Making Magic (28 page)

Thea ran her hand over the top of the oak pedestal table and went over to the window. “But that is far too big a view for such a tiny window. Your plans for this wall are absolutely perfect.”

The sun was setting and there was an impressive vista. The mountains stood hazy and purple in the fading light with the river barely visible glinting beyond the trees.

“I think so. The glass doors will open it up a lot more and the deck will help shade the patio downstairs,” he said.

“Ideal for a container garden and breakfast and—” she stiffened, “—whatever you plan for it.”

“No, that sounds great, although I have a black thumb when it comes to growing anything.”

“It’s purple,” she said.

He looked at his thumb thoughtfully. “Okay.”

She laughed. “If you don’t have a green thumb, you have a purple one. You kill plants.”

“I don’t exactly murder them.” He looked at one of the potted plants the dispatchers had sent him while he was in the hospital. It was yellow.

Thea walked over to examine it. “No, you love them to death. You over watered it.”

He watched her fingers intently as she stroked the leaves.

“Okay then. Cider.” He walked into the kitchen and pulled two bottles out of the refrigerator.

“No glass.” She held out her hand.

He smiled and handed her the bottle, which she opened with a twist.

“I think you’ve taught me a new bad habit, Sheriff Moser,” she said.

“Not sheriff anymore, as of this morning. Just plain old Jake.”

She studied his face. “Is this something to celebrate or are you having second thoughts?”

She always could read him pretty darn well. “Celebrate, mostly. But with the Feds here I got a full taste of just how helpless I am as a civilian. Got me thinking.”

Thea grinned. “You always did need to be in control.”

“It’s not about control. I mean… I just know how much it helps to have trained personnel available in a crunch.”

Thea nodded. “You get used to being involved. Can’t be easy giving it up.”

“Guess not. Still, Charlie reminded me that I’ve got options.”

“Like what?”

“Reserve Deputy possibly, although Charlie would enjoy bossing me around too much.” He chuckled. “It’s something to consider, but the store comes first.”

“The
music
comes first.” She touched her bottle to his. “To the future of Songs in the Wood.”

“Which you helped launch today.” He took a sip.

Thea sat at the table and took a long swig. “Glad to help.”

He sat next to her. “So, what’s on your mind?”

She stared at the bottle for a while. “I thought I was coming home for Daniel’s wedding and to…to say goodbye to Pops and Becca.” She shook her head. “But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t all I needed to do.”

He was right. There was something more to that haunted look in her eyes.

She worried her lower lip, took another swig of cider and lifted her chin.

“Is this a two-bottle thing, a six-pack thing, or…?”

She gave a wobbly laugh. “Oh, I do love you, Jake Moser.” Her eyes widened when she realized what she had said.

He reached out and put his hand over hers. “I know what you mean, kiddo. Right back at ya.”

Thea smiled wanly, then put her hand over his. “I’ll be content with you not hating me.”

He tensed. “What’s this about, Thea?”

“I was…I was responsible for Becca’s death.”

“Because you yelled at Mom and told her to get out of there?” He shook his head. “Come on. We talked about that a long time ago. She was drunk, Thea. She—”

“No, listen to me,” she snapped. “I have this…power. Ability. I don’t know what to call it. I can make people do things just by telling them to.”

It was as if a puzzle piece slid into place inside him. Everything he had sensed, about Grace, about Thea—all of it was true.

He could picture her now, standing in front of his mom, chin up, face pale and determined, eyes dark and stormy, voice reverberating with fear and anger…and something else.

“
No! You’re the one who needs to go. Go away and don’t ever come back here! And don’t you ever say that again. Forget it, all of it, and just go away!
”

And the night of the wedding—confronting his mom at the edge of the crowd, and how his mom had suddenly behaved herself.

But Thea hadn’t said anything that resulted in Becca being hurt. It was an accident.

“Thea. Mom was drunk. She was going to drive us home that night. Both of us. Becca
and
me. She would have driven off that embankment whether you told her to leave or not. You forced her to leave without me. You probably saved my life.”

“Did you even hear me?” Thea stood.

He stood with her. “I heard you. But you…” he stuttered to a halt.

Wait a minute.
Was this what the Woodsman had meant when he’d said Thea was making amends? She had abandoned Curtis Institute of Music right after Becca died, then she’d gone to law school and taken that job with Hartford. She had stayed away from the mountain. Jake had always thought that Thea was seeking her father’s approval for some reason. But that wasn’t it at all.

“You…you were… What you did at Hartford. You did that for Becca, didn’t you? You left your music for her?”

“I what?”

“You did all that—going to work for Hartford, sneaking into town when your father’s back was turned. You did all that for Becca, didn’t you? Some kind of atonement or revenge?”

“I didn’t
leave
my music.”

“Dammit, Thea. She wouldn’t have wanted that. No matter what you think.”

“You are not listening to me.” She lifted a clenched fist. “I said I have this power. Like something out of a comic book or a—”

“It’s a
talent
, Thea,” he said. “Just another talent, like playing a flute.”

“It’s not a talent.” Her voice was strident and shrill. “You don’t understand. Let me show you—”

He took a deliberate step back.

“You see.” She pointed. “You’re afraid of me.”

Jake laughed. “Not exactly.” He watched as her hair lifted into the air. Then the flowery edge of her top floated up.

“What are you—”

“You’re not the only one with an unusual talent,” he said, bracing himself.

