B0075M2D1U EBOK (14 page)

“
No problem. I’m really sorry you fell overboard, Ruby,” Nick apologized as he grabbed the oars and started rowing back to shore at a much faster pace than we had previously been going. Great. Now he was apologizing to me, when he didn’t do anything wrong! “I don’t know what happened,” I said, “I guess I just got nervous being with you, and then I panicked when I had to use the bathroom…I must have rocked the boat a little too much when I stood up. I’m so sorry. I am really, really sorry,” I tried to sound as sincere as I could. Even though I wanted to distract Nick from the beast in the water behind him, I certainly wasn’t trying to get knocked out of the boat! I was definitely not planning on a swim this evening.

He flashed me that trademark smile again, and I knew I was forgiven. “It’s okay, Ruby. I get nervous around you too, sometimes.” This time, when he smiled, he looked almost shy. That did it. My heart just melted. I sat there, soaking wet (thank goodness I wore a pink t-shirt and not a white one) and dreamily looking at Nick. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the scaly humps swimming in and out of the water away from us. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the dragon swim away and saw the shore get closer and closer.

Chapter 16

As we rowed into the docks to tie up the boat, I pulled off my soaking wet pink Converse and shook the excess water off of them. Thank goodness I never wore socks…one less piece of clothing I had to wring out. I held the shoes in one hand and grabbed Nick’s hand with my other one as I stepped out onto the docks.

Nick checked the boat back in at the office while I waited outside by his car. It was a warm night, so I wasn’t too chilled even though I was soaking wet. He came walking back towards me, as I stood leaning against his car, wrapping my arms around myself and holding onto my wet shoes. “Ohhh, Nick. I don’t wanna get into your car…I’m all wet!”

“
It’s okay. Ruby, really. I think I have a towel in the back seat…hang on a sec,” he said as he opened the back door, leaned into the back seat and fished around for the towel. As he pulled himself back out of the car and stood up to face me, he turned around and held out his hands, “Tah-daaa! Got one,” he said as he held up the towel, “And…” He held up his other hand that was hidden behind his back and revealed a small bouquet of white peonies.

I gushed, “Niiick! You shouldn’t have! Those were back there the whole time?” I gratefully smiled and took the flowers from him. He nodded, returning the smile. “Well, I didn’t wanna give ‘em to you at the beginning of the date. I wanted to surprise you.”

“
You did,” I assured him, as I stuck my nose into the fresh bouquet to smell them. “I love, love, love flowers. Did you know that?”

“
Well, I figured most girls do,” Nick replied, “But you also mentioned you like to garden with your mom the last time we went out. I thought you’d like these. The guy at the garden place said that peonies are a symbol of luck and happiness. I just thought they smelled nice,” he shrugged and gave me that bashful smile again. I was just so impressed that he didn’t give me regular old carnations or daisies…This was…this was something. That’s what it was!

“
I love them. Absolutely love them.” I was grinning from ear to ear and couldn’t resist giving him a big hug…Which of course, wasn’t the best idea since I was soaking wet. “Ohhhh! I’m sorry!” I gasped as I quickly lurched away from him. Nick laughed, “It’s okay, Ruby. I really don’t mind the whole wet-t-shirt thing you got goin’ on,” and he smiled wickedly.

I gave him a playful shove, “Oh! You are such a typical boy!”

“
Didn’t you say you needed to use the bathroom?” he suddenly remembered. “Oh. Right!” I laughed, “I guess I forgot. I think I’m okay now,” I bashfully smiled at him, “But I should probably get home and change my clothes,” I sighed. Even though I didn’t want our date to end, I couldn’t very well just hang out in my wet clothes much longer. I had peeked at my reflection in the windows while I was waiting at the car and it was not pretty. If Nick didn’t keep looking over at me and smiling that sexy smile, I would’ve really felt uncomfortable. But he just made me so giddy that I forgot how terrible I looked with my wet, stringy hair hanging on my shoulders and my soaking wet clothes stuck to every inch of my body. I thought about the crazyass dragon that had tipped our boat and sent me toppling into the water. He was definitely malicious. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he was taunting me. The more I thought about it, the madder I got. This wasn’t some crazed wild animal in the woods, like a bear who was just acting territorial or hungry…this was something more. Sirrush was an intelligent creature, purposefully causing havoc and instilling fear. He already started several fires, including burning down the Frederick’s tree farm, and he wrecked all those boats at the marina. Luckily, nobody has been hurt so far. I can’t imagine what he was capable of if he really wanted to do some damage. This was personal. First, he attacked my town. Then, he tried to attack me. He was like the bully at school who never seems to get caught pulling the fire alarm… Hmmmpf. This dragon wasn’t going to get away with it. Holding my bouquet of flowers and sitting next to Nick in the front seat of his car, I knew we had to stop him. And fast.

