Independence (2 page)

My Caleb.

He smiled cockily and happily back down at me.

W
hy, Mrs. Jacobson, are you blushing?

Flushing
is more like it,
I corrected and smirked my own smirk.

Well, I have it on good authority that our room is finally vacant of transients and squatters. Wanna come and…nap with me.

His grin was absolutely not about a nap.
I bit my lip and nodded for him to lead the way.
He laced our fingers as we made our way down the hall. We reached our room and he kissed me again as he fiddled with the door lock. He swept deep in my mouth. I held on to his collar to keep him there and to hold myself up.

But the loud giggling made us pause. Caleb pushed our door open to find Bish and Jen there.
They had their shoes off, their legs hanging off the edge of the bed and they were lounging on their backs looking at each other. Before I could stop myself, I heard their thoughts. They were talking about learning to drive, remembering and laughing.

They looked up and Jen smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Mom and Maria are napping in our room."

"What about your room?" Caleb asked Bish, anxious to evict our guests.

"They never gave me one," he answered smoothly.

"Well…" Caleb searched for
any semi—
polite way to tell them to get the heck out. I chuckled under my breath and grabbed his collar once more. He rested his hands on my lower back, his forehead to mine.

"We won't get a moment's
peace until we get back to the Sta
tes," I told him. "And then still not. Beck is going to drive me crazy for at least a week. And then Gran is going to start the wedding stuff, I just know it."

Caleb nodded and silently told me I was right.

"Sorry," Jen said again, but plopped back on the bed with no intention of leaving. Bish joined her
,
closer this time.

He
whispered, "I'm not sorry." Then he kissed her once
, pulling her to his chest
and they lay still as if to go to sleep.

"Want to go back to the roof?" Caleb suggested in a low voice that held promise.

"Eew," Jen groaned. "Get out before you start the sexy voice, little brother."

"
Our
room," he retorted and smiled at me. It was his
I'm happy no matter what we're doing
smile.

This was
the smile he saved just for me, for when no one was looking.

I smiled back and started to lead him back to our roof when Haddock met us at the door.

"Maggie. Caleb," he addressed and fidgeted. I
,
of course
,
couldn’t hear his thoughts so I had no idea what he wanted. "I was wondering if we could talk…
before you all leave
."

"About what," I said gently. I wasn't angry with Haddock and I didn't want him to think he owed me anything.
I closed the door so Bish wouldn’t hear him. He didn't know
about this
, after all.

But Haddock
said, "When you leave tomorrow to go back to Tennessee, I'm coming with you.
To your town, I mean.
"

"What?" I blurted lou
dly.
"What do you mean?"

He stood a little taller. "I may not have been your father this whole
time, and I know you have Jim, t
hat's great, but I lost you once and didn't even know I had you to begin with. I have no intention of doing that again."

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe normally. So, Dad and Fiona, and me and Caleb, and Bish and Jen, now Haddock.

One big happy family.

"Whatever
,
i
t'
s fine
," I said politely and tried to smile. "We'll see what we can work out,
but I'm not telling my father…u
m, Jim. You know what I mean. I'm not telling him about all
of
this."

"Understood," he said and
smiled. "See you at dinner
."

I remem
bered the text in my pocket. I pulled my cell out and
tried not to shoot daggers at Haddock's back as he walked away.
My phone was very full now with all the clan's phone numbers. I told everyone to keep in touch with me and if anyone else imprinted, to let me know as soon as possible. Caleb and I were determined to keep on top of things with all the Aces.

Meanwhile, I examined my text.
Caleb was muttering something about Haddock being a trouble maker, but stopped as soon as he felt my thoughts slam into him.

I reread the text message five times while Caleb held on to me. When he pressed my face into his neck and said, "Ah, baby. I'm
so
sorry," I knew the text from Beck's mom was real.

Beck &
Ralph were in a
car accident in the mountains
. I tried to call u
sev
eral
times. They fnd the car, but no one was inside. They suspect they went looking for help &… They called off the search today. We're having the funerals on Sat. Pls, come home.

I felt my knees begin to shake.

Caleb leaned back and took my face in his hands. "We'll leave, right now." I could feel him pushing all of his comfort and love into me, into my skin with his touch. I couldn't remember a time I was ever so grateful for him than in that moment. I felt my lip quiver and bit into it to stop it. He looked at my lip and back up to my eyes with a pained expression. He could do nothing to fix this situation for me and feeling helpless wasn't something Caleb liked very much. Neither did I for that matter. "Maggie…tell me what to do," he said, anguished
and swept my cheek with the side of his thumb
. "What can I do?"

I lifted and wrapped my arms around his neck. "You're doing it." I sighed and tried to calm down. "You're doing it."

When he finally spoke, it was soft and in my ear, as if he were easing me along. "I'll go and tell Dad that we're leaving now. They can come later on. Why don't you…sit with Jen and Bish fo
r a minute, until I get back, OK
?"

