Goddess Legacy: Goddess Series Book 1 (14 page)

“Oh,” he said, smiling again.

Good. No damage done.

“Do you mind if we stop by my house before I take you home? I brought something back from the beach that I want to give you.”

“All right.” He brought her back something from the beach? She tried not to squeal.

They pulled into a neighborhood that she could only assume was his since she’d never been to his house before. The houses were nice, and the neighborhood screamed upper-middle class. It was full of young and middle-aged people with kids that varied in ages. It was the kind of neighborhood where most of the residents worked in professional jobs, but probably needed both parents working to afford these types of houses and the cars in the driveways. She knew his parents were divorced, so she wondered how one could afford this on just the one salary.

“Are we going to your mom’s house or your dad’s?”

“My mom’s. I go back and forth between the two, you know, but my mom likes to keep closer tabs on me,” he said with a chuckle.

“Did you go with your mom to the beach last week?”

“Yes. We go every year. Sometimes my dad goes and gets his own place nearby, so I can do things with the both of them. But he’s been really busy lately.” He shrugged. “My mom has been too. She went out of town again.”

They turned onto a cul-de-sac, so she knew they were almost there. She looked down at her lap, thinking about what she’d say if Adin asked her in. His mom wasn’t home. His house would be empty. What if he wanted to give her a tour of his house? That tour would surely include his bedroom. This morning, he’d been tense being alone in the car with her, and she was still wearing the same skirt. How would he act being alone with her in his bedroom? She tried not to hyperventilate.

“We’re here,” he said as he turned into a driveway. She was too anxious to look. He got out and came around to her side of the car. Once he opened the door to let her out, she smiled at him, and he took her hand to turn her toward his house.

She looked at his house for the first time and gasped. She yanked her hand away from his and threw it up to cover her mouth. She felt weak in the knees and tears formed in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Adin asked anxiously, rubbing her arm.

But she couldn’t answer him. Something
was
wrong. Horribly wrong. She was staring at a house she knew she’d never been to before, but she had definitely seen. It wasn’t a perfect imitation. It was the real thing.

The house that stood before her was the one that had plagued her dreams.

There was no mistaking it. The traditional feel, the side porch, even the patio table was there. She began to cry. She didn’t understand this. It was such a short part of her dream, but why would she dream about a house that actually existed? She couldn’t make sense of it or of her reaction.

She stood here staring at it like it was going to disappear or turn into a different house. This couldn’t be real. She’d never had dreams that came true before. She knew it was impossible for the rest of that dream to come true. She remembered the lightning wasn’t even real lightning. But why this house? And why was Adin at this house in her dream? There was no way this could’ve been real. But it was.

“Please, Legacy, tell me what’s wrong,” Adin begged.

“Er, I don’t know how to say this…” She continued looking at the house. She stepped closer to it, looking intently. She had to be logical about this. Maybe she
had
seen his house before. She knew she’d never been here, but the two of them had been friends for a long time. She could’ve seen a picture of it. If so, she was so obsessed with Adin that it could be possible she remembered it on some subconscious level. At least that made more sense than the alternative. An alternative that she didn’t even want to consider.

“Legacy,” he said again, his tone reproachful.

“I had a dream the other night, and you were in it.” She tore her eyes off the house to look at him. “And so was this house,” she whispered.

“What do you mean?” His voice was no longer stern; it was incredulous.”

“It was really short, but you were sitting over there.” She pointed to the patio table. “Do you know what 1887 means?”

“What are you talking about?” Adin still looked shocked.

“In my dream, I walked over to you, and you handed me a broach, or something, that had the numbers 1887 on it. You said, ‘be careful.’ Then I woke up.”

“I don’t know what 1887 means.”

“Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with you. I’ve been having weird dreams lately, so I didn’t think much about this one. But now that I see this house…” she trailed off, looking back at it.

“What kind of dreams have you been having?”

“Storms, tornados,” she said, shrugging.

