Mist on the Meadow (29 page)

Chuck cleared his throat and shuffled his
feet several times, until he exhaled a final sigh. When Wolf heard
his cousin’s retreating footsteps, he bowed his head over the
keyboard.

Wolf wanted Marissa. Needed Marissa. He
reached for his cell phone and checked for messages or a missed
call. She couldn’t hold his uncle’s actions against him, could she?
Wolf pounded his fist on the desk. Damn his uncle!

Holiday time would be over after the weekend.
He’d have to return to his everyday routine in the office. That’s
what he needed, routine. Something to take his mind off the
insanity of feelings and emotions. What was he doing telling a
virtual stranger that he loved her anyway? He’d made a hot mess of
everything. There had been no way to predict his reaction when
she’d reached right in and touched his soul.

He shook his head.
I love you
. He
hadn’t meant to say it, but there it was, like a cruel joke.
Everything he’d tried to guard against. And now he’d probably lost
her.

* * *

Marissa let her father unlock the door to her
apartment. She clutched his arm while she followed him inside.

The front door had been locked, not standing
open. Her eyes darted to the windows to make sure they were all
closed. Her apartment was warm. If there was an open window, the
room would be cold, wouldn’t it?

“This crap on the carpet is salt?” her father
asked.

Marissa nodded. “That’s what the police
said.”

“How much longer do you have to go on your
lease?” He handed her the key. “You can come home, you know. For as
long as you need to.”

She released her death grip on his arm. “I
know.”

“I can help you pack, and we can get a
storage locker for your things.”

“I’m okay, Daddy.”

He shook his head. “I don’t get it. Why break
in just to sprinkle salt everywhere?”

“That’s the million dollar question.” Marissa
took a deep breath and walked further into her apartment—into the
bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen—to see if anything else looked
out of place. “Maybe it was random. Maybe someone was confused and
thought they’d locked themselves out of their own place.” Her voice
was breathy, her mouth was dry. Tears welled in her eyes. And why
shouldn’t she be afraid?

“I don’t know, baby girl. I don’t think I can
sleep at night if you decide to stay.”

Marissa faced him. The glassiness in his eyes
ratcheted up her heartbeat. Her father wasn’t supposed to be afraid
of anything. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Come home.”

She wrapped her arms around her father’s
waist and laid her head against his chest. “I’m a big girl,
Daddy.”

“Then go back to the Extended Stay until you
can find something else.”

“Bad things happen. I can’t be afraid the
rest of my life.”

Finish the job
. There had been two men
in her vision. Marissa fought down the tightening in her throat. “I
can’t be afraid the rest of my life,” she repeated. She tilted her
head and forced a smile for her father. “But I promise I’ll move
when my lease is up in March.”

He swiped at his eyes and nodded. “You’ll
text me every night and every morning until then.”

Marissa’s smile grew. “I promise.”

Her father pressed her head to his chest once
more. “I love you, baby girl.” He cleared his throat and released
her. “Now, let’s get this place cleaned up.”

Two hours was more than enough time to vacuum
and wipe down the flat surfaces in the one-bedroom apartment, but
her father was in no hurry. Even after they’d finished, he lingered
while he checked window locks and re-checked the closets.

The normalcy of their chores had served to
calm Marissa, but there were other tasks on her agenda, tasks her
father couldn’t help her with. Would he be terribly disappointed if
she told him she was pregnant? But her mother would probably have
given him the heads-up.

Until she took a pregnancy test, she could
still be wrong.

With one final sigh, she swallowed hard. “Go
home, Daddy. I’ll text you at nine o’clock.”

“And when you get up in the morning.”

“And when I get up,” she repeated.

Her father gave her one last hug. “Be
safe.”

She nodded and closed the door behind him as
he left. She still had to deal with Wolf. A fresh stab of pain
brought more tears to her eyes. Hex rose from his spot on the sofa
and meowed.

“There’s no help for it,” she told him.

What would he say?

Marissa didn’t have to face all her demons in
one day.

Marissa had seen the dream in Wolf’s head,
the one with the perfect family. Then again, he had been under the
Kundigerin
spell. A few days apart appeared to be long
enough to break that spell, judging by the picture in the
paper.

