The Sight Seer (18 page)

“Yep.”
Rafe grinned. “I wish I could play ball. I could probably take on an entire team by myself. Not that I don’t enjoy kissing you instead, Gabi.”

He looked like he was about to grab me again, so I pushed him playfully towards the tub.
“Take your shower!”

The look of disappointment on his face was so comical I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Chapter Thirty-three

I don’t know about Rafe, but I set the shower’s temperature as high as I could stand it, letting the heat soak into my skin until the bathroom became foggy with steam. After toweling off completely, I dressed and dried my hair thoroughly with the dryer, but I still felt a chill. The idea of snuggling on the couch in Rafe’s arms was the only thing that got me to leave the comforts of my steamy bathroom.

I found him downstairs in the kitchen,
his dark hair damp and curly as he flipped through today’s paper. He smiled when I entered the room, but he didn’t jump me, which I guess was a good (albeit disappointing) sign. He still looked like he was brimming with energy while I was starting to feel fatigued again. I shook my head. I had no idea what I had done to Rafe—the memories were gone—but I wondered if it had involved transferring a piece of me into him? It was worth it, whatever it was. To have him standing there, beaming at me?

Priceless.

I pulled out a box of microwaveable popcorn and started nuking it before taking a couple of cans of soda out from the fridge, along with a bowl for the popcorn and some glasses. We brought everything into the living room and I turned the TV on, flipping through the channels without paying much attention to what was on. Rafe settled next to me, looping an arm around my shoulder, and I snuggled against him, throwing our old gray blanket over me for extra warmth. Rafe, of course, in Dad’s short-sleeved shirt, was still burning with heat. The boy was like a furnace, I swear.

Eventually we found a show we both liked and settled back to watch it.
Rafe ate most of the popcorn; the longer I stayed in that position, the sleepier I got. After I yawned for the twentieth time, he laughed and told me to go to sleep.

“But—”

“I don’t mind,” he reassured me. “And I’ll be right here, promise. Not going anywhere, Gabi.”

I have to admit, falling asleep in his arms was pretty damn comfortable.

* * *

When I woke up, it was morning, and daylight was spilling through the front window and illuminating the room.
I yawned, pushing my hair back from my head before rubbing the kinks out of my neck. I had curled up on the couch, a pillow propped up under my head and a colorful, thick blanket my grandmother had knitted thrown over my body. It was warm and nice, but I craved the comforts of my own bed.

Half-asleep, I stumbled up the stairs and heard my cell phone ringing from down the hallway.
Jolting awake, I rushed into my room, shut the door behind me, and saw it was Evan calling.

I woke up even more as all of last night came rushing back to me, ending with me curled up in Rafe’s arms as we sat on the couch.
Where was Rafe? When had he left?

First things first.
Answer the phone, Gabi.

“Hello?”
It was a little weird that Evan was calling, especially when it was—I squinted at my clock—barely 9 AM.

“Did I wake you?” Rafe’s voice teased over the phone.

I only just stopped myself from squealing in happiness. Flopping back on my bed so I could stare at the ceiling, I said, “You’re lucky; I just woke up and came upstairs to…go back to sleep again.”

I could hear the laughter in his voice.
“How much are you going to sleep?”

“Hey, last night was extremely tiring, alright?”
My cheeks blushed when I realized how dirty that sounded and I was grateful he couldn’t see me. I quickly added, “How are you feeling, by the way?”

“Me?
I’m good. I finally calmed down, but I only slept for like, four hours and I feel great. I’m going to go for a drive and pick up a new phone, but I wanted to see how you’re doing.”

Oh yeah, his phone broke last night.
That explained why he was calling from Evan’s. “I’m good,” I said. “But I’ll be better with a couple more hours of sleep and a jumbo sized coffee.” Belatedly, I wondered if he was actually inviting me to go phone shopping with him. Crap, had I just shot him down?

“Have you, uh, seen your dad yet?”

