Chapter 17 That Consumed With Dread Look

Scarlett spent several pleasurable hours helping Nate change the locks on the doors that had become portals. The locks were old, a bit rusty, and none left their doors easily, but Nate always seemed to manage it. Every time Nate handed Scarlett a lock plate or a screw or some other bit of hardware, his hand would brush hers and she'd feel it all the way down to her toes.

Which is ridiculous, she chastised herself silently. I'm not a teenager anymore.

But she found herself eagerly awaiting those moments anyhow.

So far, they'd located four portals: the one to Stonehenge, another that led to the basement of the Sydney Opera House, another to a child's treehouse in Toad Suck, Arkansas, and finally the kitchen of Third Eye Restaurant in Kathmandu.

On the third floor, they came across Maximillian the Magnificent, who was sitting despondently on the floor at the far end of the hall.

"Let me guess," Scarlett called out as they approached. "You found another portal?"

He leapt to his feet. " Nein! Guten tag! It's fine. My room is fine."

"For crying out loud, he's German today," Scarlett muttered.

"Hey there, Max," Nate said. "Have you got a portal in there? Mrs. Melrose sent us here to change the locks, so nobody accidentally falls in."

" Nein! No portal!" Max smiled oddly—a forced-looking smile on a face unaccustomed to it. "Everything is excellent."

"Then, um, why are you sitting in the hall, Max?" Scarlett asked.

"I like the hall. Zis hall, sie ist wunderbar! Und my Quentin is napping, for which is required completely silence."

Scarlett and Nate eyeballed the magician suspiciously, then looked at each other, then back at him.

"You are sitting in the hall," Scarlett said, "so as not to disturb your rabbit?"

"Listen, buddy," Nate said in as chummy a tone as he could muster. "How about you let us have a look at your doors? We'll be super quiet, I promise. Just take a quick peek, just make sure everything is okay?"

"Absolutely nein !" Max declared. "My impedimenta are in zere. All ze tools of my trade. No non-magician may gaze upon these tools, it is verboten !"

" Impedimenta ," Scarlett said, amused. "You mean your props ? For your little shows ?"

"I recognize your disdain, und! I am choosing not to acknowledge it. More important is my Quentin. Quentin requires his rest. I must insist you do no disturb him."

"Sure." Scarlett shrugged. "We'll leave you to it then."

She nudged Nate to suggest they move on, but he hesitated. "We should really check," he whispered.

"If he won't let us, he won't let us. C'mon, we have bigger problems."

"Okay . . ." Nate turned to Maximillian. "Max, please promise me . . . if you happen to find a portal in the shower, don't fall in."

" Sehr gut! " said the magician defiantly. "I would say auf wiedersehen except I have no desire to sehen you wieder ."

***

On her mother's list, there was only one more door to fix: Room 317. "This says the room is unoccupied, which is a relief."

"Great." Nate nodded. "We'll change this last lock and then I should probably head back to the store. Everybody in town is going to be there looking for lock picks and tools and who knows what else."

"Yeah . . ." Scarlett's jolly mood faded as she remembered why everyone in Oak Haven would be lining up at the hardware store—to fix everything she had broken.

As they walked down the hall to the final room, Nate nudged her shoulder with his own. "Hey. I know that look."

"What look?"

"The look on your face right now. The Consumed with Dread look."

Scarlett frowned. "I don't have a Consumed with Dread look." She reached over and unlocked Room 317 with the hotel skeleton key. "Should we see where this portal goes? Maybe it's the Marianas Trench and I can just disappear there for—" the sight of what lay beyond the door brought her up short "—ever."

On the other side of the portal, impossibly white sand extended in all directions. A vast expanse of the ocean stretched out in the distance, rolling waves crashing against the shore. The sky was painted in a breathtaking display of fiery orange, melting into soft pinks and vibrant purples as the sun dipped below the horizon. A gentle breeze carried the whisper of the ocean and a salty fragrance Scarlett couldn't quite place.

As Nate took in the view, he let out a low whistle. "Whoa. Best portal yet, by a mile." He stretched out his arm across the transom, feeling the warm sun on his skin. "I bet the water's perfect." He peeked at Scarlett questioningly. "I don't suppose we could just . . ."

"Nate . . ." Oh, how Scarlett longed to leap into the waves with Nate at that moment. But she knew it didn't matter what she longed for. Feelings later, champagne now . "We can't. We're needed here. Besides, the portal could close while we're out there."

"Right, but . . . you got us home from New Orleans, didn't you?"

"I got lucky, because Papa told me about New Orleans. I don't know the location of every portal on Earth. We could easily get stranded on that beach."

His mischievous grin faded into something far softer. "Oh and that would be terrible."

"Yeah," she agreed softly. "Terrible."

