P.C. Cast - Mysteria Nights

“Unlike now,” he murmured, burying his face in Harmony’s curls. “Unlike now . . .”

Time seemed to stand still as the sun slowly rose. It reached the level of the windowsill and spilled into the bedroom, waking Harmony. “I suppose we should get up.” Her voice was thick from sleep and spent passion.

Damon pulled her close. Slid his hand down her warm belly to find her moist and hot. “Why not stay abed a while longer?”

“Mmm.” Harmony turned in his arms and they kissed, and then he loved her, slowly, carefully, savoring her. Afterward they drowsed in each other’s arms. Damon had never imagined this sort of contentment existed. This happiness. He did not want the day to arrive and interrupt it all. And apparently, neither did his lover.

They dozed a while longer until Bubba came to the bedside, whining to be let out. Since more than dogs could squeeze through the dog door in the kitchen, Harmony kept it locked at night.

Damon offered, “I’ll take him.” Naked, he flung open the door to the solitude of the backyard, scratching his chest as he yawned and waited as the dog trotted onto the lawn.

Bubba lifted his leg and did his business, but instead of returning, he darted across the lawn, barking his announcing-visitors bark.

“Who’s here?” Harmony called from the bed.

Damon squinted toward the road. “Someone’s driving through the front gate. ’Tis a large, silver boxy vehicle.”

“Is it a Humvee?” Harmony’s voice sounded a wee bit strange.

“I dinna know,” he said. “But the license plate says . . . #1 Pastor .”

“Oh, no! No, no, no.” Harmony leaped out of bed, tripping in the tangled sheets as she shoved one arm into her robe and then the other. Damon’s heart sped up at her panic. “They’re here. I can’t believe they’re here. Why do these things always happen to me? I try to live a godly life, and I do . . . well, except for last night, and I don’t regret that for a moment, but this—this is just so typical of my life.” She whipped the robe around her lush body. “I am so busted.”

Damon grabbed her shoulders and steadied her. “Tell me. Who is in that car?”

“My father. My family. They showed up one week early!”

After the initial burst of panic from the shock of her family’s unexpected arrival blew past, Harmony forced herself into combat mode. It was like the time in Iraq when the shell hit right outside the hospital.

She shoved the rumpled quilt over the sheets, collected scattered pillows, and arranged them hurriedly, wondering where she could arrange Damon where no one would notice him but quickly coming to the conclusion that not a single nook or cranny in the farmhouse would hide a six-foot-five-inch-tall ex-demon.

The doors to the Humvee slammed. Her heart tumbled as she peeked around an eyelet curtain. “They’re unpacking the car, they always do it before coming in, and they’re slow. It’ll buy us some time, but precious little. Just enough time for a shower, I think.” She slapped her hands on his gorgeous bare butt and pushed him toward the bathroom. “We have about two minutes. Maybe less. So I’m coming with you.”

Damon appeared delighted by that fact, until remembering the car in the driveway. Harmony pulled him under the gushing water with her. “This is going to be the fastest shower you’ve ever had.”

They soaped each other hastily.

Harmony grabbed blindly for two towels as water from her soaked hair streamed over her face. “Here’s the plan. I’ll get dressed and go meet them. You go out the side door—grab anything, tools, whatever, make it look like you were working—and I’ll bring them inside and distract them with breakfast.”

He brought his hand to her cheek, a calming touch. “I willna do anything to embarrass you.”

“I know, honey. I know. You’d never embarrass me, Damon. I’m proud to be with you. It’s just that . . .” She waved at the bed. “This isn’t exactly proper behavior for a pastor, and especially for Reverend Faithfull’s daughter.”

He pressed a hurried but heartfelt kiss to her lips. “You dinna need to explain. I know what to do.”

Harmony uttered a prayer of thanks for Damon’s understanding as he grabbed his clothes and hurried out the side door.

Somehow she got herself together, pulling on yoga pants and a T-shirt. She secured her thick mass of soaking wet curls atop her head, jamming in a couple of pins to hold it in place, and burst outside, where Bubba pranced and jumped around her family and their suitcases. Car doors slammed, and her family bustled around the luggage, chattering and laughing, clearly excited to be there. Harmony smiled, her heart filling at the sight of them: Daddy tall and graying, but still so handsome, looking strangely underdressed in his sweatshirt and ironed Levi’s; Mama, regal as always in her role as Reverend Jacob Jethro’s wife but as light on her feet as the star athlete she once was when she met her husband at their high school track meet; Harmony’s oldest brother, Jake Jr., was busy unloading the trunk—one thing about the Faithfulls, they didn’t travel light. And Robbie had come, too, at sixteen the youngest Faithfull, attentive and respectful as he helped Great-grandmother Eudora step down from the rear passenger seat.

Harmony gulped, her stomach dropping. What would the woman see? What would she know? Too much already, Harmony thought, remembering the phone call with her father, when Eudora seemed to know about Damon.

Walking carefully, methodically, Eudora leaned on her cane. As always, she was dressed to the nines: a sapphire blue skirt set, with clusters of pearls clipped on her ears and around her neck, and a chocolate brown wig slightly askew. Step by careful step, she walked around the front of the truck, sucking on her false teeth. Her cane sank into the squishy, damp grass, and she stopped. Frowning, she shook her head in disapproval. Wheeling a bright red suitcase, Mama joined her to stare at the clods of displaced sod, the gouges and skid marks, the broken sprinkler heads, pieces of tattered cloth, and someone’s forgotten sneaker.

The ruined yard.

“Hell’s bells,” Harmony whispered. She hadn’t realized so much damage had been left behind. Her shaking hand crept up to the little cross she wore around her neck. Lord, give me strength — oh, and the creativity — to come up with some really good answers to their questions . Then, with her mouth formed into the biggest, most welcoming smile she could muster, she glided out to them, her arms wide open. “Wow, isn’t this just the best surprise!”

In the next instant, she was swallowed up in a huddle of love, hugs, and kisses.

“We were going to spend this week in Rocky Mountain National Park,” her father explained, “but when we saw the exit leading to Mysteria—”

“We simply couldn’t pass it by,” Mama finished for him. “I had to see my baby.”

Eudora grasped Harmony’s hands in hers. Her skin was once the color of rich caramel; now it was almost transparent over a network of bluish veins. Despite mild palsy, her grip remained as powerful as her intense gray-brown eyes. “Ah, you’re happy, girl, aren’t you?”

“I am, Great-grandma,” Harmony replied shyly. “Very happy.” She knows what you did last night . The thought popped into Harmony’s mind, clear and simple. Her first instinct was to look away, to break the eye contact, but she stayed strong. Fact: Eudora knew what was going on between her and Damon. No way could she hide it. The best Harmony could hope for was for Great-grandmother not to say anything.

“What happened here?” Mama waved a manicured hand at the lawn.