Chapter Fourteen
The streets were already decorated with twinkling, white Christmas lights on every tree. Shop windows were decked out with holiday cheer. The streets smelled of warm fudge and mountain taffy from the candy shops littered around every corner. Snow was drifting down lazily and sticking to our coats as we walked the streets. Wyatt held five shopping bags already in his hands, full of Miranda’s purchases. An icy breeze made my numb nose throb. I ducked down into the scarf I’d wrapped around the bottom part of my face several times. I was not accustomed to this weather. Our winters in Florida never got this cold. Leif pulled me close to his side. “Come on, let’s go into this coffee shop and get something to warm us up.”
“Good idea. I need a break from these bags and I’m pretty sure Miranda won’t find anything in there to buy.” I laughed at Wyatt through the scarf covering my mouth.
I reached up and pulled it down, glancing up at him.
“You’ve got to be kidding. You know she can find something in any store we step inside. So far we’ve been in five stores and you are holding five bags.”
“Pish posh,” Miranda said with a wave of her furry gloved hand. “What are all these cute little stores for but to buy things?” Leif chuckled behind me and we all went over to a table. I sighed as the warmth of the coffee house seemed to thaw out my frozen nose. It was the only body part I hadn’t been able to cover up.
“What do you want?” Leif asked, taking off his scarf and hanging it and his large black down coat on the chair beside me.
“Caramel latte with whipped cream,” I replied. He turned and joined Wyatt at the counter and I glanced over at Miranda.
“My nose feels as if it may fall off from frost bite,” I grumbled and rubbed it with my gloved hands.
She nodded and rubbed hers as well. “I know what you mean. Now that I’m inside and not focused on the shopping, I feel the numbness.”
I started to say something else when I noticed the soul standing at the counter watching people order with a confused expression. Now I knew what they were and why they always looked so lost and confused, and I wished I could do something to help them. They could have lived more lives if they’d only moved on. Instead, fear had held them back and all they could hope for was to wander, lost.
“Who are you looking at as if you want to cry?” Miranda asked, poking her chin out over the scarf wrapped around her neck.
I jerked my gaze away from the soul and stared back at her, “No one, I was just lost in thought.” Miranda glanced back over her shoulder but all she saw were Wyatt and Leif walking back toward us, holding steaming cups of coffee.
Well, at least everyone’s but Leif’s, his would be hot chocolate.
“Here we go. Let’s see if we can get the frozen blood in our veins moving again,” Wyatt said jovially as he put Miranda’s latte down in front of her. I took mine from Leif and took a small sip, needing to have some warmth flow through me. Miranda took her mug and held it to her nose. I giggled and Wyatt rolled his eyes.
“Laugh all you want but it feels good.” I studied my cup and decided I didn’t care how silly she looked, I wanted to warm my nose too. The cup’s heat felt wonderful to my nose.
“You Florida girls sure have a hard time with a little cold weather.”
Miranda lowered her cup and stared at Leif incredulously. “A little cold? Are you crazy? It’s like thirty below out there!” She whined and held the cup back up to her nose.
“Um, no. Actually, it’s only twenty degrees out there. Not even close to being below zero.”
I put my cup back down on the table. “Um, that’s like ten degrees below freezing so I’d say it’s much colder than a little cold.” Miranda smiled at me for coming to her defense and shot Leif a smug smile. Leif’s arm slipped around me and I let myself pretend for now that my life was normal: that I loved Leif and my heart wasn’t damaged beyond repair because I was in love with someone I couldn’t find and feared I never would again. My best friend’s tinkling laughter and her happiness to be surrounded by friends and shopping seemed so normal. I could pretend I was whole. I could pretend I was happy and I could pretend a lost soul hadn’t just wandered through the wall behind Wyatt searching through the people around him for someone who might have the answer to his problem. No one could help him now. My fake smile was harder to hold in place, but I did because ignoring the supernatural around me was what I’d been doing my entire life.
* * * *
“I’m thinking we shouldn’t be going out tonight. I mean, I know it’s not exactly ideal to hang out in a cabin with your parents, Leif, but it’s icy out there.” Miranda was frowning as she looked outside the window on her side of the Hummer that Leif’s parents had rented for us to use while we were here.
“We’re inside a monster, baby, no worries.” Wyatt leaned over and kissed Miranda’s neck, making her giggle. I gazed back toward the road in front of me and away from the happy couple in the back.
“Wyatt’s right, Miranda. My parents rented this vehicle so we could get around easily in the icy weather. Besides, the Pancake House is not something you want to miss. Piles of pancakes covered in any topping you can imagine. I’m drooling just thinking about it,” Leif replied, grinning.
“UGH! I’m going to be like a thousand pounds when we leave here. All we do is eat. If you make me stop at one more of those mountain taffy stores I think I might run screaming the other way.” Miranda pouted in the back seat.
Wyatt laughed. “Or you’ll go taste test every sample they have.”
Miranda teasingly punched his arm. “Oh hush. Don’t remind me of my weakness and the damage I’ve done to my hips.”
“I like your hips just fine.” Wyatt replied in a low husky whisper we could clearly hear up front.
“Okay, you two, I’m going to make you walk to the restaurant if you don’t cool off back there,” Leif warned, flashing them a smile in the rearview mirror.
I kept my attention on the road as the falling snow seemed to get heavier. I touched my seat belt and a small stab of pain pierced me as I remembered Dank standing in my hospital room telling me my seat belt had saved my life.
Yet, my mom had said I’d been thrown out for not wearing my seat belt and not wearing it had saved my life. I would have been crushed had I been left inside the car. The memory of a heavy weight being on my chest making it hard for me to breathe hit me. I’d been in the car when it’d finally stopped rolling. I’d thought I would suffocate from the heaviness on me. Then I’d been taken from the car and laid down on the grass. The pain had been so intense I couldn’t open my eyes. How had I gotten out of the car? Someone had gotten me out. Someone had unbuckled my seat belt and lifted me out of the crushed car and laid me safely on the grass. I’d never asked him about the seat belt again.
Now, as I rode along the icy mountain roads it slowly dawned on me. The someone who’d taken me from the accident had to have been the only person who knew I’d been wearing my seat belt. Why had I not asked him again? I’d forgotten about his knowledge I’d been wearing my seat belt.
Leif had shown up and I’d let myself forget the wreck and the events leading up to it.
“You okay?” Leif’s hand slid across my leg and took my hand in his.
I masked my pain and turned to give him a reassuring smile. “Yes.”
He nodded toward the snowy evergreens outside my window. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I nodded because he was right, it was, but also because it gave me an excuse to keep staring off into the darkness.
“LEIF! WATCH OUT!” Wyatt’s voice broke into the soothing quietness of the Hummer like a bullet and Leif jerked the vehicle off the road and skidded up against the side of the mountain before coming to a full stop only feet away from the car that had just hit a patch of ice and flipped right in front of us.