Gone With the Witch (40 page)

"What possessed you, on that particular night, to make such a bold move?" she dared ask.

Aiden walked her away from the crew, so far away that as they crossed the field of poppies, construction sounds
echoed in the distance. "Part of my reasoning was your
story about the turtle and the dragon raising a family near the
sea."

"But we hadn't found Becky yet."

"No, but I'd found you."

Storm's limbs nearly failed her.

"I fell in love with the windmill when I was a kid,"
Aiden said, "
which
is probably why 'I brought you here
when we were looking for a place to—"

"Taunt the dragon?" she suggested. "Though I didn't
know the dragon existed back then" The memories of their
time at the windmill warmed her, and judging by the glint in Aiden's eye—and the stirring of his dragon—it warmed him, too.

She looked up quickly and hoped she hadn't been
caught checking Triton out, but she had.

Aiden let it pass, on his best behavior, apparently. "When
Morgan was studying architecture, he wanted a project to
practice on
. '
I told him about my idea for the windmill. The
final design is close to the original, except for the sitting room and widow's walk, and the porch around back with a view of the sea for Ginny."

"She'll like that."

"Like it? She suggested
it."
Aiden smiled. "The fact that
you and 'I adopted the windmill for a while makes it more special, so Windmill Cottage is what came to mind when I thought about ... us ... and a few days later, I knew it was
where I'd like to raise Becky. I'll keep the coach, of course.
A man doesn't give up his wheels cold turkey."

She finger-combed that lock of hair from his brow.
"Boys and their toys—"

"
Are nowhere without someone beside them." He took her hand.

She took it back and fisted it. "I'm worried it's too
soon"

"I'll always love Claudette for giving me Becky, but I was never
in love
with her"

"Well, you wouldn't be, would you? You never fall in love. It's the rule. You're the independent sort"

"Every rule has an exception," Aiden said, standing so close now that Storm could hardly breathe. "Storm, you
caught me with that peek of you playing dress-up
. '
I want
to see you as happy as your inner child, but I yearn, I
ache, for Storm the woman, a rare one, who enchants and beguiles, who invades my dreams, and whose absence in my bed when I open my eyes in the morning about breaks
me. The way 'I was lost before is nothing to the way I'm
lost now."

He led her toward an outcropping of rocks with a sandy
path between them that led to a private beach on a part of the island she'd thought nothing but rocks.

"This place is beautiful."

"I think so."

Storm grabbed a branch and sat in the sand to envision a

circle
of light surrounding her. She drew a wide clockwise spiral around herself, five rows deep, like the one she and her sisters had drawn the night of Harmony's wedding.

"Aiden," she said. "Find five smooth beach stones and place them equidistant on the outer circle."

In silence, he did as she asked, as if he understood
and respected her actions.

Five stones—one for Aiden, one for her, Ginny, Becky, and Pepper, together on a new journey of discovery.
"Come and sit in the circle with me"

Aiden sat without question and took her hands.

Storm wove their fingers together and raised them to
ward the sun. She imagined a line of light coming from the
pebbles and tenting toward their clasped hands in the center of the spiral encircling them. She imagined the light spinning at increasing speeds while she laid firm claim to this man, this land, and the family she hoped they would
raise there. She let her needs be known to the universe, but
not to Aiden. Not yet. The decision had to be his, freely made, no magick involved.

My lover beside

The Goddess to guide.

Hear my behest;

Our family, my quest.

More children I pray

To bless many days;

His blood, my blood

A joining
of
ways.

Take heed, I pray,

Aiden's heart
Lead the way.

I spell not to sway.

Aiden kissed her, their interwoven hands raised, the sun
god smiling down.

"When you hurt, I hurt," Aiden said. "Unless your heart
heals, mine never will:'

His words brought a knot to her throat and a rush to her
heart.

"Your rebellion," he said, "your psychic sense of the present, your brilliant abductions, and bruising telekinetic
ability, the children crying in your head, all add to your fas
cination. Storm Cartwright, you are one of the most easily
lovable people I have ever come across, though 'I know you
may never believe
it."

"I
don't
believe it. Not for a minute. And you don't
know
how
to love.
Your words."

"You and Becky taught me how to love. Why did you come back, if you didn't think I'd changed?"

Storm squeezed his hands tight but set them at arm's
length without breaking contact. "I knew I needed to be
here today, in the same way I knew which mall, which campground, which casino."

Aiden shook his head. "Why would a smart and beautiful woman like you want a Scruffleupagus?"

"I think the Scruffleupagus is lovable. Your parents
taught you abandonment. Military school taught you a man
has to be strong, unemotional. You learned you shouldn't want home, though you do, which makes you doubt your inner strength. If a military man's inner strength is in question, his worth is in question
."

