Page 54 of Inherited Light
She grinned and I leaned down and kissed her. “Sorry, your lips tease me when you grin.” I winked and she blushed, which told me her fever had broken as we talked. “Mamásat down with us and we talked about special gifts people have, like Cinn being gifted in music. She told me her own mother had many spiritual gifts and it didn’t surprise her to know her own kids did, too. I didn’t know at the time Tabitha had psychic abilities. I didn’t know her well since she didn’t live at home.”
“Did you finally manage to leave Cinn’s bedside and get on with your life?” she asked, her demeanor slowly sinking as we approached the hour where we would talk about her again.
“I did, on both accounts. I learned how to handle the gift. If I had a feeling someone needed help, I made up some kind of story about why we should check on them.”
“Were you ever wrong?” she asked curiously.
“Nope, not once. When I hit my teenage years, I forced the intuition to reside in a hidden box in the back of my very dusty brain closet. I refused to be considered the geek or the nerd of the group. I wanted to be like any other 16-year-old red blooded male, but it didn’t work out the best for me.”
“Another Cinn incident?” she asked.
“No, I allowed the gift free rein with Cinn. I didn’t have much say in the matter. She’s the one person who I have almost a telepathic connection with, well, she was the one person. Now there are two,” I said, rubbing her arm. She turned away, which told me she wasn’t ready to admit her love for me, yet. “Anyway, the incident happened when I started my senior year. A group of us guys were driving to see the San Diego Chargers at the stadium. There were two trucks of guys and we live a good long way from San Diego, so we decided to break the drive up into two days. We stayed in a cabin in the woods and planned to have a little fun with a campfire and cookout. After dinner, we started the fire, ready to tell some ghost stories and act like fools. To my surprise, a couple of guys had managed to buy some beer illegally, since we weren’t legal yet, and snuck it into the truck. It made me uncomfortable. I didn’t want to get caught up in a situation where booze was involved, even if I didn’t drink it. I had a scholarship waiting and getting an underage drinking citation would cost me. When the guys wouldn’t stop razzing me about it I got mad, stomped into the cabin, and fell into bed. Sometime after three I woke up freezing, but not the kind of cold a blanket would fix. If I had to explain it, I would say there was ice water running through my veins. My first thought was maybe I had come down with something, but I didn’t feel bad otherwise. I got up and stumbled outside to see if I could warm up by the fire. I hadn’t gone fifty yards past the cabin when someone started yelling. I had no idea what direction it had come from, so I yelled back. The closer I got to the person yelling, the colder I became. If I strayed too far away I started to warm up,” I explained.
She shook her finger. “I think it’s the other way around. You know, you’re hot when you’re close to something and you’re cold when you’re not.”
I held out my hands as if to say, ‘I know, right?’ “If the feeling hadn’t been all consuming I might have laughed it off and gone back to sleep, but even though the gift had been locked up, my brain could still find the key when needed and let little parts of it out. It didn’t happen often, so I willingly followed it. When I finally found the guy yelling, I realized it was to save a life. The ringleader of our group had hold of a long dead branch from a tree. At the other end hung his best friend desperately trying to get back to shore and out of the cold water. It took both of us fighting the current to get him out. We dragged him back to the cabin and started a fire, forcing him to sit in front of it with nothing but a blanket on until his lips had turned pink again and he could feel his toes.”
“What were they doing in the woods late at night after drinking?” she asked and I chewed my lip some more.
“They were making out,” I answered and her eyes widened to the size of saucers. “It turns out they weren’t just best friends, but none of us were the wiser. We didn’t have a problem with it mind you, but I guess they kept it hidden for their own reasons. They were sitting on the riverbank and Maverick slipped off a leaf covered rock and fell into the river. The story ends well as they got married a year or so ago.”
“Wow, all because you trusted your gift, searched, and found them.”
“I learned more from those few hours than everyone else combined, I’m sure. Why do you think the lumberyard gave me such a good deal on the lumber for your ramp?” I asked jokingly and she gasped.
“You mean he’s one half of the couple?”
I nodded. “Dane happened to be the one holding onto the stick and screaming for someone to help him. I attended their wedding when they got married at a cabin in the woods. Only the three of us understood the significance of it, but we were the only three who needed to.”
“Wow, what a story,” she whispered, rolling to her right side a little bit. “Was it a turning point? Did it teach you to start letting the gift out of the box a little bit more?”
“No, I stopped putting it in the box at all. I learned how to assimilate it into my day-to-day life. I taught myself how to hone in on it when there was danger or if someone I loved had a problem. The past few years I’ve given it a bit more leeway, but I’ve never been terribly worked up unless Cinn had a problem. The day you showed up in my life it changed again. Now it goes off when you have a problem.”
She cleared her throat. “Really? Would you explain?”
“I don’t think it requires an explanation, Cat. I can feel the same emotions someone I love is feeling. For instance, the other night when I woke up after being conked on the head. The reason I was out of my mind frantic was I could feel your fear, anxiety, and pain. It rolled over me in waves and I had to concentrate on breathing. I was petrified and my only thought was to protect you. Today, I was exhausted and my body ached. I attributed it at first to the long week and the head injury, but by four, I stopped working long enough to concentrate. Then it became clear you had a problem, which is why I locked up and left as soon as the plumber finished. When Foster wanted me to take you home, I argued with him. I wasn’t arguing because I didn’t trust him. I argued because I could feel how poorly the woman I loved felt. The feeling overwhelmed me and I wanted you at a hospital.”
She squeezed my hand. “I'm okay.”
“I’m trying to believe it,” I whispered, smiling a little bit.
“You love me?” she asked, her voice shaking.
“I do. I love you,” I said honestly.
She shook her head in frustration. “You can’t love me, Ren. I can’t allow you to throw your life away on a woman like me.”
Chapter Eighteen
I forced myself to calmly set the cup in the microwave and turn it on. I took a tea bag from the box and stood flicking it absently while I waited for the water to heat. She made me leave her room, but if she thinks I can't hear her crying she's not only ill, she's delusional. Usually when you tell a woman you love them they don't cry and kick you out, especially when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt they love you, too. I lifted the mug out of the small microwave and dunked the bag in a few times. I still don’t know why she’s sick. Somehow, she managed to take the fact I have abilities and let it completely control the conversation for the last hour. It took the focus away from her and kept it on me, something she liked, but not something I would allow to continue. I gathered the tea and toast I made and carried it to the bedroom.
She had curled up on her right side in an awkward way. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see whatever was going on had something to do with the left side of her belly. I set the plate and mug down on the table by the bed and pulled a chair up next to her.
"I made you something to eat. If you don't want to eat you should at least drink the tea."
She wiped her eyes, rolled over, and accepted the cup from me, sipping the lemon tea. "It's good, thank you."
I rubbed away a few more tears which fell even as she drank the tea. I had to play this cool. If I pushed her too far she would clam up completely and I would never find out why she didn't feel well.
