“Vacation,” she said slowly, as if it was a word in a foreign language.
“Yes. You have three choices. We can join the children at the Four Seasons in Houston. We can check into a hotel suite here in Louisville. I do not recommend that one, since I do not believe you will actually relax if we stay local.”
She wiped her cheeks. “What is the third option?”
“Carling and Rune called yesterday evening,” he said. “You were so sound asleep, you didn’t even hear your new cell phone ring, so I answered it. They have leased a beach house just outside of Miami, with the option to buy. Three bedrooms, two baths, a family room, a living room, a fenced-in yard and a deck that faces the ocean. It’s furnished, but Carling said the furniture can be removed if you want your own. They have invited us to use it for as long as we like.”
“Beach,” she said blankly.
Of all the strange fortune that had befallen her, it appeared that good fortune was what brought her to a total halt. He said in a gentle voice, “Beach. If you like.”
“You would come with us?” She searched his gaze.
“I will always come with you,” he said simply.
“Where would you like to go?” she asked. “Is there some place you would enjoy?”
He smiled. He liked Paris in the first blush of early morning and snowfall in St. Petersburg on a winter’s night. He liked the hot desert winds of North Africa and the wild open spaces of the Colorado and Mohave deserts, where the Djinn went to dance in the sun-drenched air. He adored following the plunge of water over Niagara Falls and swimming along the serpentine twists of the Amazon River, and he loved contemplating the top of the world along the peaks of the Himalayas, where the air grew thin and riotous infinity lay everywhere.
But it would not do to overwhelm her too soon. He told her, “I like the sun.”
She frowned as she studied him. “If we go to Houston, you may not get a real vacation either.”
He admitted, “That is a good point.”
Her frown didn’t ease. She said slowly, “I would love to take a vacation, but I also made a promise to a couple of people that I would help them.”
His eyebrows rose. “Who are they?”
“You know the petitioners that came the day Therese babysat? They weren’t able to go through with the consultation. They weren’t ready, and the cavern made them uncomfortable. I told them I would be available if they wanted to return.” Grace rubbed the back of her neck. “I need to keep my promise to them. I want to keep my promise.”
“This is not an issue,” Khalil said. “We will get in touch with them. Whenever they are ready, we’ll get a babysitter, and I can transport you to wherever these people live. That’s assuming you can do without a cavern.”
“I really think I can,” she said. She met his gaze and smiled. “I like the thought of being able to make a house call. If, that is, they are open to it too.”
They would discover that Grace could indeed make house calls. She had practiced more with Khalil by the time Don and Margie e-mailed her to ask if she might be available for another consultation. Ismat became the children’s first Djinn babysitter, and Khalil transported Grace to Margie’s home in southern Indiana. Once there Khalil kept a tactful silence and moved into the background as Grace interacted with the middle-aged siblings. Margie invited them into her comfortable home, and they sat at the kitchen table and talked over coffee until both Don and Margie had relaxed. When Grace finally channeled the ghost of Don and Margie’s father, it felt like a natural, gentle progression, and the session was quite healing.
She was a natural, Khalil thought, pride swelling as he watched her with the two humans. She was warm and compassionate, and she knew how to listen. More than that, she handled the Oracle’s Power with an assurance that had to be a comfort to the others. She had not only taken the Oracle’s Power for her own, but now she claimed the position for her own as well.
But all of that came later. For now, Khalil felt a deep satisfaction as he regarded his Grace, who knew the importance of keeping her word, taking care of those who were her responsibility, and holding to her side of a bargain. No matter what.
He told her, “We appear to have narrowed down our choices of where we will go.”
A grin broke over her face. “We’re going to Florida?”
“Indeed, we must be.” He knew that in Florida, Carling and Rune would try to convince them to stay, but he was not at all interested in that. He did not have a preference for a geographical focus and was happy to abide wherever Grace might wish. He tapped her on the nose. “But we will not leave for Florida until the children arrive on Sunday, so for today, I have decided we shall go on our second date.”
Her expression froze. “We will?”
“In fact, I know exactly what we shall do.”
Her eyes widened. “You do?”