Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (26 page)

“Zane is going to want to come just to
make sure no one tries to take you home!” laughed Mel.

Dawn grinned mischievously. “That’s the
plan! That’s why I didn’t bother fighting with him about the
jacket. He’ll come.”

I started to pull out all the corks
that were still on my head. My hair fell in perfect ringlets around
my face. “Ok, girls. Work your magic. If it’s not a pony tail, I
don’t know how to do it.”

Dawn laughed. “Ok. I think we should
pin it all up loosely and leave some stray curls around her face.”
She piled my hair up on my head like she thought it should go and
held it there for the other two to see.

Mel bit her lip. “Move the pile a
little farther back.”

Dawn did as she was told.

Tara squinted her eyes as she
scrutinized the look. “Can you give her a side part and sweep the
bangs sideways before pulling them up? We might need to pin it just
behind her ear.”

Dawn grabbed a pin and tried to do what
Tara was describing. “Mel, grab me those combs. The gold ones with
the green stones.”

I sat quietly and waited until they
were done. The three of them stood back and looked me
over.

Tara smiled. “Perfect.”

I turned around and looked at myself in
the mirror. The reflection in it stared at me with wide eyes. “Wow.
You guys are good.” I turned and gave them all a hug.

Mel started to pull her corks out of
her hair and sat on the chair. When Tara and Dawn were done, her
hair cascaded down from the top of her head where they had pinned
each curl individually. She had on a delicate silver tiara that
shone against her black hair.

Tara’s hair was pinned up on each side
with some gold combs of her own. Hers had clear stones that looked
like diamonds.

I helped Dawn as she pulled the corks
from her hair.

“What in the world are we going to do
with all this hair?” laughed Mel.

There was a knock at the door. “Just so
you know, we’re home.” It was Jasper.

My eyes widened. “Ok. Did you get that
thing for Tara?”

“Yes. Are you decent?”

“No!” The four of us laughed as we all
blurted out the answer.

“We’re going to go to Lantoc’s to get
ready.” That was Ben. “He invited us over to have a mug of sloan
while we were at his shop.”

Lantoc was Tara’s next door neighbor.
He also owned one of the most respected jewelry shops in
Sageden.

“Alright. We’ll go there when we’re
done.” Tara smiled.

Mel frowned. “How are we going to show
Dawn to Zane so he can get ready too?”

“Tell him you want to talk to him about
the babysitting,” I whispered.

She smiled. “Zane? Would you mind
hanging around here for a couple of minutes? I just want to go over
a few things if you’re going to watch the twins
tonight.”

You could almost hear his big sigh of
relief. “Sure. I’ll just wait downstairs.”

Dawn smiled. “Zane, love. Do you think
you could bring us up each a mug of sloan?”

“Alright.”

We heard the men head back down the
stairs.

Tara started to laugh. “You know he’s
going to change his mind about babysitting as soon as he sees
Dawn.”

Mel grinned. “I know. But I had to get
him in here somehow.” She looked at Dawn and nodded. “I think we
should leave it down.” She made a side part and swept the bangs
around behind the ear.

She stopped and looked again. “And a
comb.” She looked through the wooden box until she found a gold
comb with dark blue stones. She pinned up the one side.
“There.”

“Wow.” I grinned. Dawn’s waist long
hair came to the middle of her back with the curls in it. “Ok, get
your boots on.”

There was another knock at the
door.

“It’s me.” Zane turned the handle then
stopped. “I’ll just leave them at the door.”

Mel opened the door. “Why don’t you
bring them in and set them on the little end table for
us?”

Zane walked into the room, glanced
around, and stopped. “Wow.”

Dawn blushed. “Do you like
it?”

“You look...” He looked at all of us.
“Well, you all look...but you look...”

I laughed and took the drinks from him
and passed them around. I took a drink of my sloan. It reminded me
a lot of a type of honey brown ale I had tried once back home. I
tried to think of the name but couldn’t.

“Don’t worry, Zane. We’ll make sure she
doesn’t get into too much trouble.” I patted him on the
arm.

He looked down at me, his black eyes
wide. His gaze moved back to her. “You can’t...”

Dawn raised an eyebrow at
him.

“But I can’t...” He frowned.

Dawn smiled at him. “If there was one
thing you could ask for right now, what would it be?”

Tara, Mel and I busied ourselves
cleaning things up, pretending to not be listening.

Zane looked down at her. “For you to
stay home and stay all dressed up just for me.”

Mel burst out laughing. “Sorry, but
that’s a pretty good answer.”

Dawn shook her head. “Something
else.”

“Well if you’re not going to stay home,
then I wish I had found a stupid jacket.”

She grinned. “How much do you love
me?”

He smiled back at her and leaned down
to kiss her. “More than life itself.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck
then drew back to look at him. “And now you’ll love me even more.
Actually, you’ll have to love Tara.”

She went to the closet and pulled out a
beautiful black jacket with dark red and gold embroidering. She was
grinning from ear to ear. “Try it on.”

“Where did you find it?”

“Tara made it.”

Zane glanced at Tara as he slipped into
the coat. It fit perfectly. “Thank you.”

She nodded. “No problem. Glad I could
help.”

“Very nice, Zane!” I motioned for him
to turn so we could see from all angles.

The jacket was long, to the middle of
his thigh. The collar could either be turned up or down. Dawn tried
both and decided on keeping it down. She smiled.

“Your good shirt and pants are in the
bag downstairs. You had better hurry up and get to Lantoc’s if
you’re coming.”

