I’m out of my seat, purse in hand and I’m ready to go. Camila’s reading was fun. This one was a joke, at my expense, and I’m not laughing. “Take me home.”
A cell rings, and I glance at Jesse, waiting for him to answer, but instead it’s Glory who crosses the room and grabs her cell. She accepts the video call and gives a brilliant smile. “Hi! Do you mind giving me a few? I need to wrap up with a client, and I’ll call you right back.”
My entire body seizes. “You’re supposed to give me a ride home.”
Glory ends the call and offers me an apologetic expression. “I forgot I had a phone meeting. I’ll take you home, after the call, but this will be a lengthy session.”
Meaning I won’t be home by curfew. “Reschedule.”
Glory has a thoughtful look as she approaches me. One that makes me feel like I should run. She leans forward and says in my ear, “You felt something when you saw the Chariot.”
The moment she placed that card on the table I felt as if I had sprinted headfirst into a wall. It was a stunned feeling, as if I were lost in a fog, but I won’t admit that. Not to her, not to anybody.
“You’ve been asleep for a very long time,” she whispers. “It’s time to wake up, Scarlett. There’s a whole world of possibility waiting for you.”
I step back from her because this lady is insane. “I need you to take me home.”
“I can’t, but I’m sure Jesse can lead the way.”
Um . . . no. I spin on my toes, and I’m out the door, down the stairs and I head east for home. Seconds later, the screen door slams shut again, and there are heavy footfalls on the wooden steps.
“Wait up!” Jesse calls out.
Nope. Not going to happen. I enter the tree line and curse the sky above that there’s no moon. This is the country, which means that besides the fading light from Glory’s house, I’m in complete darkness.
“Scarlett!” Jesse tries again. “Wait!”
But I don’t. I walked this land hundreds of times with Jesse, sometimes by myself so I could find him when I needed a friend. I can do this on my own.
“Let me find you so I can walk you home,” Jesse says.
He’s to my right, and I hurry because I don’t want to be found. My pulse pounds in my ears, and my blood tingles with this need to stay hidden, to stay alone.
Once upon a time, Jesse was my best friend, and then one day he froze me out. He stopped answering the door when I knocked, he ran away when he saw me coming across the field and then when we were forced into the same space on the first day of our freshman year, he humiliated me in front of the entire school.
Jesse Lachlin crushed me, and while I feel sorry for him because his grandmother died, I don’t forgive him for leaving a scar on my soul.
“Dammit, Scarlett, stop being so stubborn.”
My jaw clenches, and it takes an immeasurable amount of self-control to not explain to Jesse in a very loud tone that he’s the biggest jerk I’ve ever met. Doing so will inform him where I’m located, and I need him to leave me alone.
I push forward, faster this time, but then my foot snags on a root. My balance is thrown and my arms swing wildly in the air. I attempt to reach for something to break my fall, but my fingers catch air. The sensation is like the first massive hill of a roller coaster as my stomach lifts, and I brace myself for impact with the ground.
I close my eyes, tense my muscles and I’m caught. Strong, warm arms weave around me from behind and then my back is pressed flush against a solid chest. My heart leaps, and my lungs are robbed of air.
“You okay?” Jesse’s mouth is incredibly close to my ear, and his hot breath tickles my skin. I tremble, because of the adrenaline or because of this achingly beautiful intimacy, I don’t know.
“Are you okay?” he asks again, and this time his arms tenderly squeeze me as if he’s offering comfort, as if he honestly cares. It’s been so long since anyone has hugged me that a part of me melts into the embrace as if I’m dry ground welcoming a warm rain.
“Scarlett?” Jesse gently urges me to answer. “Are you okay?”
No, I’m not. I haven’t been okay in years, and he’s partly to blame. A rush of anger fills me, and I shove Jesse away. “I’m fine.”
He straightens as if I had slapped him. Something I should have done our freshman year when he embarrassed me at lunch, making me the laughingstock of the freshman class. People still whisper about it. “Yeah, you seem fine.”
We’ve wandered far enough into the woods that the lights from Glory’s cottage are no longer visible. Above us, through the thick foliage, thousands of stars twinkle in the night sky. I blink, and my sight finally adjusts to the darkness. I’m still surrounded by blackness, but I can make out some of the trees and most of Jesse.
“Are you ready to accept my help?”
“I know my way home.”
“You were walking toward the state highway.”
I cross my arms because I had no idea I had been heading in the exact wrong direction of home. “I was trying to lose you.”
“Then lose me. But lose me when you cross the street to your home. I don’t need police officers and FBI agents roaming my land for weeks because you can’t figure out east from west.”
“Scared they’ll find your drug stash?”
Jesse yanks on the bill of his baseball cap. I have no idea if Jesse does drugs or not. Rumor at school is that he was arrested for possession, but his uncle had the charges dropped.
“Get your phone and use the flashlight app,” he says. “Last thing I need is your dad suing me because you can’t walk without tripping.”
Jesse isn’t reaching for his cell, and I know why. Unlike me, Jesse knows this entire land so well that he could walk it blindfolded and with his arms tied behind his back.
“The light will blind us,” I say, “and I remember how to get home.”
He releases a long breath like he doesn’t believe me then starts to walk in the opposite direction of where I had been heading. “Then at least stick close.”
As much as I hate it, I do. Even when I roamed this land daily, I still didn’t know it as well as Jesse. No one could. Jesse and the land aren’t just connected. They are one.