Lunangelique (The Lunangelique Series) (22 page)

“I hope not.” He turns to me then and starts with the normal kind of persuasion again. “Alexis, take it for now. If something else comes up, something better that you had in mind then you can drop it.” He grabs the glass the waitress has just placed in front of him and takes a gulp. “I won’t say anything else about it.” We both sit there and stare each other down. He’s trying to gauge any kind of responses from me and I’m trying to figure out if he’s going to keep his word. I think about it in silence for awhile. We all just sit there and stare at each other. I stare at Edmund and he and Cole stare at me.

I might as well accept, until something better comes up. He’s got a point there. Even though I
know
an athletic scholarship is a given, it might not be from a school like Yale. Then, I realize he probably has the capability to dissuade other scholarships from coming my way. I can’t win if it comes to that, and I don’t want to take my chances. Cole grows impatient with the silence and finally gives my leg a little shake to wake me from my thoughts.

“I accept,” I say loud and clear so there is no mistake and confusion. I don’t want to say it more than once. “Now, let’s order.” I turn to the waitress who appeared about a minute ago and waited confusedly as she watched us all stare each other down. Afraid to interrupt something important.

The rest of the dinner continues with discussion on my art. Not a conversation I want to discuss but it’s better than having him ask questions and try to get us to admit that I know who he is. I let him talk about the professors he knows at Yale and ideas for the history collection
he
thinks I should include. I have to admit I like the idea and the descriptions he elaborates on create a perfect picture in my mind. I don’t comment a lot. I just nod my head and say a lot of ‘mmhmm’s and ‘uh huh’s’ while I eat.

The waitress comes back around after we eat and brings the dessert menu. I just order a mocha cappuccino, even though I’m so stuffed I don’t think I can even fit the drink in me but I felt like I had to because Edmund ordered dessert. Cole just got a coffee.

“So, I see you two are getting closer.” Uh, oh. Here it goes.

I smile sweetly at him and then look adoringly at Cole. I try to appear as bubbly and love struck as I can. Even though we’ve been touching practically throughout the entire dinner. “I think we’re taking it kind of slow,” I shrug while looking into Cole’s eyes. He has picked up on my heightened infatuation with him and starts to play his part.

“Yeah, we spend as much time together as we can. But there’s no need to rush things. She’s still in school, still young.” He raises his hand to stroke my hair. And my eyes widen at the meaning of his words,
no need to rush things, still in school, what is that suppose to mean?

“
Very
young.” Edmunds playing the protective dad card again. I ignore him and look at Cole trying to find out what he meant. He doesn’t give me any hints, just kisses me sweetly on the lips.

“So, what are you going to do when she goes to college?” Edmund asks as his crème brulee is placed in front of him and our drinks are placed in front of us.

I take a sip out of my drink, waiting to hear Cole’s answer. We’ve never talked about where our relationship is going, just the present, always taking things one day at a time. It will be interesting to hear what he says. And even more interesting to discuss later.

“I’ll probably go with her. My jobs here are easily replaceable, nothing promising.” He shrugs his shoulder. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it yet. It’s still months away. I know she wants to tour Europe this summer.” He turns to me. “I would like to go with her for that,” he says it as a statement to Edmund but a question to me.

I feel so warm inside, knowing he wants to share the experience with me. I haven’t even thought that far. I’ve always planned on it being me and Alex, maybe Kaitlyn but now I can’t imagine going without him.

I nod my head to him, letting him know I would love for him to come. I watch as his whole face lights up. His eyes have a twinkle in their near black pitted depth.
I really love this being
, I think to myself. Maybe we’ve never talked about where our relationship is going, or our futures together, because we’ve felt secure knowing we would stay together, move forward together.

Cole appears to be thinking the same thing I am as our eyes sweep over each other’s faces. We are secretly communicating sweet caresses that we can’t physically do in a crowded atmosphere. I start to become aware of Edmund still sitting across from us. So I finally break the spell and look away. Embarrassed.

I look quickly at Edmund from underneath my eyelashes before picking up my drink and studying it. Edmund looked
pissed
. It won’t be much longer before he breaks and spills the beans. He’s losing more and more of his composure every day.

