The voice grew in volume, pulling her from nothingness into consciousness. She pried her eyelids open. Mike’s aquamarine eyes looked into hers.
“Hey, beautiful.”
At first, she thought she was dreaming. His hair, falling forward as he leaned over her, framed his face with sun-lightened wisps. His face was free of grime and trails of sweat though it was still bruised and purple on one side. He smelled like Dial soap and was wearing clean clothes: blue jeans and a dark blue T-shirt. Behind him the room was filled with peach-colored light.
“Mike?” She whispered.
He smiled. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, resting his hand on her arm, squeezing it. “I was worried about you guys when you didn’t show up in town.”
Ben appeared in the doorway. “Sorry, Jo. I sat down on the couch and fell asleep.”
“I’ll drive you home,” Mike offered.
Jo took a deep breath to clear her foggy head. She sat up. Mike jumped up.
“How’s Red?” She asked him, dangling her legs off the side of the bed and gingerly touching the scabbed-over holes the vampire’s nail had made in the back of her neck.
“She’s gonna be fine. She’s at Poudre Valley.”
Jo gathered her wild hair up in her hands. It was dry now. She made a ponytail with her fingers behind her head. “And Lary? And April?”
“April’s fine—she went home with a couple stitches. Lary’s Ok. He’s on the floor above Red. We did a lot of fast talkin’ to explain his injury. But…everyone’s good, thank God. I’ll take you to see them, if we get down the mountain in time.”
Jo was relieved to hear the news. She let go of her hair and it cascaded down around her shoulders, soft and yellow. She caught the glimmer in Mike’s eyes as he watched her.
“Well, shall we?” Mike waved his hand towards the door.
Beyond the doorway, the living room was dark and grey. She hesitated. “I can’t believe you came all the way back,” she said, as she slid off the bed and struggled to stand up straight. She winced. Mike reached out to help her. “I’m Ok,” she told him. “Just a little sore.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. It took me 10 minutes to get out of my truck.” He chuckled and Jo and Ben chuckled with him.
Jo shuffled out of the bedroom with Mike following. She stopped, her eyes drawn to the curtain on the back door. It was glowing with squares of amber light. Mike went around her and picked up her bag. He turned and smiled with eager, expectant eyes.
Jo licked her lips and took a deep breath. “I’m not leaving, yet.”
Mike’s head bobbed upwards as if he’d been punched. He dropped the bag. “What?” His hands docked on his hips.
Ben, standing at the opened front door, moved his glasses down to the end of his nose and looked at Jo over the top of the frames.
“We have the place until tomorrow morning, right?” Jo asked.
Mike’s eyes blinked in rapid succession and he shook his head. “You’re jokin’ right?”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re not staying here.”
“I am.”
“You’re not.”
“But, I am. It’s safe now. Isn’t it, Ben?”
Ben’s lips puckered. His mustache twitched. “Uh....”
“How’s your wrist?” Jo eyed the ace bandage around Mike’s forearm.
“Don’t change the subject.”
“I wasn’t,” she told him, her manner composed. “Is your wrist Ok?”
“Yeah, it’s fine—just sprained. I’ll live to fight vampires another day.” He grinned.
Jo smiled at him. Ben relaxed.
“I’m sorry we worried you,” Ben apologized to Mike. “It’s so peaceful and tranquil here, I couldn’t help—” He stopped in mid-sentence and snuffled at his own statement.
“That was funny, Ben,” Mike said after his own chuckle. He stopped abruptly and looked at Jo. “Can we go now?”
“I’m not going.” She had made up her mind. Nothing could drag her off this mountain.
Mike opened his mouth. “Jo—”
“I need some air.” She cut him off and headed to the back door. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at the stunned men, their mouths agape. “You guys go ahead. I’ll drive April’s car back in the morning.” She turned the knob and stepped out onto the deck.
The evening breeze rushed across her skin and brought the scent of the woods: pine, brush, earth, and flowers that had simmered all day in summer’s heat. She filled her lungs with this delicious air. The view of the mountains in the distance was breathtaking. The sunset painted gauzy strokes of orange above the dark green ridges. Thick, billowy clouds floated like pink cotton candy in the blue air.
