WILD MEN OF ALASKA

chapter SIXTEEN

Saturdays were always busy, and Gemma was able to lose herself in book recommending, one of her favorite things about running the bookstore. There was a steady stream of customers until about three in the afternoon.

She was in love with a man with no foreseeable way of having a normal relationship. But then who really had a normal relationship? Her parents hadn’t. They hadn’t even been married, in the legal sense. Siri didn’t believe in a legal document proclaiming them married by the government. Instead, they’d participated in a hand-fasting when Gemma had been old enough to be the flower child.

Her father had been the exact opposite of her mother, and he’d loved all the differences. Gemma remembered how he’d looked at Siri with so much love it hurt as though the definition of the Universe was held within Siri’s eyes.

Lucky had looked at her like that last night.

A bittersweet smile curved her lips. What would her father say about the situation she’d gotten herself into? Would he warn her off like Siri had, or encourage her to follow her heart?

As logical as her father had been, when it came to love he was as impractical as Siri. One thing Gemma did know, Siri had never loved her father. Not like he’d loved her.

Gemma had checked in with Rosie earlier in the day to see how Siri had fared after her stint in jail. Apparently it hadn’t disturbed her one bit. She’d still been asleep. A good sign since when this had happened in the past, Siri would go into a manic phase with days of not sleeping. Kind of like Gemma was doing. Could that be a sign she was following in Siri’s footsteps? Should she have made an appointment with Doc Walton too?

But then if she mentioned to Doc Walton that she was seeing a Dreamweaver, taking her mother’s sleeping pills, and having astral sex, he would no doubt set her up for an evaluation in the psych ward.

The bells over the door chimed, and Gemma glanced up, her customer service smile plastered on her face. Though with the direction her thoughts had taken she was no longer in the mood to endure customers.

Tern marched in like she was on a mission. Gemma’s smile faded. What now?

“I have something for you.” Tern glanced around the store to see a few stragglers in the café, Amie behind the counter cleaning up, and Callista occupied at the register with a customer. “Good, you’re not busy.”

“That’s not a good thing for someone who is self-employed.”

“You know what I meant.” Tern held up a necklace with a deep bluish-purple crystal wrapped in silver wire. “Here, you need to wear this.”

“What is it?”

“Indigo tourmaline. It will help open your third eye, the sixth chakra, and strength your ability to transcend your reality. Go ahead, put it on.”

Gemma slid the necklace over her head even though she wasn’t sure she wanted help “transcending her reality.” She jolted when the stone brushed against her heart. Her hand smoothed the tourmaline in place. What the hell had that been? Static electricity in the air? Crystals didn’t have magical powers. Did they?

Tern gave her an approving smile. “I’ve done more research and if you actually have sex with Lucky the act will strengthen your bond.”

“Shh.” Gemma grabbed Tern’s elbow. “Come here.” She dragged Tern into the bookshelves of Philosophy and Travel, providing them some privacy where they wouldn’t be overheard.

Tern squinted and then gasped. “Oh my God. You’ve been with Lucky. What happened? I need details.”

Details she wasn’t going to get. But then Tern knew how gifted a lover Lucky was. Jealousy rose up in Gemma. Her friend had been with the man she loved. Experienced the joy Gemma had found in his arms. That was one very important thing that friends should not share.

“How?” Tern asked. “That storm front moved in last night. I would think that in order for Lucky to be able to sustain enough of a presence to accomplish intercourse the solar flares would need to be out of this world.”

There was that phrase again.

“He didn’t visit me. I visited him.”

That stopped her. “You made love with Lucky on the astral plane? In his realm?”

The way she said that made it sound bad.

“How did you travel there?”

“Remember those sleeping pills my mom gave me after the Tarot reading? Well, I took one.”

“Hmm.” Tern tapped her lower lip with her finger in thought. “How did you make it back?”

“I assumed when the effects of the drug wore off. I woke up in my bed.”

“And you know for sure that you were there and didn’t dream everything?”

“It wasn’t a dream. You sound like I need to repent or something.” Hadn’t Tern been pushing for her to connect with Lucky, strengthen their bond? Wasn’t this why she’d given her the tourmaline to wear?

“What is it?” she asked as Tern took a step back to study her, cocking her head and narrowing her eyes. “Tern, what aren’t you telling me?” For cripes sake she was tired of people not telling her things.

“You have the same look about you that your mother does.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“The colors in your aura are more vibrant, which is normal after having really good sex, but...you have similar breaks or holes in the layers like the aura that surrounds your mother.”

“Aura?” Dreamweavers, astral planes, chakras, and now auras? Was her reality anything that she believed? If all this was true, where was her freaking starship? “What do you mean holes?”

“I don’t know. Siri probably does.”

“You can see auras but don’t know why mine would be broken?”

“Not broken. Missing. If you want me to speculate, I’d have to say, part of you is still in the astral plane.”

“You are busting through all the rules,” Hansen said, standing with his hands on his hips as though bringing judgment. “How did you get her here?”

“It wasn’t anything to do with me. And how can I break the rules when I don’t even know what they are?” Frustration ate at Lucky. He’d been pacing long enough to actually mow a path into the perfect field of grass. He needed out of here. He needed Gemma, needed to be with her now more than ever, and no matter what he did he couldn’t break out.

Each time he’d meditated, he’d been lost in a swirl of snow. He’d been able to visit her before through storms worse than the one currently over the arctic. There’d been bad weather the day Siri had read his Tarot cards, and while he hadn’t been able to interact with Gemma, he’d been able to see her, hear her.

Today was different.

Each time he closed his eyes and concentrated, a static whiteout appeared meant to confuse and cage. No vibrant liquid streams of light to guide him to her. It was like there was divine interference. Had he broken some unpardonable rule by lying with Gemma?

Panic chilled him to the soul.

“You’re seriously going to choose to be with her.” Hansen dropped to his favorite rock. “You’re going to give up Heaven for a woman?”

“She is my Heaven.” Lucky stopped and faced his friend. “I have never felt more alive, more in tune to a person than when I hold her in my arms. It’s killing me, all over again, not to be in her presence.”

“How is it going to feel for her if she chooses you but can never truly be with you?”

Lucky raked his hands through his hair, pulling at the roots. He needed to consider that, but the heartache that always followed paralyzed him. “It’s a gamble. I love her. There is nothing without her. I have to go all in.”

A sudden zinging along his spine caught his breath. There. A thread of energy. “Gotta go.”

He shut his eyes and concentrated on that thread as it weaved around him. His spirit reached out and gently gripped the end, letting it wing him across distances so vast he couldn’t comprehend it all.

Gemma.

The only thing in his mind, in his heart, and he followed both like a bullet to its target.