Goddess Read online

  “Callie?” Zoe perched on a stool beside me.

  I huffed. “Is steam coming from my ears? Because I feel like steam should be coming from my ears.”

  She looked at both my ears. “No.”

  Mason filled the last coffee mug and took a seat beside Zoe. “Something on your mind, Zoe?”

  “Nym.”

  I’d planned to find Liam and figure out what he was hiding, but the name fastened me in place. “Go on.”

  “Who’s Nym?” Mason leaned an elbow on the island. “Is she the one chasing your cowboy?”

  Zoe flicked crumbs from the island with long orange fingernails. “I don’t know about that, but after you left Monday, I rehashed her visit with some of the other girls. They thought she seemed off.”

  “What else.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I didn’t call at first because my pride stopped me from admitting I’d missed something. I mean, I was the one who showed her around and I didn’t pick up on anything. I put off calling a while longer while you dealt with your dad’s accident. When I saw you today, I realized I was making excuses.”

  My knee bounced as her nerves activated mine. “Define ‘off.’”

  “Lisle, she’s our girl with the long white-and-orange hair. She worries about me. When I started the tour, Lisle followed us through the house. She said the girl gave off an angry vibe. She said Nym’s not right.”

  “Yes.” I smacked the table. “She’s definitely not right. She’s hostile, but she acts calm, and she always looks like she just stole your wallet. The guys at school fall all over her, and she’s gorgeous, so I assumed she was a nymph, but it’s something else.”

  Zoe’s mouth fell open. “You thought she was one of us?”

  “Don’t be mad. I’m new at this. You’re all kill-me-pretty. I assumed she came into town to meet up with you until you said you didn’t know her.”

  Zoe paled. “There’s something else. The girls and I talked about it a long while. We don’t know what she is, but she’s not one of us. We all agree she’s not what she seems. Maybe she blinded me with some kind of magic during the tour. I’m still trying to figure out how I missed it.”

  Mason moved empty pans and bowls to the sink. “I like to work while I think.”

  “Any ideas?” I asked.

  “Not really.” He snapped on a pair of rubber gloves and squirted dish soap into the filling sink. “If we knew what she was up to, it’d help me narrow down who she is or who she’s working for.”

  “Any chance she’s a giant?” I crossed mental fingers. My guys could definitely take on Nym.

  He chuckled. “None, whatsoever. Though that’d be a tough battle, executing dozens of pretty girls instead of angry giants. Who could cut her head off and live with themselves?”

  Me, probably. I shook that thought away. “Is anyone else after us right now? Could Nym be a Stian spy?”

  Or worse. The hair on my neck and arms stood at attention.

  “Can Gaia come in disguise?”

  Chapter 9

  I had the morning shift with Allison at Roll With It. She pinned twinkle lights to the countertops and pickup window while dishing the dirty details of her date with Oliver. She was an oversharer. No wonder he’d walked into the Hale kitchen whistling.

  I kept the front door in my sights and stopped breathing whenever anyone we didn’t know passed by or walked inside. So far, we’d sold a lot of coffee and nothing else.

  “You’re blushing.” She moved a step stool to the window and dug another line of lights from the dilapidated box on Buddy’s little red wagon.

  I covered my ears. “It’s called TMI. Ever heard of it? Now I have to scrub my brain out.”

  She plugged the tangled lights into the wall before attempting to unravel them. We’d learned that trick the hard way. “I don’t see the big deal. These are things I’d want to know and it’s not like you haven’t done it before.”

  I hadn’t. Not what she’d described. “I’m a private person.”

  She puffed air into long, sideswept bangs and jiggled the lights. “No kidding. You don’t tell me anything anymore. Not since that night.” Her hands stilled. “We don’t talk anymore.”

  “We talk all the time.”

  “I talk. You listen. I have no idea what’s going on in your life. You barely told me your dad was in a deadly car crash.”

  I dragged the toe of one boot along a crack in the white tile flooring. “It wasn’t a deadly car crash.”