Mike and Ben’s muffled voices came from inside the cabin. Mike’s voice was loud and his tone told of his exasperation, but Ben’s voice was steady and calm. She trusted he would not discuss their earlier conversation with Mike.
Out at the pond, reflections of blue and lavender from the sky lay on top of the water. The liquid portrait wrinkled with a gentle brush of wind. The longer she gazed at it, the more her heart hurt. She lay down on the benching on her back, her knees bent, and stared up at the sky.
The first stars peeped out of the rich blueness. A soft, gilded glow in the eastern sky hinted of the moon’s arrival. She closed her eyes, comforted by the breeze stroking her skin, fluttering her hair. Galen’s silver eyes looked into hers. She took a deep breath.
The back door swung open.
“Jo—”
“I’m not going.”
Mike clicked his tongue. He sat on the bench by her feet. Leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees, he rested his chin on his folded hands. “Ben and I are staying for the night.”
“I don’t want you to.”
“Well, we took a vote—and you lost.”
Jo sat up and pushed a breath forcefully out through her mouth, so he would hear it. She got up and moved around him, past the benching, and stood at the rail resting her forearms on the flat top of the wood. She didn’t want them to stay, to interfere, if Galen should…. Her lips twisted together. If only she could think of a way to convince him that she would be Ok by herself.
He stepped beside her and put his arms on the railing, like she had, and turned his head. “Hey, I haven’t had a chance to thank you.” His tone was more congenial.
“For what?”
“For saving my life.” His eyes glistened like aqua-colored glass in the sun’s coral rays. “You are one crazy-brave, girl.” He reached over and removed a fluttering strand of hair from her face, bending it to the side of her head and caressing her as he did so. Jo moved her head back, a small, unintentional movement. His smile collapsed. She frowned. She hadn’t meant to be unkind.
Mike was quiet, his expression downcast.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. I just…I wanted to be by myself tonight. I need time to think about everything.” Her tone weakened. “I don’t want to go home.”
“You don’t have to be alone tonight, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
Jo squirmed and looked off toward the trees. “It’s not that, really.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Are you expecting Galen?”
Her eyes went straight to his. She folded her arms. “No. I told you, he’s gone.”
“I’m not an idiot, Jo. Something happened between you guys last night. You think he’s coming back here, don’t you?” His eyes were laser intense.
Jo unfolded her arms and hooked her thumbs in her front pockets. She shook back her hair. “Ok…maybe a part of me hopes he’ll show up. You know, he saved my life—he saved all of us. If he does, I want to be here to thank him.”
Mike shook his head. His voice was sharp with sarcasm. “Right. He saved us. He single-handedly raised the sun.”
“You didn’t see him,” Jo argued. “He hurt himself to draw those things away from us.”
“So did you.” He glanced at her l
eg.
“Not like he did. I just want to thank him, Mike. I just wanna…” Get something straight in my mind, understand what I saw.
“Come on, Jo. It’s way more than wanting to be grateful. There towards the end you would have gotten yourself killed for him.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“Jo,” his voice was low and forceful, “I had to physically stop you. I had to throw you on the ground to keep you from running into that pack of demons.”
Jo sat down on hard on the benching around the spruce tree, recalling the horde of death that had engulfed Galen.
A violet dusk colored the earth. Cool air whispered in the boughs above Jo’s head. She swished away a gnat. Mike was gazing down at her, his eyes tinted bluish-green by the twilight. His stern expression fell. He reached down for her small damaged hands and lifted them upwards, prompting Jo to stand up. He frowned at the bruise on her face and looked into her eyes—the way she had always dreamed he would. But, it was ineffectual now. Whatever he was going to say didn’t matter. Nothing would change how she felt, or make things different, or put her heart back the way it had been.
“Jo, I want to tell you how incredible I think you are.”
She swallowed. “I think you’re pretty great too.” She grinned faintly.
He jerked his head as if to throw off her placating tone. “Listen, Jo, I’m sorry for the way I acted with Red. Not making any excuses. I just want you to know, I’m not interested in her.”
