Slut - Woodruff Jettie - Страница 29
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The sting in my heart burned deep and I hated Paxton again. “No, baby. I promise.”
She smiled and skipped off with her sister.
“Damn,” Mi said quietly, hearing the same anxious tone from Phi.
“I hate you,” I said, eyes darting quickly to Paxton.
The look on his face told me he hated himself. Good. Stupid bastard.
“Let’s go to the patio,” he suggested. Paxton pointed to the French doors and Mi led the way. “You said she was weird, not crazy,” he whispered.
I elbowed him while holding in a laugh. “Let’s sit on that side so we can see the girls.”
“No, they’ll be out here in two seconds,” Paxton countered.
I turned and gave him a cold stare down. “I’m okay with that.” I was okay with it. I didn’t want them out of my sight, but he was also right.
We hadn’t been seated for more than thirty seconds when Phi opened the door. “We’re done. Can we play outside now?”
I looked to Paxton and he answered. “You didn’t practice. You can go play on the swings.”
“And the sandbox?” she questioned.
“The sandbox is right beside the swings.”
“You said we can only play on the swings.”
“Ophelia,” he said with the tone that she knew meant to knock it off. She stopped acting like him and ran down to the massive playset that Paxton built in our back yard. He couldn’t build a normal one. This thing had it all. Enough to keep them busy while we had the conversation that had me on edge in anticipation.
“What, Mi? What do you know?”
“First of all you have to pinky swear that you’re not going to call Nick and tell on me.”
“Of course I wouldn’t. You’re the only friend I have in the world.”
Paxton nudged my leg with his knee and looked at me with—love? What the hell? “I’m your friend, Gabriella.”
I gave him a once over, stopping at his eyes, and assured him otherwise. It was said lightheartedly, but with a point. He knew the point, thanks to Ophelia’s apprehension of me leaving her. “You are not my friend.”
He smiled genuinely at me, but I didn’t’ buy it. I was mad. I turned to Mi’s surprised expression instead.
“What?”
“I just, I—I don’t know if this is a good idea anymore.”
I frowned out of confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I wasn’t expecting this. I thought you hated him. I thought I would be helping you to regain some of your past. I don’t know if that’s such a good idea anymore. Maybe I should just go.”
I gave her a look like I had just eaten a sour lemon. “What? Are you crazy? I do hate him. You have to tell me. What do you mean some of my past?”
Mi’s chest filled with air and her eyes went to Paxton and then back to me. “Can we talk alone first?”
“It wouldn’t do any good. He’s got the place bugged.”
Paxton didn’t defensively lie out of that one like I thought he would. He smirked and pointed to one of the security cameras above our heads, right in the corner, facing Mi.
“Just tell me, Mi. Please.”
Her eyes looked to her nails as she spoke. “Okay, but I don’t want to cause any more trouble for you. Nick and I had a fight yesterday morning, and I wanted to tell him I was sorry. I dropped by his office with his favorite Reuben, and overheard him and Lane. That’s the only reason I snooped. He told Lane that there was no way those videos could fall into anyone’s hands, that the file was on an old laptop that he didn’t even use anymore. Lane told him that he didn’t care, and he wanted it destroyed. Of course, I knew what laptop he spoke of. There’s two of them in our closet. He keeps saying that he will get the files off them so we can get rid of them, but he never does.”
“What files,” I asked, eyebrows frowned inward.
“I didn’t really watch them. I only opened the first one, but only watched a few minutes of it. Then I sent them to my email, so I could send them to you.”
I knew the answer before I even asked. “What was it? Was it me?”
“Yes, in Nicks office.”
“Why was I in Nick’s office?”
“I’m not sure. Like I said, I didn’t think it was my business. I didn’t watch them.”
“Send them to her email,” Paxton ordered.
I waited for his dominate ego to be squashed by Mi.
She gave him the exact look I knew she would. Haughty. “Excuse me? Who are you again? You probably control that, too. Right?”
“Send them, Mi,” I said, not wanting a pissing match between Mi and Paxton. It would be like Ro-ro and Phi, lasting for hours.
“You can’t let Nick find out.”
“Was the fight over me?”
Her eyes leaving mine assured me that it was. “Yeah, but you know I’m here for you. I wasn’t about to throw you out to the lions. I just wasn’t expecting him to be the cat.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Paxton asked, tail feathers in the air as Mi set off his ego.
“It means you love her. I can read people through the energy around them. He’s not a bad guy, Gabby, just stupid as hell,” she said, fierce eyes softening, moving from Paxton to me.
And the claws came out with the sudden attitude. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.”
“Calm down there, tiger. I don’t need to know you. Here, you should have a pair of Hematite’s,” Mi said. She pulled a wallet from the purse crossing her shoulder, and retrieved a cloth bag. Patrick from Sponge Bob smiled at me from the little pouch. Only Mi. Paxton gave me the look that said my friend was cookoo while we heard rocks being tossed in the bag. Rocks. Mi carried a bag of rocks in her purse. She was crazy.
The girls cautiously joined us, looking to their dad to determine whether or not they were about to be run off. I raised my arm, allowing them permission to join us. We weren’t talking about anything they couldn’t hear. Nothing was disclosed. Not one damn thing. I had to wait again. I watched Mi place something in her hand while she searched her bag for more rocks. Good grief.
“This is magnetic hematite. They always have to stay together. If I give you each one, do you promise to always bring them together? At least once a day? If you do that, they’ll never lose their power and you’ll always have each other. Can you do that” Mi asked both girls, portraying big eyes, opened hands, and nods in agreement. She pulled a set of the stones apart and held them in her hands while staring at the girls with deep concentration. “This one is calling to you, and this one to you,” she explained while placing a small stone in each little hand.
Rowan and Phi examined the black nuggets in their hands and followed Mi’s instructions.
“Move them close together.”
The magnetic rocks clicked, coming together with great force while the girls stared in awe, but I wasn’t sure why. We had magnets all over the refrigerator. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been introduced to the mineral before.
“Wow, that is magic,” Rowan exclaimed.
“No, this is the magic. Watch this,” she said as she pulled two more stones apart, one in each hand. “Which stone is calling to you, Pax?”
I glanced over in search of anger from the nickname. Dumbfounded, I watched him zone in on the two stones, concentrated while he chose.
Paxton took the stone from her hand and Mi handed me the other one. The smaller one. His ego was too big for the lesser stone. “I’m not surprised you took that one,” she confessed as she separated Rowan and Phi’s stones. “Here’s the magic,” she said in a whimsical voice, totally engrossing my girls in her strange beliefs.
Mi dug around her purse, pulling a homemade keychain from her bag. “Hold your stone to this,” she instructed the girls.
“It doesn’t stick,” Phi said puzzled.
“Right, because they’re not strong enough alone. Now hold it to your moms.”
Both girls smiled when all three rocks came together as one. She coached Paxton into trying next, holding the keyring to his stone. It was strong enough to pull it from Mi’s hand when she loosened her grip. The girls gasped in awe as Mi explained that their dad had the most powerful stone, but they all had to come together at least once a day to recharge them and stay strong as a family. Her voice sounded dramatic as she moved all of our hands together, letting Paxton’s pull all of our stones together as one.
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