Storm Season (15 page)

Jasper again fought down the urge to move away, to pace back and forth and wave his arms while he yelled and screamed. “Because of everything else you’ve made me feel.” He forced himself to keep his voice calm and level despite the anger broiling in his belly.

Everything else?

Oh no. Jasper wasn’t going to let Tobias off that easily, no matter how innocent and bewildered he managed to look. “You admitted earlier that you’d made me feel other things, made me want to help you and I don’t even know what else.” He tightened his grip on the hand he was holding, focusing the energy he would have spent pacing into making sure Tobias couldn’t pull away and end the conversation before Jasper was ready. “I can’t trust anything I’ve felt since I met you. For all I know, you’ve been manipulating me since we met.”

No! That’s not it at all! I didn’t—I couldn’t—do that. It’s….
He paused, shifting position on the pallet so he was closer to Jasper, their knees practically touching.
What I did yesterday, in that town, then keeping you from feeling the pain from what I’d done… you saw how tired I was, yeah?

Jasper nodded, let their joined hands drop to rest on their legs. “Yes.”

If I’d been actively influencing you, I’d have been that tired from the first time I did it. It takes a lot of energy to make people feel things, to make them think that the feelings are theirs.
He grinned wryly.
Plus, you would have had a lot more headaches than you have.

The number of headaches he’d had since meeting Tobias was easily as many as he’d had in the years since moving inland prior to meeting Tobias. The idea of having more sent an involuntary shudder down his spine. “So then what did you do?” He’d done something, Jasper was sure of it, both from how he’d acted and Tobias’s earlier admission.

I, um, projected. Not to make you feel anything you weren’t feeling,
he added quickly,
but to share what I was feeling. Back… back home, that’s just how it is. I always—we always—send feelings with words. It’s easier that way; there are fewer misunderstandings. I think that, maybe, since you’re, um, not like me, you didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know what you were receiving, and, um, thought they were your own feelings. I didn’t realize.

It made sense, sort of, but Jasper still felt betrayed. He’d acted on feelings not his own, embarked on a cross-continent journey during the wet season because of someone else’s feelings. He’d viciously defended Tobias against such accusations back in Durrysville, against Darius’s fears and Carla’s worries, and then he’d discovered that the man from the post office had been right after all. Intentionally or not, Tobias had influenced him.

“And now that you do realize?” he asked, his tone low and faintly menacing. “Can you stop? Will you?”

Yes.

“Really?” Jasper knew how difficult years of habit were to change.

I think so. I’m going to try.

That was more like it. “And how will I know? How can I trust that you do? How will I know if you don’t? How can I trust what I’m feeling?”

I don’t know.

The burst of doubt and uncertainty that accompanied the words was obviously from Tobias, but it only proved Jasper’s point. “Neither do I.” He sighed, shaking his head as he climbed to his feet, his hand still clasped around Tobias’s. “We should sleep; start early in the morning.”

Yeah, okay.
Tobias leaned back, stopped before breaking contact with Jasper.
Stay?

It was far harder than it should have been to say no.

T
OBIAS
picked at the worn hem of his borrowed T-shirt and flipped the zipper pull on his jacket up and down, up and down. He let his left hand fall to the seat and slid it a few inches toward Jasper before bringing it back and again beginning the dance of picking and flipping. Even with his eyes on the road, his attention focused on the potholes and fallen limbs that made travel between storms so difficult, Jasper could see the fluttering fingers out of the corner of his eye and hear the creaking of the leather seats as the restless body on the other side of the cab shifted.

He steered the truck to the side of the road and parked it in a gap in the trees where it would be out of the way should someone else come along and need to get around them. That was highly improbable, but old habits died hard and years of living in the coastal cities had taught him never to stop where someone else might need to be.

“What’s the matter?” He held his hand toward Tobias, palm up and fingers outstretched.

Tobias grabbed it immediately and squeezed tightly. A wave of relief rushed over Jasper, flooding his chest, but stopped just as suddenly, cut off with a ferocity that left no doubt in Jasper’s mind the feeling hadn’t been his.
Sorry.
Tobias clutched tighter at Jasper’s hand, his fingers squeezing Jasper’s together in a grip that was almost painful.
I didn’t mean to, I wasn’t trying…

Jasper held up a hand to stop the mental babbling. “I know.”

Thank you.

There was no need; Jasper was certain he hadn’t meant what Tobias seemed to be taking from the simple comment, but it wasn’t worth the argument or the worry. The feeling had stopped more quickly than it had started as Tobias had realized what he was doing, which was all Jasper could really ask at the moment, no matter how badly he wanted to demand more. “What did you want?” he asked instead, grateful for the chance to think about anything else.

Um.
Tobias’s gaze flashed to the windshield and the heavy, low-hanging clouds that could be seen through it. He was ridiculously easy to read even when he wasn’t sending anything. The nervous flickering of his eyes and the way his free hand still picked at his shirt hem said far more than any words echoing in Jasper’s skull could.

Jasper let his own gaze drift to the clouds, assessing them with a thoughtful eye. They were dark and low, heavy with moisture, but they were small still, not quite ready to burst. This storm was still several hours away. “It’s just clouds.”

Yeah, I know.
Tobias’s lips twitched up into a clearly forced half-smile as his free hand moved to the jacket zipper, flipping the pull up and down, up and down.
Clouds never used to make me this nervous, you know?
He shrugged, glanced quickly at Jasper, and resumed looking at the clouds.
But now I just… I don’t want to get caught out in another storm. I had hoped… we’re not going to make it to Shaleton before the daytime storms start, are we?