*

Cole and I should have been relieved that Edmund did not try to cryptically interrogate us. When I asked Cole why he thought Edmund didn’t he answered, “I could see a plan formulating in his mind. He didn’t expect to share you.” I look at him questioningly. Thinking that sounds kind of gross. Cole shakes his head, knowing where my thoughts have turned. “We are selfish creatures by nature, Lexi, he’s your father. In his mind he owns you, you are his.”

“Then why did he send you?”

“I wasn’t supposed to be a
love interest
. I was supposed to be a neighbor and friend. A spy,” he says regretfully, staring out the car window silently for a few minutes before continuing. “Eventually, Edmund would have been introduced to you as he was and started to ingrain himself in your life, which he has. But this, as you know,” he holds up our entwined hands that are resting between us on the center console of his car, “was not his plan.” He grins at me but there is unease in his eyes.

“But I don’t understand why he wasn’t the neighbor? Why he wasn’t the friend?” I try to make my point.

“Are you upset to have met me?” Cole teases. I roll my eyes and he chuckles. “You haven’t questioned why he hasn’t tried to establish a role in Alex’s life?”

“Oh, I see your point.” Edmund and Alex look too much like each other. Alex would catch on quick even if he denies it.

After several moments of more silence I ask, “When do you think he will tell me?”

“I don’t know. It could be days or years. It doesn’t look very promising. He’s already planning the next four years of your life.” He sounds sad as he mumbles the last part out.

We pull into his garage and I take my seatbelt off and crawl over to his lap before he can even turn the car off. I put my hands around the back of his neck and curl his hair with my fingers as I tell him, “He’ll have to include you in on the plan.” His beautiful dark eyes light up before he crushes his lips into mine.

I push the tab that makes his seat go back and we slowly sink down, resurfacing some time later.

Chapter 17

Edmund seems very happy with my decision to take him up on his offer of an inevitable scholarship in the weeks that follow the dinner. He has his ‘friends’ from the art world and Yale come to the classes to meet me and look at my drawings. I am embarrassed because they are just sketches. They have not seen any paintings but Edmund has assured me that I will take a higher level art class next semester. He’s going to use his influence with the college to make it happen. He wants me to start working on the history collection and has assigned me homework assignments based on the collection.

I don’t know how I feel about it. I’m excited to work on the project. It’s something I feel really passionate about but I don’t want to share it. Edmund tells me I’m being selfish by not to sharing my talent. He keeps trying to reassure me not to feel self-conscious about it that once the collection is done I will feel more confident in myself and I will know that I have made the right decision to enter into the art field. I can’t help feeling guilty, though, that my talent is because of my unnatural abilities and not from a real, ‘work-your-butt-off’, earned talent.

Alex and I have been practicing using our abilities. He’s more interested in seeing how far he can push me then what he can do. He’s had me demonstrate (I can’t really call it practice) martial arts and boxing and even other silly things like headstands, tightrope walking and ping pong. I think he is having more fun with it than I am. I’m just happy to see a new side to him. He’s more open with me now that he doesn’t have his secret always on the forefront of his mind.

Ever since Homecoming night Ollie has acted differently to me. He isn’t as nice and welcoming as he once was to me or Alex, for that matter. He and Clara have been seeing each other pretty steady so that means I don’t see her too much anymore. He keeps making excuses every time Alex suggests doing something. He doesn’t come to the astronomy meetings and he turns his head when he sees me coming into the hall. However, there are many times when I feel someone watching me and when I turn look around Ollie is drilling a hole into my head. He appears to be studying me. In those moments he doesn’t look away, it’s like he’s testing me when I stare back, wanting me to do something.

And Cole… let’s just say that Cole and I have been a lot more
active
lately. I am so thrilled that we actually discussed a future trip together. Well, him coming with me on the trip and college. I didn’t feel the need to talk about a future anything with him but now that we have I can’t believe the amount of security I feel with him, knowing that we
plan
on being together in a year, four years! There is a sense of relief I didn’t know I needed or wanted. Cole is so excited over what Alex can do and wants to see our practices but I don’t want Alex to be a part of that world yet. I still haven’t gotten the missing pieces from Edmund.

