Feathers (A Witch Central Morsel) by Debora Geary Read Free Book Online Page B

slide down with wild abandon, it looked fun.  And not all that steep.
    The perspective from the top of the slippery rocks was entirely different.
    Next they’d be trying to convince her that jumping off the top of the Ferris wheel at the Chicago Pier was fun.
    Nah.  Devin was patiently amused.  Concrete’s not a fun landing.  Jamie and Téo are scouting fun places for cliff diving, though.  We’re trying to get Mom to try it.
    Retha wasn’t at the head of the sane-people line.  She’d happily hurl herself off a cliff for the pure fun factor.   
    Probably.  With Helga hot on her heels.
    Lauren hoped Jamie was scouting cliffs safe for octogenarians.  If Helga got wind, she’d totally be there with bells and swimsuit on. 
    And one pathetic realtor would still be sitting at the top of a little waterfall slide with her knees knocking.  Time to screw up her courage.  She squinted one eye open, still glaring at her husband.  Stupid feathers.  I’m probably going to puke on the way down.
    No.  His mind reflected nothing but deep love.  You’ll feel like Aervyn did halfway to first base today.
    Damn.  She opened both eyes.  Low blow.  The man was a human tornado—he shouldn’t understand, either her fear or what would help her get her butt moving.  And yet he did.  The joy of the baseball miracle on grass had been contagious.  Anyone still breathing would want their own ride on that.
    One finger at a time, Lauren peeled her death grip off the rocks.  Poised for a moment, suspended above the moonlit eyes of the man who would catch her, no matter what.  And gave herself the tiniest of pushes.
    It was probably the water-sliding equivalent of Aervyn’s hit—three sad little feet of flight and then a dive to the dust.
    But Lauren, who had lost her stomach to the stars and her fear to the magic of the night, didn’t care.
    She only soared.
    -o0o-
    Jamie grinned at his wife.  “So.  What do you think those two are up to?”
    Nat, picking up on the same blast of unabashed joy that everyone within ten miles was hearing, chuckled quietly.  She had two heads asleep in her lap, and even Auntie Lauren’s really leaky mind barriers hadn’t woken them up.  “No idea, but it’s exactly what she needs, whatever it is.”
    “Devin’s pretty good at finding ways to make people happy.”  And not all of them involved defying death.
    “Yeah.”  Soft eyes, ones that loved the wildest Sullivan brother dearly. 
    Nat and Devin were in many ways polar opposites.  The kind of people who shouldn’t have understood each other at all.  And they’d bonded in about ten seconds.  Jamie started to say something, and then stopped as a mental image beamed in.  From Aervyn this time, who had clearly picked up more than Lauren’s mental shriek of adrenaline-laced joy.
    One witch, flying over the waterfall.
    And the great, whooping love of the man waiting for her to land.
    Jamie laughed—it was impossible not to.  Lauren had been swimming at the edges of the pool for two days, watching.  Quietly denying her desire to be just a little reckless.  Trust Devin to choose to lean on that.  He, more than anyone else, understood that life wasn’t meant to be lived in zones of safety. 
    Presumably they’d shut Aervyn out soon.  Not all activities in moonlit pools were fit for seven-year-old consumption.
    Duh.  Aervyn sounded seven going on twenty-five.  Uncle Devin said I could show you all what happened and then I should get lost.
    Jamie grinned.  Yup.  Water and moonlight for the win.  Sadly, there was only one really good pool within hiking distance, and his wife currently had two small children asleep in her lap.
    She smiled at him.  Unspoken rain check.  “It’s not an accident it happened tonight.”  Nat’s eyes misted in the haze of lazy thought.  “Aervyn started something this morning, just as he was meant to.”
    Jamie squinted, trying to follow.  “Nobody helped him.”  He had no idea