up here.” I looked around at the massive, open space. Other than a few odds and ends, the space was by and large unused.
He looked around him and then back at me. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Never been more serious in my life. Raising baby Pearl will not be a simple task. The fact that you know the score now and still aren’t running for the hills means a lot to me. Means you just might be a keeper. She’s gonna want you around, and rightly so.”
Gray walked from one end of the attic to the other. “There is so much space.” He looked out one of the end windows down into the backyard. “I do wish it had its own entrance, though. I keep pretty weird hours as a barkeep.”
There was that. “Well, there is an outside staircase leading to the second-floor balcony, and we could always keep baby Pearl’s door open and the attic steps down for you. Then, if all this works out as well as I think it might, we could talk about extending that staircase and creating an entrance up here too. Not something I’d want to rush into until we give it a try, though.”
He turned to look at me. “How do you think Orville would feel about that?”
I grunted. “He’s the first one that brought up that you might need to move in here.” I hesitated. This was really my first option. I wanted to be around baby Pearl, too, at least until I was absolutely sure the two of them had a good handle on things. But if all else failed, I also wanted them safe and comfortable. “He did mention that if you living here didn’t work out, there would always be his house in Wind’s Crossing. I’m kind of hoping to save that option until baby Pearl is a lot older, truthfully.”
And even then, it would most likely be Orville and I moving. Not Gray and Kimberly.
The farmhouse needed a family. I was pretty sure we could work out some kind of agreement for access to that blessed hilltop out back.
Gray nodded slowly. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll talk to Kimberly... when she calms down a bit. Might be a few days.” He didn’t look too thrilled at that prospect.
There wasn’t much more to say at that point. From here out, things kind of rested with Kimberly. I walked Gray out to his motorcycle.
“Thank you for coming to me.”
He just looked at me and shook his head. “I’m the one who should be thanking you. For taking care of Kim and the kids, for bringing us together...” His eyes went up to the top part of the house. “Everything. Thank you.”
“It’s what family does.”
Gray smiled and nodded. “That it is, Godmother.”
I watched him ride down the drive and out onto the road. He was a good man, that one. Although, I was a touch worried about how Kimberly might take the whole werewolf thing. Especially seeing how she took the whole her baby is a powerful witch thing.
Then again, she was a strong woman. Once the shock of things wore off, I was pretty sure she’d come around.
Besides, I kind of had my money riding on baby Pearl. I think Sapphire was right. Judging by Gray, baby Pearl just might win this one.
Maybe I was a betting woman, after all.
And just as if my thought brought it on, my phone rang. It was Orville.