“What do you want to do for our birthday?” Alex asked me while he, Cole and I get done releasing some musical energy. I’ve drifted away from my piano lately, not having time beyond Mrs. Senett’s class.

I look at Alex and then Cole who is looking at me expectantly. “I haven’t even thought about it,” I ponder. “We have to do something big, I mean, it’s our eighteenth birthday. We’ll be adults,” I say it like the coming of doom.

“Party?” Alex raises his eyebrows at me.

“I don’t know. We have parties all the time,” I answer him. Alex doesn’t seem too interested in a party either. His face looks relieved.

“New York?” Cole chimes in.

Alex’s eyes brighten at the idea so I know I can feel excited too. “That sounds perfect. It’s only a six hour drive if we take the bridge. It would be so epic!” I want to jump up and down like a little girl but I keep myself grounded and just nod to Cole enthusiastically.

“We’ll have to miss a day or two of school to be able to actually enjoy ourselves up there,” Alex either thinks out loud to himself or is telling the ground. Alex face hardens at the thought of missing school and I can tell he is starting to slip out of the idea. I can see his brain calculating everything he’ll have to catch up on if he skips town for a few days.

“We never miss school. It’ll be fine.” I console him since the floor doesn’t. Alex is such a goody-goody.

“I have an apartment up there,” Cole is trying to coax Alex.

I am about to burst with excitement. “You do? You never told me that.” I sound like I’m teasing him but I’m not.

“It’s never come up,” he shrugs. He walks closer to me and whispers in my ear so Alex doesn’t hear. “I have apartments
everywhere
.”

“Really?” I mouth back to him, our lips almost touching.

“That trip this summer? We will not be staying in hotels,” he informs me, still whispering. I smile back at him and give him a quick kiss.

“Alright, I’m in.” Alex has finally worked out the arguments with the floor.

“Yes,” I hiss, excitedly. “Thank you, Alex.” He just ‘yeah, yeas’ me.

We start discussing all the things we should do and see up there. Time Square, Statue of Liberty, China Town, Greenwich Village, Central Park, Metropolitan Museum of Art; the list goes on.

“Are we going to invite more friends or are we thinking small like just us and Kaitlyn?” I ask them.

Cole shrugs to let me know he can accommodate anything and Alex says, “Just Kaitlyn. If we invited more then we’ll see less and everyone will want to do something different, we’d end up separating, someone would get lost. No, I don’t want to deal with that.”

“I agree.” I’m so relieved.

*

Two weeks later we are in New York! Technically, Alex and my birthday fell on a Tuesday so we couldn’t actually celebrate our birthday then. We had a dinner with just our parents that night and our friends had given us little presents during the day. We left for New York after school on Wednesday. It was already night when we pulled into the parking garage below the building that houses Cole’s apartment.

I am so excited to be here. I’ve been to New York once, when I was a little kid but it was not like this. Ollie’s apartment is more beautiful than his house. The walls are all cream colored with expensive gilt framed artwork. The furniture is all light tones of blues, yellows, and gold. Everything looks so soft and takes our breath away as we walk into the apartment.

Cole lets us circle away in the living room that flows from the entry way as we stare in wonder at all the beauty in the room.

“It’s almost surreal,” I say at the same time Kaitlyn says, “Beautiful.” Even Alex looks stunned.

“Thank you,” Cole tells us. “Let me show you where to put the bags.” Me and Kaitlyn each have a suitcase as we didn’t know what occasions to dress for and since it’s the first week of November, it’s cold so we have lots of pants and sweaters. Alex only has a medium size duffle bag and Cole doesn’t have anything.

Cole leads us past the kitchen pointing it out and telling us that it’s already stocked. Then, down a hall that has only three doors. “The door on the left is a bathroom and the door on the right will be you guy’s room,” he tells Kaitlyn and Alex. They hurry to rush inside and I hear Kaitlyn squeal at what she finds. Cole and I smile at each other and he leads me to the last door. “This is our room.”