Thea’s feet weren’t on the floor anymore. She looked down at her toes, dangling above the shiny wood, then back up at him. Her face went paler, if that was possible.

“But this is me. This is part of it. I-I did this at the wedding and at the festival.” Doubt flickered on her face. “Didn’t I?”

“Nope.” He tweaked one of the soft fabric ties on her top with some effort and it snaked up in front of her face. “This is me.” It was surprisingly more difficult than just lifting her off the floor in his arms. It felt as if he was using several arms just to hold her in the air, much less deal with the tie. One of the oddities of
his
talent.

Chapter Twelve

Thea felt suddenly weak in the knees and not just because they were no longer supporting her weight. He hadn’t said what she thought he’d said?

“Wha—”

Jake stood before her, his hands clasped behind him. The tie of her blouse rose into the air before her and lightly stroked her cheek. It was like she was being surrounded by something and lifted from every direction.

“My control’s getting better, but sometimes it gets away from me,” he said. “Believe it or not, it doesn’t really help that you’re such a skinny thing.”

Thea felt cool air on her stomach. Her top was floating in the air, probably showing off her bra, considering the way Jake was angling his head. She could see that there was sweat beading on his forehead. From the effort, or the view?

She touched the lacy edge drifting in front of her, pushing it down. “This is you?”

Jake smiled. “Yep.”

Her top floated back down, but with the ties undone it gaped open revealing a great deal of skin. She watched his eyes stray once again.

“You…you lifted me off the dance floor. Then dropped me,” she said.

“Sorry about that. I was distracted. I was thinking about dancing with you.”

When she sensed that she was starting to drift downward, she raised her hand and circled it, pointing to the floor. Could he do that?

Jake frowned with concentration and she saw the muscles in his arms tense, then she started to spin slowly in the air.

“Your ankle looks darn good though.” His voice sounded a bit strained.

Thea could only cover her mouth with her hands as she turned above the floor. Her top fluttered around her and her hair drifted into her face.

She was dizzy, but not from her slow midair waltz. “This is… It’s incredible!”

Even as she said it, the spinning stopped and she was gently lowered to the ground.

“So is yours,” he said, a bit winded. “The wedding was the first time I’ve seen Mom enjoy herself in years.
That
was incredible.”

She frowned. That was hard to believe. “Right. Making her enjoy herself against her will is amazing. Not creepy or controlling.”

That smoky amber gaze hardened and Jake grasped her shoulders gently. “Think about it a minute, Thea. If you hadn’t done that, how many people would she have made miserable that night? What kind of memory would your brother have of his wedding? If I had gotten to her, she might have sped off down your mountain and maybe gotten in another accident.”

She stared at him for a long moment. “You really believe that.”

“I don’t just believe it, I know
it. Like I know what happened to Becca had nothing to do with you,” he said. “Do you remember the canopy that flipped over that night? Almost hit Mom?”

She nodded, and it clicked. “You did that?”

“If you’re going to play the blame game, include the right players,” he said.

Thea shook her head. “It’s not the same.”

“Listen, Thea, these things we can do—your sister and Daniel and—”

Thea tried to step away from him, but he kept a warm and steady grip on her.

“Yeah, I know about them. I’m trained to notice things. I’ve been putting two and two together for a while now.” Jake said in a soft voice. “Your Pops…I think he suspected some things too.”

“Pops told you?”

Jake shook his head. “Not outright. And it wasn’t only one thing that tipped me off. It was a lot of things, over a lot of years.”

His hold on her loosened and his thumbs rubbed gently along her rigid muscles. “He always said the mountain had ways to make sure that anyone who shouldn’t be there would get good and lost trying to find whatever they were snooping around for.” He paused for emphasis. “Like your friend Greg.”

“He’s not—”

“Yeah, fine. Your
acquaintance
Greg.” He smiled. “If I collected a toll from every person who got lost on that road and swore to me that there was no cutoff to the farm—no entrance, no gate, no sign, no nothing—I would be a very rich man. Then there were all the journalists who ended up over in the Pisgah last fall—”

“That doesn’t prove—”

“Let me finish,” he said softly. “It’s a long list. Come over here and sit.”

He led her to the couch then went to retrieve their drinks from the table.

Thea sank down, numb and disoriented. Jake knew she had a gift—and had a powerful gift of his own. It was a lot to process.

“How long have you known?”

“What? About my talent?” He handed her the cider and sat.

She shook her head. “About mine.”

Jake looked at his watch. “Two or three minutes.”

She glared at him.

“I suspected, Matchstick. I didn’t really know until now.” He nodded. “Although that night at the wedding, I started putting a few things together.”

“And what else did Pops tell you?”

He smiled with genuine affection. “He probably didn’t understand how much he was giving away. First, there was Daniel. The Woodsman and I talked a lot about the impacts of environmental destruction on the future. He told me a bit about Daniel’s dreams—nightmares really. I don’t think he had put it all together back then, but a few times when it was just him and me sharing a drink, he would talk about the old magic waking up and the Mother singing again.”

Thea remembered what she had read on that ancient journal page—
her people will learn again to hear her voice, and She will sing
—and gulped the cider. She wished it were something stronger.

“Then I got the call from Daniel telling me almost exactly where to find your grandfather below that cliff,” he continued. “That was a bad day. Especially when I remembered your Pops saying that Daniel ‘sees things we can’t’.”