“No.”
They
wouldn’t make it to Shaleton at all if Jasper had the courage to go through with his plan, but he couldn’t say that. Not yet. “I’d say the first real daytime storm is two, maybe three days away. We’re at least ten out from Shaleton.”

Sleet.
Tobias slumped, his free hand finally stilling in his lap.
Once it starts storming during the day, how will we travel? If we can’t—

“We’ll figure it out.” Or rather, Tobias would, by himself, without Jasper. Really.

T
HE
town was small. Two gravel-covered roads branched off the main one that headed on toward the coast, looping around to join it again, and a few muddy paths headed away, presumably to outlying fields or tiny homesteads. Businesses—a post office, a general store, a cobbler, and an inn—lined the main road. The bank shared space with the post office, a tailor seemed to be situated above the cobbler, and the inn’s old-fashioned taproom doubled as the local restaurant. There was a bookstore just off the main road, and a candy store around one of the corners. Small, windowless houses lined the picturesque streets, disappearing behind the larger storefronts. Perhaps there were a few side roads toward the outskirts, but other than a few houses the entire town could be seen from the creaking wooden sign that announced they had reached Folsom’s Hollow.

The sun was still out, though it hung low in the sky and was partially obscured by the increasingly heavy clouds that were now threatening to let their contents loose at any moment. The wind that whipped the hanging sign back and forth was more than a gentle breeze, and the air was thick with the moisture of the impending storm. The streets were nearly empty, though lights could be seen in a few stores, and it was difficult to tell if the quiet was due to the late hour or the low population.

Jasper’s stomach rumbled as he slowly drove down the street, taking in the quaint atmosphere that made Brightam’s Ford look like a bustling metropolis. “We’ll stock up first, eat at the inn after.” He focused on the excuses, all the other reasons he wanted to stock up immediately instead of waiting for morning. They could leave earlier. They wouldn’t risk getting run out of town without things they needed. They weren’t likely to encounter as many people. The list went on and on.

He could decide in the morning, after a good night’s sleep and perhaps some regular conversation in the inn. At the moment, he just had to be sure he was ready to act on whatever decision he made.

Tobias’s eyes were focused on the gathering clouds, but he nodded and reached across the gap between them to lightly touch Jasper’s shoulder.
Okay. I’ll um, never mind.

“You’ll what?”

Nothing.
This time the touch was barely a brush against his elbow, gone before he was really aware of it and not likely to be repeated by hands now jammed into jacket pockets.

Shaking his head and ignoring the fondly amused feeling welling in his chest, Jasper guided the truck to the general store, turned into the gravel lot beside it, and swung around the building to park the truck under the corrugated metal roof in the back. As he climbed out, he glanced down the road toward the inn, wondering if they had a similar setup and froze, the warm amusement turning into an ice cold stab of fear.

The inn too had a covered lot, the corrugated metal currently covering one vehicle—a purple and green van with a dented bumper and broken mirror.

T
OBIAS
scrambled back into the car, nearly catching his jacket in the door as he slammed it shut.
Come on!
He slid across the bench seat, leaning around the steering wheel to yank at Jasper’s arm.
Let’s go!

Jasper braced himself against the door and peered more closely at the van in the other lot. It was empty, the owners likely inside the inn. “Hold on.”

We need to go!
Tobias tugged again, nearly throwing Jasper off balance.
They’re here! They’ll see us—me—and they’ll....
He shuddered, shook his head.
We need to leave. Now.

“We need to get supplies.” Jasper looked Tobias straight in the eyes and tried to project a calm he didn’t really feel. “Come on. They’re in the inn. They won’t see us.”

Tobias stared back, his chest heaving with deep, shuddering breaths.
How do you know? What if they come out? What if they recognize the truck? What if they come into the store?

Jasper could feel the panic behind the words, but it was clearly
Tobias’s
panic with only a strange echo in Jasper’s gut, and he briefly wondered if Tobias was responsible for the difference or if it was simply a result of his own new awareness. He pushed the thought aside as he gently removed Tobias’s hand from his arm, keeping it clasped in his own. “They won’t. They don’t know we’re here. They have no reason to leave until morning.”

But what if they do?

“They won’t.”

But―

“If they do,” Jasper said in the same calm tone he used on skittish horses, “we’ll leave right away. No matter what we’ve gotten. But we need to try to get something, or we’ll be hungry tomorrow.” Somehow during the last three minutes, he’d decided to take Tobias all the way to Shaleton, and he said the plural pronoun without a twinge of guilt. “I promise,” he added when Tobias stayed still, his eyes focused on the van and his hand tight around Jasper’s.

Slowly, Tobias turned to look back at Jasper.
Yeah, okay.
He cast another nervous glance at the van and slid out of the truck, his hand never leaving Jasper’s grasp.
Let’s go.

Tobias moved so quickly that Jasper was left trailing behind, his hand extended in front of him as Tobias practically dragged him through the shop door and down the first aisle. “Easy!” he protested, digging his heels into the wooden floorboards and halting them in front of some produce. “There’s no need to run!”

We need to get stuff and get out of here.
Tobias handed Jasper the basket he’d grabbed on their way inside and started loading it with fruits and vegetables.

“Nothing is going to happen while we’re here.” Jasper began removing items from the basket, taking out about every other item Tobias added so that none of it would go bad before they had a chance to eat it. “It will start storming soon; no one else is coming here tonight.”