One Black Rose Read online

  Chapter Sixteen

  When I got home Nick and Carley weren't there, so I went straight up to my room and showered. I wanted to get the feel of Leslie's nearness off my skin. Once I felt like I'd scrubbed enough, I got out of the shower and put on cotton comfy pants and a baggy t-shirt. The strain of the afternoon had made me tired, and it was all I could do to climb into bed and nap.

  I managed about an hour of sleep before my stomach woke me up, protesting the fact that it was empty. I groggily pulled myself out of bed, feeling a bit disoriented. Before I went downstairs I changed into jean shorts and a hoodie and checked my phone, but there were no messages.

  Looked like a quiet night at home. I figured I might not see Holt that night after all.

  Downstairs everything was dark. I flicked on a light and grabbed the cereal. It wasn't much for dinner, but I didn't feel like making anything else. Then I sat at the table staring at my phone. I hadn't heard from Holt all day, the first time since I'd come to Castleton that I hadn't heard from him by that time of day (well, when we were speaking, anyway).

  As I ate my cereal and stared at the phone, it finally lit up. In the split second before the caller ID told me who it was I wondered: was he calling?

  No, it was my mother. With a sigh, I picked up.

  "Hi, Mom," I mumbled through a mouthful of Cheerios.

  "Hi, honey," she said. I could barely hear, the line was so filled with static.

  "Mom, where are you?" I yelled into the phone.

  "Why are you yelling? I can hear you just fine," came her faint reply.

  I rolled my eyes.

  "How are you doing?" she asked. "I miss you."

  "I miss you, too," I said. "I'm doing fine. I'm having a good time with Carley. There's a really big party at the Roths' in a couple of days." She always complained that I never told her stuff, so I was trying to give her information about my life, like she wanted. Well, she was about to prove to me yet again why confiding in her was a mistake.

  "Yes, I've heard about it. That's actually why I'm calling," she said. Alarm bells going off!

  "How have you heard about it?" I asked, surprised.

  "Oh, you know, I do check up on you. I know you think I'm too busy to do it, but I do," she scoffed.

  I didn't think she was too busy. I just thought it didn't occur to her to see if I'd gotten into any trouble. She hadn't seemed too worried about what I had been doing.

  "Anyway," she pushed on, "a lady called me and talked to me about it and explained that it can be a pretty crazy party, so I wanted to talk to you and say that it's probably not the best idea if you go," she finished.

  "What? Mom, are you kidding me? Who called you?" I didn't like the idea that someone from here was calling my mom about me. Especially since Mom hadn't told anyone to check up on me. Maybe it was Mrs. Fritters? She had made it very clear that she wasn't fond of the Roths.

  "Who called isn't important," said my mom huffily. Now she was getting irritated because I was irritated.

  She had no right to be mad.

  "Yes, it is," I shot back at her.

  "No, it isn't. You will not go to the party. There's nothing else to discuss," she said. "Oh, my friends are here. I was planning to talk to Carley's mom about it, but I guess that will have to wait. I have to go. Have a great night, hon. I'll talk to you soon. Tata." And she hung up without even giving me a chance to say goodbye.

  She'd ended the conversation in an upbeat voice, as if nothing was wrong, and I was relieved that I didn't have to make up some lie about Carley's parents, but I was also sad. Apparently my mom still thought she could call me and order me around whenever she felt like it.

  Furious, I jumped to my feet. First Leslie had told me not to go to the Solstice Party, now my mom had told me the same thing, and heaven only knows how she found out about it in the first place. Well, I was going. I didn't care what any of them said.

  I was too full of nervous energy now to sit around watching TV. I needed to burn off this rush of adrenaline. Not knowing what else to do, I kept pacing around the kitchen.

  Involuntarily I glanced at my phone again and again, but of course no one had called. And by "no one," I mean Holt. I wanted to talk to him! But why did I have to wait for him to call? I could just as easily call him. Just because I'd never done it before didn't mean I couldn't. I could even just go over to his house. He'd shown up at Carley's a few days ago. I could return the favor.

  With my mind made up, I grabbed my phone and hurried to the front door. As soon as I'd made the decision to go I felt exhilarated, and I half ran, half skipped all the way there. It was just getting dark when I saw the house from a distance, and I was relieved to see lots of lights on. I rushed up the driveway, feeling happier with every step. It had been a long day, but the thought of seeing Holt lifted most of the fatigue off me and replaced the worry with nervous excitement.

  I couldn't see what the big deal was about my attending this party anyway. If everyone in town was going, and Holt's mother had invited me, there shouldn't be a problem. I knew the Cheshires didn't approve, but they weren't going to run my life. Maybe it was one of them who had called my mom. It didn't seem like the kind of thing Mrs. Cheshire would stoop to doing, but despite Samuel's best intentions of staying away from me no matter what, I had a bad feeling about his mother.

  I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. I was a little breathless, so while I waited I tried to calm down. It wasn't easy, but I had some time, because it felt like forever until the door was pulled open. At first I thought the guy standing in front of me was Holt, but it only took me a moment to realize that this guy was younger. He had the same blond hair and green eyes as Holt, but he couldn't have been more than sixteen.

  "Hey," he said. He was dressed simply in workout shorts and t-shirt.

