"Yeah, Frannie!" he kept shouting. "Noc"s girl!"
G.o.ds!
"No," he said, again not to me, "I"m sayin" goodbye. You get on the phone with her, you"ll talk for a year."
"I will not." I heard a woman say. Then I heard, this time to me, "Well h.e.l.lo! Nice to meet you."
Oh...
b.a.l.l.s.
"I, um...well, right...h.e.l.lo to you too, Sue," I pushed out.
"What a wonderful surprise, you calling," she declared.
"Yes, well, erm..."
"I cannot tell you how delighted I was to hear Noc had finally found someone. But really mostly when we heard how very taken he is with you. Lud told me the way Noc speaks about you, we should be careful and not flip out when we watch you walk on water."
This surprised me (as well as parts of it thrilling me) because I couldn"t imagine in this world where magic was hidden that Noc would share I had it for I doubted it would be difficult to do just that.
Though why I"d ever wish to walk on water, I couldn"t fathom.
"That"s lovely, but could I speak with-?" I attempted to ask.
"We can"t wait to meet you."
"And I you," I hurried out but had no opportunity to say more.
"Wonderful," she declared. "Now, I must let you go because Lud is giving me the evil eye seeing as he doesn"t want to go to this lunch and I"m making him, so I best not chat with you for a year and prolong his torture. We"ll talk more later. Lud"s got your number in his phone now, I"ll call you."
By the G.o.ds.
What had I done?
"I"ll look forward to that," I (somewhat) lied.
"Lovely. And I can"t let you go without telling you that you have such a beautiful voice. I can"t wait to see pictures. Noc told his father you"re effin" gorgeous, though he used the actual F-word, to my everlasting distress. If you"re as pretty as your voice, you must be something. Tell Noc to send some photos, quick as he can."
I heard her pull in a deep breath but she did even that fast and I got out nary a sound before she carried on.
"Okay, must run. Again, so nice to meet you. Take care, Frannie."
"You do the same," I forced out, sounding strangled.
"Give that to me. No, give that to me. I wanna say "bye too." I heard in the background. Then in my ear came from Lud, "Take care of yourself, Frannie. And don"t worry about a thing, I got this. "Bye, honey."
When Noc said he "had" things, I"d learned he spoke truth.
I didn"t mean to cast aspersions on his father, but I had grave fears in this instance it was not the same.
Helpless to do anything but, I bid, "Goodbye, Lud."
He disconnected.
I stared at my crystal ball and watched the digits fade away until there was nothing but a lazy billow of smoke.
"Perhaps I don"t adore you," I snapped at it.
The lazy billow of smoke cleared and showed me a picture of Kristian and Brikitta sleeping, Frantz peacefully at rest in a cot by the side of their bed.
Blasted ball.
"All right, so I do adore you, I"m just annoyed at you."
The vision of my family wafted away.
I drew in breath and knew exactly what I had to do.
This I did without delay so I wouldn"t lose my nerve.
I phoned Noc.
For the first time I"d done this, he did not take my call.
It went to his voicemail.
Surprised and disturbed by this, I simply said after the tone, "Could you call me at your soonest convenience, darling?" and disconnected.
But I feared his not picking up was another part of his warning.
Or, worse, that he was right then speaking to his father.
However, even if it happened through my magic and not my machinations, I"d set something in motion and I needed to alert him to that.
Thus I found the maintenance man and allowed some time to pa.s.s while observing him before I called Noc again.
He again didn"t answer.
I did not leave a message. But I did struggle to keep the panic at bay while trying to decide whether or not to send a text.
I decided I should do all to be open about what had occurred so I sent a text.
It read: Darling, I"ve had a conversation I need to share with you. Please call me.
This went unanswered as well.
And hours later, when Noc should have picked me up from Valentine"s as he normally did when I was not already at his home after he was finished with work, he did not do that either.
Which meant I knew I should have heeded his warning.
A warning the love I felt for him dictated I could not heed.
And as I purloined the keys to Valentine"s car and went out to nick the actual vehicle, I knew I had to go to him immediately.
And face the consequences.
Noc"s Suburban at the curb in front of his house, it took me seven (yes, seven) tries to maneuver Valentine"s car in a spot two houses up from his, the only spot open on his street.
In the end, my parking efforts weren"t exactly perfect. The back wheel was up on the pavement when I decided the deed was well and truly done. I left it at that, simply relieved I"d made it there in one piece, and doing my best to ignore my dread, I got out of the car and walked to Noc"s home.
The door was barred against me, however I didn"t knock.
I also didn"t bother to dig out my key.
Magically, I turned the lock.
And then I walked in.
I saw immediately Noc leaning against the side of his island, an open bottle of whiskey on the counter, his fingers wrapped around a gla.s.s.
Oddly, he appeared to be waiting for me.
I drew in breath and made him wait no longer.
Tossing my bag to the couch as I pa.s.sed, I approached him.
When I made the very edge of the kitchen area, I stopped because he spoke.
"How"d you get here?"
"I helped myself to Valentine"s car," I shared carefully.
This, I found instantly, was not careful enough for his face grew tight.
"You drove yourself?" he asked.
"I did, my love," I answered.
"Thought you"d spirit yourself," he remarked in a manner I could tell was deceptively casually.
"As you know, I"ve not learned how to do that," I reminded him.
"You haven"t learned how to drive a car by yourself but you did that," he pointed out.
"I-"
"You"re here safe now, but swear to f.u.c.k, Franka, you do that again, s.h.i.t will happen."
I knew immediately whatever "s.h.i.t" he was referring to I did not want to happen.
I allowed that to pa.s.s and tried to begin again.
"Noc, we need-"
He pushed from the island but moved no further as he interrupted, "For a woman who"s made an art of being attuned to every nuance of someone she"s meaning to play, seems you"re not cluing in real well on how to play me."
I suffered that blow and forced my voice to conciliatory when I replied, "You must know I have no wish to play you, Noc."
"No? So you called my dad just to say hi?"
"I didn"t mean-" I began to explain.
But Noc wanted different explanations.
"What"d you do, babe? Sneak out of our bed when I was sleeping and copy his digits from my phone?"
"Of course not," I whispered.
"Magic," he stated.
I didn"t confirm.
Instead I again attempted to explain.
"It wasn"t my intention-"
"Right. Let"s be clear about that. I don"t give a f.u.c.k what your intention was. You weren"t gettin" what you wanted so you called my f.u.c.kin" dad. A man you have not met. A man you don"t f.u.c.kin" know. A man you got no business talkin" to until the time I thought it was right to give him to you. That was not cool and I"m thinkin" I don"t gotta tell you that. I"m thinkin" that"s the same in your world or mine. So I"m thinkin" you f.u.c.kin" know it."
I tried to take the situation in hand.
"There are a variety of things we need to discuss, darling."
"No there aren"t and think I made that clear already."
I took a step toward him and the pain slashed deep when his expression shared unmistakably an approach was far from welcome.
Therefore I stopped.
But I didn"t stop myself from speaking.
"Valentine warned me that I needed to control my emotion in regard to my magic," I shared. "And what"s been going on between us was weighing heavily on my mind. So as I sat beside my crystal ball, fretting over this, your father"s number appeared in it. I didn"t ask for it to appear. It just appeared. And I swear to you that"s the truth."
"So you called it."
"I called it not knowing who I was calling."