Summer Wishes (Desire #1.5) (2 page)

Matt grasped her shoulders and squeezed her tight.  “He’s alive,” he whispered.

A tear trickled down her cheek as a rare moment of pure joy filled her heart.  Jacob had come back.

Doing her best to look natural all while excitedly anticipating the sight of Jacob, Jocelyn glanced around for other clues of his visit. Hopefully the neighbor would just think she’d misplaced something. Above all, she didn’t want to make them suspicious.

Seeing nothing else out of the ordinary, she reached under the mat for the key and unlocked the door.

“What could this mean?” she asked once she’d closed the door behind them.

“Are you going to report him?” Barely audible, Matt’s voice was a faint whisper, as if saying the words aloud were an offense.

“Report what?” She held back the note of anger.  How can he even suggest such a thing?

“You know how strict the laws are regarding banished family members. You have no idea who may be watching you. What if someone saw him? I don’t want you getting into trouble.”

“But Matt, I didn’t see Jacob. This little scrap of paper could mean anything. The Committee can’t very well fault me for not putting two and two together.  There’s no way I could know my brother left this behind… and it may not even be him. As far as I know someone else might know the significance of the blue heart and simply want to toy with my emotions, want to play with my mind.”

“Yeah, but you know that’s not what really happened… and you know what a bad liar you are.”

“Then I simply have to avoid any questioning.  Besides, it wouldn’t really be a lie. I did not
see
him.  So there.”

“The Committee knows just as well as I do that you’d do anything to protect him, too.”

Matt followed her into the living room and sat beside her on the couch, leaving barely an inch between them.

“Aside from the laws and everything, you know what this means?” His eyes were wide with optimism.

Jocelyn ventured a tentative smile. “He’s out there,” she whispered, hardly daring to believe it could be true.  “And he’s alive.”

“Yeah.  And that means we have a shot at making it on the outside as well.”

The thought was so frightening, yet the mere notion of living a life without Matt, living with someone else…  She shuddered.

“Maybe he came back because life was so impossible out there. Who knows how tortured and painful his life has been since leaving Arcadia?  He could have come back to ask the Committee for mercy.”

Or what if…?  Jocelyn didn’t even want to entertain the thought, but it crept in with a will of its own. What if the Committee had been right all along? What if living with Melanie had proven disastrous?  What if he was meant to love another?

And could she be?

No. She knew in her heart of hearts that Matthew was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

“Have you considered the possibility that your big brother simply slipped back into town to be there for his little sister’s birthday… maybe even to give you advice should you receive an unfavorable Plan.”

“Maybe.”

Matt cupped her cheeks, his gaze loving and filled with longing.

“Yes, I want to be with you,” Jocelyn said in response to his unasked question.

But did she truly have the courage to go through with such a risky and bold move?

For all her bravado and devil-may-care attitude, she knew deep inside how badly she wanted to fit in, to live a normal life.

Petite and thin to the point of looking continuously frail, she knew she had an internal strength, a strong spirit that few would ever suspect. Her heart-shaped face, wide eyes and thin wispy brown hair gave her an air of innocence and naiveté she’d never truly felt.

“You're a fighter and you know it,” Matt whispered.

He kissed her, soft, gentle and sweet.  “Whatever our Life’s Plan throws at us, we’ll fight it.”

He covered her mouth with his, at once filling her with longing and desire, yet enveloping her in that same sense of chagrin that came up every time he got too close.

“You're right,” she said, pulling away and straightening her hair. 

Matt looked hopefully at her and she knew he wanted her to divulge her eternal love to him, something she’d yet to do.

“Jacob came for my birthday.”

Chapter 2

“
W
hy are you changing the subject?” Matt’s eyes hardened as he pulled away.

“Because the subject is too complicated. You talk of disobeying the Committee as if it were child’s play.”

She turned to him, morose and suddenly filled with dread. “What if Jacob tells us how impossible things are out there. Do you still want to leave Arcadia? Do you still want to leave the only home you’ve ever known? Can you really leave everything behind?”

“Yes, yes and yes,” Matthew said without a moment’s hesitation.

Touched by his unwavering faith in their bond, she smiled. “When did you become such a romantic?”

He reached for her hand.  “When I realized just how much I love you.”

Squeezing his hand she shook her head, her heart still filled with too many fears and doubts. “My mother would be devastated.”

“Changing the subject again,” he said in a dry tone.

“My parents have already lost one child to banishment. How heartless of me to run off, how completely selfish.”

“I know my parents wouldn’t be too thrilled by this either, but I’m sure they all want to see us happy. Who knows?  Maybe they’d come with us.”

“I doubt that, Matt.  I mean, we may not live in the Diamond District, but my parents are pretty happy with the lives they’ve built for themselves here in Arcadia.  They enjoy their standing in the community.  Everyone here respects them and thinks highly of them.”

“And they’re smart and loving parents who want what’s best for their kids.”

Jocelyn looked down at their clasped hands, her mind going over and over the possible consequences of her actions.

“Look,” Matt said.  “If you really want to stay and risk losing what we have, I’ll respect that, but if you’re ready to go out there, find Jacob and forge our own destiny…”  He squeezed her hands.  “Come with me,” he whispered.

He touched her heart like no other guy possibly could.  Smiling, she brought his hands to her lips and gently kissed his fingers, then released him to turn away.

Her heart wanted to follow him to the ends of the earth, but…

Floating, as in a dream, she wandered through the home she’d known and love all her life, Matt close behind her.

