Page 28 of It’s You

“Hey. So, yeah, Will. Like you thought. You had a clogged…thing.”

“A clogged thing ?” Darcy raised an eyebrow.

“You know…drain.”

Darcy looked back and forth between her best friend and her brother. She was about to make another comment when Amory took his coat off the back of a kitchen chair and struggled into it.

“Thanks, Brat,” said Willow softly, looking down.

Amory stared at her for a second longer than necessary before saluting her awkwardly and heading out the back door.

“See ya, Darce.”

The door slammed shut behind him.

“Let me write you a script,” offered Willow quickly, opening the drawer where she kept an extra prescription pad.

Darcy looked back and forth between Willow, who was concentrating a little too deeply on writing out a generic script, and the back door where Amory had just departed. Hmm. The air buzzed and crackled with leftover energy. Something had happened, or almost happened.

“You have lunch yet, Will?”

“Hmm?” Willow looked up. “Nope. Got up late. Tried to take a shower, but it backed up, so I called Amory.”

“I see.”

Willow watched her intently, and Darcy sensed they were in the middle of a standoff. “Well, why don’t we each grab a shower, assuming mine is working, and go over to the Live Free or Die for a late lunch?”

Willow smiled, ripping off the prescription and shoving it into Darcy’s hand before hurrying out of the kitchen. “Sounds good to me!”

Willow wasn’t offering any details about Amory’s sudden plumbing assistance, but she sure wanted every detail about Darcy’s weekend with Jack.

“Five times? FIVE TIMES?” Willow stared at Darcy from across the table.

“You sound like the guy in Ferris Bueller ,” Darcy answered, feeling her face flush hot, not that anyone could tell under her no-sun-sunburn.

“That was nine.” Willow’s eyes were about to pop out of her head, they were so wide. “How did that happen ?”

“It just…happened.”

Darcy looked at the menu again. She looked at her watch. Time was crawling. It was only one o’clock, and she missed him. How was she going to make it to Thursday?

“Somewhere you need to be?” Willow flicked her glance to Darcy’s watch.

“No. I just…I miss him.” She shrugged sheepishly.

“Oh. You’ve got it bad.”

Darcy leaned across the table suddenly and spoke in an urgent whisper. “Will, would it be crazy if I loved him?”

Willow had leaned forward when Darcy did, but now she leaned back, staring at her.

“You’ve known him, what? A week?”

“He thinks we’re bound.”

“He thinks you’re what?”

“Bound. It’s a Métis thing.”

“Not that I know of.”

The waitress came over to take their orders. Darcy ordered a cheeseburger and fries, and Willow, who was a loose vegetarian, ordered a grilled cheese with tomato.

“Well, he explained it to me. Apparently, it started as a legend, but he definitely believes in it. A man will find the woman he’s supposed to be with the summer before his eighteenth birthday. If he’s supposed to be bound to her, he’ll kiss her, and that’ll tell him.”

“Tell him what?”

“If she’s the one. But he wasn’t supposed to be bound to me. He should have been bound to a Métis woman. Not me. He said that there was no precedent for being bound to me. He, like, presented it to the pack elders or something.”

“Pack? Do you mean tribal?”

“Yeah. Yeah, he said tribal. After we kissed, he went to see them at the Bloodlands and?—”

“Bloodlands? He used that word?”

Darcy nodded. “Somewhere north of Quebec. He was born there.”

“Okay. Go ahead.”

“And they said that he was wrong. They insisted he hadn’t been bound to me, and that he needed to stay away from me, and he’d get over it. But he didn’t. And so he finally decided to come back.” Darcy took a deep breath and sighed.

“He told you all of this?”

Darcy nodded.

“I’ve never heard of this. Seriously. Nothing. Nada. Never.” Willow looked concerned. “That said, he’s full Métis, and I’m only a quarter. I’ve never heard of binding or Bloodlands, but you better believe I’m going to ask my Nohkom about all of this. She’s just as much Métis as Jack.”

“There’s more,” said Darcy. “More that comes with the binding.”

“Tell me.”

“We eyespeak.”

