Sign of the Throne: Book One in the Solas Beir Trilogy (18 page)

During his third rampage, Rowan launched himself at a sand tower
, but overshot his target and tackled Abby, who had been sitting, legs crisscrossed, in front of the sandbox. She managed to catch him in a bear hug, and they tumbled to the lawn. “Whoa there, Crash,” she laughed, lying on her back in the grass.

Rowan thought it was hysterical. “Again!” he roared.

“Uh, maybe not.” Abby held Rowan at arm’s length and shook her head, hoping to discourage him.

Muffled laughter erupted from behind them, and Abby tilted her head back to see David standing at the edge of the backyard. His hand covered his mouth as he tried, without success, to hide his amusement.

Rowan jumped up and ran toward David, head-butting him in the gut as he leaned down to receive Rowan’s enthusiastic, albeit sandy, hug.

“Ow,” David groaned, still laughing. “That kid is solid.”

Abby thought that was hilarious. “See what you get when you laugh at the misfortune of others? There’s karma for you—what goes around comes around.”

“I suppose I deserve that,” David conceded.

“Oh, you
so
do,” she smiled.

“Has he been
eating
that sand?” David asked, brushing sticky goo from his shirt.

“Oh, quite possibly, my friend,” Abby said. “I think you’ve been christened with a cocktail of sand and hyperactive toddler drool.”

“Oh. Nice.” He flopped down beside her on the grass and grinned at her. “Hi. How are you?” He must have come over on his bike, because his hair was delightfully tousled. She really liked it.

“Well, hello,” Abby smiled, trying very hard not to think about what it would be like to run her hands through his messed-up hair. She could feel that magnetic pull again, making her want to move closer to him. She resisted and tried to remain aloof. “I’m good. And you?”

“Not bad, toddler saliva aside. Hey, is Moira around?”

“Sorry—you just missed her,” Abby said. “Cassandra took her to find a dress for the ball. Riordan’s here, but he’s writing, so I thought I would take the kids outside so we didn’t disturb him.”

“That’s okay,” David replied. “She wanted to talk to me about something, but I can hang out with you guys until she returns.”

“Sure. But you have to help me reconstruct Sand City. The monsters are restless.” Abby nodded toward Rowan and Siobhan, who were inching closer to Ciaran’s masterpiece.

“So I see.” David grabbed a shovel and pail and went to work. “I’m pretty good at this, you know. Years of practice.”

“Good,” she said. “I’m sure we’ll benefit from your expertise.”

He patted a mound of sand, shaping it into a tower. “Your necklace—you were wearing it last night.”

“Yes. I was.” Abby reached up and touched the shell.

“This is going to sound weird, but I’ve seen something like that before,” David said.

“Really? Where?” Maybe this was it, the in she had been waiting for to tell him the truth about his origins.

“That’s the weird thing—I can’t remember, but I have this nagging feeling it’s important that I do,” David said.

“Well, maybe it is—” Abby began.

Suddenly he seemed to lose focus and his eyes glazed over. “No, it’s nothing. Forget I mentioned it.” The words seemed forced, like they were coming from somewhere else.

Abby stared at him.
Wait, what just happened?
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something black leap down from the garden’s rock wall and streak out of sight. She trembled—was it one of the Shadows?

David seemed to regain composure, meeting her eyes and speaking like himself again. “So, you’re going to the ball too?”

Pretending like she hadn’t noticed anything, Abby played along as she shoveled more sand into a bucket. “I am. Cassandra invited me and my friend Jon to join her family.”

“That’s cool.” David picked up a toy garden rake and ran it over the sand, drawing a moat around the tower he had built.

“And you’re going, of course?” she asked.

He nodded. “Wouldn’t miss it. My mother is very excited to show off the college graduate.”

“That’s great—I’m sure she is very proud,” Abby said.

“To a fault,” he laughed, and then grew serious. “Sometimes I feel like an accessory.”

