The wheels squealed as the car turned the corner. “Your flight’s in a few hours.”
“I know.”
The city flew by as Ian navigated the car toward the airport. “Oh, no. You’ve got your second-thoughts face going on. Please tell me you haven’t changed your mind.”
“Like I said before, I’m going to undo what I’ve done.”
23
Lexi returned from her third house with a couple who, despite their fourth look at the place, still couldn’t decide. She stood in the Wise Women lobby, her hands behind her back, a smile plastered on her face, and waited. The two gabbed, considered, and asked each other questions.
As they talked, they touched, caressed and smiled. Lexi firmed her lips as a pang of jealousy hit her. Tripp hadn’t contacted her since she’d given him the information he wanted.
Thoughts raced through her mind like water through a sieve. Did he steal back the paintings? Was he still in New York? The stubborn in her kept her from taking the final step and calling him.
“We’d like to put in an offer,” the wife said and snapped Lexi from her fog.
“Excellent. Emma will help you with all the paperwork.” She led them toward Emma’s office and showed them in. “I’ll be out for a bit, Em.” Lexi waved her cell phone in the air.
A few moments later, she jumped in her Mini, popped the top down and headed out to Tripp’s farmhouse.
Summer officially became Fall the day before, and with it, the cooler weather moved in. Lexi let the sun warm her and the wind throw her hair back. A few black and white cows mooed their welcome as she took the last turn.
The farmhouse stood tall and proud like it did every time she passed it.
This should be mine.
Her cell buzzed. “Hey, Missy.” Lexi answered while she pulled into the driveway.
“I have some sketches for you.” Her singsong voice brought up a bubble of laughter within Lexi.
“Awesome.” She climbed out of the car, ambling toward the porch. In the rockers absence, she chose the dust covered step as a seat.
“If I email you copies, can you look at them, but do it while you’re in the room of the house?”
“Actually, I’m here now. Wanted to check on it since Tripp hasn’t come back yet.”
“Where is he?”
“Not getting caught, I hope.”
Missy laughed. “Okay. Well, good. I’ll send ’em to him, too, but I’d love your opinion. Afterward, I’ll submit the sketches to the builders for estimating.”
“You work quickly, Missy.” Lexi leaned an elbow on her knee.
“I try. It’s part of who I am. When I’m inspired, I can design an entire house in a night.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” The smile came through with the sentiment.
“I also caught up with your Sherrill.”
Lexi straightened. “Oh, yeah?”
“Well, first, the moment I mentioned that pendant, she wanted to know what
you
wanted to know.”
There goes that ploy.
“Then she says she wants to meet you in person if you ever get a chance to come up there. She’s in her late fifties, maybe even sixties, but she looks great. And she’s got this
gorgeous
house she inherited from her mother.”
The breeze picked up, sending a cloud of dust into small tornado-like swirls.
“So was she willing to talk, then, even though she knew sending you over was a sort of ruse?”
Missy laughed. “Actually, yeah. And funny story—you thought she got the pendant from an estate sale, right?”
“Yeah.” Lexi stood and propped herself against the house in an effort to get out of the growing wind storm’s path.
“Well, the sale, as she told me, was actually her mother’s. She passed away about six months ago.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. She was open to talking about it, then?”
Missy’s giggles grew louder. “Completely. Probably because I was honest about my intent. I told her who I was, who my brother was, who you were. I said my job was to make sure you two got together. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
The wind picked up despite the fact the sky remained blue.
“Hang on a sec, Missy, I’m going in the house.” None of her keys unlocked the door. “Did your brother have the locks changed?”
“Not that I know of. Didn’t he leave you in charge of the place?”
“Dammit.” Lexi eyed the barn, figuring shelter from the oncoming storm would be safer than her car, especially given the size of the oak trees in the yard. She ran toward the doors as dust and dirt pelted her.
“Let me call you back.”
The door flew open as Lexi unlatched the makeshift lock. She grabbed the edge, brought it flush with the other, and the old hay and musty smell hit her like an old friend. She breathed them in as they enveloped her.
Back to her phone, the cell service registered no bars. “Figures. I need to watch more of the weather channel.”
