He rubbed a hand across the back of his head and looked past her, at the field. “I think I spent five years wondering if I’d ever meet someone who could handle my life. Not just my brothers or the Elemental stuff. All of it. Then I met you, and I thought . . . maybe.” He paused. “I’ve been carrying this all by myself for a while, Hannah. I couldn’t figure out how to share some of the load without dropping all of it.” He glanced at her, then away. “I don’t just mean you, either. My brothers, too. I forget that they’re not little kids anymore.” He shook his head. “The morning after the fire, Adam told me that it was okay to let other people take care of me. The problem is that I’ve forgotten how.”
She was still looking up at him. “I can understand that.”
“I know you can.” He gave a short laugh. He wanted to touch her so badly that it hurt. He jammed his hands in his pockets. “Probably better than anyone else.”
“Irish told me that it was okay for me to start acting like a grown-up, instead of like a kid with something to prove. I don’t think I’m the only one.”
“You’re not.” He paused and looked down at her. “So . . . you and Irish . . . ?”
He let that thought trail off.
She turned and started walking, but she didn’t torture him too long. “We’re friends.”
Michael fell into step beside her. “That’s all?”
“That’s all. I’m still too hung up on someone else.”
His heart tripped and stumbled and raced to catch up. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He caught her arm and turned her to face him. “Hannah—you’ve seen what we’re up against. It won’t stop.”
“Irish says that things are changing. That the Guides are losing the power they once had.”
It was so surreal to hear her talk about it like she’d known all his secrets all along. Bemused, Michael shook his head. “Maybe. But change is never immediate.”
“Maybe we could deal with it together?”
He didn’t say anything.
She grabbed his arms and shook him. “Damn it, Michael, this is one of those times when you can let someone else carry the load.”
He grinned. “Like I said, change is never immediate.”
She smiled back and started walking again.
He reached out and caught her hand. “So we’re okay?”
“Nope.”
Her voice was light, so his eyebrows went up, and he matched her tone. “Nope? What do you want from me?”
“A grown-up relationship.”
“You mean we should argue about home equity loans and where to find the cheapest gasoline?”
She smacked him on the arm. “No. I mean no more hiding our relationship from your brothers.” She paused. “Or my father.”
“I was never hiding you, Hannah.”
“I don’t mean hiding, exactly.” She paused. “I mean no more acting like we don’t have a right to be together.”
“Oh.” He nodded and stopped her again, but this time he slid his hands under the jacket to catch her waist in his hands. “I think I can do that.”
“No more big secrets, either.”
“I can do that, too.”
He leaned down to kiss her, but she put a finger against his lips. “If you kiss me like a grown-up,” she said, “are you going to start earthquakes and stuff? Just how dangerous are you?”
Her voice was still teasing, but he heard the honest question there, too. He caught her face in his hands. “Let’s find out together,” he said.
He pressed his lips to hers.
And despite the fact that it was mid-November, every single wildflower in the field burst into bloom.
Read on for all three bonus novellas in The Elemental Series.
ELEMENTAL
FEARLESS
BREATHLESS
ELEMENTAL
CHAPTER 1
The thrill of having a summer job wore off about fifteen minutes after Emily Morgan started working. She’d had two customers all day. The sports complex was such a joke. No wonder she hadn’t had any competition for this job.
It wasn’t even a sports complex, not really. Mini-golf that no one wanted to play when it was a hundred degrees outside. Batting cages that no one would use until school started up in the fall. She probably wouldn’t see another soul until after five, when the white-collar dads showed up to use the driving range in a last-ditch effort to avoid going home to screaming kids.
Even then, in this heat, she’d be lucky if there were many. Ugh, her hair was already plastered to her neck. Days like these, she wished she had enough power to do more than stir up a gentle breeze.
Then she choked off that thought.
She knew what happened to kids with power.
Besides, sitting here wasn’t so bad. She worked the shop alone, so she could blast the entire sound tracks to Rent and Les Mis and sing along, and no one would give a crap. She didn’t have to watch her brother, Tyler, light insects on fire with a magnifying glass and a sunbeam, like he’d done last summer. She didn’t have to listen to her parents argue.
She could count the days until she turned eighteen.
Until she could get away from her family.
The shop door creaked and rattled, sticking in the humidity. Emily straightened, excited for a customer, for someone—anyone —to break up this cruel monotony.
Anyone but Michael Merrick.
For a second, she entertained the thought of diving behind the counter.
Real mature, Em.