Abby dumped her bucket of sand and used the shovel to put the final embellishments on her tower. “How so?”

“It’s just…I know my parents love me, but sometimes it seems like my life is more about what they want than what I want. I know they only want what’s best for me, so I’ve never questioned their judgment. But since I’ve returned from my trip, I’ve felt…” David paused, lost in thought, smiling to himself.

“Felt...what?” Abby asked. She put her shovel down and studied him.

He shot her a mischievous grin. “Rebellious. I guess that’s what Aunt Moira wants to talk to me about—my mother has not been happy with me lately, and I’m sure she’s confided in Moira.”

“Moira is close to your family?”

“Yes,” David said. “She and my mother are very close, and Mom has always looked to her for advice, especially after I came along. My parents had wanted a baby for a long time, but I think they were a little caught off guard when they suddenly had the chance to adopt me from a private agency. I guess things happened so fast—thank goodness Moira was around to help, or I might have been more screwed up than I already am.”

“Wow, is that even possible?” Abby teased.

David flicked sand in Abby’s direction. “Ha. Funny.”

“Hey—no throwing sand,” Abby said, and then smiled and flicked some back at David.

“That sounds like a challenge,” he grinned.

Abby looked at the kids. “I think not—trust me when I say you do not want to give Rowan any ideas. We would both be very sorry. Anyway, it sounds like Moira has meant a lot to you.”

“Definitely,” David said. “She’s almost like my second mom. She’s the kind of person who gets involved in people’s lives. Some people might see that as overbearing, but she has good intentions. She’s always been there for me, and in many ways, I think she knows me better than my own mother.”

“So then, why is your mother unhappy with you?” Abby asked.

“Well, part if it has to do with my new job. I’m excited about the opportunity, but I’m not sure I’m ready to move so far away,” he said.

“How far is far away?” Abby asked.

“London.”

So the rumor is true,
she thought, disappointed. “Oh,” she said. “That’s pretty far.”

He nodded, and leaned in closer to her, his gaze intense.

“But I’m sure that if you don’t want to move away, there are opportunities here,” she said, looking back at him, feeling herself leaning into him as well. “You have your degree.”

He smiled, but it was bittersweet. “Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than just finding a job here. It’s my dad’s firm, and it’s very important to him that I take this position. He’s been grooming me for it for a long time. Mom thinks he would be devastated if I don’t go.”

“Wow,” Abby said. “No pressure there, right?”

“Oh no, not at all,” he laughed. “But that’s not all I’ve been rebelling about.”

Abby raised her eyebrows. “Intriguing. Do tell.”

David paused. “We had an argument about my date for the ball.”

Abby busied herself working on another tower for Rowan to smash. “Oh. Are you going with Michal?”

David looked surprised. “No. Why would I?”

Now it was Abby’s turn to be surprised. “Oh! I’m sorry, I just thought…”

“What?” he asked.

“Well, one time when I saw you at the inn, it looked like the two of you were…together,” she replied.

“What gave you that impression?” David asked.

“You were giving her a ride on your bike.” Abby felt her face grow hot as she remembered how embarrassed she had been, standing on the steps of the inn, staring at David like an idiot while Michal snuggled up to him. She avoided David’s eyes, focusing instead on filling another pail with sand, hoping he wouldn’t notice the blush creeping onto her cheeks.

“I gave
you
a ride on my bike too,” David said.

Abby was quiet.
Okay,
she thought to herself.
The good news is he’s not with Michal. Her riding on his bike was nothing special. The bad news is that last night with me wasn’t anything special either.
Apparently this was just something he did with every girl he met.

“Abby?”

She tried to hide her disappointment. “Yes?”

“Is something wrong?” David asked.

Abby looked up at him and forced a smile. “Nope.”

“Okay,” David said. He seemed confused.

At that moment, Cassandra and Moira pulled up in the car.

