Starlight Dunes (6 page)

“
I don’t have the answers either but Scott has to know something about River that we don’t, some trouble she’s in like Hayden. Or the fact that she needs help in some way like Cord and Logan did.”

“
No argument there. But what?”

“I guess it’ll come to light like it always does—in due time. Go see what the kids are up to, will you? I need to go check on dinner.” But before she left she studied Nick’s face and tossed out, “Are you okay?”

“I worry sometimes that
one day Scott will cross the line with one of the guests. Give them a heart attack or something. I’m hoping he knows better.”

“
I wouldn’t count on that,” Jordan muttered as she headed off in the direction of the kitchen.

River found herself
strolling through dense woodland laden with a carpet of fall foliage in colors of rust and orange. Fragrant starry clematis swayed in the breeze and peppered the landscape. She stepped around trees with big fat trunks wrapped in lush green vines. Ripe berries were there for the picking. But just as she leaned down to touch the fruit, she heard a baby cry. Her heart thudded faster at the sound, precious to a mother’s ear so long denied. She recognized his cry. Because her son needed her, she quickened her pace.

The
wind changed from the north. It hit her face sending chills straight through to her bones. The cold made her feel old in years. And if she was shivering, her child had to be doing the same. And probably hungry, her baby had to be starving. Her brown-eyed boy needed her. She had to get to her baby, her Luke.

Her feet moved through damp
leaves that stuck to her legs. As she moved under the branches of the trees, they cracked and bent in the shadows at her back. But then she saw the fog take shape in front of her as it hugged the earth and began to surround her.

All the while the baby kept crying.
Her stomach churned and knotted as she trekked on while the thick vapor turned to heavy clouds hovering overhead. Rain began to fall, fat drops splattered until it became a steady downpour.

With one purpose she
kept her pace brisk, all the while the baby kept wailing even louder.

The sound
drew her onward. Tears ran down her cheeks and mingled with the raindrops there. The thought of not reaching him in time had fear clutching at her throat, her heart. But she would not stop, she would not give up, she would never stop searching.

The
wind battered her path, whipping her face with sharp stings and slashes. The rain came down harder. Thunder snapped. Lightning crackled overhead. It began to grow darker and darker still. Panic set in. Her teeth began to chatter as the temperature dropped to freezing cold.

She had to find her child before
it was too late.

River spotted him then, her bright-eyed baby boy
, sitting on a bed of damp leaves wearing nothing but his diaper, one finger tucked into his mouth, his chubby cheeks rosy red from all the crying. He looked the same as he had the last time she’d seen him, except that his baby-fine black hair was matted with dirt and his skin slick with rain. But he was alive. It would all be okay. Luke would be okay.

But as she
reached to snatch him up and whisk him out of the elements, her fingers moved through air. One unsuccessful attempt after another, she kept trying to pick him up but every time she did, her hands slipped through nothingness.

River heard the wail, recognized her own screams as she clawed through the leaves and dirt to find her child.

She woke to someone beating on her bedroom door.

River ran a hand through her
wet hair. She looked down at the way she was dressed and realized she had nothing on but the towel she’d grabbed after her shower. She remembered sitting down on the bed for a minute and must have fallen asleep.

“Are you okay?” Jordan shouted from the other side of the door. “River, if you don’t answer me, I’ll have to use the passkey
to check on you myself.”

River crawled off the bed, dazed and confused from the nightmare she’d had several other times
before, the same dream, the same search, the same ending—in bitter disappointment.

She
swallowed hard and went to the door, cracked it open. Her voice was rough and craggy. “I’m fine. I guess I must’ve fallen asleep and had a bad dream.”

“River, you were screaming. We could hear you all the way downstairs.
You scared us half to death.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Jordan reached over and took River’s hand in hers. “You’re freezing and you’ve been crying. Is there anything I can do? Would you like me to fix you a tray, some hot tea maybe? I’ll bring it to your room. You can eat in here.”

“No,
no, don’t go to that kind of trouble. I’ll be down to eat. Just give me a minute or so to get dressed,” River said wiping the tears off her face.

“
You take all the time you need.”

By the
time
River got down to the dining room, she felt a little better. She’d splashed water on her face and put the dream where it belonged—locked away in that part of herself where hope lived.

She
looked around the table at the kids, their cheery faces smeared with spaghetti sauce and ached for another chance. What mother wouldn’t?

She caught
the worried faces of her hosts.

“You okay?” Nick asked.

She nodded. “Thanks for checking on me.”

“We were worried.”

“I know.” She took a seat across from the kids and did her best to dig into the huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs Jordan had fixed.