  She yanked on the knotted Christmas lights. “Did someone die in the crash?”

  What could I say? She was right, but half my life was off-limits to her. The regular stuff was depressing, and the exciting stuff would get her killed. Again. Plus, the massive guilt nearly suffocated me anytime I thought of how we’d stolen her memory. It was like an asthma attack. Basically, I’d broken our friendship when I saved her life.

  “I didn’t know you felt that way.” Tears of frustration pricked my eyes. “I didn’t mean to act differently. I wanted to give you space after your surgery. I didn’t know what else to do.” The last statement was true, but not in the way she imagined.

  I wrapped my arms around her. “I’m sorry.”

  Allison patted my back. “Jeez. Don’t cry. I wasn’t trying to be an asshole.”

  I sniffed out a laugh and rolled my head against her shoulder. “Not to be a complete jerk, but this was hard for me too. I lost you. I’ve never been so scared. I honestly don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here.”

  She pulled a pile of tissues from the dispenser and shoved them at me. “Well, I’m here now, so take advantage. Can we please get back to where we were before all this?” She waved her hand overhead, indicating the diner. The place where we’d told her she’d been robbed and stabbed in the dumbest robbery ever. No one had remembered to remove the cash from the register before calling 9-1-1.

  “Yes. Wait. Can I ask you something?”

  She stepped away, busying herself with the decorations box. “What?”

  “Is it hard to be here? I don’t know if I could come back.”

  Allison stared at the register. Her gaze swept to the counter where she’d hit her head and to the floor where she’d fallen. Did she remember hitting her head? What had Liam told me about triggers and memories? She touched the back of her head with her fingertips. “Sometimes I think I remember what happened.” She turned desperate blue eyes on me. Her voice fell to a whisper. “Sometimes when I’m here, I think I’ll remember. I want to. So I try. I come here on my days off and flick through my memories of that night. I look around and inhale all the cheesy, doughy smells, and I watch people on the sidewalks, hoping something will bring back the part of my life that was stolen.”

  “Stolen?”

  She shrugged. “Forgotten. Doesn’t matter. It’s gone. Probably the most important memory of my life and it’s just…” She wiggled her fingers in the air like a magician performing a vanishing act. “Poof. I think if I could remember, it’d help me move on. Meanwhile, it’s all I can think about when I’m not with Oliver.”

  The tension in my shoulders pulled them toward my ears. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “What’s to talk about? Your guess is probably better than mine.”

  I exhaled to clear my head and pressed the tissues to my eyes. “How about Oliver? You like to talk about him.”

  Her mood improved instantly. We spent the next hour dissecting every text Oliver had ever sent her and then analyzed her responses. He was in full flirt mode, and she was in heaven.

  “It’s like I’ve known him forever, you know? Like we picked up in the middle of something grand. I can’t believe he’s only a junior.”

  “It is hard to believe.” I straightened the condiments at the coffee bar, keeping watch on passersby.

  Allison climbed the stool, freshly untangled lights trailing behind her. “How about you and Liam?
You don’t talk about him much.”

  “Liam’s good. It’s not him. I’m distracted. I’m freaking about college. Asking Dad for money is officially out of the question. I thought I could do it, but I can’t. Especially now. I can’t sleep. My grades are falling, and I think a swim scholarship is out too.”

  “Okay. Wow.” She arranged the lights in a giant rectangle around the window. “I guess I’m guilty, too. I should’ve known those things. I’m a sucky friend. Hey, what if I come with you to your morning practices and time your swims? Would that help?”

  “I practice at five. The roosters are still in bed.”

  She climbed off the stool and plugged in the twinkle lights. Rainbows reflected on the glass as the lights danced to an unheard melody. “The music won’t turn on.”

  “It’s perfect. Unless you have a can of fake snow in that wagon.”

  “I do!” Allison retrieved two cans of spray snow and shook them, one in each hand. “What should I write?”