The wind whistled and blew against the panes. Hurricane season lasted through November, but the quick brew had taken her by surprise.
She meandered down the row of stalls and back, catching sight of the wooden ladder to the hay loft. As the wind raged beyond the walls, she opted to be nosey. She’d wanted to see the barn anyway, and the storm gave her the perfect opportunity.
Up the eight stairs she climbed. Bales of hay stacked four high lay at one end, though the floor held a light coat of scattered debris throughout. One bale, sitting away from the pack, beckoned to become her chair. She inched her way over, unsure of the floorboard’s strength beneath her. When it held, she finished her walk and plopped onto the cube of prickly yellow stalks.
For whatever reason, her cell still registered no service. “Wind in the south.”
She leaned back against the bales, shifting to eliminate the pin pricks which dug into her back. Through the barn’s upper windows, the wind tormented the panes, but the sky remained a deep dark blue.
Lexi scrolled through the games on her phone with the intent to make time pass faster. Solitaire, hearts and checkers, plus a dozen apps she didn’t remember adding, all appeared in her games folder. “Emma,” she said with a laugh as she selected one game, and another and a third.
“Enough procrastinating.”
Around her, the air swirled and dust particles floated in the light from the windows. With the cell off, she brushed hay away from her hands and slipped Marge’s journal from her bag.
Lexi circled back through what she’d read in the journal before, trying to piece images and timelines together. One entry led to another, suggesting George and Marge used their gifts while another contradicted that notion. She continued reading until she reached the end but finished without the answer she sought.
The one tidbit she did take away indicated Marge and George were absolutely, without a doubt, Lexi and Tripp’s celestial counterparts, and that others existed like them in the world, but not whether they kept their gifts or how they worked around them.
A peek out the window reflected calm winds at last, so with book in hand, Lexi climbed back down. She inhaled the straw and mulch scents one more time before she eased back through the big doors, imagining herself a lady of the manor.
Lexi wandered back over to the porch after a bump with her hip latched the barn doors in place. She tried her key at the house again with success the second time.
“This place gets weirder every time I come here.” She smiled to herself. “God, I love it.”
The emptiness of the house loomed. Smells from their breakfast four days before lingered—but in a good way. She imagined Emma and Missy, her two companions for the night, as they’d chatted and gabbed, drank too much wine and enjoyed each other’s company.
“Shit.” Lexi grabbed for her phone, redialing Missy’s number with a single touch.
“Wow. What happened?” Missy’s greeting made Lexi smile.
“Wind storm or something. Knocked the cell service for a loop. Happens down here sometimes.”
“Okay, but for two hours?”
Lexi flipped the phone around.
How did that happen?
“Uh … yeah. Just a bit of a hiccup.” She scratched at the side of her head. “I think we were talking about Sherrill when we last spoke?” Lexi headed through to the living room, ambling toward the bedrooms, imagining them in a new-build state.
“Yeah, so, anyway, Sherrill wants to meet you.”
“I remember you said that. Why? Thought you were just going to do some probing.” Lexi chuckled.
“Didn’t have to. She opened right up. Actually, she figured you’d be visiting her sooner or later. Turns out, she knows all those people you mentioned and even says you were very special to them.”
Lexi ducked into the bathroom and out again.” To Marge and George?”
Missy’s boisterous laugh carried for a minute. “And Mara.”
“I never met Mara … only saw pictures.”
“When was the last time you saw the Fergs, Lexi?”
“Last week when I brought Tripp over.”
“And he saw them?”
“Yes, of course. So did Ian and Emma.”
Missy’s chuckles bubbled through the line. “Oh, boy. Well, it seems the Fergs weren’t quite honest with you. Sherrill asked me to apologize on their behalf.”
“What do you mean?” Lexi leaned against the wall, breathing in the scents of the old farmhouse.
“The pendant was theirs, or rather hers—Mara—no, Marge’s. Sorry, I’m getting my words all scrambled. The pendant was Marge’s.”
She fingered the necklace. “You mean the one I’m wearing? The blue sapphire one? It was Mrs. Fergs?”
“Yes. It’s a tradition to be passed down from each female player in Zeus’s game.”
“Holy shit.” Lexi pushed herself away from the wall.