“I heard there was a tornado warning last week. Maybe you were just scared about that.”

“No, the dreams started before that day.”

“When did they start?”

She stared at him, the realty of the truth giving her chills. “The night you asked me out.”

Chapter Eight

By the gods, that can’t be right!
Surely, her relationship with Adin didn’t have anything to do with her dreams. It had to be because of everything else going on.

Adin’s eyes suddenly turned very sad. He let go of her hand and looked down to the ground. “Do you think you’re dreaming these dreams because of me?”

“Oh, no,” she said, squatting down to force his eyes to meet hers. “No. I don’t think that at all.”

“Then why?”

She could tell he didn’t quite believe her. His eyes betrayed any sign of the confidence they normally displayed. She could sense he wanted to look away from her. He would have if she wasn’t staring so intently at him.

“I don’t think that dreams are always literal,” she said slowly, thinking about the words she needed to say. “I think the storms represent me dealing with stress or nerves. If they
were
related to you, then I had those dreams to help me get over my nerves.”

“But you just said your dreams weren’t because of me.”

“I meant that they weren’t about you literally. I’ve been dealing with other stress too.” She was only trying to make Adin feel better, but then it clicked. “Oh wait,” she gasped, looking away from him, but his eyes followed her.

“What?”

“The dreams didn’t start Saturday night. They started Friday night. After my party.” She thought for a few more seconds. “I woke up Saturday morning to a storm. I remembered I had a dream, but I woke up too quickly and couldn’t remember…could not remember,” she gasped again, shaking her head.

“Legacy?”

“When I woke up, I tried to think back to the dream I’d just had, but I just stared out my window at the storm, not able to see any lingering images of my dream, and my head was pretty foggy. Then I looked at the alarm clock and got up. I think—”

“What?”

“What if the reason I couldn’t remember the dream was because I was still dreaming? It was storming outside, so if I was dreaming about stormy weather, maybe I hadn’t realized when my dream ended and when I really woke up.”

“Was it because I showed up at your party that night?”

“Why would you think that?” His question distracted her from her train of thought.

“Because I’d been out of line.”

“What?”

“Legacy, I held your hands, touched your lips, and held you tightly without explanation.” Adin closed his eyes and shook his head. “I was supposed to be just a friend, but I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t keep my hands off you.” He opened his eyes and looked at her again. “I couldn’t keep her eyes off you either,” he murmured. “I’d been struggling with my feelings for you for so long that my behavior that night caught me by surprise. After you opened your gift,” he said, looking down at her wrist where her watch was, “I left. I knew I had to get out of there quickly before I did anything else that was inappropriate.”

“You were not being inappropriate.”

Adin continued as if she had said nothing. “After I got home, I went over the events of the evening over and over again. I hardly slept. The next day, I thought I should just change colleges so I could get out of town. But that thought, the thought of never seeing you again, I just fought it. I decided that night I would ask you out. I had to know if you’d be willing to go out with me.” He paused. “When you said yes, I was elated. But while I was away, I started wondering if you’d just said yes because I put you on the spot.”

“I told you that wasn’t true.”

“I know,” he said, his voice still sad.

She reached up to stroke his face and heard him catch his breath, but she didn’t stop. “How you acted the night of my party was the best part of my entire day. When you asked me out the next day, I was beyond thrilled. There aren’t words to express how I felt in that moment. I’ve liked you a really,
really
long time, Adin. When I figured out which stress caused my dreams that started Friday night, it had nothing to do with being uncomfortable with you at my party.”

Adin smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. She wanted to do more to help him understand how she felt. She took her hand off his face and put both her arms around his neck. She stepped forward and stretched up on her tiptoes to hug him close to her. He wrapped his arms around her back, and she rested her head against his chest while he squeezed her tightly. He bent his head down and kissed the top of her head, keeping his face buried in her hair.