Something about his tone of voice made me instantly suspicious. Sitting up, I frowned. “No, because I literally just woke up, Rafe. Is something the matter?”

“Well
…” He stretched the word out, making it seven syllables long. “He sort of came home last night and saw us on the couch together.”

I started breaking out in a cold sweat, which was completely ridiculous because it wasn’t like Rafe and I had done anything wrong.
We hadn’t even kissed while on the couch! Sure, we kissed in Dad’s closet while Rafe was maybe half-naked but I had told him to stop and he
did,
so that counted for something, right?

“Gabi?”
Rafe sounded worried over my prolonged silence.

“What did he say?”

“Um, well, he was kind of not happy at first, but I reassured him nothing had happened and he seemed to believe me.”

“Ugh.”
My cheeks were on fire now.

“It’s just, he sort of told me I have to come over for dinner.
Tonight. Or else.”

“Oh, crap,” I said, clapping a hand to my forehead.
Leave it to Dad to threaten Rafe with something as harmless as dinner. Except having dinner with your girlfriend’s dad wasn’t harmless. And was I even his girlfriend? I asked him.

“Of course!
I mean, do you want to be?” The uncertainty in his voice made me smile.

“I do.”
And I meant it. God, if I had known getting to this point was so easy, I would have asked him ages ago. I had spent all of that time worrying for nothing.

“So then I guess I’m eating dinner with my girlfriend’s family.”

“It’ll be fine.” I’m not sure if I was reassuring him, or me. “I mean, they’re going to probably ask you a billion questions, especially Chloe, but I know they’ll like you.”
Like I do,
I added silently. “I am going to yell at Dad for threatening you, though.”

He laughed softly.
“Be nice, Gabi. We did look very suspicious last night.”

“We did nothing wrong.”

He laughed again.

Too awake to even considering going back to bed now, I went into the bathroom to assess the damage from last night.
My skin was pale, but there weren’t any horribly dark shadows under my eyes, thank goodness. A little bit of makeup, a nice outfit, and I’d look fine. Plus, dinner with Rafe, yay! As long as I kept Dad and Chloe at bay, everything would be fine.

Then I looked at my hair and cursed.

Rafe, who had been in the middle of a story about the kitten he had decided to name Bo, stopped midsentence and asked, “What’s the matter?” His voice was calm until the last word, where it rose in pitch. He probably thought I had seen another demon.

But this was worse.
Much worse.

“My hair,” I said, pulling out a strand to examine it more closely in the mirror.
“It’s white. Like, old lady white. What the hell! I’m only sixteen!”

I hadn’t noticed it last night when I showered because the glass had fogged up, but now I could see it clear as day.
On the left side of my head was a lock of snow white hair.

“Oh.
Um. It’s white, huh?”

I scowled
at the mirror. “Your lack of surprise is very suspicious, Rafe. Did you see this last night?”

“Um, m
aybe?”

“If you say ‘um’ one more time I’m going to kill you,” I growled.

“It’s not that bad, Gabi! Remember, I said you looked good.”

“I thought you meant I looked good covered in blood, not good with granny hair!” I wailed.
“Why did this happen? Is it because I healed you?” A dark, scary thought came to me. “Am I dying?”

“No!” he shouted
over my hysteria. “You are
not
dying. You probably just overexerted yourself or something like that.”

“You said ‘probably’.
That means you don’t know for sure.”

Rafe let out a long sigh.
“Look. I’m not the expert on healing magic, but I
will
read up on it, I promise. But first I want to find this nest and exterminate the demons before the ones from last night make their next move.” Crap, he was right; the Boneless twins
had
promised revenge. “So until I find out more about this magic, you should probably avoid using it.”

“Considering I don’t even remember healing you last night, that shouldn’t be a problem,” I joked.

“I’m serious, Gabi. Push all thoughts of the magic out of your mind, and don’t talk about it to anyone.”

Oh yeah, because I was planning on walking up to Dad and saying, “Guess what Dad, I heal dead people!”

