How the hell was I going to do that?
She seemed to read my mind. “I can help you,” Cara said. “But you’ve had enough for one day.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as I brushed myself off. I’d started the day as an amnesiac nobody. Now, I might be a teenage princess.
Gave a gal lots to think about.
33
Matt
We dragged our feet over suppertime. Anna’s thoughts were so chaotic that even though I was in her head, I couldn’t follow them.
Finally, I’d had stonkin’ enough of sitting on my non-hairy butt. “Let’s go to the beach,” I suggested.
“That would be nice,” Mari said. “The sun will be setting soon.”
Anna didn’t respond, but she rose with us. I draped an arm over her shoulders as we descended the stairs and headed out.
Mari dropped to the sand and folded her legs in an arrangement that would have popped my bloody hips out of joint. She stared out to where the sun had vanished behind the distant mountains, leaving the sky streaked with crimson and indigo.
I picked up stones and skipped them across the water while Anna sat on the beach and scuffed at the sand with her feet. When Trix started chasing the stones, I switched to sticks.
Remember the fish.Even Anna’s mindvoice sounded distracted, with undercurrents going in a million directions.
I diverted the stick throwing to the shallows.Tell Mari, Angel,I pushed. She needed to, in order to help put it into context in her head.
Where do I even begin?It was the mental equivalent of a wail.
Start with the dress. I liked that dress.
She snorted, and began with her dream of the Satyr princess. As it all spilled out, the ogress’s orange eyes widened. At the end of it, she inhaled and said, “I’m friends with royalty?”
It was so close to my reaction—minus the screwing part—that Anna and I both laughed.
“So she doesn’t know who your father is?” the ogress asked.
I answered before Anna could. “I think she knows. But being Cara, she won’t say until she confirms it.”
“Yeah. That was the feeling I got too,” Anna admitted, kicking again at the sand.
Mari had a settling effect on everything around her, and Anna’s thoughts had slowed a little. But all I could think of was her reflection in the mirror—of the shimmer of skin beneath that sheer dress.
That dress had given me ideas. Not that I needed it to give me ideas.
Still restless, Angel?I asked her.
Just a lot on my mind.
Let’s run.
She glanced at me.Haven’t you had enough running for today?
I sent her a surge of what I held deep down inside. I had to admit that running had very little to do with any of it.I have something to show you.
Her face flushed beet red. But she rose and turned to Mari, “I think Matt and I are going for a run. Can Trix sit with you?”
Mari reached out to pet the dog’s rather damp head. “No problem. She’s a good meditation companion. You guys, on the other hand, are stonking distracting.”
