GABE
Even though I’d been right on the brink of falling asleep, I’d heard her. My first thought as I’d been drifting off was Well, shiiiit. But when I woke up, I was in Action Jackson problem-solver mode.
She’d obviously been worried about telling me, which made it clear that it wasn’t some small-potatoes thing. It wasn’t like Markowitz and his ridiculous flailing afraid-of-bees dance that turned a lunch meeting on the patio at Chipotle into total pandemonium. This sounded legit. The word she’d used was petrified, and I’d heard her voice shake when she said it.
It sounded serious, and I took it seriously. I was falling for her hard, and I sure as hell didn’t need to take her to Brazil to prove it.
With as much stealth as a guy my size could have in an old house with seriously creaky floorboards, I crept out into the main living area. When the General saw me, he hopped up one rung in his cage, making the bars rattle. I pressed my index finger to my lips and said, “Shhh.”
“Whisper?” he whispered.
“Whisper,” I whispered back.
“OK!” he replied and then tucked his beak back into his chest feathers, lifted one foot, and closed his eyes.
I took a stack of blank paper from the shelf by her printer and sat down at her kitchen table. Using the notes I had on my phone as well as some searches online, I worked my way through all the places we could go for a start. Her role in the show, if she wanted to go with me, would be up to her. I wasn’t about to Idea Fart cohost into the situation first thing in the damned morning. If she wanted to cohost, that’d be awesome. If she had some cameos, that’d be great too. If not, and she wanted to be in charge of sound on the other side of the camera, that was also just great. Whatever she wanted was fine by me as long as I got to be with her. I wouldn’t be able to avoid planes forever, but at least for now—at least as we really developed a foundation—this would give us a chance to spend some more time together.
Because Savannah was about ghosts, Markowitz and I had decided the next few episodes needed to be about monsters, so I drew up five different options to share with Lily. Just as I was putting the finishing touches on the fifth one, I heard the floorboards creak way more softly than they had under my footsteps, and she came into the kitchen. Her hair was all tangled, one strap of her lacy nightie had fallen down her shoulder, and I could still see a hint of the hickey. It didn’t get any hotter than her.
I stood up and pulled her chair out for her. “Welcome to the pitch presentation for the next story line on The Powers of Suggestion.”
She rubbed her lips together and glanced around, looking coy, cute, and slightly confused. “Thank you?”
“Have a seat. Can I get you anything?” I gestured to the coffee maker. “Coffee? Tea? Leftover peach tart?”
She rubbed her eyes and snickered. “I think . . . I’m OK for now. But thank you!”
“Excellent. So given our travel limitations . . .” I paused here for effect, and she cringed when it registered what I was saying. “I’ve put together several ideas. All of them are in the US. No planes necessary.”
“Gabe.” She reached out one hand as if to stop me. But she didn’t look panicked. More like embarrassed. So I decided to keep at it. “We’ll have some Q&A time afterward. Lemme just get my presentation squared away.” I took my stack of pitches to the fridge and stuck them down with magnets shaped like slices of citrus fruits, blocking the fridge with my body. I heard her snickering behind me, and I smiled hard at the freezer. From the small ceramic crock by her stove, I grabbed a wooden spoon to use as a pointer and stepped to the side of the fridge.
She tucked herself up into a ball on the kitchen chair and watched me expectantly with her chin resting on her knee.
“Now, the first thing for you to consider is that Markowitz has suggested you become my cohost.”
Lily’s mouth dropped open. “Your what?”
“Just marinate on that awhile,” I said. “And forget about Brazil. Instead, here are some ideas that are a bit closer to home. First option is the Mothman, in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.” Here I pointed to the page I’d illustrated. I’d written down some info about the legend, the rough mileage, and the number of days it would take us. I’d done the same for all five. “Second option is the Wampus Cat in eastern Tennessee. Third, the Pukewudgie in Massachusetts. Fourth, the Beast of Busco in Indiana. And finally, the Ozark Howler. In the Ozarks. Obviously.”
With big and innocent eyes, I watched her scan the options, and then she glanced at me. “You’re serious?”
Serious as a goddamned lightning strike. I cupped my hand to my mouth and whispered, “I’m putting in a word for the Ozark Howler right now.”
Lily shook her head, laughing a little like she just couldn’t believe me. “Gabe. This is all very kind and very thoughtful. But I have all sorts of stuff that I’m responsible for here in Savannah.” She gestured to a calendar on the wall, which had events written all over it. I saw Ivan’s birthday and Help out at the library and all sorts of other things. Unlike my calendar, hers wasn’t all about work. Her life was about life, as I wished mine was too. “I can’t be going away with you all of a sudden, even if you are willing to drive to wherever it is we go.”
I grabbed the other kitchen chair and turned it around so I sat down straddling it. I put the spoon on the table and took her hands in mine. “Just think about it. I’m not going to push. If the world is the oyster, then you’re the pearl. And I want you to see that I’m willing to change my plans if that’s what it’s going to take.”