“Here’s the kicker, Lexi.”
“There’s more?”
“The Fergs’ place has been empty for … oh … about thirty years.” Missy sighed a contented, pleasant sound. “Sherrill told me you were chosen for this job. It was her Mom’s responsibility to make sure you got the pendant at the right time. But, her Mom passed away six months ago, so the role fell to Sherrill.”
“Um … wha—seriously?”
Missy giggled. “Yeah. There’s a painting of a woman, with a rather dashing guy, hanging in her house. I’m guessing that’s the old people you guys keep referring to. Anyway, she’s got this big-ass mansion in Annapolis with loads of antiques, gorgeous old stuff. Says her Grandparents left everything to her mother, who in turn gave it all to her, but the pendant was never meant to be hers. The way she put it, it was always supposed to be someone else’s, and that would be you.”
“But, why and how did she know to find me?”
Lexi twirled a lock of hair around her finger as she moved to the center of the room. The faded wallpaper, bowed wood and elements she thought of as character reformulated in her mind into decay.
Missy’s silence didn’t last long. “The
right
moment was apparently very loosely defined. When her ex-husband sent you to her, she took that as her sign.”
“What about … the Fergs? How were they … here?” A shiver ran the length of Lexi’s body. “If Mara passed away, and Sherrill is in her sixties … that would make the Fergs …”
“Somewhere around a hundred and thirty. Yup. So Sherrill had an answer for that, but she only guessed at it because her only job was to deliver the pendant.”
“Okay … and … ?” Curiosity had Lexi dropping to the floor, cross-legged and ready to focus.
“She said if her grandparents were given a chance to return to answer your questions, then someone was looking out for you.”
Lexi jerked back as her eyes widened. “Well … holy shit. You know Zeus started and stopped his games on a whim, but his wives often one-upped him. What if one of them intends for us to be together, and she’s made sure Marge and George could get around Zeus before he put a stop to us on his own?”
Missy sent a quick laugh through the phone. “As crazy as it sounds, it fits. The Fergs sound like amazing people, Lexi. Seriously. Sherrill said they had a lot of issues to work through when they were young because, as she put it, they each had very unique talents.”
“So they did keep their gifts.” Lexi twirled a curl around her finger. “What about Mara? Did she say anything about how she … came into their family?”
“Apparently, she was orphaned during a massive typhoon in some country in Asia Pacific. She was the light in her parents’ eye once they found her and adopted her.”
Found her. Found her-found her or just happened upon? I’m guessin’ the latter.
A deep sigh left Lexi as her fear of what Marge could have done drained away, replaced by the answers she’d sought. Marge and George had made it around the paradox. Mara had been their find after their marriage. They’d still kept their gifts.
The only question still remaining is how.
“Oh, and you wanna hear their signature line? Sherrill was so cute when she was telling me.”
“What’s that?”
“Success isn’t in the gifts we keep, rather what we give of ourselves.”
“That’s awesome—”
The kitchen door creaked open, closing with a light bang on the frame.
Missy chattered on as Lexi stood and made her way toward the sound. She stepped into the space between the living room and side entrance as a man, dressed in black pants and a white shirt, stood just inside.
She covered the mouthpiece with one hand. “Hi. Sorry, but the house already sold. I forgot, again, to take down the sign.”
“Yes, I know.” His dark eyes reflected no emotion.
A tingle sent the hairs at the base of her neck to a stand. She hovered her thumb over the keypad as his gaze fixed on her. “Can I help you with something, then?” She kept her voice airy and friendly, though it masked a fear which grew from within.
“Lexi?” A worried tone came through the phone.
“I’m not here for the house, but I’ll be happy to leave you to your phone call if you’ll give me the pendant around your neck.”
“What?”
“The pendant. The one I know you wear all the time. Now.”
“Why would you—How would you—”
Oh, good Lord, Lexi, just give it to him!
“That doesn’t matter.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
The man limped in as Lexi moved back father into the house. Her only option for escape would be out a window or the front door, if she could reach either in time. She pressed the phone’s speaker against her leg, slid her fingers across the nine, the one and the one again in the hopes Missy would pick up on the tones.
He jumped toward her as she ran.