  “Merry Christmas?”

  She scoffed. “Not everyone in town celebrates Christmas.”

  “How about filling in the bottom corners like snow piled there?”

  “Oh! How about a snowman?”

  I laughed. “I thought you wanted to write something?”

  “You said fill in the corners. What kind of writing is that?”

  I gave up on the condiments and went to stand at her side, staring through the window.

  Justin’s Jeep pulled up across the street. He climbed out and crossed without taking his eyes off his phone.

  “Dangerous.” I shook my head. “Knucklehead.”

  Allison opened the door for him. “Good morning, cowboy.”

  He tipped his hat and slipped past her to the counter.

  We gathered behind the register, smiling wildly at him.

  “What can we get you, sir?” I asked.

  Allison used her perky voice. “Can we interest you in a gourmet coffee concoction of our choice? You’ll get a Roll With It.”

  He snorted and shoved his phone into his back pocket. “You guys are scary when you do that.”

  “Thanks.” We answered in unison and broke into laughter. Weeks of stress cracked away for no good reason.

  “I’m picturing Tweedledee and Tweedledum from Alice in Wonderland.” His words came out on choked laughter. “You’re pretty darn close.”

  “Hey!” Allison made a series of insane faces. Laughing with her was perfect. A moment I wished I could save in a bottle for the times I needed it most.

  I joined in on the faces until Justin laughed with us.

  He lifted a hand. “Can I please get a quart of chicken noodle soup and a bag of rolls before you two finish going crazy?”

  “Boring.” Allison dragged the word out a few syllables. “Do you want it for here or to go?”

  Justin’s face twisted. “To go. Obviously. Do you think I’m eating a quart of soup and a bag of rolls?”

  She blushed. “Oh.”

  “I’ll get the soup.” I freed a container from the stack and lifted the lid off my favorite soup tureen.

  I filled the container and secured a lid. Closing the tureen was harder. I kind of wanted to climb inside. “One chicken soup to go.” I set the container on the counter.

  Justin’s good mood had vanished. He looked like someone stole his horse.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Can we talk?”

  Allison puckered her lips and baby-stepped away. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”

  I waited for her to disappear around the corner. “Sure. What’s up?”

  Justin pulled his hat off with one hand and dragged his fingers through messy hair. “I think we need a break.”

  The sincerity and turmoil in his deep blue eyes sent shockwaves through my chest. “What?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re with Liam, and I respect that.”

  “But.”

  He locked and released his jaw. “But, I need time to get okay with it. I thought I could be happy for you, and I will be, but right now it hurts. Man, I wish there was a less douchy way to say that.”

  “Justin.” I rounded the counter to his side and wrapped my arms around him. Heat spread over me as our bodies aligned, but he didn’t hug me back. I pressed my cheek to his cold canvas barn jacket.

  He stepped away. “I’ve been your best friend for a long time, and we both know I’m a badass, but this is killing me. I need some time to get right with your decision. I can’t support you if I’m mad at you and lately, I’m kind of pissed off.”

  I crossed both arms over my chest, where a chill settled in his absence. “Why?”

  He slapped his hat back on. “I feel like you betrayed me. I know that’s not how it went down, but that’s how it feels. You chose him, Callie. I’ve got to be okay with that, but it isn’t easy. Tell me, though. We had something, didn’t we?” He shifted his weight, foot to foot, unable to be still. “Am I completely losing my mind, or weren’t we building this into something bigger?” He shoved both hands into his front pockets and rolled his shoulders forward. “I felt it. We changed this summer, and you were into me. For the first time in ten years, you saw me the way I saw you, and we were going to be earth shattering. Then, the Hales rolled into town and you ran straight into trouble.”

  His voice moved from desperate to frustrated. “I tried to warn you about him. I showed you the articles about his family, all the drama chasing them across the globe. You didn’t care. It’s like he put you in some kind of trance, and it’s making me crazy. You’re the one who’s supposed to see through people’s shit, but with him…” He groaned and rubbed his face hard. “This wasn’t supposed to go like this.” He dropped his hands to his sides and turned in a pointless circle. “I’m not myself.”