She nodded, studying me closely. She shifted her hand so we were palm to palm. She interlaced her fingers with mine and gave my hand a squeeze. Finally she lifted her chin and gave me a decisive nod. “Then I shall take your pitches under consideration, Mr. Powers.”
It was a relief, but I didn’t want her to think that her fear was something that I was simply trying to fix or solve or work around. She’d opened herself up to me. And I really wanted her to know that whatever she shared would be safe. I cared about what she went through, whether or not it was a problem with an easy solution. I gently turned her other hand over, so it was palm up on the back of my chair, and traced her love line and her heart line. “Can I ask you something?” I asked. “About the mode of transportation that will remain unnamed?”
Lily nodded tentatively, tucking her knees up even closer to her chest. “Yes.”
“Don’t want to freak you out.”
“It’s OK. Go ahead.” Her heels squeaked on the seat of the chair. “I’ll tell you if it’s too much. Safe word is engine fire.”
I wasn’t a guy who felt fear very often, but I’d been in a lot of situations that were dangerous as shit. I could understand how someone could develop a fear of just about anything. “Did something happen? Or have you always had it?”
“As a tiny kid I could fly,” she explained. “But once I was able to understand what was going on, it was out of the question. By the time I was three years old, my parents were trying to fix it.” She watched my finger as I traced her health line now, and then down along the soft skin on the inside of her wrist. “Spoiler alert. There is no fixing it.”
“Let’s get one thing straight. You definitely do not need fixing. I like you just like you are.”
She didn’t look convinced at all. “Well, that’s very nice of you. But I have tried to fix it. Virtual reality simulators, drugs . . . exposure therapy, even. My sister used to take me to the municipal airport, and half the time I ended up losing my cookies in the bushes. And I’ve tried lots of meditation.”
“Oh man,” I said. “I love meditation.”
“You?” She turned away slightly and smiled as she sized me up. “A big strapping buck of a guy like you? Counting breaths and clearing your mind? Don’t know if I buy it,” she said, laughing and tipping her head so her hair fell in a curtain beside her leg. “But maybe I do. You’re full of surprises.”
“Baby, I can om shanti with the best of them.”
Lily burst out with that wonderful giggle of hers, and from the baby monitor came the sound of Ivan starting to babble himself awake.
The chaos of getting a baby and a bird set for the day swirled around us. We worked together like a couple who had danced this morning get-ready dance a thousand times. We got Ivan and the General fed and made breakfast together—I scrambled some eggs while Lily lined up English muffins in the toaster and got the coffee going. Together we sat down at her kitchen table with the sun streaming in. We caught up on emails, had our coffee, and read the news. We did all the things a couple would do. All the things I’d never done with any woman before.
“So,” Lily said, slurping her hot coffee and tucking her feet against my thigh on my chair. “What’s the plan for today?”
I dragged my eyes off her and refocused on what lay ahead of us for the day. I scrolled through the production calendar and landed on today’s date. “At one thirty this afternoon, Markowitz got us booked on a VIP tour of the most famously haunted spots in Savannah.” I took a sip of my coffee as I scrolled through the tour description. “The Marshall House, the Kehoe House, Sorrell-Weed, the Mercer Williams, Hamilton-Turner Inn, and the Davenport. Inside scoops, up-close access.”
“Ooooh, fancy! I’ve never even gotten to go inside half those places!” She clasped her hands together, which made her cleavage compress and made me forget every goddamned thing I was about to say.
She lowered her head, slightly cockeyed, and adjusted the lace, tugging it up by an inch while also pulling the satin tight over her nipples. “Still with me?”
I cleared my throat. “Doing my best. Then tonight,” I said, glancing down at the most recently arrived email message, which was, without a doubt, one of the weirdest things I’d ever received. “What do you say to this?” I spun my tablet around for her to get a look.
As she read, her face went from ordinary curiosity to now hang on one second to shut the front door! “Could that be . . . a prank?”
“Don’t think so,” I told her. Her eyes boggled a bit and she reread it, and I skimmed over it upside down.
To: Gabe Powers
From: Gen. Robert E. Lee
Dear Sir,
It has come to my attention through various official channels that you are a guest in our fair city of Savannah at this time. I thus humbly extend an invitation for you to visit our encampment at 20:00 this evening, upon which occasion we shall be communing with the Confederate dead in an effort to uncover a great mystery that has plagued our forces for 150 years. If you are amenable, I shall send you travel instructions via cellular telephone.
Your dutiful servant,
General Robert E. Lee
General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States
Lily looked up from my tablet. She gave me a series of slow, deliberate blinks. “Pretty standard stuff for you? Receiving emails from the dead?”
I tipped my hand side to side. “Depends on the location. But I gotta say,” I said, considering the email with its parchment-scroll background, “this is right up there with the weirdest. You game?”
“Absolutely!” Lily bit into a hot English muffin smeared with butter. “God, it’s so fun to be with you.” She delicately shielded her lips with her hand, smiling as she chewed. “I adore this.” She wiggled her toes against my leg and tucked the last of her muffin in her mouth. “I adore every minute with you.”
