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She sighed. “Where have you been all my life?”
“On hold, pretty girl, on hold.”
He held her hand all the way to the door. “For now, and for the rest of your life, when you need something, call me. I need to be wanted, too.”
Then he opened the door and got as far as the steps before he turned around.
“Lock the door, Amalie.”
She closed the door between them and turned the lock.
Sean’s heart was pounding, his pulse was playing ricochet from his head to his toes, and he ached to be with her, but not tonight. Instead, he got in the car and drove away.
Amalie watched his taillights until they disappeared, and then she put up the food she’d brought home and stripped and crawled into a tub of hot, steamy water. A cold shower would have been wiser, but it was the wrong weather for that, and it would take more than a cold shower to turn off the fire he’d started with a kiss.
Thirty minutes later, she was still in the tub when her cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“I’m home. Are you in bed?”
“I’m soaking in the tub.”
“Jesus wept and thank you for the image,” he muttered, then heard soft laughter in his ear. “It’s not funny.”
“You’re right. This is the saddest, most miserable moment ever.”
He sighed. “Okay, point taken. I’m just having a guy moment. It will pass.”
“I don’t want it to go away. And I honor the intention. I mean… After all, we swore a blood oath to each other on the day of gum in the hair.”
“We did?” he asked, and heard laughter in her voice again.
“You don’t remember? Dang, mister. I’ve carried that oath with me forever. It became my lucky charm. It was the spell you put on me to bind me to you for life.”
He was grinning now. “Are you teasing me now?”
“I’m insulted. No, I’m not teasing. You had the bullies already laid out on the ground. They were wailing and bawling and bleeding all over the place, and teachers were coming out of the building on the run, and you were helping me up. There was a bloody cut on the palm of my hand, and your knuckles were bloody from the fight. You frowned and said, ‘You’re bleeding, Molly,’ and I pointed at your hand and said, ‘You’re bleeding, too.’ Then you got this look on your face. Your eyes narrowed. Your chin jutted like it always did when you got serious, and you cried out, ‘Blood oath!’ Then you put your bloody knuckles in the palm of my bloody hand and said, ‘Ain’t nobody gonna ever hurt you again,’ and then the teachers dragged us away.”
“Oh man… Yes, I remember that. My brothers and I were all into playing knights and slaying dragons for theprincess, and we played blood oath until Mom made us quit, because she got tired of scrubbing the blood out of our clothes. You were the only for-real princess I ever got a chance to protect.”
Amalie’s voice softened. “And you were the knight in shining armor I needed to appear. So, no worries about me disappearing again. You slayed my dragons. You shed blood for me. You won my heart years ago. I think in the lands of knights and dragons and rescued princesses, you already own me. Rest easy, Sir Sean. All is well with me.”
Sean was still smiling long after she’d hung up, and when he finally fell asleep, he dreamed of dragons bowing down, and a sword with a wolf crest, and Amalie rising from the ashes.
Chapter 9
Snowfall ended before morning.
The sight from below had turned the mountain into a giant cupcake with icing on the top.
Everyone within the icing was hustling around, getting ready to go to work, and children were begging to go play in the snow before mothers had them fed.
Cameron Pope was already outside with his son, Mikey, making a snowman, while Ghost, who was as white as the snow, was on the porch with Rusty. As big and furry as the German shepherd was, he had come from a land of sand and heat and considered anything colder than rain an offense.
A couple of miles down the mountain, Rachel Glass was bundling her daughter, Lili, up in a coat and mittens, so she could go outside with Daddy. It was Louis’s day off, and he was devoting the day to his family and the daughter they’d almost lost.
Shops were opening in Jubilee, and special shows with winter-rate prices were ongoing in the music venues tokeep business booming and visitors coming and going. Beneath all the fun and entertainment, Jubilee was a well-oiled dynasty, hiding in plain sight.