“Especially Evan,” Rafe added.

I blinked, startled. I wasn’t expecting him to say
that.
“Wait, what?”

He was silent and I wished I could see his face—it would be much easier to see if he was lying in person.
“I’m not trying to scare you, Gabi, but the fewer people who know about this, the better. You already know Silver Moon would be interested in the fact that you have the Sight, right? Well, they’d be much more interested in knowing that you can heal. And I don’t want them anywhere near you.”

“Oh.”
When he put it that way, it made sense. I, for one, never wanted to meet his fellow Silver Moon colleagues. Not after the way they had treated Rafe for not having the Sight.

Rafe sounded depressed.
“I hate lying to Evan, but this is for the best. Trust me.”

“I do, Rafe.
You know better when it comes to this stuff than I do, anyway. I’d be stupid not to listen to you, right?”

“Thank you.”
I could hear the relief in his voice. “We’ll figure this out, Gabi, I promise. Just give me some time, alright?” He paused. “Speaking of time, I’d better go. I have a couple of things to do before dinner at your house. Your dad said to come over around five.”

I imagined a day spent cleaning and cooking; Dad’s way of getting back at me for whatever
illicit activities he thought Rafe and I had been doing on the couch while he was out at the lodge. I rolled my eyes.

“You going to be alright?
About your hair, I mean?”

“Sure.”
I shrugged, opening one of the drawers and pulling out a pair of scissors. “I’ll just cut the offending lock off and pray that when it grows back, it’s the right color. If not, I’m going to have to start buying hair dye.”

“Did I ever tell you I have a thing for old ladies?”
Rafe began laughing as I sputtered in indignation.

“Goodbye, you idiot,” I told him, hanging up before he could respond.
Fighting a grin, I picked up the scissors and said goodbye to the white lock. “And hopefully that will be the last I see of you,” I said softly, knowing full well that I would be searching my hair every morning for more white strands.

Chapter
Thirty-four

I won’t lie; I definitely delayed going downstairs for as long as possible. I mean, I even spent an extra half hour
cleaning my room
. But eventually my stomach started hollering at me to feed it and I went downstairs to meet my fate.

Dad was sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee.
I made a beeline for the coffee pot, pouring myself a cup as I nervously waited for Dad to say something. He made me suffer, though, waiting until after I had filled a bowl with cereal and milk and sat down across from him before speaking.

“So I saw something interesting when I came home last night.”

I winced. It was way too early for this. Absently twirling the spoon through my cereal, I said, “Look, Dad, before you scold me, let me tell you that Rafe was telling you the truth and
nothing
happened last night. So please don’t jump to conclusions, okay?”

He lifted his eyebrows, his mouth pressed in
to a thin line. “Gabi, the boy’s hair was damp from a shower and he was wearing one of my shirts.”

I bit back a hysterical giggle.
Which scenario was worse, Dad? Rafe had taken a shower because we had just had sex, or because a demon that had split in two had stabbed him nearly to death and I had somehow healed him with my mysterious glowing hands?

Yeah, something told me he wouldn’t be happy with either of those choices.
So now it was time to lie!

“Look, someone spilled beer on Rafe and the party sucked anyway, so I told him to come back here and just change into one of your shirts.”
I blinked innocently. “I figured that was better than going back to Rafe’s apartment, right?” There was no need for Dad to know that I had already been there. “And I’m telling you the truth when I say nothing happened. We kissed, alright, Dad?” I felt myself turning red. This was not something I wanted to discuss with my dad, ever. “It was our first kiss and it didn’t go anywhere, I swear.”

Dad watched me in silence for a few moments before nodding.
“I believe you, Gabi.” I let out a sigh of relief. “You really like this boy, don’t you?”

I nodded.
“It’s about time, right?”

“You’re only sixteen,” he said kindly.
“There’s no need to rush through these things. I know it’s hard because you have to see couples like Penny and Harrison, but everyone is different.”