“Don’t worry about my feelings for you. I understand why you’re scared. This is new for both of us. This is something we’ve both wanted. How often does that happen—when two people like each other at the same time?”

“I don’t know. This has never happened to me before,” he whispered into her hair.

“Me either. Would it have been easier for you if I didn’t like you as much as I do? You said something before about getting me to like you if that were the case.”

Adin chuckled, and she smiled in his chest at the sound of his laugh. “No, it definitely would not have been easier. I’ve noticed I have a hard time keeping my manners around you. If you didn’t like me as much as you do now, I probably would have just scared you away. You would have thought I was some overbearing prick!”

She laughed at his teasing tone, and he squeezed her harder. She kept one arm around his neck, but slid one hand down to his chest. She rubbed her fingers in circles on him in front of her face. She felt the muscles in her body relax into his embrace.

“Maybe we should finish this conversation inside,” he suggested. “There’s no telling what the neighbors are thinking right now,” he teased.

Her heart started pounding against his chest, and she knew he could feel it. He stepped back and removed one of his hands from her back to lift her face up.

“What’s wrong?” Adin whispered, staring into her eyes.

Uh-oh. He probably thought she was worried about what they’d been talking about. She couldn’t let him believe that. She knew she was freaking out at the thought of being alone with him in his house. How did she tell him she was a chicken?

She grinned widely up at him. His eyebrows came together, but he half-smiled back at her.

“I’m just reacting to the thought of being alone with you in your house,” she said, trying to sound teasing, but her voice broke twice, so she sounded nervous.

“Oh, well, then that’s an acceptable response.” He laughed, and released her face to lead her into his house.

Once inside she, surprisingly, felt more comfortable. She guessed it was because she wasn’t staring at the vision of her dream. She didn’t see the inside of his house in that dream so being inside helped make that less real for her.

“It’s in my room,” he said, and her heart started pounding again. Luckily, her chest wasn’t up against his, so he wouldn’t notice this time. “Would you like to come up with me?”

Her heart took off in a sprint. She took a deep breath to try to settle it, but that didn’t work. “Sure.”

“It’s this way,” he said as he took her hand and led her up the stairs.

His room was right off the stairs, so they didn’t have far to go. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. If his room were at the end of the hall, then she could have had more time to steady herself. But she’d probably just use that time to get even more worked up.

Adin opened the door, and they both walked in. He dropped her hand and stepped aside. “Er, it’s kinda messy,” he said apologetically. It really wasn’t.

“This is nothing,” she said. “You should see
my
room.” Oh no! Was that an invitation?

Adin laughed a short, nervous laugh and looked down. Then he looked at his desk by the window. “Umm, it’s over there.”

He walked over to the desk, and she stayed planted by the door.

“It’s nothing big,” he said as he pulled out a conch shell.

Actually, it was big.

He walked over to her with it in his hands. “I just wanted to get you something to show you I was thinking about you while I was away.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said as she took it from his hands and studied it.

“I picked this one because it has light peach colors, like your skin, and tones of blue and green, like your eyes.”

She looked at him, smiling, but he was looking at the shell in her hands.

“What?”

He shrugged. “I like giving you things.”

“I like that you like giving me things,” she said with a laugh.

“Good,” he said, still smiling but now looking in her eyes. “Would you like a tour of the rest of the house?”

“Sure.” Maybe if she got out of his bedroom, her heart would return to a healthier pace.

Adin took her hand and showed her the rest of the upstairs first, and when they went downstairs, she put the shell on the living room table. He then showed her the rest of his house, and it was amazing. It had all the latest amenities: waterfall faucets, stainless steel appliances, antique bronze fixtures, copper accessories, travertine floors, custom iron railings. Simply beautiful.

“This door leads out back,” he said as he opened the door, and they stepped onto a covered patio. It had several ceiling fans, a fireplace, and an outdoor kitchen. They walked to the end of the patio and started to descend the patio stairs when she looked up.