The couple
didn’t ask questions but River could tell the temptation was there to pry. Instead of offering an explanation, she decided to put them both at ease the only way she knew how. She picked up the conversation from earlier to explain what she’d meant about Scott. Since the kids were right there though, she thought it best to temper her words.

“
Do you mind if I ask a few questions about our convo from earlier?”

“I suppose you’ve earned a few,” Nick groused
, glancing over at Hutton. “She’s too young to understand all this so keep it low-key.”

“
I agree. And we can table this discussion for another time if you’re uncomfortable talking about it in front of the kids. Because I totally understand if we put this on hold in front of them.”

Jordan
stared at her children, both preoccupied with stuffing their mouths with pasta and meat sauce. “Sometimes I wonder if they’ll reach a point where they’ll see him, too.”

“And what we’ll tell them when they d
o,” Nick added, reaching across the linen tablecloth to take Jordan’s fingers in his.

River nodded
and lowered her voice. “I know this much, I don’t think it’s an ‘if’ situation but rather a ‘when.’ Scott prides himself on being a truly benevolent spirit, no aura surrounding him says otherwise. That makes what you have here a built-in, ready-made protector of sorts, a guardian. He obviously watches over what and who he cares about. And just so you know, I’ve seen Scott walking along the boardwalk a couple of times so it isn’t as though he spends all his time here on the grounds or upstairs scaring the guests.”

“
Our Scott will always be here to look after what he loves. We know that,” Jordan agreed.

“
But how do you know so much about him in such a short amount of time? I mean, it’s only been a week. It’s accurate, but how could you tell all that so fast?” Nick wondered.

“Th
e first night he could’ve scared the bejeezus out of me. He didn’t. Instead he took the time to put me at ease right up front. At first, I was like, what the…? But then he said one word, like a code word, that calmed me down.”

River noted
Nick and Jordan exchange glances. It was Nick who reflected, “So he had personal knowledge about you that there’s no way he should’ve known?”

“He did. And like I said earlier, I’ve encountered such things before just not one quite as vocal as yours or as strong in spirit.”

“You have?” Jordan asked, wide-eyed.
“You’re so calm about it.”

“About this
, I guess I am.” River sipped her glass of merlot, pondered whether or not to disclose anything of a personal nature. Since the couple appeared to have moved on from the episode upstairs, River decided to keep it about Scott. “I’ve been at sites where things got a little weird real quick when the spirits made it clear they didn’t like the fact that we disturbed their abode, if you know what I mean. They aren’t all friendly like Casper.”

“
I see. You mean when you dug up bones or artifacts belonging to them? Do you expect anything like that here in town once things get more—interesting?” Jordan asked.

“
Who knows? I certainly didn’t expect anything like Scott when I checked into your lovely B & B. But here we are. I’ve learned over the years that in my line of work it’s best to keep an open mind about these things.”

“But you’re a scientist
who deals with facts staring back at you. How is it you believe in…such things?” He’d almost used the G word, but changed it at the last minute in front of the kids.

But a
bout that time Hutton and Scott decided they were finished eating and wanted down. While Nick stood up to mop messy faces and fold bibs, the discussion ground to a halt.

T
he minute the children scampered off to play in the other room, River went with intuition. “One of the things I wanted to ask, and you’re under no obligation to answer this, but how do you know Hutton hasn’t already seen him? He is, after all, her father.”

Jordan’s eyes went wide
again. “Okay, how did you know that?”

River decided to keep it simple.
“I was reminded earlier today that Pelican Pointe is a small town. People talk.”

“
Ah. So you weren’t using your vast experience with these sorts of things to hone in on that?”

“Not yet,” River said, smiling
, keeping her skill close to the vest.

“That touches on all kinds of possibilities,”
Nick surmised. “That must be one of the reasons Scott’s opened up to you already.”

River let him think that for now without setting him straight
. “Let me remind you that because I have Native blood running through my veins I grew up on myths and legends, some beautiful, some not so pretty. Some were downright scary. But scary isn’t Scott.”

“Scary
? Not at all, but he does love to bug people sometimes. This all must relate in some way to why you’re here and what you do for a living.”

“I’ve thought of that.
I made archaeology my life’s work because most times I could come up with a reasonable hypothesis, an assessment if you will, about how a civilization lived at one time based in fact.” She didn’t share how because that would take another discussion.

“
But some days I admit to blending the rational facts and figures I learn with what I know of my own ancestral beliefs. That isn’t to say at the moment, I’m meshing Pueblo lifestyle with Chumash or Coushatta for that matter, quite the contrary. I deal in what I find in the ground, go from there. But sometimes there are other factors at play that can’t be so easily explained. Throw in those elements and they tell me a lot about the people from the past.”