Gifted Connections 4

She pulled out her sketchpad. She flipped through it before landing on a page with Lincoln lying face down next to his surfboard. Half of the board was in the water, threatening to drag him back to sea. Her picture was done in such acute details I could see the pallor of his skin and the pain in his face.

I pulled out my phone and called Anna. The phone rang a few times and then went to voicemail. “Hey Tink, can you call me as soon as you can? It’s important. You need to go check on Lincoln immediately. He may be in trouble.” I said in a rush.

“I’ll call Leo,” Troy stated the moment I hung up the phone. “He’s still has a few jobs out there.”

I nodded and curled into Jace, closing my eyes. Lincoln rubbed me the wrong way, but he was my connection. Without him, life as we knew it would cease to exist.

Jace began to rub the back of my neck as he kissed the top of my head. “It’s okay, we’ll get to him in time,” Jace murmured in my ear.

“Hey Leo,” Troy spoke into his phone. “I need you to do me a favor. Immediately. I need you to go to Lincoln Hudgens’ home.” He rattled off the address. “He may be out back surfing.” He paused. “I know. I know. I’ll call Pritchard, you won’t get in trouble with the locals. Trust me.” He let out a strained laugh. “Yes, I’ll bail you out if Pritchard doesn’t intervene in time. Call me when you find him. Thanks, man.” He slid his phone into his pocket before he looked over at me. “He’s about thirty minutes away from Lincoln’s home, but he’s going there now. He’ll call me as soon as he can.”

“Let’s go, Ella, we have music lessons. Alex, I’ll walk you over to the greenhouses,” Will stated giving Jace a look full of meaning. I knew he wanted to be kept updated about the situation, but he also understood the importance of not having the children underfoot.

“Do we hafta?” Alex asked reluctantly.

Will looked at him fondly. “Yes, we ‘hafta’. I thought you couldn’t wait to check on your garden?”

“I do, but I want to know if they find the man,” Alex said mulishly.

“You’ll find out at dinner. We’re having it our place tonight. Megan’s making some fried chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, and biscuits,” Will cajoled him.

“Homemade mac and cheese?” Ella asked hopefully. “I don’t like the kind that comes out of the blue box anymore,” she looked over at me. “Sorry, Blake.”

I tried to laugh, knowing she thought she was offending me. She really wasn’t—I could never

afford any other kind. “I like homemade mac and cheese better, too,” I informed her with a smile.

“Me, too.” And in a rare show of affection for her these days, she gave me a hug. “Let’s go, Alex,” she said domineeringly as she marched out of the room. “Time to go.”

Alex dragged his feet, obviously still unenthusiastic about going down to the greenhouses. He looked back pleadingly at Jaxson, like he was hoping for Jaxson to speak up for him.

Jaxson chuckled the moment we heard the apartment door close. “I feel sorry for the man who ends up with Miss Sassy Pants.”

“Maybe if you guys stopped coddling her,” I teased them halfheartedly. “Megan and I are the only ones who try to put her in her place, and you guys let her get away with murder.”

“There’s no way I could ever be harsh with her,” Remy said candidly.

“She does know how to bat those pretty blue eyes,” Noah admitted ruefully.

“Her future connection is going to have enough trouble going through all of us without us spoiling her like…” Jace stated with a wry twist of his lips.

“Jemmy,” Drake said bluntly.

Jaxson groaned. “One Jemmy is enough.”

We went back into my room to wait for the phone calls, and I tried to finish putting away my stuff. It was over a half an hour, and no one had called us back yet. The guys had brought in their own suitcases and clothes hampers so they could begin unpacking as well.

“Hi, honey I’m home!” Jemmy yelled as she came into the room with Sierra, Dawn, and Rachel closely behind her. She squealed as she saw the clothing. “For me? For me!”

“For everyone,” I stated with a feigned smile.

“Look through the stuff over there,” Jaxson insisted. “We still need to get hangers for the outfits on the bed.”

“We?” Jemmy asked with a raised brow. “She has tons. She won’t miss a few pieces.” Jemmy rolled her eyes.

“Let’s just peruse through these,” Rachel insisted. “There’s a lot over here without us looking through that,” Rachel said with a tinge of exasperation. From Rachel’s tone of voice, Jemmy was still on this downward spiral of…willfulness.

“I really don’t think most of this will fit me.” Sierra grimaced as she held up a cute little top. Sierra was a beautiful girl and admittedly was curvier than us. She was just as active as us and was a great runner, but being tiny wasn’t in her genes. As the guys would say; she had a booty and a rack, and both weren’t going anywhere.