The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (3 page)

Eunavae hugged Mel, Donnie, and Tara, and nodded at Trip. She hadn’t spent 200 years with him. The rest of the Chartreuse team caught up with her and they enfolded us into their midst and escorted us back into town chattering in perfect English and looking like the teenagers they were. Elated to be together again, we fell into a natural rhythm that can only be achieved when you spend two centuries with someone.

I reached for Kate’s hand, but she no longer stood beside me, and I turned to find her. Craning around I saw her, Trip, and Dirk standing by the parked hay wagon, watching us move away. Kate gnawed her lower lip and furrowed her brow, arms tightly woven over her chest. She leaned into Trip. He enfolded her in an intimate embrace and tilted her chin up to look at him. He spoke something to her then touched her cheek, as though wiping a tear. Systematically cracking each digit, Dirk stood beside them watching the reunion mob trickle back toward the village square. I jerked to a stop, my heart cramped to see Kate in distress. I ran back to them.

Kate’s face lifted when she saw me running toward her. “Come on, guys.” I took her hand and tugged her in the direction of the group.

“I’m gonna ride to the stables with Dirk.” Trip turned to adjust a strap on one of the mule’s harnesses.

“You sure?” I asked. Three weeks of training had solidified our friendship. All the Keepers had developed mutual respect and affection. We were unified in our desire to save the village from whoever kept trying to sabotage it. Trip and I had shared many conversations in the late hours of the night about how to best protect Kate. We had a plan.

He nodded.

“Okay, meet us at the General Store, we’ll have ice cream and get reacquainted with everyone.”

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed.

“You too, Dirk. It’ll be a good chance to get to know the jumpers.”

“We’ll be there. We’ll just drop the team off at the stables.” Dirk climbed back into the wagon and picked up the reins.

“Everything okay, Kate?” I touched her elbow and leaned down to look in her face.

“Yeah. Sure.” Overly bright tones pressed through a forced smile. “Come on, let’s catch up.”

Kate and I jogged toward the others. I buried my worries in the pleasure of her hand in mine.

Thirty minutes later, we hurried to lick up our ice cream cones before the hot sun melted them away. Navarro acted out a story about killing a bear on a hunting trip he and his grandson had taken. Kate scrunched her nose when he said ‘grandson.’ It made me chuckle. We looked like teenagers, but the jumps had made us an ancient people.

Kate leaned over to whisper in my ear. “I’m gonna go clean up.” She held up her sticky hands. I caught a whiff of floral shampoo and my heart flipped. I watched her walk back toward the diner, appreciating the utterly feminine sway of her long dark hair and hips. She pranced away, beauty and grace in motion. My pulse raced just watching.

Eunavae caught my focus from across the circle and waggled her black eyebrows at me. When she grinned her eyes disappeared into crescents atop her cheekbones. She’d cut her hair and it hung silky straight, a black frame around her pale amber skin. I just grinned and picked a blade of grass. She looked down at her bony knees and chuckled.

Navarro’s story stole my attention again. The camaraderie of my Jewel City clan warmed my heart. I got caught up in story after story as we reminisced about our hundred and sixty years together, and filled in the holes of the fifty that Eunavae and I had lived away from them.

“Come here, Corey,” Eunavae drew me aside when Jose and Ash started a story we’d all heard a hundred times. “Spill. I want to hear everything.” She crossed her arms and fingered the tattoo on her wrist of a Chinese symbol she said was her mother’s maiden name. The fleur-de-lis symbol on her right wrist was a nod to her father’s French heritage.

“I don’t think I can say much.” Mama Ty had sworn us all to secrecy.

“What? You have to tell me about every moment you two have spent together!” She knotted her fists and planted them on her hips.

She wanted to know about Kate, not our absence or our mission. I laughed from relief and the familiarity of Eunavae in that stance. “She’s—she’s my life, Eunavae.”

She let out a sigh and wrapped her arms around her middle. “More.” She closed her eyes, and the corners of her mouth lifted.

I skipped the kiss-and-tell stuff and opened up to her about the mutual connection and the staggering reunion we shared once Kate and I were back together. She drank in every word as though it were a religious experience. I guess it did seem that way for her. We had spent the last fifty years of our life in an ancient forest with the Darchori Tree Dwellers, stoking the flame of faith that Kate of a Thousand Years would return.

Caitlyn sashayed over and touched Eunavae on the arm. “We’re headed back to the cabin to grill steaks and burgers.” Small groups of the Chartreuse team trickled down the hillside.

“Okay. No chance of a veggie burger, I guess,” Eunavae grumbled.

Caitlyn rolled her eyes at me. “Two hundred starving years of eating what we could find and she comes home a vegan!”

“That’s just the way we ate with the Darchori,” Eunavae objected, turning to follow Caitlyn down the hill. “Coming, Corey?” she called over her shoulder.

“Yeah! I wouldn’t miss Jose’s spicy burgers!” I turned my head and scanned the area. “I’m just gonna go find Kate, then we’ll come.”

