Sully's Fantasy

“But I snapped him out of it before it was too late,” Nila said softly. “And he hasn’t taken another drug since.”

“Which is why you’ll have to let me assess you one day,” I muttered. “So I know how to help other HSPs.”

“Tell them to fall in love with someone who has their back.” Jethro ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “That’s it.” His tension faded as he brought the conversation back around to me and Eleanor instead of himself and Nila. “And don’t think I’m not aware you changed the subject so I wouldn’t give away details of your busy night. Not very guest-like behaviour, Sullivan.” He narrowed his eyes, studying me, then Eleanor. “Bondage? Something to do with tying your wife—”

“Oh, my God.” Eleanor spluttered. “How on earth could you possibly know that?”

“Ugh, he’s incorrigible.” Nila rolled her eyes, passing Eleanor a plate of roasted portobello mushrooms. “Ignore him. I do.”

“You do not. You indulge my every whim. That’s why I’m far too free with my ‘abilities’ these days.”

“Yes well, Kes is starting to show signs, and if he sees his father acting like some gypsy fortune teller, he’ll believe it’s normal to go around telling people their own thoughts.”

Jethro shrugged. “I hid my entire life and look how fucked up I was. If he’s like me, then I don’t want him to have to hide. I want him to know he doesn’t have to.”

Nila sighed, true love shining in her dark gaze. “I agree. It’s just hard to explain when he runs up to the cook and says she’s overweight because she’s still grieving her cat’s death two years ago.”

Sully cut in. “You’re saying your son has inherited Jethro’s traits?”

Nila sighed, passing around a dish of wilted spinach in olive oil and sea salt. “I’m not sure. Some days, I swear he’s exactly like Jet. Others, I think it was just a lucky guess. He’s a normal boisterous child, but there is a quiet listener inside him too.”

Jethro helped himself to buttery baguette. “We’ll deal with it if he is like me. Least Emma is normal.”

“Normal means nothing these days,” I said, sipping a full-bodied espresso that one of the hall’s staff placed in front of me. “I don’t think there is such a thing as normal. If there is, I haven’t found one in my line of work.”

“How is work going?” Jethro asked. “Any new breakthroughs in modern medicine?”

“Always. Whether or not the population is ready to accept it is another question.”

“How do you sit on drugs you know will work when you can’t get it past all the bureaucratic red tape?” Jethro asked.

I set my coffee cup down. “I have my ways of trickling it into the marketplace.”

A squeal sounded, heralding two little cyclones as they dashed into the drawing room. A boy and a girl—perfect replicas of their aristocratic parents. Their outward appearance was finely dressed, but their screams of joy as they played chase around the table hinted they were wild with energy and freedom.

Growing up in a massive hall like Hawksridge would cultivate fiercely independent and well-rounded offspring.

Emma crashed into her mother’s side, her mouth open for air as she scrambled onto Nila’s lap, kicking at her brother as he tried to tickle her. “No. Safe. Safe!”

Kes, the older of the two, cackled and pulled her hair gently. “Nowhere is safe. Cheater!”

Jethro scooped him round the middle, hauling him onto his own lap. “Say hello to friends of ours. Sullivan and Eleanor.”

Kes blushed as he caught my stare then Jinx’s. He calmed eerily quickly in his dad’s embrace, almost as if he could sense the crimes I’d done in the past and the type of man I’d been before Eleanor changed me for the better.

Slowly, he nodded. “Hello.”

The way he watched with such dedication and knowing hinted he had inherited Jethro’s gift, after all. Only time would tell to what degree.

“Hello,” I said. “Having fun playing tag?”

“Not tag.” He shook his head importantly. “Hunting. She’s the hare. I’m the hound.”

“Hares are faster than hounds.” I smiled.

Emma clapped her hands. “Yay!”

“Yeah, but hounds can sniff stuff,” Kes retorted.

“Hares can box and kick.” I grinned as Jethro’s son chewed his bottom lip, digesting such things.

“Em won’t kick me hard. She won’t dare.”

Emma wriggled free of Nila’s hug and bolted out of the drawing room. “Byeeeeee!”

“Hey!” Kes leaped out of Jethro’s lap and galloped after her, leaving a wake of silence as their heavy footfalls faded down the endless corridors.

“They’re adorable.” Eleanor smiled. “Do you only have the two?”

Nila nodded. “Yes. Two is all we can handle. I’m sorry they’re little heathens. I’d hoped the ball last night would’ve tired them out, but they’re bundles of energy. They won’t calm down until we take them for a ride.”

“You can join us if you want,” Jethro said softly. “I have horses you can borrow.”

I glanced at Eleanor. Riding a horse to me was not enticing; however, if she wanted to, I would do whatever she requested. Catching my raised eyebrow, she shook her head.

“I’m happy just watching.” Eleanor nodded. “Thanks, though.”

“And besides, you have a plane to catch.” Jethro chuckled under his breath. “I’ve been trying to guess where you’re going, but I haven’t been able to pinpoint. Tropical, no doubt. You both detest the cold.”

“How did you—” Eleanor frowned. “How do you know? How does it work?”

Nila rolled her eyes again as she stabbed a blood-red strawberry with her fork, waiting for Jethro to enlighten Jinx. “Go on, you might as well spill, now that you’ve made a spectacle of yourself.”

Jethro chuckled. “You pretend to be pissed at me but you can’t lie that you’re enjoying the openness of this conversation, Needle. That you’re wary of sharing too much but grateful that Sully has been there from the beginning and isn’t going to judge.”

Nila nodded, leaning over to squeeze Jethro’s hand. “Right as always.”

Sharing an intimate moment with his wife, Jethro dropped his gaze before sitting back and locking eyes with Eleanor. “In answer to your question, it’s not really something I can explain. I just...know. I look at you, and I feel cold. That isn’t because I’m cold but because I’m guessing you are. I’m sitting in my own home where I’m happy and content, yet, I suddenly have a hankering for travel and turquoise seas. Two things that have never interested me in the slightest. When I was younger, I confused those feelings for my own. I fed on the emotions of cruelty because that was what I was raised in and what I believed came from my own heart. But I can keep the two separate now. I no longer need to numb the feeling of say needing to travel, or to grab another jumper to ward off the chill because that isn’t me. It’s you.” He laughed quietly. “I also feel a thread of exhaustion from whatever indulgences you got up to last night.” Holding up his hand, he added, “Oh, and there’s a vein of embarrassment too, so whatever you got up to, it was frisky enough to make you blush in my company.”