She clasped his hands tighter. "You're strong, Aiden, in a thousand ways. You're a white knight, which you won't admit, who'll do whatever he must to stage a rescue. So strong, 'I believe—and 'I think I'm right, considering when you bought the windmill—that you were willing to sacri
fice your happiness with one woman for the sake of another,
and for the sake of the child you love. That's strength,
Aiden. You even reveal your strength in words—scary for
any man, except for the strongest of the strong. You use
soft words, emotional, beguiling words, as enticing as a stroke or a touch, though I like those, as well"

"I can't believe that you find my words enticing."

"I can't believe that you found your home on
Paxton
Island
."

"Yes ... and no. 'I found my home in you. Wherever
you are, I'm home."

"What are you saying?"

He hesitated. "I don't have anybody to play dragon
with?"

Storm broke their connection, rose, and ran up the path.

chapter
fifty-four

AIDEN knew exactly where he'd gone wrong. He won
dered if witches knew how to roll back time.

Storm had run up the sand path between the rocks so
fast, he had a hard time keeping up.

"Storm Cartwright?" asked a stranger in a pinstripe suit who seemed to have been waiting for her.

"I've told you," Storm said. "No story. He wasn't my
sex slave. It was a joke.
A bad joke.
Who let you on the island? This is private property"

"While I'd like to hear that particular story, that's not
why I'm here.
As to how 'I got this far, about twenty of your
closest relatives grilled me so hard, I was sweating as if it was a tax
audit."

Storm smiled. "What is it, then?"

Aiden stood beside her to lend his silent support, si
lence being his best friend, after the gaffe he'd just made.

"My name is Zach Ward, and your sister Vickie told
me where to find you" Ward showed her what appeared to be an ID badge.

After Storm looked at it, Aiden took it to examine it.
"PAC?"
Aiden asked.
"Never heard of it."

"That's good. It means we're doing our job.
Psychic Aid
to Children.
We work anonymously. We're a nonprofit organization of psychics who help find missing children. We've gotten reports of four children being found by
someone with blue hair traveling in a dragon motor
coach. When my supervisor saw the story in the news
paper with a picture of the coach, including the license
plate, we followed the clues, and I came looking for you, Miss Cartwright."

"What makes you think
I'm
the person with blue hair?
It could have been Winkie."

"Excuse me?" Ward said.

Storm shook her head. "I didn't find four
. '
I found two, no three."

Ward opened his BlackBerry and hit a few keys.
"Kelsey Harrington, age two, mall rescue,
Massachusetts
.
Leslie Vallancourt, age nine, campground rescue,
Connecti
cut
. Becky Langley, age one, Social Se
rv
ices rescue,
New
Jersey
. And Pepper Buford, age eleven,
wicked
mother res
cue,
New Jersey
."

Aiden chuckled at Pepper's obvious word choice.

"We both missed one," Storm said. "I found a toddler
before he was reported missing, Jeffrey ... something
.. .
at
a carnival last week. And the last two rescues you men
tioned don't count, because they're
our
children," Storm
said, pointing to the two of them ... as a couple. Aiden's heart beat faster.
Our
children, she'd said, and she meant it collectively.

Maybe he
did
have a shot, big mouth, bad timing, and all.
Ward grinned. "Pepper told us about the way you rescued her, and Becky's grandmother told us—"

"That's my mother-in-law," Aiden said. "I'm Becky's father."

Ward grinned. "Aiden McCloud, 'I know, but you didn't know that you were Becky's father until Miss Cartwright led you to her."

"Is this some kind of rescue reality show?" Storm
asked.

"I apologize for not making myself clear. I had coffee and cheesecake at the house before I came to find you.
Ginny and Pepper gave me an earful. I'm a PAC agent, and
I'm here to offer you a job, Miss Cartwright, with PAC, doing what you do so well, finding children in trouble.
Except that you can't always be in the right place at the
right time, unless you spend your life in that motor coach. Though maybe you'd like that, since the motor coach is registered to you, Mr. McCloud, which must mean—"

"You're toast, if you finish that sentence," Aiden
snapped.

Ward raised a hand. "I apologize."

"Did you come to our home to insult us?" Aiden asked.

Storm elbowed him. "Aiden, you said
home."
Storm's giggle punctured a hole in his fury pffftt—like a balloon. Oh, the things they'd never be able to tell their children.

This is what life with Snapdragon McGee would be
like, if she ever let him catch her. "I said
our
home, but do you catch that? No"

Ward looked from one-to the other and cleared his
throat. "Storm, think about working with
PAC. You can work from here, or on site, if you feel the need. We'll send you the leads."