Chapter 14
Misty was curled up in a fetal position, ironic as that seemed. She was occupying Gabe’s old room on the third floor. There were still trophies from his football days. A few pennants. They must’ve been from college teams he supported. As far as she knew, he never went to college himself. There was so much she didn’t know about him.
A knock at her door made her stop ruminating and sit up. “Come in.”
Gabe opened the door. “Am I allowed in here?”
Misty smiled sadly. “It’s your room, Gabe.”
He entered and sat beside her on the bed. He took her hand and seemed to be studying it. He kissed her palm and then laced his fingers with hers. Looking at her intently, he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you at the coffee shop.”
Misty squeezed his hand. “I understand. You needed a few minutes. I needed that too, but I had time to think at the hospital and later at Julie’s, and I still didn’t know what to say to you.”
Gabe looked at her, concerned. “About the hospital… I’m not sure that’s the best place for the birth of our child.”
Misty skipped over the part where he wanted to avoid the hospital and was just thrilled that he said “our child.” When she’d caught up to the whole sentence, she asked, “Why? I would have thought you’d be more comfortable with the doctors and all the emergency equipment right there if anything were to go wrong.”
“I guess we can talk about that later. But there’s something we really need to talk about now.”
She waited.
“I’m glad you’re sitting down. What I have to tell you may come as a shock. There’s a family secret that you have to know. Now, not later. It’s part of why I didn’t know what to say or do.”
He had her attention, so she just said, “Go on.”
He scratched his head. “I don’t quite know how to say this, so I guess I’ll just spit it out and then answer the hundred questions you’ll have after that.”
Her brow furrowed.What could they possibly have as a family secret?
He cleared his throat. “We’re shape-shifters, Misty. All of us, except my mother. We can take the shape of a bird called the phoenix. We have very long lives, unless we spend a lot of time in bird years. Then we age faster.”
She leaned back and stared at him. He seemed to be sincere. Had he lost it? Had he gone around the bend due to the shock of her situation? She patted his arm. “It’s okay, Gabe.”
His eyes rounded. “It’s okay?”
Misty shrugged. “Yeah, well… I’m sure there are doctors who can help you. I wish I knew what to do, but I don’t. All I can say is”—she glanced at her lap then up at him again—“I love you, anyway.”
Gabe fell back on his elbows. “I’ll be damned. I never thought it would be that easy. But what did you mean about doctors? This isn’t something we’re infected with.”
“Oh, I know that. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for why you believe this whole phoenix story. Maybe it’s just the stress.”
Gabe dropped down the rest of the way till he was lying flat and covered his face with his hands, mumbling through them, “Shit.” Then he started laughing.
He sat up and shook his head at her. “It’s not that you accept me or don’t. You just think I’m crazy. Is that right?”
Misty worried her lip. “I don’t think the wordcrazyis exactly right. I think there might be some psychological thing…a kind of delusional escape from the stress of reality or something.”
“If my parents back up my story, would you believe it then? We can’t all be delusional, right?”
Misty just stared at him. Either the whole family believed this nonsense, or they were just humoring him. It was probably best to find out which it was. “Okay. Let’s go talk to your parents.”
“Wait. Before that.” Gabe slid down onto one knee. “There’s something else I have to say.”
Misty jumped up. “Oh, no. No, don’t do that yet. I need to know more about what you just told me first.”
Gabe rose. “Of course. I understand. Let’s go downstairs and find my parents.”
“No need,” Antonio said, and the door opened wider. “We’re right here.”