Her stomach flopped and Marissa reached for a
cracker.

I love you
. Yeah. And then he’d
immediately gone to his skinny girlfriend and left her behind. If
he loved her, wouldn’t he be camped outside the café, the way he
had been for those first days, to make sure she was okay? If he
loved her, wouldn’t he still be following her, the way that made
her father uncomfortable?

And why couldn’t she stop smelling
cinnamon?

She’d pushed him away. Marissa couldn’t put
the blame on Wolf. Tomorrow Marissa would drive by Harper Manor,
and if Wolf was in residence, she’d stop. She’d tell him that she
loved him too. She’d hold his hand and connect with his mind, let
him look inside her. He’d see the child growing inside her. If, in
fact, there was a child. And if he’d moved on to the next woman,
well then she’d have to find a way to move on, too.

“Pregnancy test,” she muttered.

“What?” Becky called from the café counter.
Everyone else had already gone home.

“Talking to myself,” she replied.

Note to self. Stop talking out loud
.
Today she’d go to the pharmacy and get an “early” test. It would be
negative. Had to be negative. Condom failure rate was two percent.
Marissa rolled her eyes. How could she be pregnant? The odds were
stacked against pregnancy, and yet when she placed her hand to her
abdomen, the growth continued. If it wasn’t a baby, it was one hell
of a tumor. Yep, she’d become a statistic, one of the unlucky two
percent ineffective rate. “Fan-flaming-tastic,” she muttered.

“What are you talking about?” Becky stood in
the kitchen doorway. “Something wrong?”

Marissa pasted a smile on. “Sorry. I’m behind
on special orders.”

“Want some help?”

Marissa yanked open the refrigerator door.
“I’ve got it.” Baking had been her saving grace for the past couple
of days. She could throw all her energy into her work and forget
the world for brief stretches of time.

“I’m closing up,” Becky yelled from the
front.

Marissa glanced at the clock. She’d made it
through most of the day without obsessing about her condition. The
special orders for tomorrow would take her another hour or so.
Dinner at five o’clock and then she’d stop at the pharmacy and put
an end to this nonsense once and for all. Or at least for another
week.

“Want me to stick around and keep you
company?” Becky ducked out of her
Mangela
apron and leaned
against the counter.

“I’m okay.” Marissa smiled while she rolled
pastry dough. “But thanks.”

Becky leaned against the prep table and
stared. Could she see the change in Marissa?

“What?” Marissa asked.

“Noah told me about the newspaper. I told him
you’d only been out with Wolf a couple of times. So you’re okay,
right? I mean it isn’t as if he’s broken your heart?”

Marissa’s nose tingled and her throat
tightened. She managed a fake laugh. “Right.” Not as if she’d
completely lost herself with him and gotten knocked up. And then
the tears threatened again. “Just a couple of dates over the
holidays.”

Becky continued to stare at Marissa.

Marissa took a deep breath and forced a
smile. “Stop worrying about me.” She leaned into Becky’s shoulder,
unable to give her a hug while she prepared the coffee cakes.

“Okay.” Becky gave her a nod. “Then I’m going
to go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Marissa waited for the lock to click on the
back door before she glanced out the front windows. No green
Mercedes in the parking lot. First Wolf had followed her around
like a protective bulldog, and now he was nowhere to be found.
Short attention span. She had been the Christmas treat, like
Angela’s Christmas sailor. These new powers of hers were dangerous
if she could influence a man that way. Marissa set her hands to her
hips. How would she ever know if a man was interested in her again,
and not influenced by her new ‘powers?’

But Officer Don hadn’t been attracted to her.
And Noah, well he was more like another brother anyway, but he
hadn’t seemed affected by the change in her. So why was Wolf?

Then again, Wolf had stopped pursuing her.
The attraction appeared to have faded.

“Tomorrow,” she said.

The waiting was killing Wolf.

He gazed at the sparkling city lights from
his Chicago condo. This had been his fortress for the last five
years, steel edges around stark white furniture. No color. No
vibrancy. Like the women he’d invited into his lair. He wanted
crown molding and Persian carpets. A faded red loveseat in front of
a fireplace.

