Freeks(69)
I wanted to heed her advice, but I had no idea if that would be possible if I planned to continue seeing Gabe. And at the moment, I did really want to keep seeing him. The whole time I was working, I found it difficult to keep on task because I kept looking over at him.
Sometimes I’d catch him looking back at me. It was always right after I’d looked over, like he knew it somehow, and his eyes would catch mine, and he’d give me a sly smile, like he was privy to a joke that only the two of us shared.
After the last show of the night, Gabe came over and helped me close up the museum. The carnival had been busy, but it had been a quiet night. Uneventful, really, and that was nice after the last few days I’d had.
“Thanks for all your help tonight,” I told Gabe as we walked back to the campsite from the carnival.
“No problem.” He grinned down at me. “It was fun.”
His hand slipped into mine, a simple gesture that felt so strangely normal and natural, like we were just a regular couple. It was a fantasy I let myself believe, falling into a comfortable silence as I imagined what my life would be like if we were just two ordinary teenagers. Date nights of movies and pizza. Promises of the future. Stolen kisses in the backseats of cars.
As Gideon said in the opening of his act, there is always something extraordinary in the ordinary.
With the campsite half deserted and everyone exhausted from doing double-duty, it was exceptionally quiet as we walked up to my trailer. I turned to face Gabe, preparing to say good night, since I had another long day ahead of me tomorrow, but the screen door to the Winnebago swung open behind me.
“Mara?” Mom asked, looking down at me with bleary eyes. Her dark tangles of hair fell free over her shoulders, and she pulled a violet shawl around her, despite the heat. The scent of incense and cloves—an added effect for her readings—hung on her like a cloud. “Good. You’re safe and you’re sound.”
“Are you okay?” I asked as she stumbled down the rusted steps as she came outside. I reached out, grabbing her arm to steady her. “Where are you going?”
“I am fine, fine, fine.” Mom waved me off, then she leaned and kissed me brusquely on the temple. “The night has been too long, and I’m staying at Gideon’s so I don’t take it out on you. I love you.”
Rather abruptly, her haze seemed to vanish, and her gray eyes widened and flashed with intensity. She gripped my arms so tightly, I knew her fingers would leave red marks on my flesh. “Stay inside, qamari. Promise me you’ll stay inside tonight.”
“Sure, Mom.” I nodded. “I promise.”
Then her eyes locked onto Gabe. “You will protect her?” Her eyes narrowed, and Gabe stood unwavering under the force of her gaze. “There is a darkness within you, but there is strength, and there is goodness too. So you will protect her.”
“Mom.” I tried to keep my voice light and playful. “I don’t need any protection.”
“I won’t let anything bad happen to Mara as long as I’m around,” he told my mom firmly, ignoring my embarrassed protests.
“That’s all I can ask.” Mom seemed to relax then and finally let go of my arms. She touched my face gently and gave me a pained smile before telling me to be good, and then she rushed away, her shawl flowing behind her like a cape.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said softly, watching my mother retreat into the sanctuary of Gideon’s trailer, where he could soothe her pain and quiet the demons that tormented her. “She’s a good mom, and she means well. She just has … spells.”
That was the easiest way I could think to describe the episodes my mom experienced when the spirits had become too much for her and drained all her energy. And telling Gabe all about how my mom was a necromancer that conversed with the dead would break the illusion of normalcy I was fighting for.
“She loves you a lot,” Gabe commented, but his voice sounded detached, and I looked up at his face and I could see that my mom had rattled him. Under the waning moon, his eyes were dark, and he took an uneasy breath.
“She does,” I agreed, then decided to change the subject by motioning to the trailer behind me. “I have the place all to myself if you want to come in for a while.”
With some effort, Gabe shook his head and cast off his distress, so when he looked down at me, his easy smile returned. “I did promise your mom that I would keep you safe, so as your official bodyguard, it is my duty to stay by your side all night long.”
I laughed, but I took his hand again and led him inside my home.
42. the lovers
“Have you always lived in this trailer?” Gabe asked.
“No, we’ve had this Winnebago for five years.” I had my back to him as I adjusted the radio until I landed on Tears for Fears singing about being head over heels, and I turned back to face him.
He leaned back against the cracked counter with his arms out beside him, causing his white T-shirt to pull taut against his chest and biceps. He was looking around, appraising my home without any of the judgment or contempt I’d been afraid of.
Instead, there was this odd fascination playing in the burnt honey of his eyes. His hair had wilted from being under the top hat, so a few dark golden strands fell across his forehead, and I couldn’t think of a time when I’d ever seen anyone sexier.