Adore was one word for it, I thought as I watched her dust muffin crumbs off her cleavage and then lean over to feed Ivan a slice of banana. But it wasn’t the only word.
After we did the dishes and grabbed a shower together—so fucking sexy, goddamn—I heard Lily’s sister downstairs. Lily darted out of the bathroom with a makeup brush in one hand and a hairbrush in the other, wearing nothing but her lingerie. Light pink with black trim today. Christ. Totally oblivious to her hotness, she listened to the footsteps and said, “I’ll just put on my clothes and take him downstairs. I’m just about ready to go.” She spun on her heel. Today’s panties were lacy shorts. I was such a goner for that ass.
But there was no need for her to hurry her sexy self. I was dressed already, and I really dug playing airplane with the little guy. “You get dressed.” I unbuckled Ivan from the high chair. “I’ll take him down.” I held him on my hip as he yanked at my earlobe. Together, we zoomed off through the door into the stairway.
As I headed down the stairs, Lily’s sister opened her door. When she saw me, she let out a gasp and pressed her hand to her mouth. “I’m trying so hard not to fangirl all over myself,” she said, and that same blush Lily sometimes got reddened her cheeks.
I held Ivan close to me with one arm and reached out to shake her hand. She made a little whimper and leaned against the doorjamb. We made the Ivan exchange and she said, “I heard there was a small situation last night.” She added a Lily-like cringe. “A blowout?”
“It was no problem at all.” I wiped a little glop of snot out from under Ivan’s nose, and he giggled at me.
Daisy jiggled Ivan as he yanked mercilessly on her earring, and she glanced up the staircase at Lily’s door. She pursed her lips and took a big breath. “OK, fangirling aside, please be good to her. She deserves happiness. Not some guy who’s going to disappear. Because I can tell you from experience, that’s a truly terrible feeling.” She looked up at me with a mix of dismay and protectiveness. “There is hardly anything worse in the world. Believe me. I should know.”
There was one definite difference between Daisy and Lily—the hope in their eyes. Lily had it, but Daisy didn’t. It was special kind of sparkle that was hard to explain but easy to see. The very idea of Lily ever losing that glittering hope made me sick. “I won’t hurt her,” I said, not glancing away from Daisy’s worried eyes for an instant.
“You promise me? I might be a fan of yours, but I’m her sister first and always.”
The last thing on earth that I wanted to do was hurt Lily. Never. “I promise. You’ve got my word.”
“Good,” Daisy said. “Insert obligatory half-joking threat from older sister here,” she added. And then nailed me with the mother of all glares.
Whoa, shit. The Glare had actual force, like a gust of wind. I gave her a nod. “Absolutely. Understood. But can I ask you something?”
Her glare softened one half of one percent. “What do you want to know?”
“This fear of flying. How can I help?”
Her ferocity lessened and was replaced with a more sisterly and protective concern. She blew out a long breath and let her shoulders go slack. “I was wondering if that would be an issue. She told me about Brazil.”
“I proposed a change of itinerary on that one. But I still want to know what it is that she’s going through.”
“Well, she used to be pretty gung-ho about working on it. She even got a passport a while ago . . .” Daisy glanced up the steps, like she was making sure the coast was still clear. “Never used it, though. Never even took it out of the envelope, I’m guessing. She’s tried everything. And I honestly don’t know that she can overcome it.”
It wasn’t what I’d wanted to hear, not so much because I was hell-bent on having her come with me on a plane, but because I could tell that the very idea scared her. And I didn’t like that idea one goddamned bit. But intense emotions were strange. Once people got it into their heads that something was going to happen—good, bad, mysterious—things like logic didn’t necessarily apply. “So I shouldn’t push it?”
Daisy shook her head. “Not unless you want to lose her.”
From behind me, I heard Lily trotting down the steps. I turned to find her in white shorts and a striped long-sleeved shirt with buttons on the shoulders. The shirt made her tits look incredible, even without a single hint of cleavage. She joined me on the steps and put her arm around me. “So you two met!”
Daisy nodded and gave Ivan a few kisses on his cheek, watching me over the top of his head. “Now I’m going to make a graceful exit before I make a fool out of myself. Very nice to meet you.” She looked back and forth from Lily to me, lingering on my eyes just long enough to make her point one last time. Kapow.
It was important to me to leave no question in Daisy’s mind about my intentions. There was no way in hell I could convey as much in a single glance as she had, so I just straight up said it. “Never,” I told her. “I promise.”
Lily peered up at me, clearly confused. “Never what?”
Daisy gave me a big warm smile at last. “Never mind,” she said, laughing, and closed her apartment door.
Lily’s mouth dropped open, and she barked out a how dare she sort of gasp. “Did she give you a speech?” Lily asked. “Did she give you the Glare?”
The General had the Noise. Daisy had the Glare. Seemed about right. “Oh yeah,” I said, reaching for my keys. “She sure did.”