Page 5 of Spellbound
He did? How did he know anything about me at all? I would have figured lesser mortals like me didn’t figure into his thinking.
I tucked an errant curl behind my ear, hoping he wouldn’t ask any more questions. I had significant memory gaps around my accident, and my therapist said not to force it. The memories would come back on their own. So far, they hadn’t, but I was hopeful they would, eventually. And my name wasn’t “Ash.”
I was way too conscious of how he kept glancing over at me. My hair was a little long, so that could be it, I supposed, although back home…well, among the students and other younger members of the faculty, anyway, I fit in just fine. When we had set out from Atlanta, what seemed like days ago now, my hair had still been neatly brushed and tied back. God only knew what it looked like now, with all this rain and humidity. My hair kept sliding down over my eyes, so I pushed at it impatiently.
“The traffic was awful,” I said. “And then, the rain and fog came and… we weren’t even sure this is the right road.”
“Didn’t you say you used your GPS?”
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t trust it.”
He gave that the puzzled look it probably deserved but refrained from saying anything else.
“Let’s go find your grandmother and your vehicle,” he said.
My vehicle, huh?He sounded like some kind of cop, which indeed, he was, like I’d heard my grandmother mention. What was it about this guy that made me feel stupid? He had that stern, no-nonsense look on his face that I’d seen on cops on television. He probably fit right in with the rest of them.
“Yeah, thanks. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
“Uh huh. You sure you left the car up this way?” he asked, and I nodded.
“Yes, of course. It can’t be too far. I hadn’t been walking long when I met you. This fog is kind of intense, though. Disorienting, you know?”
He nodded. “Yes. That’s why you should have stayed with the car. You could have fallen on this muddy road and reinjured your leg.”
“What choice did I have? Send my grandma instead?”
There wasn’t much to say to that, so he didn’t, and I decided to ignore him. We went a little way down the road and around another curve and then there it was, right where I’dleft it. Completely disregarding what I’d told her, my grandma immediately got out of the car as we drove up, came around the back and began waving frantically, like we might miss her and the car sitting squarely in the middle of the road if she didn’t flag us down. I waved back so she could see me, and she looked relieved.
He parked right behind the Suburban, but before he could come around and manhandle me out of it again, I sort of lurched out on my own, managing to jump and land mostly on my good leg. A spear of agony went through my leg, and I had to hold onto the door to keep my footing.
“Pop the hood,” he said, nodding at the rental car, and I looked at him a little blankly, wondering how I was going to accomplish that exactly. First of all, it would require walking, which I didn’t think was going to happen right away, and second of all, I’d “popped” hoods before. Kind of—but this wasn’t a car I was familiar with in any kind of way. I hadn’t even driven it yet. I would have figured it out, but in that brief moment of hesitation, he didn’t quite roll his eyes, though I think it was close. He strode confidently to open the driver’s door and nodded as he passed my grandma. “Ma’am…” he said by way of a greeting.
Then he slid in the seat and reached under the dash to pull some lever, so the hood came open with a little click. He went back around and pulled the hood up, not looking at us as he leaned over the engine to take a look. He did something with wires inside, and said, “Your battery cables were loose. Try it now.”
I limped around to get behind the wheel and tried it, and like he said, and the thing fired right up.
“God, thanks so much. We’ll get out of your way now and get back to the highway.”
He looked at me with a confused expression. “But aren’t you going to Rosalyn’s house? It’s straight ahead, not far up the road, and she’s expecting you. She has dinner prepared.”
“Wait, do you know Rosalyn?” my grandma asked, peering myopically through the fog at him. Suddenly she recognized him. “Oh, my goodness.Ben?Is that you? My gosh, how you’ve changed since the last time I saw you. You’re all grown up now. It’s so good to see you again, honey.”
“Yes ma’am. It’s good to see you again too.”
“Thanks so much for rescuing us,” she said, giving him a big smile. “I don’t know what we would have done without you. I was afraid we’d have to spend the night in the car. Asher was panicking a little, but I think he just has low blood sugar.”
“Grandma, what in the world are you talking about? No, I do not.”
She shrugged, looking unconvinced, and Ben smiled.
“It was my pleasure, and you were on the right road. The house is nearby, and I’m on my way there now for dinner too, so let me take you with me. You can just follow me, if you like.”
“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Gran said.
“Yeah, great,” I murmured.
He gave me a look I couldn’t quite read, but I didn’t get the big, easy smile he’d given my grandma. Instead, his words to me were a little bossy. “These roads are tricky at night, so you need to be careful. Just go slow and watch out for the drainage ditches on either side. The last thing we need is for you to fall in one of them. I’ll go around you when we hit a wider spot in the road, so you can follow me through the gate. Until then just go straight ahead.Slowly.”
