“Did I make a lot of noise?” I asked, wondering if I had provided entertainment for the rest of the group.
“Compared to how much noise you usually make? No. Compared to quiet – well.”
“God, I’m wiped out. Do you think we can sleep in tomorrow?”
“Hell, yeah. Today I prosecuted a pecker, drove fifty miles in a minivan, went to a meet and greet for UFO enthusiasts and made my fiancée come six times. I think that I deserve a break, baby.”
“Goodnight, honey,” I said and I was out within minutes. I was woken out of a deep sleep some time later, though, by the sound of Lily screaming Adam’s name. I had a feeling it wasn’t for the same reason that I usually screamed Braden’s name.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I shot up to a sitting position and Braden woke up too. I heard a crashing sound downstairs, and Lily, sounding further away, still calling Adam’s name. Braden and I flew out of bed and threw our robes on, heading out to the hall. Cameron and Jessica had just come out of their bedroom too at the other end of the cabin.
“What’s going on?” Braden demanded.
“I don’t know!” Cam replied. “We heard Lily calling Adam’s name and a crash.”
We met in the middle, looked up and saw the sliding doors at the back of the cabin open. Braden ordered Jess and I to stay put while he and Cam went to go check it out. I had brought my cell with me and I prepared to call nine one one if necessary. About five minutes later, though, Braden and Cam came back with Adam and Lily in tow. Lily was dressed in her night shirt. She had been running outside barefoot and she was freezing. Jess and I pulled her over to the couch and wrapped a blanket around her.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Why can you never listen?!” Adam yelled at Lily, ignoring the question. “I told you to wait here!”
“I wasn’t going to just wait here while you went after him!” she yelled back.
“Why in the hell not?!” he shouted angrily.
“Because you were alone and I was afraid he would hurt you!” she screamed. That stopped him. He looked at her silently for a moment and I saw all kinds of emotions flit across his face. Finally, I saw that he was biting back a smile.
“And what? You were going to protect me?” he asked with amusement. “What would you have done? Given him a stern lecture? Put him in your next book and killed him off?”
“Made him sit and listen to your jokes all night! He would have killed himself!” she said, shivering. They looked at each other then and I could see the two of them were trying not to laugh.
“Nutty broad,” he mumbled, shaking his head.
“What happened?!” Jessica repeated.
“Lily and I were in the living room together, uh, talking,” Adam said in kind of a funny way, “and we thought we heard somebody out on the deck. We snuck back there to the doors and we saw somebody out there by the hot tub. I flicked on the outside light and he stood up and turned around. It looked like the guy from the music festival. He didn’t look armed, so I opened up the door and yelled, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ He took off, and I took off after him, and told her to stay here!”
“I wasn’t going to let him just run off into the night after some crazy guy by himself,” Lily jumped in. “So I ran after them. I found Adam, but the guy had gotten away.”
“Because I stopped to make sure you were okay!”
“You wanted to make sure I was okay?” she asked, sounding surprised.
“What were you talking about at three a.m?” Jess asked suspiciously. Adam and Lily gave each other a slightly guilty look.
“Uh, I don’t know. General stuff,” Adam answered.
“I couldn’t sleep and I came to get a book,” Lily explained.
“I was in here reading already,” Adam said, looking away. “That’s not important. What’s important is that schmuck is still following you two around. If he were just here for the UFOs he wouldn’t have known which cabin was yours.”
“He’s right,” Braden agreed. “He may have been coming here, or been here already anyway, but at some point he must have been watching us too.”
“Should we sit up and watch for the rest of the night?” Cam asked.
“I doubt he’ll be back tonight after all this,” Braden said, going over to check the locks on the doors.
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep anyway,” Lily said. “Ghost stories, UFOs and now a stalker. I’ll just sit and hold onto my cell phone for the rest of the night.”
“You won’t be any use tomorrow if you don’t sleep,” Adam said, picking up a book. “Come on. I’ll go with you.”
“What do you mean, you’ll go with me?” Lily asked.
“I’ll go and sit with you until you fall asleep. Now, for once in your life don’t argue with me!” He pushed her gently toward her room and to my surprise she actually went quietly.
After breakfast the next day, we headed for the lectures and subsequent breakout sessions. We all met up for lunch in the restaurant and upon comparing notes we discovered that if our guy had been present that morning, he wasn’t doing anything obvious to make himself known to us. Nobody seemed to be staring at or following Braden and me. Adam and Lily didn’t see anyone who looked familiar to them, and not many people in Cam and Jess’s group even fit the description.
“It makes sense,” Cam said. “I mean, he knows that at least one of us has seen him, so I don’t know why he would want to take a chance at getting caught by going to a lecture.”
“I wonder if anyone who was registered was a no show,” I pondered.
“No, everybody was present and accounted for,” Lily answered. “I checked the sign-in sheets.”
“Good thinking, honey!” Jess said, sounding impressed. “We should have had her on the garbage can mission.”
“You know, I have to admit, that overview lecture was kind of interesting,” Braden said. “I’ve got to ask my dad about some of this stuff. I’m starting to wonder if he knows any aliens.”
“I think my Uncle Ira might be an alien,” I said. “No human could be that into dry cleaning.”
“Felicity’s dad could be an alien,” Cam suggested and Braden and I agreed.
“So, what’s the plan from here, kids?” Adam broke in.