Eventide

Chapter 19. Quarantined

Chapter 19

Quarantined

(Talk To Me, by Stevie Nicks)

　

　

　

　

　

The curtains swayed with the gentle breeze, but I barely noticed, listening for the sound of an engine as I sat by his window. I had been waiting for hours, Brogan's scent filling my senses, trying to imagine how this might happen once he got home. Would it be hot anger, heartbreaking pity, or possibly patient understanding? I felt so many different things, all at the same time.

No luck, of course.

When had I ever been ready for Brogan? He was a stormy spring breath come to shake the branches of my life; scatter all my certainties like so many leaves on the crosswinds.

When I finally heard an engine in the distance, faint but growing more defined by the second, I still couldn't imagine how this would go.

The door to Moira's truck opened before the vehicle had come to a complete stop.

"Give me three minutes, Moira, and we're out of here," Brogan rumbled. He jogged to the front door.

As he turned the knob, the engine revved and Moira drove away, tires kicking mud hard enough to splatter the front porch.

Brogan swore.

He came in with his cell phone at his ear. I heard Moira's recorded voice saying to leave a message.

It was strange, the way my heartbeat raced along with his, even though he was the one who was angry.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, Young Lady," Brogan grated through his teeth. "Call me back, even if it's just to tell me you can't see me through to the end. I'll understand. Come evening, though, I'll be on that flight to Italy, with or without you."

Survey says, buzz!

As he closed the call, his eyes swept the room, glancing right past me as I lounged in his chair, one leg casually over the arm. They flashed back and locked on me.

"Leah?"

"Miss me, Darling?" Ah, so this was how it would go down. Nothing like a little sarcasm to quench the anxiety.

In the long seconds that followed, the only interruption to our tense little bubble of silence was the crunch of his cell phone as he crushed it in his white-knuckled grip.

"What, no kiss?" Yes, this was the better way to go. Dark amusement seemed safer than uncorking the rage that threatened to ignite whenever I thought of his asinine plan to challenge the Volturi.

"Leah, I've got to go away for a while," he said, heading for his bedroom. "I'll call you tonight."

"Where you going?" I followed him. For some reason, I couldn't resist toying with him a bit, despite the serious business at hand.

He already had a suitcase open on his bed as I entered his bedroom. Two pairs of socks sat in the bottom and a third pair was in-coming from the open dresser drawer.

"Europe," he said, already rifling another drawer. Looked like he'd be launching t-shirts next.

I grabbed the three pairs of socks and tossed them back into their drawer while his back was turned.