Page 18 of Lumi

I locked them and put the key on the bedside table.

For a moment, we lay on our backs with our linked arms lifted on the pillow between us.

“How do you usually sleep?” I asked.

“On my side, but I’m so tired I could sleep standing up.”

I had planned to catch up on some work emails, but Damian’s closeness distracted me and made me think of situations from our past. I closed my eyes and let my memories transport me back to the time Damian had talked about earlier: the time he’d heard me sing.

August – Eleven Years Ago

The thunder had woken up River, who now lay curled up with her head in my lap while I sang to her. I’d been reading when she found me in the small library. On an average day, I wouldn’t be the first person River would run to when she had a nightmare, but Liv and Charles had taken off on a romantic getaway for a few days and had left Kit and Damian to babysit us. Not that I needed babysitting. I was seventeen after all, but we all loved having Damian and Kit around, so I hadn’t protested.

Kit was out tonight, doing surveillance for a client who suspected her husband was having an affair, and I hadn’t seen Damian or the boys since dinner.

Damian had cooked spaghetti and meat sauce per River’s request, and she had rewarded him by entertaining everyone with one of her improvised dances in the middle of the kitchen. I walked in right as Nathan and Maximum joined her and made us all laugh with their clumsy but enthusiastic imitation of River’s dancing. It got wilder, and then Nathan knocked over an open can of tomato sauce that sprayed all over Damian’s shirt.

Nathan apologized, but Damian just laughed about it and took off his shirt, assuring everyone that he was fine and that it was a hot summer day anyway.

I had seen Damian shirtless by the pool before, but eating dinner with him half-naked next to me made me nervous and warm all over, and when his elbow touched me a few times, it made jolts of electricity run up and down my spine. As soon as dinner was over, I hid away in the library with one of Liv’s steamy novels and pictured Damian as the hero in the book.

Now, four hours later, River’s breathing was calm as her head rested in my lap. I couldn’t see if her eyes were closed, but I guessed that she had fallen asleep again. My hands stroked my adopted sister’s blonde hair with soft movements as I continued singing the folk song that Altas’ mom Ciara used to sing while cooking.

“The wee birdies sing and the wild flow'rs spring

And in sunshine the waters are sleepin'

But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again

Tho' the waefu' may cease frae their greetin'.”

“You have a beautiful voice, lass.”

I lifted my head to see Damian standing in the doorway. My lips clammed up, and my cheeks felt warm

“Do ye know the sad story of that song?”

“No.” I followed Damian with my eyes when he came to squat in front of us and brushed River’s hair away from her face. He was wearing a blue sleeveless t-shirt, and his short hair looked tousled the way I loved it.

“That song is Scottish and goes back to the uprising of the Jacobite Highlanders in seventeen hundred and something. My grandma used to sing that song to me when I was little, and she explained that it’s about two soldiers who were captured by the English, who were notorious for picking a pair of brothers or best friends and letting them decide which one should go free and which one should die.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Aye. The song is a message from the soldier who’s about to be executed to his girlfriend, whom he’ll never meet again. He talks about takin’ the high road, which I suppose refers to the spiritual journey, while his friend will have to take the low road back to Scotland.”

My eyebrows creased. “I didn’t know that. I never thought about the lyrics.”

Damian began singing in a deep, pleasant voice,

“O ye'll take the high road, and I'll take the low

An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye

For me and my true love will never meet again

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomon'.”

“I won’t be able to hear that song again without feeling sad.”