After Nick dropped me off at home, I wanted to get a hold of Anya and Brennan and tell them what had happened. I called their cottage and left them a message. No use in telling them the whole sordid story on their voice mail. I’d just wait until I could speak with them in person tomorrow. There was nothing else I could do for the night but dream about the amazing kiss that Nick and I shared on my front porch just before he left.

Chapter 17

Tuesday morning I awoke to Leo screaming my name from the bottom of the stairs. “RUUUBBYY! HEY! Roooob! Jeremy’s here to see you!” Geesh! Did he have scream at the top of his lungs like that? And why was Jeremy over so early in the morning without calling first? “RUUUBBBYYY!!! Getcher lazy butt UP!” Leo yelled again.

“
Yeah, yeah,” I half-heartedly shouted back. “C’mon up, Jer.” I heard Jeremy climb up the stairs two at a time. He popped his head into my doorway as I sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes. “What the hell are you doing here so early in the morning?” I yawned.

“
Well good morning to you too, Miss Sassitude! Ruby, sweetie. It’s like, almost noon. I was dying to hear about your date with Mr. Hotness. I called an hour ago and Leo told me you were still sleeping. Well, hang on a sec,” he put his fingers thoughtfully to his chin as he remembered, “Actually, what he said was, ‘Scooby is still curled up dreaming about chasing fire trucks.’ I couldn’t wait any longer, so I just came over.” Jeremy sat down on the edge of my bed, wearing his black jeans, black wristbands and red and black t-shirt. Did the kid realize it was summer and probably going to be over eighty degrees today? Geesh. I got all sticky just looking at him and said, “Jeremy, you should really consider wearing shorts. It is summer, ya know?” I dragged myself out of bed and walked out of my room to use the bathroom. Jeremy just shook his head. “You are so crabby in the morning, ya know?” he called after me.

I finished up and walked back into my room to hear Jeremy exclaim, “Pretty flowers!” Did Nick give them to you?” he wiggled his eyebrows playfully as he walked over to smell them.

Just looking at the beautiful white peonies in the vase on my dresser made me smile all over again. “Yeah,” I sighed. “It was wonderful, Jeremy…other than when I ended up drenched in the lake, everything was perfect.”

“
You WHAT?!” Jeremy looked at me with wide eyes. I shook my head, “Long story. I’ll tell ya, just lemme get dressed first.”

“
Okay, I’ll give you some privacy. I’ll just go put some fresh water in these,” he said, as he took the vase of flowers off my dresser and walked towards the bathroom. I pulled out a pair of cutoffs and a clean t-shirt to put on just as I heard the familiar soda-pop fizzing sound.

“
What are you guys doing here?!” I hissed at Anya and Brennan, “Jeremy is right next door in the bathroom!” Anya and Brennan looked surprised. They were usually so good at knowing when I was alone. I guess Sirrush being here really was throwing off their magic.

At that very moment, Jeremy walked back into the room.

Uh-oh.

He jerked to a stop, holding the vase of flowers in his hands, “Wha…Wher…How did you guys get here?” looking dumbfounded and glancing back and forth between Anya and Brennan. “I only stepped into the bathroom for like, thirty seconds and I left the door open. I didn’t see or hear you guys come up the stairs.” He was blinking and shaking his head, trying to figure out how Anya and Brennan got past him and into my room without him noticing.

I started to stutter, “Ah, Ummm…” when Brennan thankfully cut me off, “It’s okay, Ruby. We’ve known Jeremy long enough. He’s trustworthy. We may as well tell him. It’s just getting too difficult to keep it a secret from him any longer.”

