Taken (23 page)

“It’s only natural. Doesn’t mean I like it … or that I’m going to put up with it. I want you to promise me that you won’t try to sabotage Hunter and Kassie’s relationship.”

“What relationship? They just met. Besides, she’s got another man’s bun in the oven. Hunter ain’t gonna wanna marry her.”

Josh laughed, a short burst that was more of a snort. “Kassie isn’t looking for a husband. Even if she were, she’d never marry a janitor.”

“Why not? It’s honest work.”

“I agree, but in case you haven’t noticed, Kassie’s a bit of a snob. She won’t settle for anything less than a doctor or a lawyer. Which is why her relationship with Eric was never going to last past high school. He’s strictly community college material.”

“If she knew she wasn’t going to marry Eric, why did she sleep with him?”

Josh let go of Channie’s hand then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Not everyone finds their soul mate in high school. And most people don’t get married until their mid to late twenties. Do you honestly think we would have been able to wait another five to ten years before we had sex?”
 

“I’m not sure I can wait another five to ten minutes.”

Josh closed his eyes and groaned. “Babe, don’t say things like that when I can’t do anything about it.”

“When can we do something about it?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll think of something. Meet me here after school.”

~***~

Channie asked Hunter to sit with her on the front porch swing so she could tell him about Josh’s plan. It was simple in theory, but difficult to execute. It all depended on whether or not Ezra believed Josh was taking Kassie to the movies and not just sneaking out to meet Channie … and whether or not Diego would let Channie and Hunter leave the house unchaperoned.
 

Diego was on the family room floor wrestling with the trips. Their squeals of delight and high-pitched laughter hurt Channie’s ears, but she didn’t mind. Her chest tightened around the swelling of her heart to see the little monkeys so happy.

Hunter cleared his throat and said, “Channie’s agreed to let me take her out on a date tonight, if it’s okay with you.”

Zeal and CoCo attacked from behind when Diego sat up, wrapping their arms around their Daddy’s neck in a choke hold that made his eyes bug out. Diego pulled them both over his shoulders at the same time onto his lap. He arched his eyebrows as he turned his gaze to Channie. “I thought you didn’t want him to court you.”

“I don’t. But Daddy wants me to give him a chance.”

Savvy put his hands between Zeal and Coco and tried to push their shoulders apart, “Make room for me.” Coco held his ground and refused to budge, but Zeal sighed and stood up. Channie might have felt sorry for him if he and CoCo hadn’t spent the last four years bullying Savvy. It was about time he got a little respect. She’d have to watch him though, to make sure he didn’t abuse his fake power. He climbed onto Diego’s lap, and popped his thumb in his mouth. Diego pulled it back out, kissed his chubby little fist then held it against his heart.
 

He leaned back and yelled into the kitchen. “Hey, Abby, can you come here a minute?”

“Soon as I finish turning the chicken.”
 

Channie didn’t know if was the modern appliances or Diego’s presence in her life, but something had awakened Abby’s domestic nature. She came into the family room wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “What do you need, sugar pie?”

“I need to know if it’s a good idea for these two to go off on their own without nobody to keep an eye on them. Are they going to get into trouble?”

Abby smiled and said, “Hunter’s feeling a little frisky, but Channie’s cool as a cucumber. He ain’t gonna get very far tonight.”
 

Diego narrowed his eyes as he studied Hunter. “I thought you didn’t have no money.”

Hunter’s face turned scarlet. “I don’t. I was hoping, maybe you could spot me a couple of dollars. I’ll pay you back as soon as I get my first paycheck.”
 

Diego rolled onto his left hip and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He handed Hunter a twenty dollar bill. “Consider it a gift, to celebrate the beginning of your life together.”

Channie said, “Now hold on a dang minute. We’re going on a date, not getting married.”

Hunter winked at her as he tucked the bill in his shirt pocket. “You better write this down in your journal. You’re gonna wanna remember every little detail so’s you can tell our younguns about our first date.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake.”
 

Hunter was obviously trying to push Channie’s buttons, but as long as it got her out of the house and into Josh’s arms, she’d put up with it. “I need to go get ready.”

Hunter said, “I get the first shower,” and dashed up the stairs ahead of her.

