Magnetic Shift (14 page)

A scream came from downstairs, followed by a loud crash.

“Lorna?” Colton bolted for the stairs, leaving me breathless and weak. It took me some time to register what had just happened.

Oh, crap! No. No, no, no.

I flung my eyes open and ran, but then stopped and took a step back. My eyes, were they red?

If Lorna was hurt, I didn’t want to scare her. I pulled out my phone and used the reverse camera as a mirror. Red shimmered in the corners of my eyes, but nothing anyone would notice at first glance.

“Lexi, I need your help.”

I shut my screen off, slipped it into my back pocket, and hurried down the steps. Lorna sat on the ground crying, surrounded by scattered old chains and tree-cutting tools, some sharp enough to have hacked her into pieces. I slapped my hand over my mouth to contain my horror. I’d done this. I’d lost control in an intimate moment. Tears rose to my eyes.

“Lexi.” Colton turned to me. “Help me get her to the house.”

Focus. I needed to focus. I ran to Lorna’s side and hooked my arm under hers. Colton did the same on his side, and together we pulled her up and brought her into the kitchen.

“I’ll get her some water,” I said.

Colton nodded and sat Lorna down in a chair from the
kitchen table. Her eyes were glazed over and her hands shook uncontrollably.

“They were floating in mid-air,” she murmured.

Colton pulled out a chair and sat across from her, taking both her hands in his. “Lorna, what was floating?”

“The tools,” she said, her eyes finally focusing on Colton as if she’d just noticed he was there. “The knives and saws.”

I handed her a glass of water. She sipped from it, still shaking. Water spilled over the edge onto her lap.

My heart skipped a beat. “Annabelle? Where’s Annabelle?”

Lorna glanced up at me. “She’s sleeping. I put her down late for her nap. I’d just gone out for a second to ask you two what you wanted for dinner, since Dean and I won’t be here, and then …”

“And then what, Lorna?”

“I walked into the barn and things just rose.” She raised her hands. “Like this, and just floated there. And when I screamed, everything fell.”

I backed myself up against the counter. How could I have been so stupid? I had, against my better judgment, allowed myself to maybe experience what it felt like to kiss someone. Someone whom I’d wanted to kiss so desperately, and what had that gotten me? I almost got Lorna killed. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t.

Lorna’s eyes teared up again. Colton wrapped his arms around her and soothed her back with a rubbing hand.

“Take her to the family room,” I told him. “I’ll go wake Annabelle up.”

Just then, Dean pulled into the driveway. I rushed upstairs to avoid hearing Lorna recount her horrid experience, knowing
full well it had been my fault she’d been traumatized.

Annabelle slept quietly in her Tinkerbell bed, oblivious to the commotion happening downstairs.

I sat on the floor against the far wall, watching her peaceful sleeping face, and cried. I needed to keep my distance from Colton. But how? My heart was drawn to him. I’d had crushes. I used to gawk over the guys who worked at the yard over the summers. There was this one guy who’d come back two years in a row, and we’d gotten pretty close, but I didn’t feel nearly as pulled to him as I seemed to be to Colton. He hadn’t triggered my curse the way Colton did. Not that it mattered how I felt. I could never let myself go there with him. I could never let my feelings screw all this up for me.

My only choice here was to find a way to co-exist in this family without losing control.

chapter twelve

Colton retreated to his safe spot and I stared out the window at the clouds. Work had become my number-one focus these past few days. It’d given me something constant, controlled, and similar to what I used to do for Roy. I felt like myself again. The lack of supervision allowed me to test my ability more fully, something I never got to do under Roy’s watchful eye. Things like the levels of energy needed for long-range reach, weight tolerance, and manipulation for easier control with attracting and pushing away objects. It gave me a better perspective of what I could control, and it also distracted me from thinking too much about what I’d done to Lorna. Thankfully, she wasn’t the skeptical type and believed the barn to be haunted. She never even suspected my involvement, but had forbidden any of us to go anywhere near it. Colton tried explaining to her that the shelf couldn’t handle the weight of those tools and that it was just a coincidence that she’d been there when it gave way, but she would hear none of it. “I know what I saw,” she kept saying. That meant I’d lost my favorite spot to hide out in other
than my room. If only Lorna knew that she had an even bigger threat than some silly ghost living in her attic—a dangerous freak.

