Ever After (21 page)

“Who's she?” asked the boy. He was pointing across Jamie to Hallie's head, which was barely visible above the covers.

“The exercise lady,” said the girl, trying to sound as though she knew. She was three minutes older than her brother and she took the age difference quite seriously. When she saw a little flicker in Jamie's closed eyes, she knew he was awake, and she had to resist a giggle of anticipation. “She probably got cold. Jamie is really fat so she'd be warm near him. She—”

“Who is fat?!” Jamie growled, then with a twist pulled them both up into the bed.

The girl threw herself onto Jamie and he began tickling her, but the boy stepped over Hallie and lay down to stare at her.

“Shhhh,” Jamie was saying to his little sister. “Hallie's trying to sleep. She's worn out from taking care of me.”

The girl lay still on Jamie's chest and looked at him with a frown of concentration. “Did you fall on the floor and roll on her?”

A flash of guilt ran through Jamie's mind. When he'd first returned from the hospital had been the worst. Every noise, every quick movement, every closed-in space had set him off. But then he smiled at his little sister. “Only twice, and you know what? She
liked
it.”

“If she likes you, she must be crazy,” his sister said seriously.

“I'll get you for that.” Jamie started tickling her again.

When Hallie began to wake, she thought maybe she was still in her dream. In her mind, there were homemade cakes and champagne that she knew had been brought over from France by one of the Kingsleys. And she could hear children laughing. Smiling, she opened her eyes to see a little boy who looked like Jamie staring at her. He had the most beautiful eyelashes. She smiled back at him.

But then Jamie's arm landed on her head just in time to keep another child from rolling on top of her. He moved onto his side so his whole body was pressed against Hallie's back, and she looked into the eyes of the two children who were both fixated on her.

Jamie began nibbling at Hallie's ear. She was still in such a dream state that she smiled at all of it, for surely none of it could be real.

“Are you in love with my brother?” the girl asked.

“I think she is,” Jamie said. “She can't stay away from me even at night.”

Hallie was coming awake. “Stop that!” She batted at his
head and twisted around to face him. “For your information, I'm in bed with you because—” She broke off, her eyes so wide they nearly touched in the middle.

“Good morning,” came a deep male voice.

Jamie rolled onto his back, his eyes closed. “Tell me that's a recording and he's not really here.”

Hallie's first thought was to get out of bed, but she had on only a beat-up old T-shirt, and besides, Jamie's heavy leg with the big brace on it was half thrown across her.

She managed to sit up, a child on each side of her, and they looked across the wide expanse of Jamie. What she saw were two truly gorgeous young men. They were both over six feet, broad shouldered and slim. They had on cotton shirts and trousers with a crease down the front. Their faces were like something off a runway show: chiseled, with long aristocratic noses, lips like on a Greek sculpture. One had thick, coal-black hair and eyes that were almost as dark. In the right clothes he would look like a pirate. The other one was equally handsome, but his hair was lighter, his eyes a golden brown. In a movie he'd play Captain America.

“Are they real?” she whispered to the little girl.

The men smiled, eyes twinkling.

“I guess,” the girl said, unconcerned. “They're bad on horses, but that's because they're—”

“Let me guess,” Hallie said. “They're Montgomerys.”

The young men laughed. “Our reputation precedes us.”

The darker one said, “I am Adam and this is my cousin Ian.”

Jamie finally opened his eyes. “I thought you weren't going to be here until next week.” He sounded annoyed.

“Aunt Cale wanted to see the old house they bought,” Ian said, smiling at Hallie, who was trying to comb her hair with her fingers.

“Who's here?” Jamie asked.

“Everybody!” the little boy said as he stood up on the bed. “I'm Max and this is Cory. Jamie and Todd are our brothers.”

Hallie took Max's hand so he wouldn't fall off the bed. She was still looking at the young men, smiling at them, when another man entered the room and she started blinking rapidly. He was a bit shorter than the others, but still tall, and built like a bear. His T-shirt clung to muscles that seemed to ripple even when he was standing still. As for his six-pack…she wasn't sure but he just might have a twelve-pack.

Finally, she looked up at his face. “Sweet” was the only word she could think to describe it. Short dark hair that had a bit of curl in it, blue eyes, a cleft chin.

Max yelled, “Raine!” and launched himself off the bed.

Without breaking his look at Hallie, the man caught the boy, then nestled him in the crook of his right arm. When he held out his left arm, the girl used Jamie's stomach to push off. Raine caught her, then held both children, who snuggled up to him, faces buried in his strong neck.

All Hallie could do was sit on the bed and look across at them. There were the two elegant, lean men on the left, and on the right was the big man holding the two beautiful children. And Jamie was stretched out on the bed.

“I think I've died and gone to Heaven,” she whispered.

“Out!” Jamie yelled as he sat up. “The lot of you, get out!”

None of them so much as moved. “Are you and James a couple?” Adam asked.

“No, not really,” Hallie said. She motioned at the bed. “This happened because we, uh…I mean, we…” She didn't want to embarrass Jamie about the nightmares, but neither did she want them to think there was an attachment when there wasn't. And all in all, the beauty of all four of the men was making her a bit incoherent.

