Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (8 page)

The orderly took us to a dayroom
. There were several places to sit and a couple of tables where residents of the facility could play cards, board games, or assemble puzzles. There was a large fish tank with many colorful fish, and some chairs were situated in front of the tank so that the residents could relax and observe the fish.

There was also a small TV in one corner of the room and a piano that an elderly woman was currently playing. The song she played was soothing and beautiful. I was sure I had heard it before, but I could
n’t imagine where.

Several residents were scattered about the room. Some were interacting with others who resided there, others with an orderly. Some were watching TV, or the fish, or just sitting alone doing their own thing.

The orderly that brought us to the dayroom gestured toward the center of the room. Oliver thanked her and she left. Oliver then squeezed my hand, and we started toward where the orderly had gestured.

He was on a cream colored couch with a word search book clutched in one hand and a pen in the other. As we stood before him, Oliver said, in a gentle tone, “Hi,
Grandpa.” It kind of broke my heart.

The elderly man looked up from his word search. It seemed to take him a moment to register who was standing before him. Then a smile broke across his face. “Oliver! Come here, give your ol’ grandpa a hug,” he said as he set his book and pen aside. His voice had a raspy edge to it. He grasped Oliver’s arm and pulled him down into a hug. He patted his grandson and said, “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too, Grandpa,” Oliver replied as he straightened.

Then his grandfather’s eyes shifted to me. “Who do we have here?” he asked with a grin spreading across his lined face.

It was clear where Oliver had inherited his eye color. His grandfather’s eyes were green. A deep, solid green like Oliver’s. Not as dark, or as bright. Rather hazy, actually, but I imagined they had been bright years ago.

I remembered that Oliver had his dad’s eyes,
and that he looked more like his father than his siblings did. It also made me wonder if we ever had children, if they would inherit their daddy’s eyes. That thought made my tummy drop.

“Grandpa, this is my girlfriend, Laney,” Oliver
said as he introduced me to his dad’s father, Samuel Knight.

His grandpa smiled up at me. I smiled back,
suddenly feeling quite shy.

He took my hand and patted it. “It is nice to meet you, dear,” he said to me.

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” I said in return.

Then, while still holding my hand, his smile faded, and he looked perplexed. He turned to Oliver. “Is this the girl you
’ve been telling me about?”

I suddenly felt my own confusion. As far as I knew, Oliver had not seen his grandfather since he
’d been to the area the previous year. There was no way he could have told his grandpa about me considering we had met only a few months ago. With a look, I questioned Oliver.

He only smiled at the two of us and shook his head a little.

Then his grandpa switched gears, saying to his grandson, as if I could not hear him, “She’s lovely.”

I felt myself blush.

“Come,” Oliver’s grandpa said, tugging on my hand, “sit with me.” I took a seat beside him while Oliver sat in a chair placed at an angle on the other side of his grandfather. “I believe you owe me a game of chess. Isn’t that right, Oliver?”

Oliver
smirked. He laughed quietly for a moment before responding. “That I do, Grandpa.”

Oliver waved at an orderly, grabbing his attention, and he asked for the game. The orderly dashed off and quickly returned with a chess set. Both Knight men kindly thanked the man.

Oliver began setting up the game on the coffee table in front of the couch. I sat quietly and listened to them chat. They talked about nothing of importance, they just chatted, and they both seemed to light up in the other’s presence. Then they began their yearly game. It was peaceful to watch them play. And I loved being able to see Oliver interact with his grandpa.

His grandfather,
Sam (actually Samuel, which was Oliver’s middle name), seemed to think the fact that he was in an elderly care facility was normal, and that his deceased grandson being there was also the norm. I wondered if any of this would click while we were there for a visit. I really hoped that it wouldn’t.

Midgame,
Grandpa Sam was winning, and he said to Oliver, “When’s Livie coming?”

Oliver’s eyes met mine for a quick moment, and I saw a hint of sadness touch them.

“She hasn’t been by in a while. I miss her,” his grandfather said.

“Me too,
Grandpa,” Oliver said, quietly, as he made his next move.

“What was that?” Grandpa Sam asked.

“Nothing, Grandpa,” Oliver quickly responded. He told his grandfather to take his turn, and his eyes met mine again for a second. “I don’t know when she’ll be by, Grandpa.”

“Oh,” his grandfather responded as he searched the board for his next move. “Well, tell her to come see me soon. Oscar too, I haven’t seen him since…” Grandpa Sam trailed off. He got a thoughtful look on his aged face as he sat back, his weary body resting against the back of the couch. “Oliver,” he said in a tone someone uses as they put pieces of a puzzle together. “What year is it?”

Oliver’s eyes darted to mine. “You know what, Grandpa? I just remembered that we need to get going. Laney and I have an appointment this afternoon,” Oliver lied. He stood. I did too. Grandpa Sam stared up at the two of us, confusion clear across his face. “We’ll finish the game another day, okay?” Oliver said, grasping my hand and taking a hesitant step back, away from his grandfather.

The look on his grandfather’s face
made it clear that he was lucid, and it was obvious he was trying to figure out why his deceased grandson was standing before him.

I caught Oliver nodding to one of the orderlies, the one who had brought them the chess game. The orde
rly made his way to Grandpa Sam so that we could escape before all the pieces of the puzzle were put back together.

As the orderly
distracted Grandpa Sam, Oliver quickly tugged me from the room. He pulled me down the long, white hallway at such a quick pace, I had to jog to keep up with him. He gave a quick wave to the woman at the front desk and she buzzed us out.

Oliver stopped when we were out the front doors of the tall building that housed his grandfather.

I stopped beside him. “Why did you let him believe your sister would come by?” I questioned.

