Mind Tricks (31 page)

Now, five days later, Emma was
wishing for the first time that Jake didn’t have so much confidence in her
abilities. Daniel’s condition hadn’t improved at all, and she felt like she was
letting Jake down.

Forget it—she wasn’t going to be
able to do any work today. Her concentration was fractured by her anxiety, and
she didn’t want to accidentally disrupt Daniel’s already thready life force by
going in there with such a skittish mind.

She stepped back. “Jake, let’s come
back tomorrow. I just—” She waved her hand helplessly. “I need some time to
recharge my own batteries.”

He jumped to his feet. “Sure. Of
course. Hey, let’s take it easy tonight. Watch a movie, grab some takeout and
beers, go to bed early. If the weather’s nice, we can sail up to Bar Harbor
tomorrow and make fun of their tourists as opposed to our own.”

“Your parents won’t mind us ducking
out on them like that?”

“My parents have survived most of
their lives without us entertaining them at every moment. Plus, they should
start thinking about returning to Arizona.”

She grinned. He hadn’t been exactly
subtle about dropping hints to that effect during the last couple of nights.
His parents had been hanging out a little too much at Woodhaven, he’d confided
to her as they’d lain in bed. They thought they were helping, but meddling was
a better description. For the sake of his company—and his sanity—he needed them
either distracted or out of the way.

Daniel’s physical therapist,
Pepper, breezed in and then stopped short when she saw them. “Oops—I didn’t
know you were here. I can come back later.”

 
Jake stood. “No, stay. We’re just leaving.” He
moved over to Daniel’s bed and laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’ll
see you in a couple days, D-man.”

Emma hovered at Jake’s elbow. She’d
never felt comfortable touching Daniel—she felt like she was invading a
personal space that he’d probably guard were he conscious. But impulsively she
bent over and kissed him on the cheek. “We’ll poke fun at the Bar Harbor
tourists for—”

An electrical zing stilled her
words. Slowly she rocked back on her heels and stared at the man in a coma.

Pepper shut the shades, casting the
room into the dimness of the underworld, and then placed her small boom box on
the chair Jake had vacated. She punched a button, and Pachelbel’s canon lilted
through the air. “I’m on a Baroque kick this week,” she explained to Jake.

Emma could barely tear her eyes
from Daniel. The waves of energy rising from him were unlike anything she’d
felt all week. “Pepper,” she said, hardly recognizing her own voice, “would you
mind if I spent a few more minutes with Daniel? But don’t leave!” she added
when the young woman began to head for the door.

“No problem,” Pepper said easily,
leaning against the wall. “I’ve always wanted to watch you do your thing,
anyway. All the staff here are talking about it. Heck, you’re a hotter topic
than Mr. Liddy being caught in bed with Mrs. Highmartin when the nurse came in
to give Mrs. Highmartin her meds.”

Jake watched Emma’s face but stayed
silent. A gem of a man.

Holding her palms over Daniel, Emma
marveled at the energy rising off of him. Where before he’d been barely alive,
now he sang with life force.

Moving with a confidence she had
never felt before when working on a human, Emma brushed her hands over his
energy lines, smoothing them out, adjusting their flow, closing her eyes to
focus only when she hit a tough snarl or a delicate, wire-thin path that could
snap as easily as it could strengthen. The aching notes of Pachelbel’s canon
soared behind her, and she felt like she, too, was making music as she plucked
at this line and then that one, weaving a rich symphony of life.

Then the music behind her ended,
and she raised her hands away from Daniel and stepped back. Her knees went
gooey on her, and Jake threw his arm around her waist to steady her.

She smiled up at him, still
exhilarated. “Wow. I’ve never felt anything like that. Guess it took a bit out
of me, though.”

Shaking his head, Jake said, “You have
to stop scaring me. It takes years off my life. Years I want to spend with
you.”

She was about to reply but was
interrupted by Pepper.

“Look,” Pepper whispered, and
pointed at Daniel.

Slowly, like a newly hatched
butterfly’s wings, Daniel’s eyes opened.

“Welcome back,” Pepper said, taking
Daniel’s hand and threading their fingers together.

Daniel stared back at her and
didn’t reply. His bright blue eyes swiveled over to Jake and sharpened, and
then Daniel gave him a miniscule nod before closing his eyes again.

Beside her Jake tensed, and Emma
said quickly, “Don’t worry. He’s just sleeping. But it’s a healthy, healing
sleep.”

Pepper hustled out to grab a nurse.
Emma thought Jake would loosen her to go to Daniel. Instead his arm around her
waist tightened and he said, “You’re a miracle worker.”

“Not a wacko?” she said, her lips
twitching.

“Well, maybe a bit of both. In a
perfect combination that I fell in love with.”

Emma smiled. “I love you too, you
know.”

Sounding surprised, Jake said,
“Everything is going to work out, isn’t it?”

She leaned back against him and
said simply: “Yes.”

Adrianne Wood is an East Coast
transplant to the gorgeous Northwest. She’s the author of several romance
novels, the wife to a handsome husband, the mother of a sweet little girl, and
the feeder of three always-hungry cats. Visit Adrianne at
www.adriannewood.com
to learn about upcoming releases, or follow
Adrianne on Facebook or Twitter.

Whether it’s suspense that keeps
you up all night or Western tales that make you yearn for cowboys, Adrianne
Wood delivers love stories that can’t be beat.

HAUNTED

Coming
in 2013

After awakening from a coma no one
expected him to survive, Daniel Vant should consider himself the luckiest man
in Maine. But hallucinations of dead children threaten to destroy his sanity
and his slowly growing relationship with Pepper. Then a local girl goes missing,
and Daniel starts to wonder if his hallucinations might be not be
hallucinations after all, and if there is a killer in their midst….

BADLANDS BRIDE

Available
in December 2012 from Pocket Books!

Worlds collide when a wealthy
heiress meets a journalist with writer’s block in this steamy Western romance
set in the Colorado badlands.

Lily Highfill has spent many long
years in Denver, exiled from her high-society family. With a betrothal to a
rich gentleman nearly in her pocket and an invitation to return home to Boston
in hand, Lily thinks her future is set and decides to spend her final month out
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frontier journalist enters camp and stirs up trouble—and deep desire in Lily’s
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Mason Donnelly used to be one of
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his career has hit rock bottom. One big story could put him back on top, and he
senses that there’s more to the excavation than dinosaur bones. But a beautiful
and feisty heiress is about to derail all his plans in ways he could never
imagine….

UNRULY HEARTS

Exclusively
available now as an e-book

Texas, 1872: Rancher Ben Westingame
gets engaged to the wrong woman while trying to do the right thing. Too late,
he realizes that his new fiancée's friend has the spirit and passion he's been
searching for all his life. But her secrets may ruin their chance at finding
happiness together....

Featuring a big-hearted and
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adventure and romance against a Texas backdrop, this charming book will both
make you laugh and tug at your heart.