Goddess Legacy: Goddess Series Book 1 (15 page)

“You have a swimming pool?” She didn’t know why, but she was shocked. Though, his house had everything else.

“Yes, you should come take a swim sometime.”

They walked down the stairs and around the pool. “You do realize a swimsuit is more revealing than a skirt, don’t you?” Was he for real? He had a tough time touching her leg in a skirt. He’d likely have a stroke touching skin exposed in a bikini…skin he wouldn’t ordinarily see.

Adin threw back his head in laughter. After he composed himself, somewhat, he looked at her. “I do realize that, yes, but I’ll be expecting it then,” he said, chuckling.

“True.”

Adin led her back up the patio stairs. Once they were back on the patio, he pulled a chair out for her. She sat down, and he sat in the one next to her. He took both her hands into his on top of the table.

“You never did tell me why you’re having those dreams. Even though they’re not because of me, I still don’t like the fact that you’re having disturbing dreams.”

“It’s a long story.”

“Will you tell me about it?”

Was she going to? “I’d like to, but it really doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe I can help you figure it out.”

“Okay.” She could tell him a little. She took a deep breath before beginning. “Do you remember when we were talking about our families, and I told you about my parents?”

“Yes. They died in a car accident.”

“Well, what I actually said was that the
story
was they’d died in a car accident.”

He waited for her to continue.

“Um, the night of my party, Lissa told me my mom hadn’t died back then.”

He gaped at her. “What happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure. She said she was a powerful woman, but there were people after her, so she had to leave.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, but she said she told me this because I’ll see my mom again and that I’ll be going through changes until my eighteenth birthday.”

“What kind of changes?” Adin’s face was filled with concern.

“I don’t know.” She didn’t want to get Adin too involved in the mythology stores. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about all that, which is why I think I’m having those dreams.”

“What have your dreams been about, specifically, I mean?”

She told him all the dreams in detail, ending with the one she had about him.

“It seems like your subconscious thinks you’re in danger.”

“I think you might be right.” She looked down at their hands, thinking over the past week and her conversation with River. She hated not telling Adin everything.

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” he said quickly.

“Yes. There’s more,” she said, still looking down. A little more wouldn’t hurt.

“What?”

“Apparently, the Gorgos family knows my mom. When I met the son, River, he acted weird. Then the next time I saw him, he said I looked just like this lady named ‘Dora.’ When I told him that was my mom’s name, he was shocked. He said he didn’t know I was her daughter. He took me out that night and told me he saw my mom last year in Greece talking to his dad.” She looked up at Adin, and his expression was frozen. Even his fingers had stopped soothing the back of her hands.

“How do you know the Gorgoses?”

“I got a summer job at their store in town.”

Adin’s eyes narrowed slightly, but quickly opened back up. “When?”

“Last Saturday. They live next door to Calli, and she overheard Ms. Gorgos talking to her mom about needing summer help. I was looking for a job anyway, so Calli went with me down there to apply. Ms. Gorgos offered me the job without me even filling out an application.”

Adin mumbled something unintelligible under this breath.

“What?”

He ignored that and asked her another question. “How long have they lived next door to Calli?”

“Er, I don’t know. I think they just moved here. Where are you going with this?”

“Legacy, my family has never gotten along with the Gorgos family. I don’t like the fact that they live next door to your best friend, and I really don’t like the fact that you’re working for them.”

“They seem nice enough.”

“Of course they do.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The Gorgos family is full of people who do and say whatever they need to get whatever they want.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Look, I don’t want to scare you, but you should really be careful around them.”

His words would have knocked her down if she wasn’t already sitting.
Be careful
. Just like he told her in her dream, sitting at a patio table at this house. It wasn’t the same porch, but it was close enough.

He immediately noticed the change in her expression. “What’s wrong?”

“You just told me to be careful, just like you did in my dream.” She stared off into the sky.

“Legacy,” Adin said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what to say. I didn’t mean to say it like that, to use those words. Look at me, please,” he said softly. And she did. “It’s just that some members of that family are downright evil.”

“That’s what River said.”

“What did he say?”

“He said to watch out for his mom. That she is evil.”

“He did?” This clearly caught Adin by surprise. “Why did he say that?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t elaborate.”

“I really don’t like this. It seems too convenient that Lissa would give you this news, and the next day you would meet people who may know what’s going on. I don’t know if you can trust what they have to say about this.”

“River is the one who told me, and he is the one who also warned me about his mother. Why would he warn me about her if he’s just lying to me anyway?”

“I don’t know. Is there anything else?”

“Yeah, there’s one more thing.” Might as well go for broke where River was concerned. “The night he took me out…” She hesitated, not sure how Adin would take her non-date with River.

“Go on,” he said after several seconds had passed.

“He mentioned some things about Greek mythology.” She wasn’t sure if she should continue. It looked as if Adin was fighting anger. “Um, he also said something about descending from Greek gods and acquiring certain abilities,” she said timidly.

Adin’s hands ripped away from hers and went straight into his hair. He leaned his head back, shaking it uncontrollably while he stared at the ceiling. “Unbelievable!”

She jumped in her seat at the sound of his tone and waited quietly for him to calm down, but he just kept shaking his head.

“Adin?”

He still didn’t look at her.

“Adin, what’s wrong?”

He looked at her, but didn’t answer that question. “What did you think when he told you this?”

“It seemed pretty farfetched.”

He nodded, hands still on his head. He seemed to agree with that assessment.

“But after I thought about it some more,” she started slowly, “I realized it matched Lissa’s story.”

Adin went back to shaking his head.

Great, she’d have to tell him everything Lissa had said. So she did. Adin just gaped at her.