The jealousy that had driven her out of the cabin onto the front porch to cry no longer existed. “Mike, I—”
He let go of her hands. “He’s not here, Jo. He abandoned us. He left you.” His expression was as cold as his voice.
She shook her head. “You don't understand—”
“You said he wasn’t dead, so he must have run off—without a word, without so much as a ‘see ya later’.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then explain it to me.”
She couldn’t.
“I don’t get it. Yesterday you didn’t even like him.”
“And you didn’t like me.”
There was a pause. “Jo, I’ve always liked you.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I know what you mean.” His eyes flickered with the sun’s last light. “I’ve always like you as my friend, but I could tell you wanted more. I’m sorry if I was cold, I—”
“You were never cold, Mike. You were kind and polite and just not interested. So why would you be interested now?”
He swept the hair off her shoulder, grazing her slender neck with his fingertips. He came a step closer to her. “Ok…this is really corny, but…I’ve seen a different side of you. I’ve seen you in a whole new light.”
“Mike,” Jo looked in his hopeful eyes, “we’ve been through so much, in a very short time.”
“But that’s the point, Jo! In such a short time you’re falling for him. Do you know anything about him?”
Jo glanced away. She grinned, not meaning to.
“I don’t understand it, Jo. He’s practically a stranger—who you couldn’t stand yesterday. At least we’ve known each other for a while. And up until last night, you…you seemed to have feelings for me. And now suddenly you don’t.” His forehead wrinkled.
“Mike, I don’t know what I really feel. I need some time to figure it out.”
His eyes skirted away and his chest heaved.
“You know, when we get back home things are all normal again, you’ll feel differently.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You will. You will. I’ll be my ol’ boring self as soon as we get down this mountain. I’ll be simple, dull me again and you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about.” She grinned half-heartedly.
He shook his head and closed the gap between them, standing so close she could feel the warmth from his body and smell his fresh-washed shirt. “I know what you’re trying to say, Jo.” He slipped his fingers into the hair at her temples. His expression was loving and soft, the look that would have melted her whole being a day ago. “But you see,” his hand floated down through her thick hair, the edge of his palm caressing the side of her face, “I can’t forget what I saw.” His eyes were tender. “You’re beautiful, Jo—your courage, your faith. When I got here and saw you guys hadn’t left yet, I was glad.” He smiled. “I pictured this—that we’d come out to the deck, and the moon would shine down in your gorgeous eyes, and I would hold you.” His hand moved down past her shoulder. He pressed both his hands onto her back. “And maybe,” the tip of his tongue wet his lips, “I would tell you how I feel about you, and maybe…” He leaned in.
Jo turned her head quickly. His arms fell from her and he took a step back, staring at her dejectedly.
Jo’s heart sunk. “I’m sorry, Mike. I’m just a little confused right now. Kissing you would only make it worse. I know things will change. Things’ll be different in a while.” She shrugged and grinned, trying to soothe him. “Galen saved me. He was always so hostile, but then he…he fought so hard for us. I saw him a new light too.” Literally. “I’m probably just experiencing what they call hero worship.”
He looked at her with wounded eyes. “Yeah…Ok. But every time I look in your eyes, I see his reflection.”
She stared blankly at him.
“I saw the way you were looking at him last night, when I came back with Dove and Lary. And the way he looked at you. I knew something had happened. It’d been coming on all night. But I didn’t want to believe it. I wish you’d look at me that way, again.”
The moon beamed down on them like a soft-yellow porch light. The world had darkened to grey.
Everything she’d ever dreamed of was standing before her, the answer to her prayers, the man she’d hoped for and longed for, but everything was different now. His turquoise gaze, his athleticism, and his heart for God didn’t matter. Even knowing she might never see Galen again couldn’t put things back the way they had been. Everything about her life—and heart—had been irrevocably changed.
Mike’s pained expression turned into resignation. He took a deep breath. “I’m tired,” he said, his voice weary. “I’m gonna go to bed.” He walked to the back door and opened it. “Don’t stay out here too long.” Without looking at her, he disappeared inside the cabin.
Chapter 45