Page 60 of It's You
Willow wasn’t offeringany details about Amory’s sudden plumbing assistance, but she sure wanted every detail about Darcy’s weekend with Jack.
“Five times? FIVE TIMES?” Willow stared at Darcy from across the table.
“You sound like the guy inFerris Bueller,” Darcy answered, feeling her face flush hot, not that anyone could tell under her no-sun-sunburn.
“That was nine.” Willow’s eyes were about to pop out of her head, they were so wide. “How did thathappen?”
“It just…happened.”
Darcy looked at the menu again. She looked at her watch. Time was crawling. It was only one o’clock, and she missed him. How was she going to make it to Thursday?
“Somewhere you need to be?” Willow flicked her glance to Darcy’s watch.
“No. I just…I miss him.” She shrugged sheepishly.
“Oh. You’ve got it bad.”
Darcy leaned across the table suddenly and spoke in an urgent whisper. “Will, would it be crazy if I loved him?”
Willow had leaned forward when Darcy did, but now she leaned back, staring at her.
“You’ve known him, what? A week?”
“He thinks we’re bound.”
“He thinks you’re what?”
“Bound. It’s a Métis thing.”
“Not thatIknow of.”
The waitress came over to take their orders. Darcy ordered a cheeseburger and fries, and Willow, who was a loose vegetarian, ordered a grilled cheese with tomato.
“Well, he explained it to me. Apparently, it started as a legend, but he definitely believes in it. A man will find the woman he’s supposed to be with the summer before his eighteenth birthday. If he’s supposed to be bound to her, he’ll kiss her, and that’ll tell him.”
“Tell him what?”
“If she’s the one. But he wasn’t supposed to be bound to me. He should have been bound to a Métis woman. Not me. He saidthat there was no precedent for being bound to me. He, like, presented it to the pack elders or something.”
“Pack? Do you mean tribal?”
“Yeah. Yeah, he said tribal. After we kissed, he went to see them at the Bloodlands and?—”
“Bloodlands? He used that word?”
Darcy nodded. “Somewhere north of Quebec. He was born there.”
“Okay. Go ahead.”
“And they said that he was wrong. They insisted he hadn’t been bound to me, and that he needed to stay away from me, and he’d get over it. But he didn’t. And so he finally decided to come back.” Darcy took a deep breath and sighed.
“He told you all of this?”
Darcy nodded.
“I’ve never heard of this. Seriously. Nothing. Nada. Never.” Willow looked concerned. “That said, he’s full Métis, and I’m only a quarter. I’ve never heard of binding or Bloodlands, but you better believe I’m going to ask myNohkomabout all of this. She’s just as much Métis as Jack.”
“There’s more,” said Darcy. “More that comes with the binding.”