I indulged in a private chuckle.
Pfft
. The freak in the attic. Sounded like a good premise for a horror flick or a suspense novel.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to erase the almost kiss with Colton from my mind, which caused a few mishaps when the thought popped into my head during my ability experiments. I was lucky no one questioned the racket going on at my workstation.

The jet was due to land in Vegas in about five minutes and Colton’s cheeks were still drained of all color. He’d be asking for my hand again soon, a comfort I hadn’t had the heart to take away from him. What would he do next season without me? Suffer in silence, I guessed. Like he did before I came along.

Ding
. The overhead seatbelt light came on and Colton came back to sit next to me. I offered him my hand as I’d done when we’d boarded. He took it, his eyes wide. Things were awkward between us now. I avoided any talk about me or the kiss that might have been. I became determined to keep Colton at arm’s length.

Nancy waited for us outside when we landed and whisked Colton away for more media appearances. If my memory served me correctly, he had a radio gig this afternoon.

Dean and I headed off to the track.

The garage area was crawling with security. Last week’s sabotage had hit the news and NASCAR was taking every precaution to make sure it didn’t happen again. I spent my time catching up on my online classes, doing some sightseeing, and
helping out at the garage—the old-school way, of course. It’d be hard to blame ghosts here.

Friday morning, I woke up early. Colton had an early qualifying run scheduled and just because I wanted to avoid a close relationship with him didn’t mean I couldn’t cheer him on.

Sporting my black Guardian Auto Insurance shirt and green Fizzy Pop ball cap, another of Colton’s sponsors, I headed out to the hauler. I hooked my headset around my neck, clipped the scanner to my waistband, and made the climb up to the top of the hauler. I had the roof to myself today. Dean watched from the pits, keeping a close eye on things down below. Last week’s incident had him nervous and suspecting that someone had been out to ruin their season. In my opinion, the culprit was obvious, but the officials couldn’t place the blame on Carl Stacy without proof.

“Everything workin’?” Lenny said over the scanner.

“Ten-four,” Colton responded. “I hear you loud and clear.”

“You’re up next.”

“Sweet. Let’s go do this thing!” Colton hollered. I could almost see the grin on his face in the sound of his voice.

He took to the track, jerking the car side-to-side to warm up his tires, and then hammered it to full speed. He entered the turns high, then dipped down low, following his line in every turn.

“She’s gripping good,” Colton said.

“It shows,” Dean answered. “You’re lookin’ good out there.”

Colton sped through the turns with great ease, not one tug or wobble. Pride swelled inside me as I watched him. I was beginning to know what it felt like to be part of something,
part of a team. I hadn’t felt that since Mama had passed, and it felt good.

Colton ducked back into the pits.

Dean cued his mic. “Good job, Colt. You got the pole by a long shot so far, but there’s still many more to go.”

Colton was already inside the hauler when I went back to store away my headset. His black fire suit hugged his body in all the right places. I’d become more aware of Colton’s appearance since we nearly kissed in the barn four days ago. Not that I hadn’t noticed how gorgeous he was before—obviously—but now he looked somehow different. His appearance was now enhanced by his personality. He wasn’t just the hot guy who called me a little girl on that first day, he was so much more. He was just so damn hot—inside and out. To make matters worse, when I snapped out of my thoughts, he took off his ball cap, raked both his hands through his flattened hair, slipped out of the top half of his suit, and hoisted the hem of his sweat repelling short-sleeved shirt over his head. This had to be what heaven looked like. I shook my head and cursed under my breath.

“Something wrong?” he asked, grabbing a t-shirt from the shelf.

“Huh? Uh, no, nothing’s wrong.”

He smiled, causing his eyes to glint as they creased. Damn him.

He flipped his t-shirt over and pulled it over his head. I tried to look away as his arms and abs flexed. Yeah, right. Who was I kidding? What girl could look away from that?

“Okay,” I said awkwardly. “I’m going back to the motor coach.”

I turned to leave, but Colton loosely wrapped his fingers around my wrist. “Wait.”