“
Tell me what? What secret? What’s going on?” Jeremy asked, looking at all of us his eyes suddenly getting huge with excitement, “Oooohhh! I know! Are you two secretly in love and having a torrid affair?!?!” he exclaimed. “Oh. But that wouldn’t explain why Anya was here….Or how the two of you got in here without me seeing…”

“
No! We are not secretly in love!” I retorted. “Geesh Jeremy! Gimme a break! I like Nick, remember?”

“
Ohhh, right, right, right. Okay. Soooo, what’s the deal? What’s going on?”

Anya and Brennan looked at me. Great. So now it’s my job to tell Jeremy about the two fairies standing in my room? Ugh. I took a deep a breath and said, “Okay. Here goes…Jeremy, I see fairies.” I felt like that kid from the movie who saw dead people.

“
Oh. Ha ha. Nice. Calling me a fairy, real original.” Jeremy oozed sarcasm.

I shook my head, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose with my fingers, “No. I mean… I really, literally can see
fairies
. As in, winged, magical creatures from another realm.” I looked at Jeremy, who stood there looking as confused as ever. He wasn’t getting it, so I turned to Anya and Brennan and said, “Okay guys. Do the pop thing,” and POP they were gone.

“
WHAT THE HELL!?!?” Jeremy shouted, obviously astounded as he dropped the vase of peonies he was holding in his hands. It shattered on the hardwood floor, spilling water and broken glass everywhere as he raced over to where Anya and Brennan were just standing, looking wildly around.

I sighed again. “I told you. I see fairies. And Anya and Brennan are two of them.”

Jeremy whirled around to look at me and exclaimed, “Seriously? Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! This is so freaking cool!”

Just then, Anya and Brennan soda-pop fizzed back into the room from their swirly mist. Jeremy’s eyes bugged out and the color drained from his face. “Oh sweet Lord. I need to sit down,” he murmured as he went to sit on my bed, staring blankly at Anya and Brennan and looking like he might pass out.

I tiptoed over the broken glass and water on the floor and went to sit on the bed next to Jeremy. Anya reached down to pick up the flowers. “I’ll just get something to put these in,” she said as she walked lightly out of the room. Brennan stood there, feet spread apart, his arms folded across his chest, staring at me and Jeremy on the bed, “Is he gonna be okay?” Brennan asked. “Of course he’s gonna be okay,” I snapped as I put my arm around Jeremy.

“
You really are quite crabby in the morning,” Jeremy said again as he looked over at me, half-smiling and seemingly coming out of his dumb-struck state. “I’m sorry about dropping the flowers,” he said. I waved it off, “No biggie,” I answered. “But now you know. Anya and Brennan are fairies. I’ve been seeing them since I was five years old. And most people can’t see them, except when they appear like they just did to you. That’s them in their human form. They can choose when to show themselves.”

“
This is some seriously cool shit.” Jeremy said, shaking his head.

I smiled, “Yeah. I know.”

Then, Jeremy suddenly smacked my shoulder and pouted, “I cannot believe you kept it from me all this time!”

“
Ooowwww!!!! That hurt!” I said, rubbing the side of my arm and shoulder where he smacked me. Jeremy snorted, “Oh, get over it.”

At that moment, Anya walked back into the room and placed the vase of peonies back on the dresser. “So, we all good?” she questioned, looking from me to Jeremy and back to me again. I nodded, “Yep. We’re good. But…I think he should probably hear everything.”

“
There’s more??” Jeremy shrilled, his eyes widening.

Anya looked at Brennan and he silently nodded.

“
Brace yourself Jer,” I said as I squeezed his shoulder, “You’ll definitely wanna stay sitting for this.”

Chapter 18

Jeremy was pacing my room, while I was sweeping up the last of the broken glass from the earlier dropped vase. “I cannot believe there’s a freaking dragon living in Lake City!” he excitedly said, as he was shaking his head and walking around my room. “I mean. A real, honest to goodness diggidy-damn dragon! And lemme see if I got this straight…he came through to our world on the Blue Moon using some jabooble-scooble magic, healed himself in the lake, and is now nesting somewhere nearby and flying around causing all kinds of trouble? And you guys are like, fairy royalty and part of some huge Royal Counsel?”

“
Pretty much,” I shrugged as I swept the last of the glass into the dustpan and emptied it in the trash.