Zane bent over for a kiss, slightly
shaking his head. “You had this planned all along.”

She kissed him back and grinned. “Yes,
I did. Now get out of here. We’ll be right there.”

We finished cleaning up the bathroom
and made our way over to Lantoc’s.

Tara gave a quick knock to announce our
arrival before opening the door and walking into the
house.

The small entrance led to a wide open
floor plan. Directly to our left was the sitting room, which was
separated by a counter top from the dining room/kitchen.

The men were sitting around the table.
Luke and Jasper had their backs to us.

Brice’s eyes widened and he stood to
acknowledge us. The tan color of his jacket almost matched his
hair. Ben’s face lit up with a smile at the sight of Tara. His
doublet was a dark red trimmed with silver.

Jasper and Luke stood and turned toward
us.

“I must say that is an unbelievable
color on you, my dear.” Luke bent to give her a kiss. His jacket
was dark brown with beige trim.

Jasper’s eyes locked on mine and my
pulse started to race. He looked amazing. His dark blue doublet was
trimmed with simple gold embroidering. It was mid-thigh in
length.

I smiled.

He blinked and came over to give me a
long soft kiss. “You look incredible.”

I blushed. “So do you.”

He ginned at me. “So Tara had a little
something laying around, did she?”

I shrugged. “Well, it was just lying
around at Tara’s. But I picked up the material for it when I bought
your jacket.”

He kissed me again. “You look
amazing.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“Would you lovely ladies like a drink?”
offered Lantoc. He was already setting the mugs down on the table
for us. Lantoc was an old widower. His mate had been bit by a
venomous lizard of some sort while out picking berries and hadn’t
had time to find help before succumbing to the effects of the
poison.

Though his hair was completely silver,
his dark brown eyes had lost none of their life. Every time I
looked at him I was amazed at how the charcoal color of his skin
was starting to get a silver tinge to it.

Tyler and Trent came running into the
room and gave their mom a hug.

“Wow, Momma! You look like a princess!”
Tyler looked at his dad. “Doesn’t she, Daddy?”

Luke grinned. “She sure does.” He
hooked an arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze.

Mel turned red.

We all took a sip of our
drinks.

“So, explain to me again how this week
works,” I asked of Jasper as I sat on his lap.

He took another drink before answering.
“Well, tonight is the big ball. Everyone will meet at the edge of
town. You remember where the tall silver tree is?”

I nodded. It was in a large meadow just
on the outskirts of the small city. Unlike the silver green and
silver pink trees, this one had a silver trunk and silver leaves.
It was one of a kind.

“That’s where the dance is. Then,
tomorrow, everyone who has brought something to sell, will set up
their booths throughout the town. The booths stay set up for four
days.

Every night, there will be bonfires,
dances, that sort of thing. Those aren’t formal like the ball, and
there are usually a few of them spread out in the area. Everyone
wanders from one bonfire to the next.

Then, at the end of the fourth day,
everyone packs up. There is one last bonfire, this one a big one,
in the meadow with the silver tree.

The next day everyone travels to the
games grounds, where you saw Tara and Ben race. Everyone who feels
like it is invited to join in the games, which are played over the
next three days. When the third day is done, everyone heads
home.”

I smiled. “It sounds like a
blast.”

Tara laughed. “Remember the regional
fair last summer?”

I nodded. We had gone to show the
horses.

“Even better than that!” she
exclaimed.

I held my mug up to her, grinning, and
she returned the gesture. My face turned a bit red as I thought of
that week and I hid it behind my drink.

Ben looked back and forth between the
two of us. “What happened at the fair?”

I chuckled. “Well, we did awesome in
the classes. Tara and Foxy actually took first in the open
freestyle reining. We hit all the dances and met up with a group
that was visiting from Scotland. It was just a very fun
week.”

Jasper turned me a bit so he could look
at me. “That hardly seems to be a good enough reason to become the
shade of red you just turned.”

I looked at Tara and mock glared at
her.

She shrugged. “I think Hayden is
thinking of the night we played poker. It’s a card game,” she
explained.

“Oh?” Jasper still seemed
confused.

“Actually, it was a game of strip
poker.” Tara was turning a bit pink under her green skin
herself.

Ben stared at her. “You can’t play
poker to save your life!”

I took a long drink from my
mug.

“Neither can Hayden.” Tara burst out
laughing and I almost choked on my sloan.

Ben was laughing so hard he could
hardly talk. “I...I suppose you two were a team?”

I nodded and grinned. “I blame it on
the case of beer. And we didn’t come in dead last. There were six
teams. We came in fifth.”

Ben was still laughing. “Who came in
last?”

Tara looked at me and we grinned.
“Donnan and Nevin. Two of the Scottish guys.”

“I still think they were just being
nice,” I said to her.

She shrugged. “Does it
matter?”

I laughed. “No. And I’m not complaining
by any means, but if that is the case, then I am forever grateful
to them. I can’t believe Dave showed up there.”

Ben’s grin disappeared and was replaced
by a frown. “He didn’t try anything, did he?”

I shook my head.

“He is such a jackass,” muttered
Tara.

“Nevin not so kindly showed him what he
thought of a comment Dave made about me.”

“And then after that, we had a couple
of bodyguards wherever we went.”

Jasper was frowning. “Who is
Dave?”

I kissed him and he relaxed a bit.
“Some idiot I never have to worry about again.”

He was still frowning.