“Don’t be too long, Navarro can pack away some red meat.” Caitlyn’s ghetto street cred had matured into poise and confidence in the years she had been married to Navarro on our jump. She and Eunavae waved and jogged down the hill to catch the others.

As soon as they turned, my face fell. Kate had been gone a long time, and worry pounded in my pulse. I checked Ermadean’s Diner, walked through the village and around the Admin Mansion, but found no trace of her. I circled around to the Staying Well, cobbled with stones, and saw Dirk talking to a cute brunette.

“Hey,” he said.

“Have you seen Kate?” I asked him, still swiveling my head in hopes of catching a glimpse of her.

The silent pause caused me to jerk around to look at Dirk.

His face registered hesitancy then he pointed to the cornfield maze. “She went to practice, I think.” He snapped his hand, pantomiming a whip.

Something about Dirk always made me feel like an odd ball when he looked at Kate and me. Even now, just asking about her, made me feel like I had done something horribly wrong. Not quite sure how to act around him, I shifted on my feet. Maybe he didn’t approve of jumpers having relationships with other jumpers.

“Oh. Thanks.” I awkwardly excused myself and then jogged around the fence to the back of the maze wondering what his issue with us could possibly be. I rounded the corner of the last row of corn stalks and skidded to a halt.

Kate had wrapped her whip around Trip, playfully capturing him. They laughed and touched intimately, his hand at her waist, her free hand stroking his cheek. Gazes locked in a private moment, an intense moment that punched me in the gut.

I ducked into the cornfield, embarrassed to have caught them in such an intimate posture. I didn’t want them to see me, to know I saw them, or how hard it hit me. I didn’t want to be this jealous boyfriend, but it knocked the wind out of me when I saw the force of her attraction to Trip. I bent over and steadied myself, hands on my knees.

Kate loves me
.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I remembered the love in her expression, the passion of her kiss, the warmth of her words toward me. Kate loved me, this I knew more than anything. She needed something from Trip, but she loved me. I knew that for a fact.

I heard them saunter past the cornfield maze, near me. I stood frozen.

SNAP!

“See? It’s all in the wrist.” Trip’s voice pressed through the stalks. “Here, you try it.”

They paused right in front of me. I felt like an idiot, hiding mere feet away from my girlfriend and my best friend. I still didn’t have my composure and could think of no good way to explain why I hid in the cornfield, so I stayed concealed.

SNAP!

“Yay! That was a good one,” Kate squealed.

“You are a natural at this Kate!”

“I had a good teacher,” she lilted, soft and demure. I grimaced and ground my teeth.

They moved on arm in arm. I stepped out and watched them walk slowly back down the hill toward our old cabin. They never stopped touching one another. Kate bumped his shoulder with hers. He put his arm around her. They held hands for a while. Kate beamed up at him like he the best thing in her world.

Kate loves Trip, too.

I had misjudged their connection. Something deep and lasting had happened between them on that tornado jump. Kate didn’t like to talk about it, and the fear in her eyes when she did broach the subject, made me stop asking questions. I suspected her nightmares still featured that jump over all the others.

Kate! What do you want from him that I cannot give you?

Kate’s vast heart, and her ability to love, enfolded all. Kate and I suffered through so much to be together. We were solid. She was my girlfriend, had declared herself to me. I brought back the memories of the pink clouds in our Scriptorium experience, a thousand years of bliss with my Kate. We had talked and loved for a millennium. No two people on the planet were more bonded than we were. Our love had always been. I wasn’t worried. Nothing could separate us.

It seemed natural that she had a strong connection to Trip. He had been there for her when I couldn’t be, a solid and immovable force in her life. He would risk anything to save her, to protect her on the jumps. That’s what I wanted.

Then why does it hurt so bad?

“[Our]
experiment provides strong evidence that a quantum event at one location can affect an event at another location without any obvious mechanism for communication between the two locations.” ~
Alain Aspect, 1982

I WAITED UNTIL
they passed the Staying Well, and then jogged to catch up with them. I called out, and Kate turned around. Her face lit up.

“Corey!” She threw her arms around me and planted a kiss on my lips. Where there had been a gaping wound, now thumped a whole heart. Her simple kiss and honest pleasure at seeing me soothed my soul.

“You should have seen my whip-cracking!” She unfurled her whip. “I spent the whole afternoon getting schooled by Trip. He is an amazing teacher, well duh, you know!” Trip and Tara had coached the Keepers in weapons and warfare during our three weeks underground. Their three year Scriptorium experience made them experts in the art of battle.

“She really did get the hang of it. She popped six kernels of corn off of the fence in as many snaps!” Trip raised his eyebrows. “Impressive.”

“Well, let’s see it, then.” I stepped back to give her room. She took three steps forward, shook her hair back and planted her feet, one ahead of the other.

With Kate’s back to us, I ventured a gander at Trip. His smile fell and his face grew somber. He shifted his weight and crossed his arms, locking his gaze on mine. His expression remained neutral, but his eyes held deep pain and regret.

An impossible situation, in that moment when our intents connected, Trip’s pain became my own. I wasn’t the only person suffering. At least Kate chose me. He didn’t even have that satisfaction, only passing touches and lingering glances.