The kitchen where so many family meals had taken place, loud, chaotic and loving.

The small and singular bathroom she’d so often had to wait for as her brother primped and preen for his date with Melanie.

Her bedroom. Small, but tidy, she’d hated having to share it with Jade. It had been a huge damper as she’d entered adolescence. She loved her sister dearly, but sharing her room with a seven year old wasn’t her idea of teen bliss.

But that had all changed when Jacob left and Jade was permitted to take his room.

Jocelyn had never told anyone how she missed cuddling whenever Jade had had a troubling nightmare, how she missed the stuffed animals strewn everywhere, and how she missed reading with her.

Finally she leaned on the doorjamb of her parents’ bedroom.

“I’d miss them so much.”

“I know.” He came up close behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him. “I’ve lived in the same safe little cocoon as you have, remember?  Of course I’m scared and of course I’ll miss my family, but my future is with you. I’ve seen what a bad Life’s Plan can do to a person.  I don’t want to sit by and let that happen to me.”

He turned her around, pressed her to the wall and kissed her.

His kiss had lost its innocence and the sweetness gave way to hunger.

“I won’t let it happen to me,” he repeated between heated kisses.

It was so easy to lose herself in his embrace.  His lips were soft, warm and she never wanted the kiss to end.

In the distance, the vague and foggy sound of the front door opening and closing knocked at her consciousness, but Matt’s kiss ensured the sound remain far away and unimportant.

Only when Jocelyn heard the clearing of a throat did she pull away and turn to the intrusion. Too stunned to say anything, she stared at the face she’d not seen for so long.

Finding his voice, Matt said, “Melanie?”

Chapter 3

A
ghost could not have left them gaping more.

Always a beauty, tall, thin with enviable long shiny thick brown hair, it had been easy to see how Melanie had won the heart of Jocelyn’s brother.  Jocelyn remembered her as the most fashionable girl in school, a girly girl who’d always loved make up, pretty dresses and beautiful elegant shoes.

Looking at her now, no one would know all this.

Her enviable tresses had been shorn off; the short pixie cut emphasizing her natural delicate beauty and emphasizing her huge waif-like eyes. Her usually healthy thin frame now bordered on skeletal. In dark unflattering jeans and a plain white blouse, she was far from the fashion plate everyone had copied their style from. Even her shoes, worn through leather boots with soft soles, hinted at the new life she’d found outside Arcadia.

“Melanie,” Jocelyn said, the name a croak in her throat. “What are you doing here?  Where’s Ja…”

With speed and agility that contradicted her fragile appearance, Melanie hurried to silence Jocelyn with a hand to her lips.  Bringing her free hand to her own mouth, she silently beseeched Matthew to remain quiet as well.

Her eyes, wide with knowledge and fear, shot to the window. The trio entered Jocelyn’s room and quietly padded to the edge of the window. The sheer curtains offered an obscured view of several figures outside.

“Committee members?” Jocelyn stared at the figures in disbelief.

“In the Ruby District?” Matthew added.

Committee members never visited the Ruby District, at least not for innocent social calls. If they venture into the neighborhood it was usually because they had business to attend to, usually unpleasant business.

Jocelyn turned to Melanie.  “They’ve come for you, haven’t they?”

“Any other reason they’d leave their cushy and affluent Diamond District to roam our crumby streets?” Matthew sounded bitter and angry as he continued to stare out the window.

“We have to hide you.”  Jocelyn reached out to grab Melanie’s hand to take her… where?  Where in the world could she hide a human being effectively enough to fool the all-knowing and all-seeing Committee?

Melanie quickly settled the questions with a firm yank of her hand and a firmer, “No.”  The single word seemed to grate up her throat where once a beautiful feminine voice rang out.

Jocelyn looked at her, mesmerized by the changes brought on in such a short amount of time.  Beyond the changes to her appearances, Melanie was dramatically changed from the girl Jocelyn remembered.  Hardened, her eyes were no longer wide with innocence.  They lacked the eagerness to discover the world and were left with only the darkness of desperate determination.

Glancing down at their joined hands, Jocelyn could feel Melanie’s hardening right down to her hands.  Once so soft and perfectly manicures, they were now rough and callused. Even her grip was strong, almost painful.

“They’re going to come here, Melanie,” Jocelyn whispered. “They know you left with my brother.  I can’t let them find you.”

“They were here just before you arrived,” Jocelyn said. “I was hiding down the street. They were in here for a while, so I finally left.”

Jocelyn could not hide her anger. She felt violated. Why did she not even know? They could walk in just like that when they felt like it without a knock or papers. Jocelyn walked from one bedroom to the other checking to see what had been touched. How dare they just enter a home on vague suspicions. How dare they go through her parents’ things. She breathed a sigh of relief. It appeared nothing had been touched.

“I don’t even see where they could have been here,” Jocelyn finally said to Matthew and Melanie. And then she saw it when she lifted an old flower vase on the bookshelf. The indentation of where the vase had stood for years was slightly out-of-place. It was so subtle, so slight, no one would have been able to notice, if they were not as familiar as Jocelyn was with her own home. She looked up, the realization that the Committee members were in her home, dawning on her. She, her parents, and her sister Jade were not safe.

“They can be undetectable,” Jocelyn said. “These are the Committee members we don’t see on panels. They’re the ones we don’t know much about. All I know is they wear these leather bands, which Jacob and I have been trying to figure out. If only we can get one of those bands to take a closer look…”