Love-in-Idleness (16 page)

 
     “Then we all agree on something. Excellent,” Grace snapped.

 
     “I think you’ve got it backwards,” Ryder interjected, looking at Cam. “You’re the one who needs to leave.” Puck was impressed. Maybe Ryder had a little bit of pluck in him after all.

 
     Cam rolled his head dramatically. “You really don’t get it, do you?”  he yelled at Ryder. “You’re defending someone who doesn’t care about you. Stop being a jerk and go home with your own girlfriend.”

 
     “Wasn’t I about to kick your ass?” Ryder stepped forward.

 
     “After you,” Cam swept his arm in the direction of the field, and the pair sauntered off again.

 
     The girls stared after them in disbelief.

 
     “You know this is all your fault, right?” Grace asked.

 
     “I can’t do this anymore.” Chloe turned and disappeared back up the hill and out of the park.

 
     Sighing, Grace plopped herself down on the pavement and put her head in her hands. A few seconds later, she leaned back onto the ground, spread herself flat and was still. It was as if she was trying to disappear, as if the sheer effort it took to remain upright and visible was unbearable.

      
In his hiding place, Puck fought the urge to giggle by holding his forearm to his mouth. He watched Grace lay down on the pavement, sprawled out, face up, and pathetic. Puck once again wondered why everyone was making such a fuss over her. The city was full of pretty girls. It was hard to imagine that this rough, impulsive girl could possibly play into the destiny of the Oberon family. The longer he waited for answers, the more anxious he became for an explanation.

He wondered how long Grace would stay like that, lying on the dirty ground, but he didn’t wait to find out. He wanted to see the boys duke it out.
There wasn’t anything about Ryder that gave the impression that he knew anything about fighting, but Puck was pretty sure he could take Cam out, nonetheless. Having engaged in many spars with his brother over the years, Puck knew that Cam could never muster the aggression needed to win a fistfight. Granted, the potion seemed to be making him extra hostile, which would give him an edge. And, to be fair, Ryder wasn’t able to hurl inanimate objects like Puck, which evened the playing field considerably.

He silently began to creep out of his hiding place, only to have his phone spew forth The Flight of the Valkyries.  He clamped his hand over the phone to muffle the sound and hit answer as quickly as he could.

              “What the hell is going on over there?” Miles spat out without any semblance of pleasantries.”Where are you?”

             
Puck could feel his insides flip over. Granted, his father was miles away and he could say whatever he wanted. However, when it came down to it, he needed to find a way to put things right in his father’s eyes. “We’re in a park by Ryder’s house. Ryder is definitely deeply in love with Chloe.” Puck wanted to leave it at that.

             
“Great,” Miles responded. “Now get home and get your idiot friends out of my house. I’m tired of them, now.”

             
“Small problem…” Puck began. There was no getting around this.

             
“Yes?”

             
“Grace is definitely not in love with Cam.” Puck winced even having to say it aloud. “If you just let me give her the powder, this can all be over in a few minutes.” All he heard in response was the loud click of a phone being hung up. Puck jumped at the sound, as quick and solid as a slap in his face. Knowing his father, he kept the phone out. Within moments, his father’s ring sounded again and Puck answered, mostly because he couldn’t think of an excuse not to do so.

             
“Hey Miles,” he said casually.

             
“Grace is off limits! Find another way to fix this!” his father roared and hung up on him for the second time. How could he possible resolve this without consequences? If he couldn’t enchant Grace, then there was still Chloe. Unfortunately, even if Chloe fell in love with Ryder, there was still the Cam problem. How would he explain that to Miles.  He couldn’t play innocent because he wouldn’t be able to explain why Cam was in love with Chloe. Puck stood up, brushed any signs of park dirt off his clothes, and walked toward the exit. It was clear to him that two things had to happen. He needed to have all four of them in the same place so he could have a chance at setting things right.

1
:30 AM

Grace stayed on the ground, looking up at the black sky, until the world grew quiet around her. She could tell that the temperature was dropping because the pavement felt cool on her back. Crickets chirped, and a slight breeze rustled the leaves on the trees. After all the hours she had spent in this park, playing with her mother as a child, jogging in the mornings, and doing homework on a bench with Ryder, none of those hours had been anything like the hour that just passed. Until this evening, she felt she was on the road to figuring things out. She and Ryder would sort out their
relationship one way or another, even if it meant ending things. Theo and Gianni would get married, and Grace would move on toward adulthood in spite of them.

             
However, all of a sudden, her choices were no longer her own. Miles and Theo were attempting to guide her love life, and her boyfriend had gone mad. The only way to regain control at this point was to stop trying. She would stop trying to figure out why Ryder had lost his mind. Theo could have his Gia, and Miles Oberon could kiss her ass. She would walk out of this park and leave them all to their insanity. As she stood, voices briefly permeated the silence, and although she couldn’t make out the words, she assumed that it was the boys having their big showdown. In light of recent events, she expected to care more about what was happening with them, but the longer she stood and listened to the vague murmur of their voices drifting toward her, the more she found that she didn’t care at all. After all this time with Ryder, one of the most important people in her life, his actions of the night had pushed her beyond anger to numbness.  How was that possible? How could an hour of irrationality change everything? Surely it was a combination of stress and exhaustion. After a night of sleep, Grace felt sure that she would wake up to find that this had all been a misunderstanding.

