Healer (The Healer Series) (6 page)

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seven

Past

After our meeting at Casa Grande, Thomas surprised me by returning to my dreams that night.
I was sure after my behavior, he would have washed his hands of me, but I was wrong.

“Are you still angry with me?” He stood directly behind me
, and I tensed, my body acutely aware of his proximity.

“No.” I shrugged, smiling slightly where he couldn’t see me.

“Really?”

I turned to face him. “There isn’t anything to be angry about.” I
tried to act as if I didn’t care. Regardless of how I felt, the chances of Thomas and I becoming more than friends, were slim to none. He was older than me, and I was sure while the idea of a young girl with a crush flattered him he would never consider dating me.

“O
kay.” He looked at my board behind me. “What are you working on here?”

“
Lucy told me about vampires tonight and I’m organizing my thoughts.”

“So you know?”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I felt his pull as he stood beside me, like two magnets drawn to each other. I wondered if it was only me that felt it or did he feel it too, only he was better at hiding it.

“I would have eventually, but sometimes people need to find things out at their own pace.”

“I guess.” I shrug and motion my hands to move the information on my board to allow room for more.

“Aldo, can I
say something?” He changed the subject.

“Of course.
” I met his eyes.
Damn his eyes are gorgeous
. I tried to focus on keeping my emotions intact, accepting the situation for what it really was.

“I just wanted to apologize for today if I offended you. It wasn’t my intention. You seem like such a nice young…eh… person.”
In other words, a nice young kid.

Regardless of how I felt about this older man I barely knew, and how he didn’t feel about me, I wanted to be around him. I wanted to know him. It was unreal to meet someone like myself who I wasn’t related to. A person who had seen what I had seen through different eyes.

“No worries, Thomas.” I smiled again. “Friends.” I extended my hand out to shake his, not realizing how corny it was.

“Always.” He took my hand and maybe held on to it a little longer than necessary for an innocent handshake.

That was the first of many nights Thomas came into my dreams. I made a rule he had to be invited, or how else would I know if it was him or my subconscious creating him. He agreed. Let’s just say he was invited more often than not.

Over the following months, Thomas became my best friend. He started hanging out at our house and even skeptical Lucy grew to like him. I guess once she realized he wasn’t trying to get into my pants she lightened up. Of course, she still held him at arm’s length, but that was just her nature. Thomas never made a move on me, not once, much to my dismay, and I accepted we would only be friends. How tragic to love him so much but know it would never be. I cherished having him as my friend, even if I knew we could never be more.

Whit and Hudson also loved him. They hadn’t had much male interaction in their lives other than with each other.
With Thomas around, Whit had someone to play basketball with, and Hudson had someone who would listen to him drone on about muscle cars. I had someone to occupy my brothers. Thomas broke up the monotony of our family and cast excitement into our lives. They were very happy days. He and Lucy even started to work together making money healing. He taught us how to fish, and for Christmas, he got us a puppy. We named him Fred. Lucy wasn’t at all thrilled about the new addition to our family, but the three of us were as excited as little kids. He was our perfect all American family dog. The simple things made so much happiness for us. Thomas made us happy. He was like our brother.

The school year seemed to fly by
, and we all did well, a great deal of that thanks to Thomas. He always came over to help us study for tests and work on projects. My brothers and I made friends, something completely foreign to us. Lila Gonzalus, one of the most popular girls in school became my best friend—other than Thomas. She was an over-achiever through and through, involved in several sports and in the top five percent of our class. Her cousins, Wyatt and Robert, who lived with her, also became close friends of ours. We were always together.

I’m sure when Thomas took my family and me to a la
ke in a park nearby and taught us the “skill” of fishing, as he called it, he had no idea how much I would love it. The times he had actually taken us, I never caught anything, but I liked going because it was fun to watch Thomas and my brothers brag about their catches. Thomas enjoyed teasing me about how putting a worm on a hook grossed me out, but he would always help me anyway.

I memorized everything about that lake.
The tall oak tree that blanketed us in shade while we fished; the way the sun glistened on the water’s surface; the soft, green grass that carpeted the ground around it; and the sounds of crickets and frogs in the background. This was my new favorite scene in my dreams. This was where Thomas and I would always sit each time he visited me in my dreams.

One night, in my
subconscious, we sat by that lake and fished.

Lila had been over for dinner and it was no less than torturous to watch Thomas drooling over her.
My brothers were smitten with Lila. This didn’t bother me, but when Thomas also acted in awe, while in her presence, I became very jealous. Jealousy was an emotion I had never experienced.

I hated it.

“You okay?” Thomas asked, nudging me with his shoulder. “You were acting weird at dinner tonight.”

“Just tired.” I shrugged as I reeled in my line.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”
My frustration reared its nasty head, and I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t tell Thomas I was jealous he was attracted to my best friend. Not only would it have revealed how pathetic I was, but I had no right to be jealous. Thomas and I were just friends.

“Your friend
Lila is very nice.” Thomas cast his line back out into the water while simultaneously poking my jealousy in the eye with a stick.

“Yes
, she is.” Lila was one of the nicest people I had ever known.

“Fancy you befriending an endless source.”

“An endless source?” I questioned.

“
Lucy didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” I cast my line back out into the lake.

“Lila. She’s an endless source.” His expression said,
Duh
. “She can’t run out of energy.”