“Well, Moira is back,” David said, standing and dusting the sand from the knees of his jeans. “I guess I’d better go face the music. See you around, Abby.”

“See you,” she said, trying to make her smile a bright one. Empty as she felt, she didn’t think it was very convincing.




David stood in the Buchans’ kitchen, waiting for Moira to put her purchases away. He looked out the kitchen window at Abby. Her back was to him—she was helping Ciaran with his castle. He hadn’t meant to share so much about his mother and Moira, but Abby was easy to talk to, and he found himself sharing more with her than he did with most people. She was fun, too—he enjoyed the way she bantered with him, the way they could talk seriously one minute and be laughing the next. He could see why the Buchan kids liked her.

He hated to leave things weird with Abby, but he wasn’t sure where things had gone wrong in their conversation, or how to fix it. He would have thought Abby would be happy he wasn’t taking Michal to the Autumn Ball. He had grown up with Michal, and although they knew each other well, he couldn’t imagine dating her. With their families as close as they were, it would be like dating his kid sister—and besides, with the size of that girl’s ego, he didn’t think there was much room for anyone else.

Maybe whatever was going on with Abby had nothing to do with him. Or maybe he had read her wrong from the start. Maybe she wasn’t interested in him at all. It sure seemed like she was interested the night he took her home, but maybe she was just being friendly. Maybe she was interested in someone else.
She’s probably dating that Jon guy, since she’s going to the ball with him,
he thought, disappointed.

“David? Did you hear me?” Moira asked. “I said let’s go into the living room.”

“Oh.” David turned to see Moira standing in the doorway of the kitchen. “Sorry. My mind is somewhere else, I guess.”

Moira took his hand and led him to a sofa littered with throw pillows. “I can see that. I’m worried about you, darling. Are you nervous about leaving? Philip and James have high hopes for you. They think you will do very well in the London office.”

David looked at her. “No, that’s not it.”

Moira had set out a tray with coffee and cookies on the table in front of the sofa. She held the plate of cookies out to David. “Want one? We baked them this morning.”

He nodded and sampled one. “Thanks—they’re good.”

“Is it because Amelia is James’s daughter?” Moira asked. “You really don’t need to be concerned about that, dear. I can understand how you might worry, but I can assure you that James approves of you. He told me that, you know. And your mother and I both think Amelia is a lovely girl.”

“Yes, she’s very nice,” David said. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and then twisted around and removed an overstuffed throw pillow from behind him. He set the velvet-trimmed pillow on the sofa beside him.

“I’m so happy that the two of you will be spending time together—you complement each other,” Moira smiled. She picked up her coffee cup and sipped it.

“I’m not so sure about that,” David said, absently running his fingers along the velvet of the pillow. “I mean, we get along okay, but we don’t really have much in common.”

“Nonsense!” Moira said. “You come from similar backgrounds, and you’ve known each other for years. We used to take the two of you to the beach, and out on the boat—you always had a wonderful time with Amelia. I remember how shy she was when she first visited as a little girl, and how you charmed her into exploring that little clubhouse you built in my backyard. You were such a gentleman even then.”

David smiled. “I
was
pretty charming.”

Moira laughed. “Do you remember that time, oh, you must have been in middle school? Her family was visiting for the holidays
, and it was the first time you were old enough to attend the Christmas party at the inn. You escorted Amelia out onto the dance floor, and you were so beautiful together—my heart just stopped. That was the moment I knew the two of you were meant to be.”

David frowned. “
Are
we meant to be? Because, I mean, I’ve always liked Amelia, and we’ve gone on dates when she visits, but I wouldn’t say I love her. And how would I really know? I haven’t dated anyone else, because, well, Amelia’s always been in my life, even at a distance. I don’t know if it’s my mom’s influence, pushing the two of us together when we were young, but there’s just never been anyone else. And I think maybe I do love Amelia as a friend, but not in a romantic way.”