I nodded. He took me there in a haze. I'd been so wrapped up in everything going on lately - granted
,
it was huge life altering things, but still - I had barely been able to speak to Beck much lately.

Rebecca. I never even used her real name, and she never used mine.

I felt a flood of guilt,
re
morse and loss. It was then
I felt Caleb's warmth and comfort leave me. I heard his groan and turned to him. Bish had me by my arm and Jen was with him, too. Caleb was trying to leave me there…but he couldn't. He wanted to. He wanted to let me have a minute with my brother in my time of mourning, but Bish would understand. Bish could be the one to tell everyone we were leaving…that I'd lost my friends.

I needed Caleb.

We both moved at the same time and wrapped our arms around each other. I heard Bish say something about Dad and a plane. I just focused on the soft, plaid pattern of Caleb's shirt
with my eyes and fingers
.

In that moment I felt like the
girl I used to be. The girl who felt abandoned and alone in a world full of people and things. But I wasn't that girl. I looked up at Caleb's face as we stood in my room at the foot of the bed. His face spelled out his need to make my hurt go away.

No, I was not alone anymore.

But my friend was still gone.

Caleb

She was still shaking. I knew there was nothing I could
do
to make it better. Her friend died. But this…just feeling her body shake and my shirt wet because she'd been crying for the past twenty minutes…

Each minute that ticked by was a k
nife in my gut. I eventually
picked her up and we lay on the bed together and waited for word on us going home. I stared at the cei
ling as I let my fingers dance what I hoped was
a soothing rhythm a
cross her bare shoulder. She
tangled our legs and gripped my shirt in her fingers.

I
tried to keep my suspicions to myself and not let them seep out to Maggie, but it was very much a possibility in my mind that this was retaliation. The Watsons had lost Marla and Donald to our hands. Would they still
risk coming against us just for revenge? If they killed Beck and Ralph and I was the one who brought Maggie into this mess…

I groaned angrily and shifted a bit. Maggie lifted her head slightly to look at me. "What are you so angry about?"

"Nothing, baby," I assured. "I'm just…sad for you."

"You're mad, I can tell." She yawned and scooted up closer to be by my head. "I'm too exhausted to make you tell me though."

I found myself chuckling.
"Don't worry about me. I'm worried about
you
."

"I'm…all right." She sniffed and it broke my heart. "I just wish I could've seen her one more time. She was so mad at me before…and then we came here and…" Her eyes looked up to mine. "But they did say they never found the bodies. So maybe there's still hope, right?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

I really wanted to believe that.

She licked her lips and continued. "Maybe I can find them. Maybe…"
H
er face fell. "I'd have to touch her to get a
vision though, wouldn't I?"

I started to say something, I'm not even sure what, when a knock banged on the door.
I sighed. "What?" I asked loudly.

Jen poked her head in.
"Hey," she said slowly. It was obvious she was walking on eggshells. I gave her a face to tell her to stop it. She had to know Maggie would hate that. She strai
ghtened and opened the door. "Our flight's booked."

"You're coming, too?" Maggie asked. "I don't want to cut you
r
trip short."

"It's just one
day. It won't matter. Are you OK
?"

Maggie sighed. "Why is everyone so worried about me? You guys lost your cousin not even a week ago."

"Ye
ah," Jen agreed and sighed, too.
"
We did. Still."

"I'm…" She shook her head. "How are you?"

"I'm…" Jen shook her head, too, and shrugged. They both chuckled a little sadly. Maggie got up from the bed to give Jen a hug. They hugged hard for a long time. Jen nodded to her. "This week has been…bittersweet."

"I'm sorry I couldn't save him," Maggie whispered and I felt a painful ping go through my chest.

"Maggie, stop it," I told her and lifted myself from the bed.

She wouldn't look at me. Jen looked between us.

I repeated softer. "Maggie, stop it."

She finally looked up, her eyes glistening.
"He saved us. He saved us and I didn't save him!"

"It wasn't your fault." I took her from Jen, but she kept going as if I hadn't spoken.

"And now Beck…I couldn’t
save her either. And Rodney's s
ignificant! She's all alone because I couldn't save him!" Her chest started to quake and I
held her to me. She pushed me back a little, but I held onto her. "No! Don't comfort me. I caused all this." She looked up at me with questions in her eyes. "I can't believe you're not mad at me for letting him die."

"Stop, Maggie," I said and took a deep breath. "Stop this."

She wasn't going to stop so I
yanked her to me. She tried to push me off and I just held on tighter. She wasn't this kind of fighter. It took no time before she was burying her face in my neck instead of pushing me away. I held on to her just as tightly as she was me. "I'm so sorry," she cried.

I took a deep breath to hold back my own emotion. Hers, plus mine, plus knowing things were probably going to get worse
,
was killing me. She took my face in her small, cold hands and looked into me. "I'm. So. Sorry."