But as Gideon—garbed in a protective talisman that allowed him to drive without killing the car’s electronics—drove her rental car toward the airfield where a private jet waited, she closed her eyes and attempted to see what might lie ahead for her. Something, anything. A clue, please.
How could she find and lose love so quickly? How could Ryder send her away? She knew he loved her, and she loved him. With or without magic. Wizard or ordinary man, he was hers.
He’d all but kicked her out of Cloughban. He’d even officially fired her and made her return her Drunken Stone T-shirts. She’d been naked at the time. Naked and in love and so sure they would be together forever.
Since Ryder didn’t want to see her again, he’d asked her to leave those T-shirts on the sidewalk outside the pub on her way out of town.
She’d kept one. It was packed in her duffel bag. A part of her hoped he’d change his mind and come after her, maybe with that missing T-shirt as an excuse, but she didn’t hold out much hope.
Would she live the rest of her life waiting for Ryder to show up and admit that he’d made the worst mistake of his life when he’d let her go?
Somewhere up ahead, Hope drove the rental car she and Gideon had left on the side of the road on their way into Cloughban. After a couple of days away from Gideon, it had started easily enough. Hope had volunteered to drive, saying she could use a little quiet time. Maybe she’d realized that Echo and Gideon needed to talk. Alone.
They had been on the road almost half an hour before he spoke. Right back to business, dammit. “So, are you going back to the Sanctuary?”
“I suppose.”
“Don’t be so enthusiastic,” he said dryly. “You did a good job there. You’re needed and wanted. Just...don’t make it snow in July. We don’t need the attention.”
If her heart was broken now and forever, would it snow when she thought of Ryder? Maybe. Maybe not. Away from the stones her abilities would be different. Maybe less, maybe more, but definitely different.
“It’s just...being keeper of Sanctuary was always temporary in my mind,” she confessed. “I was a place holder for Emma. I know, she has years before it’ll be time for her to take that job, but still...it was never me. That job was never mine.” Was that what she’d always been looking for? Something that was meant to be hers?
“What is yours?” Gideon asked, and somehow he sounded both kindly concerned and incredibly frustrated.
She had to be honest. “I don’t know.”
He sighed. Gideon was such a guy, not really good at the touchy-feely stuff. But he did care. She knew that. Even if he was sometimes maddening, like a big brother or overly protective father would be.
“I use my abilities to help people,” he said. “Dead people, yeah, but the dead are people, too. Kind of.”
“Is this supposed to be helping?” Echo asked sourly. He was trying, and she grudgingly gave him credit for that, but she was pretty frustrated herself at the moment.
“Dammit, let me finish,” he said. “I tried to quit, after Hope and I got married, but this is what I do. I find murderers and take them off the streets. Hope misses it. When the kids are in school she’ll probably come back. They won’t allow us to partner up again. It’ll be a struggle, but we’ll make it work because it’s who we are.”
“It’ll be a while before that happens,” Echo said absently.
“What?” Gideon sounded confused and put out. “Madison is four and a half. She’ll be in kindergarten next year...”
“But what about the boy?” Echo asked.
Gideon looked at her and she looked at him. Green eyes met in silence. They were both surprised by her words.
“Boy?” he asked after a few moments.
There had been no vision, no crippling experience that took her elsewhere, but she knew. A boy. “In eight and a half months or so,” she said. “Yes.”
“Hope hasn’t said a word...”
“She doesn’t know! Jeez, Gideon, the eight and a half months should’ve been a clue.” Another Raintree baby. Maybe one with Gideon’s powers, his amazing abilities. He had never said he wanted a son. He loved his daughters, doted on them, even. But he’d be thrilled...
“How many?” he asked in a voice filled with something much like terror. “We just planned on the two, but apparently we... I swear, we’re careful... Never mind, we don’t need to go into that.” He blushed just a little. “Okay, tell me. Lay it on the line, cuz. How many kids are Hope and I going to have?”
Echo managed to laugh. “I don’t know. This is life, Gideon. Be surprised now and then. Have eight kids if it suits you.”
“Eight? Bite your tongue. Hope would kill me. Shit! She’s going to insist I get clipped, I just know it.”
Echo laughed. No, Gideon would not be happy when Hope insisted that he have a vasectomy but in the end he’d do it. And he’d grumble about it. A lot.