“Out!” Jamie growled. “This minute.”

With dazzling smiles, the three men left, and the children followed them.

When they were alone, Jamie turned to her. “Why are you in bed with me?”

She didn't want to explain anything. Instead, she threw back the covers and got up. “I need to dress. See you downstairs.” She took off running.

Hallie took her time dressing. She got out the new clothes she'd bought at Zero Main and spent a lot of time with her hair.

While she was dressing, she remembered her dream of the Tea Ladies. Usually, dreams faded from memory, but not this one. She remembered every second of it. As she used her curling iron, she thought of the drawings that had fallen behind the dresser.

She had to see Jamie! Had to tell him about her dream and they had to pull the big cabinet out from the wall to see if the drawings really were there.

When she was dressed and started down the stairs, she could hear voices and laughter. Had more of the Montgomery-Taggert family arrived? But, no, the same beautiful men with the two children were in the kitchen, with one addition.

Jamie was sitting at the table looking as though he was working hard to control his temper. Beside him was a man Hallie had never seen before, but she already knew he must be a Taggert. He wasn't as tall as Jamie but did look somewhat like him, though he was heavier and not nearly as good-looking.

When Adam saw Hallie, he stopped talking and stepped back. Ian, then Raine, did the same thing. The children clung to Raine, watching Hallie in absolute silence. They formed a path so she could get to the table and the two men sitting there.

What in the world is going on? she wondered as she walked forward. Jamie wasn't looking at her.

When she reached the table she stopped. The new guy was looking up at her in question, as though waiting for something.

“Hi,” she said. “I'm Hallie, and you are—?”

“Todd,” he said and stood up to shake her hand. “I'm Jamie's brother.”

After that, everyone started talking at once. Except for Jamie, that is. He got up on his crutches and without even a glance at Hallie opened the door into the pantry and went inside, shutting the door behind him.

Hallie wanted to go after him and tell him about her dream, but she was surrounded by gorgeous men whose only goal in life seemed to be to please her. She was asked what she wanted for breakfast. As they began to make it, she saw that her fridge had again been filled with food.

One by one the men told her about ailments and injuries they had and asked her advice on how to treat them. She was asked what she charged for a massage.

After breakfast the men—except for Todd and Jamie—escorted her to the gym so she could begin working on them. They were a happy trio and she enjoyed their company, but at the same time she kept wondering where Jamie was.

At lunch she managed to catch Cory as the child was running through the garden. “Where is your brother?”

“Which one?” the little girl asked. She had a wooden sword and was waving it about in the air. “I have five of them.”

“Really?” Hallie asked. “Jamie. Where is he?”

“With Todd. They're always together.”

“Could you please find Jamie and tell him we need to work on his knee?”

“He won't come,” Cory said. “Todd won't let him.” She went tearing off through the garden.

Hallie saw that the big red gate had been propped open so the family staying at the B&B could come and go easily. Ian told her that guests were also staying at Kingsley House, Toby's house, and at various hotels all over the island. He said all this as though it were something ordinary, but to Hallie, with her one and only non-blood relative, it was anything but. When she remembered Jamie's jokes about how he knew all about cousins and could supply relatives of any size, gender, age, etc., she couldn't help laughing.

At the time, Adam was on his stomach on her massage table, his long, beautiful body stretched out and covered only by a small white towel over his behind. He was a nice man, with a dry sense of humor, and he'd complimented her on how she'd helped relieve the tension in his shoulders.

“We saw the kitchen implements on the sheets outside,” he said. “Did you find them in the house?”

Hallie's mind filled with all that had happened before finding the artifacts. It would be too much to tell about a couple of matchmaking ghosts and her vivid dream about them. Besides, that was something she and Jamie shared.

Instead, she told of the locked doors and how Dr. Huntley had given them the key and they'd found a dirty room inside.

Adam turned onto his back, again with only the towel over him. “And you and Jamie cleaned the place? Did you enjoy doing it?”

“We did,” she said, smiling as she ran her oiled hands over his chest. He was in good shape, she thought, probably ran as well as did some sort of martial arts. His muscles were relaxed; he didn't hold the tension that Jamie did. He was an easy man to work on, to talk to, and probably to get to know.

But he wasn't Jamie.

After lunch—eaten outside with Adam, Ian, Raine, and the children—she set to work on Ian. He was in as good a shape as
Adam and as likeable. Whereas Adam had an intensity about him that was almost intimidating, Ian was all smiles and laughter.

At three Raine got on the table. By that time Hallie was frustrated from her failure to find Jamie. She hadn't seen him or his brother since before breakfast.

She smiled at the sight of Raine's big body. It was more like Jamie's. “Where is he?” she asked as she began trying to get deep down into his muscles. She didn't explain who “he” was.

“With Todd,” Raine said. Of the three men, he talked the least, but she had an idea that he saw and heard the most.

“Is he hiding from me?” she asked, her hands paused in their work.

“My guess is yes,” Raine said.

“And the lot of you are trying to keep me entertained so I don't notice?”