             
Grace looked into the fog, toward the boys. She could only make out the vaguest of shapes. Quietly, she turned and walked away from them, toward the park exit. As she moved closer to civilization, the streetlights became brighter, and she looked up and down the street, deciding which way to go. To the left was President Street and Ryder’s apartment. This seemed decidedly unappealing at the moment. Almost directly across the street, there was an entrance to the train that could take her to Manhattan. It seemed ironic to her that she had come here to leave her problems on the other side of the bridge. Now, just a few hours later, the thought of going home to Theo was the most comforting thing she could think of. She was exhausted and her feelings had been trampled. As she put one foot off the curb and began to cross the street, headlights rapidly approached. She jumped back just as a black town car pulled up and stopped in front of her. Before she could turn to run, the backseat window rolled down and Grace was faced with a smiling Miles Oberon.

             
“Get in, dear,” he instructed calmly.

             
For a moment, Grace felt paralyzed by shock. She just couldn’t shake this family. Gradually, the shock faded and her anger and determination returned.

             
She looked steadily into Miles’s face and leaned toward him. “Why are you making my life like this?” she demanded. “How did you even know I was here?”

             
“I knew you went to Ryder’s, and I was already on the way when Puck called and told me where to find you,” he stated. She was surprised by his candor. “As for why, get in and I’ll tell you everything.”

             
Grace questioned what she wanted more, answers or freedom. She could just walk away from him. She looked toward the subway stop. Miles couldn’t follow her in his car if she went underground. But she would just be going home, and he knew exactly where that was. Better to just get answers and hope for an end to this torture.  Without a word, she walked to the other side of the car and climbed into the back seat. What was the worst that could happen?

             
The interior of the car was all black, with the softest leather seats Grace had ever seen. Between the front and back seats, there was a partition that kept their conversation from being overheard by the driver.

             
“Okay, start by telling me what Puck has to do with this. No, tell me why my boyfriend’s suddenly a lunatic.” She stopped to think. “Or you could tell me why you people are so interested in my family.”

             
“Why don’t I just start at the beginning, Grace?” Miles asked.

             
Grace leaned her head against the soft leather headrest. “That would be fine. Just start talking.”

             
Miles pushed a button next to the roof light, and said, “Jean-Paul, drive me home.” The car started and pulled onto the deserted street. “I’ll tell you everything, but you mustn’t be petulant. No arguing and no interrupting. I know it’s not in your nature to sit quietly, but you must try.”

             
“You don’t know anything about my nature.”

             
“I know more about you than you know about yourself. If you’d like to share in that knowledge, then you’ll need to bear with me.”

             
Grace folded her hands neatly in her lap and waited for Miles to continue.

             
“Tell me what you know about your mother’s family,” Miles said.

             
A picture of Grace’s mother, Emma, flashed through her mind.  Perhaps because she had so recently sat studying the small box of treasures that belonged to her mother, it was a memory of the day these things had been given to her that came into her mind. It was before the cancer had really taken hold. Emma was still getting around well, and most people wouldn’t have guessed that she was dying from just looking at her. On a rainy afternoon, twelve-year-old Grace had sat listening to her mother explain the significance of the few pieces of jewelry that she wanted to make sure that Grace kept safe. They were family pieces that Grace would inherit from people she had never met.

             
“Her parents died when she was young. They were from an old Irish family that came through Ellis Island.” That really was the bulk of what Grace knew.

             
“What about her brother?” Miles raised an eyebrow.

             
“What brother? She was an only child.”

             
“No, Emma just didn’t tell you about me. I’m not surprised.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re insane
,” Grace snapped.

“Careful, you’re being petulant.”

Grace crossed her arms and glared, but she was quiet

Miles went on. “We had a major falling out when she married Theo. She chose to turn her back and walk away from her abilities and lead a normal life. I couldn’t understand her choice and shut her out. I didn’t even hear that she died until months after the fact.”

              Grace just stared at him. There was nothing he was saying that could possibly be true. Then, he did something that would change everything for her. As she sat there, she felt movement in her pockets and she clamped her hands onto her jeans. Under her hands, her keys in one pocket and her phone in the other were moving. She looked down and saw the contents of her pockets slide up and out. Once freed, they darted upward and dangled in the air in front of her face. A little scream escaped her and she pulled her legs up onto the car seat in retreat.

             
Miles reached over and patted her knee in a fatherly way. “Relax, dear. These are just parlor tricks.  Here, take your things back.” The keys and the phone landed on the seat between them.

Grace backed toward the other side of the seat.
“What the hell was that?”

             
“That, my dear, is the reason your mother never mentioned me. She wanted a normal life without the complications of magic. She married Theo and swore that she would live like normal people do.”

             
“What? Like
Bewitched
?” Grace remembered watching the old sitcom with her mother and wondering why Emma found it so amusing. “She could do
that
?” Grace pointed toward her things, now still on the seat.

             
Miles nodded.

             
“Can I do that?” Grace asked.

             
“I don’t know. Have you ever accidentally moved something without touching it?” Miles asked.

             
“I don’t think so.”