~***~

Josh was already waiting at the park-n-ride on McCaslin Avenue when Channie and Hunter got off the bus. Channie threw herself into his arms, but instead of embracing her, he took her hand and pulled her aside into the shadows then kissed her soundly. He gave her another quick peck on the lips then said, “We’ve got a problem.”

Channie’s heart stopped, then made up for lost time. “What’s wrong?”

“Elijah’s in the car.”

“What!”

“Yeah. When I told Dad that I wanted to take Kassie out to get her mind off Eric and the baby, he thought that was a great idea.” Josh dropped his voice, imitating Ezra. “That’s very thoughtful, son. Why don’t you swing by your mom’s and pick up Elijah. He has a way of lifting anyone’s mood.” Josh rolled his eyes. “He was testing me. If I refused, he’d know I was just trying to sneak out to be with you.”

Channie cupped Josh’s cheeks in her palms. “I think we can trust him. He kept my secret for three days when I ran away. Has he told anyone about magic?”

“Not that I know of. But if he tells Dad about us, I’ll be grounded for the rest of the year.”
 

“What do you want to do?”

“I was sort of hoping we could talk Hunter into erasing his memory or something. I’d do it myself, but I don’t know how.”

Channie gasped and shook her head. “Josh, no! Remember-not spells are horribly disorienting. Elijah would not be able to account for the missing time.”

“But it’s only been a few minutes. He won’t notice.”

“You can’t erase a few minutes. The minimum amount of time I’ve ever heard of anyone erasing was two hours. And that was a very talented, experienced mage.” Channie slid her hands down his arms and squeezed his hands. “Let me talk to him.”

The first thing Channie noticed when she got close enough to see inside Josh’s car, was Elijah’s grinning face pressed against the cargo door window.
 

Josh used the remote control on his key to roll it down. Elijah climbed out and ran across the parking lot. “Channie!”

He nearly knocked her over, but Josh put a hand in the middle of her back and steadied her. “Hey! Take it easy, squirt. Let her breathe.”

“I thought I’d never get to see you again. Are you back for good? Please say this isn’t just a visit. I missed you so much!”

Channie hugged him back and blinked away her tears. “It’s not just a visit. But I don’t know how long I’ll be here. I’ll probably move again this summer.”

“Nooooo!”

Josh pried Elijah off Channie and held his shoulders as he leaned over and got right in his face. “If Mom or Dad find out Channie’s here, she’ll have to leave again. So don’t tell anyone, okay? Not even Mrs. Guffy or your friends at school not anyone.”

“I promise.”

“And that goes for her friend, Hunter too.”
 

Hunter smiled and waved at Elijah. Elijah waved back, but he did so with a disapproving frown on his face. He shifted his gaze from Channie to Hunter and back to Josh. “How good a friend?”

Josh ruffed Elijah’s hair and said, “Don’t worry about it, squirt. Channie and I are fine. But we need to talk about some private stuff, so you’re going to hang out with Hunter and Kassie for a couple of hours. We’ll meet up again and all go out for ice cream. How’s that sound?”

“I want to go with you and Channie. I’ll be so quiet you won’t even know I’m there.”

Josh made his classic “help me out” face and waited for Channie to take over.
 

She leaned down and took both of Elijah’s hands in hers. “Tell you what, instead of a couple of hours, how about just an hour and a half, then we’ll switch off. Hunter and Kassie probably want some time to talk too.”

Elijah rolled his eyes and stuck out his lower lip then sighed and said, “All right, fine.” He turned towards Josh and pointed at his chest. “But don’t be late!”

It amazed Josh that after all that had happened — near death experiences, a secret marriage, and becoming a mage — how easily he slipped back into his former life. He went to school, worried about his grades and argued with Mom every other weekend. He’d even started racing again. No sponsors, no coaches and no hopes of ever making it to the Olympics, but it was fun. He’d forgotten what it was like to race for the pure joy of it. He didn’t race every weekend, only when he wanted to. He never practiced, not even gate drills. And he never, ever used magic during a race. But he always won.

