CHAPTER NINETEEN
Elara
My aim had never been great, but Dez was a pretty big target. I still managed to miss him with the first egg. But as he turned to see what had flown past him, I hit him square in the chest with a second raw egg.
I immediately regretted it.
He touched the gooey mess and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, those dark eyes smoldering.
“You don’t get to talk to me that way!” I shouted as I crossed my arms over my chest in false bravado.
He sighed heavily, shoulders falling a bit.
“I’m sorry. You’re right,” he managed, his none egg covered hand running through his hair. “He gets under my skin. But, seriously? Eggs, Ellie?”
I caught the corner of his lips twitch in the smallest hint of a smile.
“I don’t have enough shoes here. I’ll take what I can get.”
He raised an eyebrow, wiping at the dripping yellow and clear goo on the flannel shirt that he’d found stashed in a closet somewhere yesterday. “So you choose eggs?”
“Yeah. That’s about all I can do with them. Can you make me pancakes?” I gave him an attempt at a cute half smile. “Please?”
I gave him more of a pout than a smile, hoping he’d take pity and cook for me again.
“Yes. I will make you pancakes.” He beckoned me to toward him. “But first, come here.”
I caught the glitter in his eye. That was the same dark sparkle that was there before he plunged us both in to the hot spring.
“Oh no.”
“Oh, yes.”
I had no chance as he chased me around the large slab table in the kitchen. He cornered me by the fridge. I could not contain my giggle as he smeared egg down the side of my face.
“Go get a shower. I’ll make you breakfast,” he said with a laugh before stealing a kiss. “Yellow is not your color at all, Red.”
I momentarily froze at the nickname. It didn’t give me the same chill it had the last time. I laughed it off and headed back up the stairs for a quick shower.
The place smelled like hickory bacon as I came back down the stairs. I hated washing his scent off my skin. I started to get my hopes up that I could talk him in to staying the rest of the week with me.
Dez stood over the gas stove, his flannel shirt discarded, standing there in only his undershirt. I took in the lines of his back, pink and white scars snaking out from under the fabric. What trouble did he get in to through the years? I tried to be quiet as I watched him work, but he caught me in the corner of his vision and smiled.
“Food’s almost ready.”
I took a seat crossed legged on the heavy wooden table so I could watch him. Not that I expected to learn how to cook from him, but I wanted to commit him to memory.
“How long have you lived in Cordova, Dez?” I asked a few moments later, trying not to ogle his smooth movements.
“All my life. Why?” He flipped the pancakes in the skillet with just a flick of his wrist. I would have made a mess. I sat up a bit taller and noted the pile of scrambled eggs in another pan. I don’t know how much he expected me to eat, but my stomach was making its hunger known.
“Did you happen to know a Sky Merrick?”
He froze mid flip of a pancake; it landed safely back in the pan. He stood a bit taller, eyes narrowing at me. “I did. She's been gone for a long time. Why do you ask?”
“Do you know who her next of kin is?”
His brow furrowed deeper. I smelled the pancake he’d flipped start to darken. I knew that almost burnt smell all too well.
“Who’s putting you up to this?” I didn’t like the buried grumble I heard in his voice.
“What? No. No one. Minnie left me a note with a diary she asked me to return if I was able to.”
There was no hiding the shock on his face as he grabbed the edge of the counter. “My mother kept a diary?”
I managed a nod. His mask slid away as he turned off the stove and took a seat at the table, scrubbing his hands across his face.
“The woman from the accident, was that your mother?”
He only nodded.
I felt dirty. I'd been reading about him and his family. All of a sudden, everything was too real. I choked back my own tears, dabbing my eyes with the edge of my sweater.
“Can you please get it for me?” The words were whispered as he laid a hand on my leg.
I slipped off the table, heading to the living room to retrieve the leather-bound book from where I’d left it.
By the time I'd taken the few steps back to the kitchen, he hadn’t moved. I handed over the book. There was a slight tremor in his hand as he took it from me.
He held it to his nose and took a deep breath. “Smells just like I remember her. Sandalwood and sage. That was all she ever wore.”
He smoothed over the cover with his palm. “And Minnie had this the whole time and never told me. Sometimes she knew what was better for me than I gave her credit for.”
With a deep sigh, he opened the cover and ran his fingers over the writing. “It has been too long since I’ve seen anything my mother wrote.”
I could barely hear the words and I was right beside him. I watched him flip a few pages and close his eyes. I rubbed my hand across his back. “I’ll let you be.”
He grabbed my hand. “No. Stay.”
Sitting beside him, we paged through some random entries. Most were from before he was born, but they still made him smile. The few that he remembered he elaborated on. When we got to the end, he was quiet.
“What happened?” I managed to ask as he just stared at her words.
“She was right.” He breathed as he shut the journal. “She always knew.”
Dez rested his head on the table, tucking the journal under his arm. I had no idea what was going through his head. I recognized his expression from just a few hours ago when we sat in the stairwell. “It was your sister you pulled from the car that day, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He stood and paced the kitchen floor, refusing to look at me. He went back to the bag he had brought back in from his truck that morning. “I have some things to take care of with my brother later tonight.”
“You’re leaving me?”
I hadn’t meant to shriek.
He shook his head as he pulled a beat-up leather journal from his bag. “No. I’ll be back. I promise. I can’t guarantee it will be tonight. It depends on how well this goes tonight.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. What are you doing?”
“It doesn’t matter. But you can’t be involved. And you’re gone in a few days. The less you know, the better.”
“Why does everyone in this town keep telling me that?”
“Because it's the truth. I need you to stay put. And, please, hold on to this for me. Papa lived ten years without her. She was his heart. They deserve to be together again, even it is only in their words. Every moment was too long for him, but he knew every moment was a moment closer to them being together again. Give me a reason to come back.”
“You talk like you wouldn’t.”
That solemn darkness crossed his eyes. “You never know.”