I snapped my hand back, startled. A sharp pounding thundered in my temples.

“Sorry. I … I was about to head to one of the concession stands. You wanna come with?”

Was he serious? “Are you nuts? You’re going to get mauled by fans.”

“I can’t keep avoiding them—they’re the reason I get to do this every week.”

I readied myself to say no, no way, not a chance, but my lips betrayed me. “Sure, why not?”
Why not? Because around you, I levitate steel objects and almost kill people, that’s why not.

He reached behind him and pulled another t-shirt from the shelf.

“Here, put this on while I go change. It’ll help sort through the real fans from those just jumping for an autograph to sell on eBay.”

I unfolded the shirt, which had Link’s face printed on the front. I laughed. “Nice decoy.”

“Yeah, it works too. And here …” He reached for the top shelf, pulled down two Watson’s Steel and Lumber ball caps, and handed me one. “Matching fan gear. What do you say?” Before I could comment, he disappeared into a room down the aisle. Oh, good Lord, what was I doing?

I changed in Dean’s office and emerged to find Colton already dressed. “You ready?”

I switched hats, leaving my Fizzy Pop one on the shelf. “Lead the way.”

As much as we tried to blend in with the crowd of race fans, Colton got spotted a few times. But without an ounce of annoyance, he signed everything from t-shirts to program
guides to toy car replicas and even one chick’s cleavage with a smile and a thanks for rooting for him. Especially on that last one. The cutest were the kids, the little ones whose eyes would grow wide at the sight of him when they’d realize who he was.

We managed to order our food and find a spot in the shade to eat, away from the massive crowds.

“You’re one popular guy,” I said, dipping my French fry into the little container of ketchup.

“I try.”

“You love it, don’t you?” I bit into my fry.

“I do. It’s all part of the gig.” Colton raised his burger with both hands. “The fans are the best part.”

“I don’t think I could do it. I like being able to slip into the shadows, unnoticed.”

He put his food down. “You would.”

My lips curved into a slight smile. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You need to live a little, Lex. You’ve been cooped up way too long. You don’t even realize that you have so much to offer.”

“Ha. Yeah, right. Like what?”

“For starters, your mad mechanic skills.”

I leaned back. “Okay. I’ll give you that one. I’m good at that.”

“Secondly, you’re great with kids.”

“Not so sure about that one.” I crossed my arms.

“Come on, Annabelle loves you. She talks about you all the time when you’re not around.”

“That kid says she loves anyone who’s not the one trying to put her to bed.”

“Point taken. But you also …” He paused.

“But I also what?”

He laughed, reached over, and wiped the corner of my mouth with his thumb. “Ketchup,” he said, then transferred it onto a napkin.

The gesture caught me off guard. “Thanks.” I grabbed my own napkin and wiped the corners of my mouth. “So, what else were you going to say?” I didn’t care about the warning signs flashing in my mind. I ignored them. I wanted to know what else Colton thought I had to offer.

He stared, as if debating whether to tell me or not, then looked down to push a fry around his basket with his finger. “You have a great smile.”

Heat crept up the back of my neck and up to my cheeks. I grabbed a leftover fry from my basket and threw it at him. “Whatever.”

He jumped too late to dodge my fry attack and picked it off his lap, laughing. “No, really. I mean it.” His eyes met mine and his smile faded, showing me his more serious side.

I glanced down at my watch as an excuse to look away. “We better get back if you don’t want to miss the start of Link’s practice.”

Colton looked down at his now-empty food basket. “I’m not watching him practice.”

“How come?”

He shifted in his seat. “I have a … a thing.”

“Oh.”

“But you’re right.” He looked back up at me, a frown tugging at his lips. “We should get back. I need to shower and get ready.”

We returned our baskets to the concession stand, trashed our wrappers, and headed back through the crowd. By the time we crossed through the heavy security at the gates to the infield,
my head had calmed. I’d managed to not lose it, although I wasn’t quite sure why that was.

Dean stepped out of the motor coach as Colton and I arrived. “Where have you two been?”

“Grabbing a late lunch,” Colton said.

“Don’t forget, you got that thing later. You better get a move on and get ready.”