It hit me immediately.
Lila’s energy was constant, unrelenting. I could pull from her and she never seemed to have any reaction. Most folks I draw energy from appear fatigued afterwards, but Lila never showed any sign of exhaustion. I realized she was an abundance of energy, but I didn’t realize there was a name for people like her. I had never met an endless source. That’s why Thomas and my brothers had been drooling over her like dogs in heat. Relief washed over me. Maybe Thomas wasn’t attracted to her after all.

“It
explains a lot about her. She’s always so energetic. I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me.”

“Her presence is very addictive.”

“Is it?” Where was he going with this? Jealousy swelled within me once more.

“Yeah, I mean, all of that energy. What healer wouldn
’t want to be around that all the time?”

“
Probably doesn’t hurt she’s drop dead gorgeous either.” I immediately regretted my words; they screamed jealousy. My inner self smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand.

Thomas’s mouth
twisted slightly, as if humored by my words. “Eh, she’s not my type.” He looked directly at me, and my cheeks flamed with heat. Our eyes locked momentarily before he tore his away and cleared his throat. “You have to admit. This is pretty amazing.” He squinted his eyes from the sun.

I waved my hand and made the sun fa
ll behind the tree line, covering us in shade.

He looked around and laughed.

“What?” I asked.

“This.
Us. Right now. I am in your dreams and you are in control. It’s amazing,” he paused. “Do you ever make a world in the future?”

“The future
?”

“Like create a house you might live in one day, a husband, kids,
that kind of thing.”

I thought about it a moment. “No.” I shrugged.

“Really?”

“No, I don’t think I want kids.” I reele
d in my fishing line once more.

“You don’t want kids?”
His tone made it sound as if I had just said I abhorred the idea of children altogether.

“Why would I?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just thought you would be a good mother.”

It wasn’t like I hated kids or anything; I just didn’t feel like it was fair. Our life had been hard and scary. I wouldn’t want to do that to another human being. Aside from that, look at how raising
us had ruled Lucy’s life. She hadn’t had a life. She had never even been in love. “Do you want kids?”

He stared out over the lake; a thoughtful expression beset his face.
“Maybe one day.” He cleared his throat.

The image of Thomas holding the baby from my dream the day I met him flashed through my mind. Could Thomas have a child? He never talked about his past. The
only family he ever mentioned was his brother Lucas which was only once or twice when prompted.

“How come you never bring your brother over, Thomas
?”

“He’s
complicated.” He reached his hands for the sky stretching.

“How so?”

“He’s kind of a loner.”

“You’re welcome to bring him over for dinner anytime.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” He offered me his hand to help me up. When I touched it, energy tingled on my skin.

He quickly pulled his hand away
, and his eyes peered out over the lake.

I follo
wed his gaze. “It’s time for you to go.” I sighed.

“Really?”
His eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Yes.
I want to take a swim.”

“So swim.” He shrugged
.

“Thomas, I would like to swim alone.”

“Are you going skinny dipping?” His eyes widened.

“Maybe,” I answered shyly. “Then I am going to go blank and sleep deep. Don’t you need to sleep?”

“I don’t have school in the morning,” he teased.

“Yeah, but don’t you have some kind of senior citizen meeting or
something?”

“
Harde-har-har.” He twisted his mouth and cocked one eye closed.

“Are you a pirate now?” I asked dryly, fighting the urge to laugh tooth and nail. Thomas could always do the dumbest things that would se
nd me into fits of laughter.

“Don’t be a hater, Aldo, just because I can sleep in and you can’t.”

“Oh man, I can’t wait for summer,” I groaned. “I’ll sleep in every day. Then, when I go to college, all late classes.” I laughed.

“College?”
He asked surprised. “Did you get accepted somewhere?”

“Oh
, yeah. We just got our acceptance letters yesterday. I’m sorry; I forgot to tell you. We got accepted to Virginia Tech.”

“V
irginia? Wow.” His brow furrowed as if the news disappointed him. It had occurred to me the moment I opened my letter that going to college may mean leaving Thomas, but I refused to let that thought ruin it for me. I knew I couldn’t change what we were, but I could at least enjoy going to college.

“What?”

“I just didn’t know.” He shook his head and quickly shifted his reaction to one of excitement. “That’s great.” He smiled and hugged me. He pulled me back and held me at arm’s length. “You guys are so grown up.”

“Shut up.” I kno
cked his arms off of me.

“What will Lucy do without you?”
he teased.

“You really think she would let us go without her? She
’s moving too.” I rolled my eyes.

“Wow. I guess
that’s not surprising,” he laughed. “So all four of you will be moving?”

“Yeah.
Whit and Hudson can’t separate, and I—”

“Don’t want to be alone?” Thomas questioned.

“Yeah,” I admitted. I had always been with my brothers so leaving them wasn’t an option. Whit and Hudson couldn’t separate even if they wanted to because of their gift. Whit and Hudson are identical twins and their gift differs from mine. The best way I can explain their gift of healing is that it is split between them. They’re like a magnet. One is the positive and one is the negative. They can only heal with each other and if they separate for a short amount of time, just a few days, Hudson could die. He needs Whit because Hudson’s natural biological disposition is to push energy. He can’t help it. Other healers have the ability to shut off the flow, but he can’t. If Whit isn’t there to pull energy to keep Hudson energized, Hudson against his will, will push his own energy into anything. His energy spatters like REMS from an x-ray machine. No control. The only difference is that his energy isn’t harmful like radiation. My brother’s gift is what Lucy called a fluke. She had never heard or seen of a set of twins where one had to pull energy for the other. The fact they can’t be separated is an even greater phenomenon.