He looked at me, teary-eyed
, and I felt my heart tighten.

“I can’t bear to tell him she’s dead every single year. It’s just easier on both of us if he thinks she’s still here, and that she
’ll come see him.” His voice hitched toward the end of his sentence.

I grabbed him and pulled him to me as quickly and as tightly as I could. It broke my heart to see him like this.
—to see the pain of his past, the reason he was able to be mine, hurting him. His arms slipped around me and we stood there, holding each other for some time.

Finally, he kissed the top of my head and whispered, “Let’s go.”

We rode back to the house in silence. Just before the exit we would take to get back to the cottage, Oliver said, “Oh, would you like me to show you where I grew up?”

“Uh, sure,” I said, somewhat concerned it might be too hard for him.

He seemed to pick up on my emotions and my concern for him. “I’m fine, Laney,” he said, glancing over at me, the hint of a smile on his lips.

“Okay.” It didn’t matter what he said, I was still concerned. I felt very protective of him, more so than usual. I wondered if
the feeling came from what was left of the lingering vampire qualities I had received with Oliver’s blood, or if it was related to us bonding. I was leaning toward the latter. My reason? Although it had only been a couple of days, I’d noticed a difference in myself. How I felt about him, about keeping him safe, about keeping him to myself… So yeah, the latter it was. However, I imagined the vampire blood was probably giving my newfound protectiveness a boost too.

We drove through the quaint streets of Willow Glen, a little town within the large city of San Jose, California, where Oliver and his siblings had grown up. Most of the houses
in Willow Glen seemed like they were older—like the town had been established long ago. There were lots of trees, an older downtown area, and a couple of large parks. It reminded me of home, a little. The fact Willow Glen was missing the overabundance of bars downtown, and the houses didn’t have old furniture on their porches, made me figure it was a nicer area.

Oliver took me by his elementary school and his high school. He pointed out the ice cream shop his family used to walk to on the weekends when he was young, and the baseball field where his brother had played ball.

“You didn’t play?” I asked.

He shook his head and focused on the road as he pulled back out onto the street from in front of the baseball field.

“Why not?” I imagined Oliver would have been pretty good at sports. I mean, I got that he was more of the techy/nerdy type, which was hot, but I could just imagine that he would be good at sports, too.

He glanced over at me. It was late enough in the day that he didn’t need his sunglasses anymore, plus it was still pretty overcast out, so I actually saw his eyes as he glanced my way. When I could see his eyes, he was easier to read.

“Oliver, what is it?” The look he flashed caused me a bit of concern.

“It’s nothing. I just had some health issues as a kid,” he said, trying to be evasive.

“Like what?” I slowly questioned as I raised an eyebrow at him. His comment made me think about something his brother had said to me. Something about this life having a better outcome for Oliver. Remembering this made me very concerned.

“It doesn’t matter now, Laney.” He tried to flash me a reassuring smile. I wasn’t buying it. But, before I could pry any more, he said, “Laney, really, I’m fine now. That’s all that matters.” He pulled the car to a stop. “Look,” he said, nodding to something out my window.

I glared at him. “This conversation isn’t over,” I told him.

He
smirked. “I know.”

I
turned my attention away from him and looked out my window to find an overgrown lot with houses on either side. Oliver explained that the lot was where his house had once stood. Trees and grass grew wildly over the remains of what was left of the house, which was very little.

At the front of the lot, where the wild grass met the sidewalk, there was a small pile of flowers left by those who still remembered the Knight family.

I turned to him. “That’s really sad,” I told him, fighting back tears that were trying to surface.

“I know,” he said. He stared past me for a moment, then his pained green eyes shifted back to mine. “Let’s go make better memories,” he said softly.

I couldn’t help smiling at that. He took my hand, resting it on the console with his, and drove us back to the cottage.

Beach Lovin’

By the time we arrived at the cottage, I was feeling
very gloomy. My mind had been consumed by many thoughts on the ride back, and my happiness was being challenged.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Oliver gently
asked. Having picked up on my emotions, he was concerned. He held my fingers to his lips and kissed the backs of them as he watched me from the driver’s seat.

I turned my attention to him. “I don’t want to leave here,” I told him with tears in my eyes. “Once we go home, all of the crap we left behind will be waiting for us. Why can’t we just stay away?”

“You have a life back there, Laney. I don’t want to take you away from that or away from your friends.”

“My life is with you,” I
responded, reaching across the console with my other hand and running my fingers down his chest. “Friends can visit. I don’t need them every day. The only thing I need every day is you.”

A smile touched his lips, and his eyes sparkled. “As much as I love this idea, it is just not realistic at this point.”

I tried to argue, but I didn’t get more than the first word out.

“Laney, I
don’t want to argue with you. Please try to understand, I can’t just walk away from my job. We have to go back. As I’ve said before, finish up this school year, then we will figure out what to do next.”

I pouted
, pulled my hand free of his, and crossed my arms and everything.

He tipped my chin up with a single finger. His beautiful gemstone eyes held mine. “I said I wanted to make better memories, not have the same argument that will not change.”

I forced a halfhearted smile in response to his words.

After a quick kiss, he said, “Let’s go inside.”

With a heavy heart, I followed him up the steps to the house. I quietly waited while he unlocked the front door and hurried inside to turn off the alarm system.

I stared out at the distant trees. The treetops
swaying in the breeze and the sounds of waves crashing relaxed me.. I truly dreaded going home. I knew it was a bad idea. No part of me wanted to deal with Zane, the angel, or Avery, the whore. And I certainly did not want to deal with Ashton at all! But I would miss Carter, and maybe Kiera and Zoey.