He had to lie and sneak around to be with Channie, but even that felt more like dating than marriage. His “Double Dating Deception” plan or “Triple D” as he liked to call it, worked amazingly well. Hunter bought a cheap cell phone with his first paycheck which made it a lot easier to coordinate things. Josh wanted to pay to reactivate Channie’s phone so they could talk at night after everyone else went to bed. But she was afraid Diego might find out and there was no way to explain it. Everyone knew that Hunter barely had enough left over after paying rent to Channie’s dad to pay his own phone bill, so they couldn’t claim that he was paying for Channie’s.

Josh hated that Channie had to pretend she was warming up to Hunter around Abby and Diego — but at least she didn’t have to do anything other than hold hands. It would ruin everything if Diego decided they needed a chaperone. Her parents were living in Blackhawk now and only called once a week or so to check on things. At first Josh was afraid they’d want to move the rest of the family up there too, but Channie assured him they were enjoying their time away from the three ring circus at home.

Elijah kept his word and didn’t tell anyone about Channie. He didn’t even ask for hush money, but he insisted Josh take him along on their double dates at least once a week. Josh would have rather paid him off, but Elijah adored Channie and neither of them had the heart to refuse — as long as they still got their hour and half alone time to “talk.”

The day before Valentine’s day, a blizzard dumped eighteen inches of snow on the ground. But that wasn’t going to keep Josh from celebrating with Channie. He’d been drawing three hundred dollars a week out of the ATM for over a month. He didn’t want a hotel bill to show up on Dad’s credit card statement. That would be hard to explain.
 

Josh used Hunter’s fake ID, a hundred dollar tip and a bit of persuasive magic to reserve two rooms at the Omni hotel on the edge of town. Channie had to be home before midnight, so they wouldn’t be able to spend the night, but it was called Valentine’s
Day,
not Valentine’s Night. He couldn’t wait to get Channie into a real bed. Sex in the back of the Rav4 was still great, but the novelty was wearing off.

The fourteenth dawned bright and sunny. Josh grabbed his keys off the marble counter in the kitchen then peeked into Dad’s office and said, “I’m taking Kassie sledding then to supper and maybe a movie afterwards. I’ll be back around midnight.”

Dad said, “That sounds like an awful long day for Kassie. She’s about what … six months along? Are you sure it’s okay for her to go sledding?”

Crap.
“Her doctor said she needs to stay active. We’ll be careful and stay on the smaller hills.”

“Is Elijah going?”

“Not this time.”
 

Dad’s energy field pulsed with suspicion. “Hang on a second while I go grab my coat.”

“What? Wait, no, Dad, you can’t come with.”

“Why not? I haven’t been sledding in years. It sounds like fun.”

“Don’t you want to spend Valentine’s Day with Liz?”

“She won’t be home until around seven. You can bring me back home after sledding then go out to eat and a movie, if Kassie’s not exhausted.”

“Uh … I don’t think that’s such a good idea, what if you get hurt?”

“I thought you said you were going to stay on the smaller hills.”

“We are, but you know what a thrill seeker you are. I’m sure you’re going to want to go down the steepest hills with the biggest jumps. You’re not getting any younger.”

“I’m getting the distinct impression that you don’t want my company today.”

“No, it’s just … you know … it’s Valentine’s Day and Eric’s got a new girlfriend so this is going to be a hard day for Kassie and … she wouldn’t want you to see her cry … you know?”

“You aren’t, by any chance, planning to meet up with Channie, are you?”

Josh scrunched his eyes closed and rubbed his temples. “I’m getting a headache. Maybe sledding isn’t such a good idea after all. I think I better just go call Kassie and tell her it’s not going to work out.”

“Take some Advil.”

Josh dropped his chin to his chest then looked at the ceiling and said, “Fine. I’ll be right back.” He had to call Hunter and warn him.
 

Dad said, “I’ve got Advil and Tylonal in my office. No need to go upstairs. Which one do you want?”

“Advil.” Josh wasn’t lying when he said he had a headache. This fiasco was giving him a migraine. He tossed his keys to dad. “You better drive. My head’s killing me.”
 

Josh grabbed his phone and texted Hunter when Dad ducked into his office to retrieve the Advil.
 

<911 Dad’s coming cancel DDD Warn C and K>

He hoped Hunter got the message. What a freaking disaster.