  "Hey," I said.

  He waited. I waited. Finally he said, "Um, you came here, so . . ."

  "Oh yeah, I'm looking for Holt," I said. "I'm Autumn."

  Enlightenment dawned on his face like the rising sun. "Oh, of course! I hadn't heard you were coming tonight. Fantastic. That's awesome. I'm Logan, Holt's younger, more charming brother. Come in and I'll get him."

  He almost yanked me into the entryway. I was glad I'd been there before, because otherwise I would have been really intimidated.

  Logan didn't stand on ceremony. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Holt?" His voice was so loud it went ringing off the walls.

  After a pause he did it again, "Holllllttt?"

  I wanted to cover my ears, but then again I didn't want to look like it bothered me.

  "What's all this racket?" asked Casey, coming down the stairs. She was wearing white jeans and a pink tank top and she was patting her hair down with a green towel. "I could hear you all the way in the shower."

  "What's going on is that Logan has no manners," said Holt, coming out of the kitchen. When he saw me his face lit up, and I knew mine did the same.

  "Well, you had company," said Logan, not remotely sorry. "I didn't want to call you . . . any other way. Just in case."

  Holt nodded as if he understood, and I realized that Logan was talking about Fairy magic. Apparently there was a way he could have called his older brother using magic, but he hadn't because I was there. I felt a little disturbed that they would want to act differently around me than they would around each other, not to mention that there was lots of Fairy magic I knew nothing about. But I pushed the thought away; I was just happy to be there.

  "What's up?" asked Holt.

  "Just thought I'd stop by," I said casually.

  "Awesome," said Logan. "I was just about to convince Holt to go swimming down by the lake. Want to go?"

  "Logan," said Holt warningly, shooting his younger brother an aggravated look.

  "What?" asked Logan, already sprinting for the stairs.

  Actually, swimming might be nice, I thought. Get rid of some of this energy. "Yeah, great," I said.
br />   "See!" said Logan gleefully. "I'll get dressed." He raced away up the stairs, blowing past Casey as he went.

  "Casey," Logan yelled from somewhere up above, "tell those two to stop making googly eyes at each other."

  Casey rolled here eyes. Holt's face got red.

  "Well, I can't very well let you two take that poor girl alone," said Casey.

  "You're coming too? That's great!" I said, glad that another girl was going.

  "HA! Not a chance I'm going. I'll tell Susan she should change into her bathing suit and bring you something to wear." She disappeared back upstairs. Casey was nice, but prissier than I'd ever be.

  Now Holt and I were alone. Nervous, realizing that he might have been in the middle of something when I showed up, I scuffed my foot against the floor.

  "Are you okay?" Holt asked. He came close enough so that I could smell the scent of fresh mint on him, but not close enough to touch me. "I meant to text you, but then Logan showed up . . ." He trailed off without finishing the explanation.

  "I'm fine," I said, looking up at him. I thought he would instantly break eye contact, change the subject, talk about something else, but he didn't. He just kept looking at me.

  I started to feel something I'd never felt before. Maybe it was because of the crazy day, maybe it was because I finally knew how he felt, but I was definitely about to lose my head and reach up and kiss him. Right there, in his entryway.

  That was when Logan came bounding back down the stairs. Perfect timing. "Ready," he said.

  I looked down, embarrassed that Logan had almost caught me trying to kiss his older brother. It reminded me that I couldn't kiss him, and worse, I knew he couldn't kiss me, not until this whole Rose thing was straightened out with the Cheshires, anyway. I flushed right up to my hairline.

  I could see from the look on his face that Holt was thinking the same thing I was. His whole body looked strained and his jaw was clenched tightly shut.

  Logan, oblivious, continued to talk about swimming and the lake until Susan came down.

  Tonight she was in a bright floral dress. I could see the tie of her bathing suit sticking out at the back of her neck and she carried a stack of towels in both hands.

  "I knew the boys wouldn't get them," she said, handing me a towel and a swimsuit. "It's nice to see you again."

  "You too," I murmured. Off balance from the almost kiss, I was having a hard time concentrating on Susan.

  She took one look at my face, looked at Holt, and instantly called to Logan to walk with her. She steered the younger guy outside, leaving Holt and me to walk together. It would have been really dark outside if the moon hadn't been bright and full overhead. The air was cool, but more in a pleasant way than anything that would make me cold. It was a perfect night for swimming.

  I wanted to say something to Holt, but I had no idea what. I tried out a couple of things in my mind but they sounded completely stupid, so I kept my mouth shut.

  At one point Susan called back to us that we were heading for some friend's private beach. The road was surrounded by fields, and in the distance I could already see the water.

  Finally Holt said, "What did you do today?"

  Relieved to have something to talk about, I said, "Carley and I went shopping."

  From up ahead Susan called, "Best way to spend a day ever."

  "That's ridiculous," Logan added as he shifted the towel more comfortably over his shoulder.

  "What were you shopping for?" asked Holt.

  "Dresses," I mumbled.

  "Planning on going somewhere fancy?" he asked. I knew he was teasing me.

  I grinned at him. "Just your party."

  He smiled back. Susan turned around and walked backwards long enough to say, "YOU GOT A DRESS FOR THE SOLSTICE