“I know.
It was just annoying, having everyone act like there was something wrong with me because I didn’t throw myself at guys.” I took a sip of coffee. “Rafe’s different from the other guys, Dad.” Hello, understatement of the year. “He’s special.”

“Then I made the right decision in inviting him over for dinner tonight.
If he’s going to be your boyfriend, then I expect to learn a lot about him.”

“Just don’t scare him away, Dad,” I groaned.
“Between you and Chloe assaulting him, he’ll never want to come back here.”

“Then he’s not worthy of you,” Dad said seriously.
“Now, I was going over the dinner menu. How do you feel about a roast chicken?”

* * *

Dad may have been telling the truth when he said he believed nothing had happened last night, but that didn’t stop him from getting back at me for
making
him believe something
had
happened. He piled on the chores while he worked in the kitchen, and I only managed to take one short break to call Penny and let her know I was alright. I confirmed what Rafe had said about not feeling good last night, but reassured her I was much better today. She thought I had left because of the stupid things Christian had said and had ended up hollering at him for my sake. It sounded like she didn’t have that great of a time at the party either, so I slyly suggested that next time we should double date and go the movies or something. There was about two whole seconds of silence before she started screaming in glee (I, having learned from my mistakes, kept the phone away from my ear this time), telling me it was about time the two of us came to our senses and made it official. Before I could tell her any more, Dad caught me on the phone and handed me a mop and bucket with instructions to clean the downstairs bathroom. With a sigh, I hung up, promising Pen I would fill her in on everything come Monday.

Well, not everything.
But the normal stuff. Like the kissing.

By the time I finished Dad’s mile-long list of chores, I only had about a half hour to myself to get ready.
After showering and getting dressed, I snuck outside before Dad could lasso me into doing something else. He had grabbed a hold of Chloe the moment she came home from Tori’s sleepover, making her vacuum the entire first floor even though she looked like she was about to fall over from exhaustion. I wondered what she had been up to last night, but I never got the chance to ask. She had managed to escape to her room around two, although she promised she’d be up to meet my “mystery guy,” as she called him.

Out in the garden, I breathed in the cool October air as I surveyed my garden.
Although I itched to plunge my fingers deep into the soil, I wasn’t about to mess up my outfit moments before Rafe got here. I mean, come on, had he ever seen me not covered in blood, gore, ick, goo, or dirt? I didn’t think so, and that was pretty sad. So I resigned myself to raking the leaves into a pile that I would dispose of tomorrow, when I was free to get as dirty as I wanted.

I was so into my raking that I didn’t even hear Rafe come up behind me.
When he said, “How did I know I’d find you back here?” I yelped and jumped about a foot in the air. I turned around to see him grinning at me, a plastic bag hanging from one hand, and a potted mum in the other. He was wearing dark khakis and a green polo shirt (no jacket, of course) and looked totally cute, if I may say so. “I brought presents!” he continued. “I know, let’s play a game! Which one does Gabi like more?” He waved the mum first. “A plant or…” He rustled the bag playfully. “Dessert?”

“Don’t make me choose!” I scolded, taking the mum before he dropped it.
“This is perfect, Rafe, I know just where to plant it, too!
Someone
stepped on one of my mums and I never got around to replacing it.”

Rafe looked confused.
“Wait, so you don’t even want to know what the dessert is before you choose? Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?”

My heart skipped a beat at the word ‘girlfriend’.
Would I ever get over this giddy feeling? Hopefully not. “Why don’t you come over here and find out?” I teased.

He walked up to me, leaning over and putting his face inches from mine.
“And
how
exactly am I supposed to find out?”

“Well, you could kiss me
and see if it’s like last night…”

He chuckled, his lips almost but not quite brushing mine.
“In that case, I better put this dessert down. I don’t want to drop it when you throw yourself at me.”

My brows rose.
“Excuse me, but I don’t remembering ‘throwing’ myself at you last night.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t remember from last night.”

“Maybe you’re confusing me with some other girl,” I shot back.