Red hair and sapphire eyes.

He could buy her a ring to match her eyes.
Sapphires and diamonds.

Wolf closed his eyes and plopped onto the
white leather couch. The ring was one step too far. He wasn’t sure
Marissa would even talk to him again, let alone jump onto his
runaway train of plans for the future.

Control
.

His cell phone lay on a steel framed,
glass-top table. The thing would make all kinds of noise if it
rang. No chance that he’d miss her call. But the phone didn’t ring.
Wolf drummed his fingers on his leg to resist the urge—the need—to
call her.

Beside the door, his suitcases were packed.
Any personal touches he’d made to the place were packed in four
small boxes, another testament to how detached he’d been. The price
that came with attachment sat on the table in the shape of a cell
phone, Marissa’s silence as powerful as a shot to the gut. Wolf
doubled over in anticipation of that blow. If his uncle wasn’t
reason enough for her to keep her distance, Wolf had certainly
provided reasons of his own.

He could wait. He’d made his move and now he
needed to demonstrate restraint.
Control
. Marissa would call
him back if she was interested, and if not, he’d survive this, the
same way he’d survived losing his family.

Wolf blew out a long breath and pushed off
the couch. With one last glance out his window at Lake Michigan, he
stacked the four boxes and shoved them into the hall and toward the
elevator. He wouldn’t be able to push them across the wet parking
garage. Wolf pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called down
to the lobby of the building.

Parker, the doorman answered. “Do you have a
hand truck I can use to load some boxes into my car?” Wolf
asked.

“Would you like me to bring it up?”

“No, I can meet you in the lobby. I’m on my
way down.”

“See you in a minute then.”

Wolf loaded the boxes into the elevator and
pressed the button. When the doors opened at the lobby, the
uniformed doorman waited for him.

“Allow me.” Parker slid the plate beneath the
bottom box. He stepped into the elevator beside Wolf and pressed
the button for the garage. “I hear you’re moving. We’ll be sorry to
see you go.”

Wolf nodded. “Thanks.”

“I imagine we’ll be seeing more of you until
you sell, though.”

“Probably not,” Wolf told him. “I’ll only be
back to pick up mail until the post office puts through my
forwarding order.”

The doors opened to the underground garage
and Parker steered the dolly off the elevator. “I hope everything’s
okay.”

“Yes. Thank you.” Wolf extended a hand in the
direction of his parked car and pressed his key fob to release the
trunk. “And thanks for your help.”

Parker loaded the boxes into Wolf’s trunk and
tipped his cap. “Glad to be of service. And in case you haven’t
received the thank you note my wife sent, let me thank you
personally for your generous Christmas gift.”

Wolf nodded. He hadn’t known Parker was
married when he ordered the prepaid credit card, didn’t know if he
had children, but apparently the amount he’d put on the card was
enough. “A token of my appreciation.”

They rode back to the lobby together, and
then Wolf continued to his condo alone to retrieve his suitcases.
He surveyed the suite of rooms one last time. No, he wasn’t going
to miss this place. He’d miss the view, but there were dozens of
places to see the same thing all around the city, places where he
didn’t have to pay a mortgage.

Wolf took the elevator to the parking garage
one last time. He was going home.

With no more room in the trunk, Wolf swung
his suitcases into the back seat and drove toward the expressway.
The sun shone brightly against the salt-white pavement. At least
the roads were cleared of snow. Wolf donned his sunglasses and
drove.

Halfway back to Cooper Village, his cell
phone rang. Wolf checked the display that popped up on his
dashboard but didn’t recognize the incoming number. He pressed the
button on the steering wheel to answer. “Wolf Harper.”

“Now why’d you have to go and stir up trouble
after all these years?”

Wolf didn’t recognize his voice – he’d never
spoken to Elliot as far as he remembered – but he was pretty sure
that’s who was on the other end of the call. “Elliot?”

“I wasn’t the one driving, Harper. You got
nothin’ on me, and Rudy’ll say it was your cousin, so you’d better
consider how far you want to go with this. Your grandmother had the
right idea.”