“This is a lot to consider,” he finally said. “Maybe you shouldn’t think about your mom or any of this other stuff until she contacts you. It’s best to get the information straight from the horse’s mouth.”

“I already considered that, but I’d like to know what River has to say about everything too. Whether or not you think he’s lying.”

Adin’s fist landed on the table. “I don’t want you talking about this with him.”

“Why?”

“I’ve
told
you why.” Adin looked at her with pleading eyes.

She didn’t want to fight with Adin about this. In fact, she didn’t want to argue at all. No way was she telling him the prophecy stuff.

She stroked Adin’s face, but his eyes were still beseeching. “Let’s not talk about this anymore. You’re getting mad, and I don’t want to upset you.”

“You’re not upsetting me,” he murmured, sliding his hand across the table and taking her free hand into his. “I’m just worried about you, and I don’t trust them.”

They weren’t getting anywhere with this conversation. “It’s getting late. Maybe you should take me home.”

Adin’s face turned sad. “Do you want to go home?”

“No, I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I’m sorry, I’m being a jerk. I’m not usually so overbearing. I think this falls under that category of not knowing how to react to my feelings. I care about you so much, and I know we need to take things slowly. But going slowly or not, it really doesn’t change how I feel about you. I may try to control how I react to those feelings, but it doesn’t stop me from having them.”

“It doesn’t bother me that you have those feelings. I have them too,” she said, smiling shyly.

He reached his other hand over to rub her cheek. “Let’s go,” he whispered.

“Okay,” she said, smiling bigger. She grabbed her gift and they left.

On the ride to her house, the conversation about River had been dropped, and she realized their relationship had changed. They were still taking things slowly, but now it really felt like they were heading in the right direction. It no longer felt surreal to her. And this made her feel wonderful. It was easy being with Adin, and except for how he felt about his reactions to his feelings for her—good reactions, she thought—it was easy for him to be with her too.

When Adin pulled into her driveway, she looked over at him.

“Would you like to come in?” she asked Adin as he put his car in park.

“I’d love to,” he said softly, but smiling exuberantly.

He walked around to her side of the car quickly since it had started to rain. He opened her door and then guided her up to the front door.

As they walked into the house, Adin dropped his hand from the small of her back and kept a couple of paces behind her—out of respect for Lissa, she assumed.

They walked into the living room, but Lissa wasn’t in there. She could smell food cooking, so she led the way to the kitchen with Adin right behind her.

Lissa was in here cooking dinner, but she had her back to them. Adin stood right beside her now.

“Hi, Lissa,” she said to her, getting her attention.

She turned around with a smile on her face that faded slightly when she saw Legacy wasn’t alone.

“Hi, Legacy. Hi, Adin.”

She was intending on introducing them, but he had been here on her birthday, and his grandma
did
live next door, so she knew Lissa knew him already. Besides, she really didn’t know how to introduce him. She knew what they meant to each other, but since they were going
slowly
, she really didn’t know if that entailed formal introductions as boyfriend and girlfriend yet.

“Did you two have a nice time today?”

“Yes, we had a great time,” she said calmly. “Do you need any help with dinner?” She thought it best to sidetrack her from the topic of her date.

“No, you should entertain your company. Adin, would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he responded politely with a smile, but quickly glanced at Legacy for approval. She nodded.

They turned to walk out of the kitchen.

“Would you like to see the rest of the house?” she offered nervously. She knew he’d have to see her room on the tour.

“Sure,” he murmured.

“Well, you’ve already seen just about everything downstairs, except for Lissa’s office.” She pointed to her office door. “And the dining room.” She motioned toward that room. “Though we never really use it much.”

They walked upstairs, and she pointed out each of the bedrooms, saving hers for last.

“Here’s my room,” she said as she opened the door. She walked into her bedroom, and he followed behind.

“Hmmm,” was all he said, but he smiled.

“What?” she asked as she put her new conch shell on her nightstand.

“Nothing. It’s just not what she expected.” He shook his head, but seemed amused.

“What did you expect?” She looked across her room, but nothing looked out of the ordinary to her. It was a typical teenage bedroom. She had a modern comforter with matching pillows on her bed, some posters and pictures on her walls, a computer desk with her laptop.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect anything. You know when you read a book and visualize how something looks, but when that book is made into a movie, the director’s visions aren’t always similar to the ones in your head? It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just different.”

“Are you telling me you’ve visualized what my bedroom looks like?” she asked as she turned to look at him.

“Maybe.” He was playing coy. He obviously had thought about it.

She liked that.

“What else have you visualized, besides my bedroom?”

“I’ve envisioned a lot of things,” he said, taking a step forward.

“You have?” She played along, taking a step in his direction.

“Mm-hmm.” He took the final step toward her and ran his hand down the length of her arm.

“Legacy, dinner’s ready,” Olive said as she popped her head into her room.

Legacy jumped, taking a step back, and Adin dropped his hand to his side, smiling.

“Shall we?” she asked.

Adin nodded, his smirk still evident.

Downstairs, Lissa had set the kitchen table for the four of them. While they ate, there was rarely a quiet moment, which was nice. They all seemed to enjoy the conversation, regardless at who it was directed to.

When they were finished eating, Adin walked with her to the living room. “I should go.”

She felt a pang of sadness, which was silly. It was probably because of their little tiff, and at this point, they hadn’t made any other plans to see each other again.

He frowned at her expression. “Would it be okay with you if I stopped by tomorrow night? I have some things to do tomorrow, but I’d like to see you in the evening if you’re free.”

Her frown quickly disappeared. “I’d like that a lot.”

“Good, then I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, and he quickly kissed her forehead.

He started to turn away from her. “I can walk you out,” she offered.

“No, it’s still raining.” He grinned.

“Okay.” She smiled back, but followed him to the door.