Spellbound Falls (32 page)

“Excuse me?”

“Look at it this way, Mackie; for the first time in your overindulged life, you’re going to have to actually work to get the girl. Like any other man, you’ll have to learn who Olivia is the old-fashioned way: by getting to know her likes and dislikes, what her hopes and dreams are, and what fears are keeping her locked in the shadows.”

Mac walked in silence for several minutes. “Hell, you make it sound as if by using the magic that I’ve been taking advantage of the women I’ve been with.”

Carolina laughed at that. “You do have a rather annoying habit of using it to control people. And you sincerely believe that any means justifies the end result
you
think is best for someone.” She stopped walking to glare up at him. “And I’m not only talking about your dealings with women; I’ve seen you start
wars
because you were so bloody angry at the people involved.”

“I did that once, and then only because the evil had imbedded itself so deeply on both sides that those bastards deserved to kill each other.” He shoved his hands in his pockets as he continued walking. “And I don’t know if you
happened to notice, but those two particular nations have been living peacefully beside each other ever since.” He pulled her to a stop. “Olivia claims my carrying her in my arms is controlling. And that I do the same to Henry.”

Carolina gave him a playful poke in the chest. “Which only proves that Olivia is already learning you.” She started walking again, shaking her head. “And yet the woman obviously likes you anyway. Don’t worry, you’ll learn everything you need to know about Olivia without using your magic—assuming you want to badly enough.” She broke into a jog. “Now come on, I’m anxious to meet our lost feathered friends.”

Mac followed at a walk. Dammit, he wasn’t controlling, he was expedient. And he carried Henry because the boy’s stride was so short it would take them forever to get someplace if he didn’t.

As for carrying Olivia, he
liked
the feel of her in his arms—and he needed to know everything about her past to ensure that she remained in them.

“Oh, Mackie, they’re exhausted,” Carolina whispered when he rounded the small cliff. She stroked the female’s head on her lap. “She’s in mourning, isn’t she?”

“Yes. She and her mate lost a son to a longline fishing rig floating off the South American coastline a couple of months ago.” He gestured toward the second male bird. “And he lost his mate last year the same way.”

“Is that why they’ve sought you out—to ask you to return their loved ones?”

Mac sat down on the ground beside her. “No, actually, they’ve accepted their losses. They volunteered on behalf of all the sea creatures to come ask me to stop the practice of longline and open-water net fishing that causes many of their friends, both finned and feathered, to get entangled and drown when the lines break free and drift away to continue ghost fishing.”

Caro snapped her gaze to his. “But you can’t stop how mankind harvests the oceans. And the three of you are well
aware of that,” she said, addressing the birds. “You know Maximilian can’t do anything that directly interferes in people’s free will.”

“But they also know I have the power to influence that will,” he said. “They want me to draw attention to what’s happening out in the open ocean, so the fishermen will freely address the problem themselves.”

“But you don’t have that kind of power right now, Mac. And you won’t have it for the next hundred years unless you prove you’re a fit father to Henry.”

He arched a brow. “Do you honestly believe I didn’t have the foresight to tuck away some of the energy, considering we both know Father’s the one with the control issue?”

“You still have some of the magic?” she asked on an indrawn breath. Her eyes suddenly narrowed. “How much?”

“Enough for two, possibly three… epic events.”

Carolina stilled. “But are you willing to use it to help them?” she whispered, nodding toward the silent birds. “Because it would take a powerful amount of energy to change nearly every culture’s way of doing something they’ve been doing for centuries. People want progress, only they fight tooth and nail against
change
. So short of tangling all their nets and lines into useless knots, how can you possibly get them to stop filling our oceans with trash?”

Mac stood up with a grin, holding out his hand to help her up. “Start watching the news right along with the rest of the world, and see just how creative your big brother can be.” He turned to address the birds. “And rest up, my valiant emissaries,” he said, “because you are about to experience the flight of your lifetimes.”

“Henry’s going to be so excited to see his daddy in action,” Carolina said as he led her back around the narrow ledge.

“I’m afraid he can’t come on this trip, as I need to travel light and fast.”

Carolina pulled him to a stop, then tried to shrug free of his grip to back away. “You can’t think to leave him with
me
!” she cried when he wouldn’t let go. “I don’t know any more about being an aunt than you do about being a father.”

Mac started toward Inglenook again with a laugh. “Don’t worry, princess, I’m sure Olivia will share some of her wonderful pearls of wisdom with you.”

Olivia made it back just in time to put on her pajamas and crawl into bed, where she rolled and thrashed around to make it appear as if she’d spent the night at home instead of rolling and thrashing around on a feather bed with her lover all night. Having an affair was a lot of work, she decided, just as she heard the kitchen door open and slam shut.

“Mom, I’m home!” Sophie hollered as her shoes hit the wall and her backpack thumped to the floor. Her daughter raced down the hall, ran into the room, and jumped on the bed. “Did you miss me?” the girl asked, her grin reaching ear to ear. “Did you bring me back a doggie bag from the restaurant? What did you eat? Did you and Mr. Mac go dancing?” she continued, her eyes dreamy. “I bet he’s a great dancer.”

“Sorry, but I ate everything on my plate,” Olivia said, fluffing her pillow to lean against the headboard. She rubbed her eyes, then stretched her arms over her head with a yawn, remembering that she was supposed to just be waking up. “How about you?” she asked, diverting Sophie’s other questions by firing off some of her own. “What movie did you watch? Did you guys make a big mess in the kitchen?” She swept the girl into a giant hug and gave her a noisy kiss on her cheek. “And how did you sleep, baby,” she whispered, “away from your mom all night?”

