“It’s OK,” I whisper before clearing my throat, my voice returning to normal when I continue. “Probably just me moonin’ over those actors on my wall, or moanin’ about how Mom made me do all the chores or somethin’.” I’m a lying liar from liar-ville. But it’s better than Austin finding out I was in love with him by reading mydiary.
His gaze intensifies and it takes everything in me not to blurt out the truth then and there. “If there are secrets to be shared, doc, I only want to hear them from your lips. Yeah?”
I can’t do anything but nod, because being this close to him, smelling him, with his hands covering mine again, my body suddenly feels magnetized.
Austin leans in, his dark eyes roaming over my face before they fix on my mouth. As much as I was equal parts nervous and excited about spending time alone with Austin, right now I feel like I have little to no control over my bodyormy mind. All I can think about is whether kissin’ him will feel different after all this time…
Tipping my chin up, I hold my breath, waiting–hoping–that he’s going to kiss me. My lips even tingle with anticipation…
That’s when there’s a short knock at the door.
“Hey, y’all. Just thought I’d–” Dad says, and like two teenagers caught in the act, Austin and I jump apart, the box crashing down between our feet.
"Hey, Dad." My voice is a little high-pitched to sound normal.
"Hey, sweetheart," he replies, his voice a mix of cautious and curious. "Just thought I'd bring you guys some lunch and help you out. Didn't mean to interrupt." Dad's lips twitch up and I can feel my cheeks burn like I've time-travelled back fifteen years and just been sprung making out on the couch. Which is crazy because we weren't evendoinganything… yet
“Hey, Greg. Food sounds good,” Austin says, recovering far quicker than I can. Although it’s hard to miss the rough rasp in his voice.
Watching Dad and Austin chat, it hits me just how sure I am that coming back home was the right decision. And seemingly, one made at the right time.
Now I’ve just got to figure out how to get Austin to follow through with that almost-kiss.
One step at a time, Char.
10
AUSTIN
"I almost kissed her," I blurt out to Sam, the barman at the Cow.
I came straight here after Greg helped us finish the clearing up so everything is ready for sanding down and priming the next time Charlie's off work.
“Hey, now. I feel like I've missed somethin’. Almost kissedwho?" Sam asks, returning from serving a patron at the other end of the bar.
Ronnie, one of the old timers who you can always count on to prop up the bar more nights than not, shakes his head. “Catch up, Sammy. The doc–Charlie. Mags and Greg’s girl. Austin and her were best friends back in the day. Now she's back in town with her fancy degrees and Austin's feelin’ all sorts of messed up and scratchin’ himself raw cause he wants her but doesn’t know how to have her.” He looks my way. “Did I miss anythin’ out?”
My mouth drops open and I stare slack-jawed at him as his words sink in.Is he right?
I think back to when I started feeling all these strange symptoms and I realize it was onlyafterwe saw Charlie at the diner and found out she was back in town. Since I know I can't be allergic to a person–I hope not, anyway–it must be connectedsomehow.
Surely it can't be the Call? The spirit wouldn't torture me physically like that... would she? Could the mountain have called her back...for me? I shake off that thought because at the time Charlie arrived it was right before the Christmas Cup, which means Toby and Dee hadn't even completed their Call. So it couldn't have been. There can't be two running at once... can there? Although technically, Toby and Dee have completed their Call now.So that means…
I rub my hand over the back of my neck but freeze when it hits me that I didn’t scratch once when I was with Charlie. I didn’t feel like I was coming out of my skin either. I thought that was one of the signs. Landry said he felt like a piece of him was missing when Star wasn't around. Rhett was like a grumpy bear before he completed the Call with Cora.
Then there's Toby who was downright impossible to live with when Dee was away in Montana.
But Charlie's been gone for years, and I haven't felt anything other than missing my best friend–and rueing the chance I had to tell her I loved her. Now she's back, and I'm not sleeping right and getting rashes and--
I shake off that thought. There are too many unknowns. Like why am I so affected now and not back then?Because it wasn't the right time then.
Did she not have feelings for me back then and she does now? Or does she just want to be friends and I misread the signals back atthe apartment when I thought for sure that she was wanting me to kiss her.
"You might want to quit scratchin' there, Austin. Otherwise, I see another hospital visit in your future," Sam says pointedly. I drop my hand back down to the bar. "You were friends back then, yeah?" he asks, and I nod.
"Yep. Then she was at college and we drifted apart. Life got between us."
"You know what I think," Henry, another old rancher says from the end of the bar. I look his way. "I think that mountain spirit of yours over there at Bull is having a bit of fun, makin' you itch and scratch and feel out of sorts."