  I touched his arm. “Maybe we can talk later, when you’re feeling better.”

  Worry seized my heart. He’d said the same thing at lunch the day Nym arrived and again at Ginger’s memorial. He wasn’t feeling like himself. He was angry. He covered my hand with his, pressing it to his arm. “I’m not pushing you away in a bad way, and if you need anything at all, I’m here. Always. But, give me a few days. It’s not fair for me to hang around pretending I’m okay when I’m not. We’ve always been honest with each other and this is me trying to keep my end of the promise.”

  Honesty. I owed him so much truth. Maybe Liam was right. Maybe I should tell Justin everything. Words clogged my throat, refusing to present themselves.

  First, I needed to know why his emotions were all over the place lately. Was I looking for reasons to distrust Nym, or was I right? She was the common denominator in Justin’s sudden and random instability.

  He leaned forward to kiss my head but pulled back. “See ya. Tell Allison she’s a princess who throws like a girl.”

  He left a twenty on the counter and scooped up his order.

  “Did he say I throw like a girl? I ought to kick his ass.” Allison’s head popped up behind the pickup window where, apparently, she’d been spying. She came around the corner, tapping on her phone. “I’m telling him he couldn’t stay on a carousel pony.”

  I walked to the door, contemplating a run for his truck, but what could I say? Even with a broken, confused heart, he was a gentleman. The Jeep made a U-turn and passed the window at a respectable speed. Nym sat in the passenger seat. Gloating. She lifted dark sunglasses over her eyes as they passed, and I wanted to smash her face in. Her presence wasn’t a coincidence.

  Allison laughed at her phone. “He says he foresees a new boyfriend in my future. I’ll meet him in one minute. What a dork.”

  The front door opened and Kirk walked inside with the worst acne I’d seen this side of special effects.

  “Asshat.” Allison dropped her phone into her apron. “I’m going to get him for that.”

  Kirk sauntered to the counter like the idiot he was. “Saw your boy Justin out
side.”

  “We heard.” I split my thoughts, partially analyzing what Nym was doing with Justin before eleven on a Saturday and partially wondering if he’d ever forgive me for choosing Liam.

  “You think they’re humping? Lucky dick. I’d go a round of antibiotics for her.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and first finger. “Gross.”

  Allison leaned on the counter, irritated. “Why the meds? Have you heard something?”

  “No. I’m just saying. She’d be worth the risk.”

  Allison tipped her head and mocked a dreamy face. “That’s so sweet.”

  He rocked on his bright red high-tops. “I try.”

  “What’s wrong with your face?”

  Kirk’s cheeks darkened. “Allergic reaction.”

  Allergic reaction? I lifted my eyes to the window. Could Nym be behind that too? She’d promised to make him scream. If my face looked like that, I’d scream. The marks were worse than acne and probably painful.

  “Allergic reaction to what?” Allison asked.

  He grabbed his crotch. “Your mom.”

  Oh my gods. I needed to think, but Kirk sucked my patience and my brain cells. “What can we get you, Kirk?”

  “Give me a Buddy’s Big Boy with everything and baked potato soup to go.”

  I patted the counter. Praise the Lord for to go orders. “I’m on it.”

  Allison headed for the kitchen. “I’ll make the sandwich. Mason’s gone AWOL again.”

  I went for the soup. “He had to check on something at home. He said he’d be right back. I told him we could handle it.”

  Kirk barked a laugh. “That’s what she said.”

  I set the soup in front of him and called to Allison. “How long on the sandwich?”

  “Give me a minute while I lick it for him.”

  “That’s what she said.” He roared with self-entertainment.

  I counted to ten silently.

  He leaned over the counter and into my personal space. “You’re imagining it, aren’t you?”