Sophie sat up with a groan. “I’m not a baby anymore, and we didn’t get to sleep until after midnight. After we watched
The Little Mermaid
, we went back to Henry’s cabin and Miss Carolina read us stories about all the different mythological gods. Did you know the horse Mr. Sam let
me ride on Friday is named Pegasus, and that Pegasus is a winged horse who’s actually Poseidon’s daughter?” She nodded when Olivia just gaped at her. “Pegasus rose out of the sea when Med… Med-somebody’s head got lopped off and dripped blood on her. Isn’t that cool? I think I’m going to ask Mr. Sam if Pegasus can be my horse for the summer.”

Wonderful; now Mac’s sister was teaching
Sophie
all about the bed-hopping and apparently head-lopping, blood-dripping gods. “Um, what happened to Henry’s book of names?” Olivia asked. “I haven’t heard any talk of him changing his first name lately.”

Sophie’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow! You should have seen Miss Carolina last night when Henry showed her that book and told her he was thinking of changing his name to Dorian, because he thought Dorian Oceanus sounded very noble. When she asked what was wrong with the name his mother had given him, and he explained that his dad didn’t think it was noble enough, I thought Miss Carolina was going to explode.” She covered her mouth. “She told Henry that hell would freeze over before she’d let anyone, especially her dumb lug of a brother, change his first name to anything. But she quickly apologized for saying
hell
,” Sophie rushed to assure her. Her eyes widened again. “And then she tossed the book of baby names in the fire before I could tell her it was from the bookmobile.”

Olivia threw back the blankets and got out of bed with a laugh. “Then I guess Carolina can go with Henry next week and explain to the librarian what happened.”

“Are we going on a picnic today?” Sophie asked, following her down the hall to the kitchen. “I told Miss Carolina about our Sunday picnics, and she said it’s been at least a 
thousand years
since she’s been on one,” she said with a giggle. “Can she and Henry and Mr. Mac come with us again today?”

Olivia smiled out the window as she took a drink of water, not at all surprised that their just you-and-me time had turned into you-and-me-and-the-Oceanuses.

Her
guests
did seem to have a thing for fraternizing with the help.

“I hadn’t planned a picnic today, sweetie, because Gram and Grampy’s being away means we need to stay here and feed everyone, including Sam now.”

“Then let’s have a cookout on the patio again like we did Friday night. That was so much fun.” She tugged on Olivia’s sleeve. “We hardly ever do stuff like that when Gram’s here, so… maybe we should…” She shrugged, looking guilty. “I just thought we could have a cookout every day until she comes back,” she whispered.

Olivia pulled Sophie into a hug to hide her own guilt. Oh God, what had she been doing to her little girl by staying here under the shadow of Eileen? “I think that’s a wonderful idea. Why don’t you go down to the barn and find Sam, and tell him lunch will be served out on the—” She stopped when she heard the bell at the fence gate clang.

Sophie pulled away with a gasp. “Oh no, I forgot!” she said, running to the door and flinging it open. “I’m coming, Henry! I just need to put on my mud boots!”

Olivia walked to the door and looked out to find the boy standing at the gate, his hands in his pockets as he stared toward the house. She grabbed Sophie by the sleeve. “Has he been standing out there this whole time?”

Sophie nodded.

“But why didn’t he come in with you? You don’t just leave your friend standing outside waiting for you and then forget him.”

“I told him to come in with me, but he said he’s not supposed to ‘enter our sacred domain’ unless he and his dad are coming to get us for a date.”

“Good morning, Miss Olivia,” Henry called from the fence, waving hugely. “My dad told me you and he had a wonderful time last night.”

It was all Olivia could do not to fall to her knees. Oh God, how many times had
she
been Henry: standing on the outside, not feeling welcome in someone else’s sacred domain? “Henry, come here,” she said, waving him over as she
stepped onto her stoop in her bare feet. And then she did drop to her knees when he reached her and took hold of his shoulders. “Honey, it’s okay for you to come to the house. That gate is for Inglenook’s
regular
campers, not you.”

He looked skeptical. “Maybe I should check with my dad first, as he said it was only okay last night because of your date.”

“Not going beyond the gate isn’t your father’s rule, it’s mine. Which means
I’m
the one who decides who crosses the fence and who doesn’t. And you are always welcome in my home. Always,” she repeated as she pulled him into her arms. “You belong here just as much as I do.” She leaned away with a loud, exaggerated sigh. “And I suppose your father can cross the fence, too, because I like him
almost
as much as I like you.”

Henry’s eyes widened. “You do?” But then those vivid green eyes suddenly took on a calculated gleam—not unlike the way his father’s did sometimes. “Do you like him enough to go out with him again? Because you’re obviously brave, seeing as how you said yes the first time.”

Having a pretty good idea where this was heading, Olivia sat down, figuring she’d better set the kid straight before he decided he’d just found a replacement for Godzilla. “Sophie, go change into your barn clothes, would you?”

As soon as her daughter disappeared down the hall, Olivia took both of Henry’s hands in hers. “Looking for a husband or wife isn’t the only reason people go on dates, Henry. Sometime a man and woman simply enjoy each other’s company, and go out to dinner as
friends
.”

He looked so crestfallen that Olivia couldn’t stop from pulling him into her arms again. “Ah, honey, you leave finding a wife up to your father, okay?” She gave him a squeeze. “I promise he won’t marry a woman who doesn’t love you, too. Trust your daddy, Henry; he’s big and strong and brave enough to stand up to your grandfather.”

Henry hugged her back just as fiercely. “But what if the woman only pretends to like me?” he asked thickly. “W-what if she wants to marry us just because my dad’s rich and powerful,
and she… and she tricks him into thinking she likes little boys and animals and the ocean?”

Olivia leaned away to frown at him. “Hasn’t your father been teaching you how to
feel
what you can’t see and hear?”