“You what?”

“Eyespeak. If my eyes hold his, I can hear his thoughts and vice versa.”

“Jesus. I’ve never heard of that either. What else?”

“The soul flight…going inside? That’s him. It’s related to all of this.”

“Anything else?”

“His body temperature’s higher than mine, I think.”

“Anything else?”

“No.” She decided not to tell Willow anymore. “The way I’m telling you is making it all sound crazy, but it’s not, Will. It’s real. The binding. I…I can’t explain it. But it’s real, I think. I mean, I think we belong to each other.”

Willow stared back at her. Finally, she ran a hand through her short black hair. “Okay. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you kissed Jack Beauloup once when you were fifteen years old and somehow became bound to him. Where’s he been?”

“Advised to forget me. Tried to forget me. Couldn’t forget me. Returned.” Control.

“Listen, you know that I firmly believe that not everything can be seen and not everything can be explained. I’m just—I’ve never heard of any of this. Let me talk to my Nohkom , huh? Ask her about it? See if any of it rings a bell?”

“Sure,” said Darcy, putting her napkin in her lap as their food arrived. Part of her wished she hadn’t said anything. Being with Jack was like being in a bubble, and sharing it all with Willow somehow felt like she wasn’t protecting them.

“Hey.”

Darcy looked up, a fry halfway to her mouth.

“To answer your question? Would it be crazy if you loved him?” Willow smiled gently, shaking her head.

“It wouldn’t be crazy. I think maybe you’ve been waiting for him to come back for twenty years.

That’s a long time to wait for someone. Why shouldn’t that be enough to grow love?

Seems like it grows on much rockier places than that. ”

“What’s the deal with Amory?” she segued bluntly, without preamble.

Willow choked on a bite of her sandwich and coughed, putting her glass to her lips for a long sip of water.

“What do you mean?”

“He unclogged the thing ?” She gave Willow a look that said she wasn’t buying it.

“The shower was clogged. Other than that, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Willow pursed her lips, taking another bite of her sandwich and looking out the window.

Darcy reached across the table and placed her fingers on her friend’s arm. “ Attends-moi , Will. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Willow jerked her head up to meet Darcy’s eyes, working her jaw, her skin flushing uncharacteristically with color. Her almost-black eyes flashed with anger and confusion and…fear? Yes, fear too, in fearless Willow’s dark eyes. Then suddenly, to Darcy’s horror, they brightened with tears.

Finally, she whispered, “ Je suis perdu .”

I am lost.

And then, “He’s too young for me. In a million ways.”

“Like that matters.”

“It does matter,” Willow insisted. “He’s in his mid-twenties. He’s never left Carlisle. I’m in my mid-thirties. I’ve slept with half of Boston. He’s a contractor. I’m a doctor. He’s your brother. I’d have no leeway. I couldn’t make a mistake. I?—”

“Do you love him?”

Willow swiped at her eyes before taking a deep breath and looking back out the window. “He kissed me.”

“Today?”

Willow nodded.

“Damn, I knew it! I could feel it. It felt so weird when I got home. How was it?”

“Amazing,” she breathed.

“And then what?”

“His sister came home.”

“No! No! Oh, Will. I interrupted you two? Oh no!”

“No, it’s good. It’s for the best. He’s with Faith. He should be with Faith.”

She covered her half-eaten sandwich with her napkin and took another sip of water, turning her glance back to the window.

Her voice didn’t change as she spoke in a dispassionate whisper, more to herself than to Darcy.

“I’m not right for Amory. He’s open and smiling and light and faith.

And I’m battered and used and cynical and gray.

He deserves more than me. Don’t you see?

He shouldn’t love me, and I shouldn’t love him. ”

“Who are you trying to convince?”

“Me,” she answered simply.

“But, Will…” Darcy sighed, offering her friend a sympathetic smile. “ Il est déjà tard .”

It’s already too late.

Willow turned her face back to Darcy and nodded, and somewhere in those dark eyes Darcy could see the surrender, and she knew she was right even before Willow admitted it.

“Damn it, Darcy.” She cursed softly. “I know.”