“Nah, you’re more than enough for me, Gabi.”

“And what is
that
supposed to mean?”

“Ahem.”

Up until then we had been doing all of this bantering with our faces nearly glued together, but when a new voice interrupted us, we guiltily jumped apart.
Dad stood at the back door, watching us with an unreadable expression on his face.

Rafe ran a hand through his hair as he took a giant step backwards.
From me. I frowned, but Dad ignored me as he continued to study Rafe.

“Uh, hello Mr. Harkins.”
Rafe held up the plastic bag. “I brought dessert. Apple pie.”

Dad crossed his arms across his chest and nodded.
“My favorite. Why don’t you come inside; dinner is almost ready. You too, Gabi.” He went back in without another word.

Rafe shot me a look.
“He doesn’t have a gun, right?”

“Will you stop!”
I shoved him with my shoulder as we clambered inside. “But good job with the apple pie, it
is
his favorite. Now he won’t have to poison your dinner.”

“Gabi,” Rafe groaned while I laughed wickedly.
We entered the kitchen, which was warm and smelled like Thanksgiving dinner, only with a chicken instead of turkey. Dad had gone all out, making stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, corn, and a giant salad that Chloe was currently tossing. She took one look at Rafe and dropped the salad tongs with a loud clatter against the bowl.

“Hi!” she said, sounding a little breathless as she approached us.
Suddenly Chloe was all shy and demure, which were the last two words I would ever use to describe my sister. Dad and I exchanged a look.

“Hello,” Rafe said, shaking her hand after he put the pie safely on the counter.
“You must be Chloe.” He glanced at me. “You guys look alike!”

Chloe giggled like that was the funniest thing she
had ever heard. I rolled my eyes. Multiple times.

“Chloe, finish with that salad, please,” Dad said.
“Gabi, start bringing some of the dishes to the dining room.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll help,” Rafe quickly offered, grabbing the mashed potatoes.

“Normally we eat in the kitchen,” I explained as I led him into the dining room, “and
only use this room for special occasions.”

Rafe grinned.
“Does that mean I’m special?”

Me bringing home a guy is pretty special,
I thought, but I would never admit that out loud. Instead, I told him to pay special attention to the clean floor and windows, courtesy of the Harkins sisters.

We set the food on the long table and Rafe laughed, pointing to the one place setting on one side of the table.
“I bet I’m sitting here, right?” The other side was set for two, and there was one more setting at the head of the table.

I sighed.
“How’d you guess?”

“Did your dad give you a hard time about last night?”
He looked genuinely worried.

“I think he was more annoyed that we gave him reason to believe something had happened,” I said.
“He believed me when I said nothing happened besides kissing, which is good enough for me.”

“Good.
That’s good. I don’t want him to hate me or anything,” Rafe said, coming over to my side of the table to brush a strand of hair from my face. “But speaking of kisses, I haven’t received one today—”

“This food isn’t going to make its way into the dining room by itself!” Dad called
from the kitchen, interrupting yet another perfect moment between us. I sighed. This was going to become a trend, I could see it already.
              “Does he have X-Ray vision?” Rafe whispered loudly as we went back to the kitchen.

“Yes, and perfect hearing as well,” Dad answered for me.
Rafe turned red, which he tried to hide by picking up the bread basket and rushing out of the room. Chloe followed, practically running after him with the salad bowl held up high.

“Dad,” I said softly, although I was more than a little amused at seeing Rafe so flustered.

“Don’t you know, Gabi?” he asked, waving a spatula at me. “It’s a dad’s job to tease his daughter’s boyfriend.”

I was about to answer with something snarky when the doorbell rang.
“It’s not for me,” I said. “Penny knows I have Rafe over.”

Dad frowned.
“Maybe it’s for Chloe?” The timer on the stove beeped then, distracting him, and I told Dad I’d answer the bell.

I opened the front door to see Evan
on the porch, a bottle of cider cradled in his arms as he beamed at me. “Hey, Gabi! Am I late?”