"Well, let's visit the beach from right here. We'll just stand on the threshold and watch the sunset."

Scarlett hesitated. This felt dangerous, an indulgence in these chaotic times. At the same time, though, she didn't want to say no.

She edged beside him in the doorway. Standing so close, the feel of Nate's body beside her made her slightly dizzy.

Nate gazed out at the orange-streaked sky. "Hey . . . remember how your mom used to cast a movie screen in your back garden? She'd let all of us miscreants come over on Saturday nights?"

"Of course I remember." Scarlett chuckled. "Melrose Movie Night. All those old movies she'd show? Del and I used to beg Mama to show something recent, but no. The closest we ever got to a ‘current' movie was The Princess Bride , and that was only because my mother had a thing for Mandy Patinkin."

"Oh sure, who didn't? He was Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride , for crying out loud! Wait a second—is that why we had to watch Yentl once a year? Because your mother was sweet on Mandy Patinkin?"

"Indeed, that was why. Still, Princess Bride was a good one."

"Fantastic." Nate nodded. "I loved that one. In fact, this one time, I was this close to starting a land war in Asia, and then I thought, wait—"

Scarlett laughed. "Don't do it!"

"Exactly! Vizzini says, don't do it."

"See? Melrose Movie Night wasn't just fun, it was educational."

"Definitely." Nate grinned. "Mostly what I remember is a lot of corny old beach flicks? That's what made me think of it now—this portal is bringing it all back. Surfing nuns, singing lifeguards . . . And a lot of Elvis movies, if I'm remembering right. Blue Hawaii , wasn't it?"

"Yes, and Girls! Girls! Girls! That was all Papa's doing. He was a big Elvis guy."

"Did you know, I've never seen a beach in person? Only in those movies. So I really loved Melrose Movie Night. Plus, I got to sit next to you."

"Aww . . ."

"Well, Scar, the thing about it was—you were quiet . So quiet. We sit down to watch a movie, and you'd go for ninety whole minutes without making fun of me."

Scarlett laughed. "And now, suddenly, you're constantly making fun of me !"

"Reckon, I owe you a few."

A silence stretched between them, not an uncomfortable one, but one that was heavy with unspoken questions and thoughts of roads not taken. Impulsively, Scarlett brushed his hand with hers. "Maybe someday you'll visit a real beach."

"Nothing like this in San Francisco, though, right?"

"I'll have you know, we do have beaches. Buuuut yeah, nothing like this. But we do have fog—I can offer you a whole lot of fog if you're interested."

Nate turned to her, and his expression held a touch of vulnerability now. "Fog can be nice, too."

Scarlett's heart pounded. In this stolen moment, with the world upside down, a reckless joy bubbled up within her.

He leaned in, his eyes questioning. It was a silent invitation, an offer to break through the barrier that had stood between them for so very long.

She closed her eyes. His lips met hers in a kiss as gentle and fleeting as the ocean breeze. It tasted like wishes.

But it was wrong, this flirting, this hinting at something more—not now, when their whole town was in turmoil and everyone's future uncertain. With a pang of regret, Scarlett pulled away.

Nate startled slightly, but then he nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Too much going on right now."

"It's just . . . I mean . . . you know how it is. I can't destroy my entire town and make out with you in the same twenty-four-hour period."

"Right." Nate smiled sadly. "Well, who knows? Maybe we'll come back when all this is over."

They gazed at one another for a heavy moment, and then with a last, lingering glance at the sunset, Scarlett stepped away from the door. Nate knelt down, took the screwdriver out of his tool bag, and got to work removing the final lock plate. "Listen, I meant what I said before. Try not to take it so hard about what happened. You didn't ‘destroy your entire town,' as you put it. People don't blame you."

"That's very sweet, but it's also a huge lie. It's a given that the town blames the Melroses in general, and once the story gets out—which should take about twenty minutes—then they'll blame me in particular."

"Scar, if you feel like everyone views you as the person who caused the problem, then the thing to do is become the person who fixes it."

"Great idea, Nate—and how do I do that exactly?"

"Here, hold this hardware for me, would you? I have no idea how you fix it. Do you know anything about those dragonflies? If you can figure out how to get rid of them, you're golden. You just need some kind of magical exterminator, right?"

"I don't think that's a thing." Scarlett handed the new lock set to Nate without needing to be asked. "Here you go."

"Why thank you, intrepid assistant."

Nate smiled, and for a moment, all her feelings of dread wilted away.

"Hey, maybe you should talk to Aphra," he suggested.

"Aphra?"

"Yeah, she's got the yarn place on East Street? She's in my store all the time, looking for exotic herbs and weird items I didn't even realize I had. Who knows, maybe she has intel about bugs, too?"

"Hmm, I guess it couldn't hurt to ask. And I could definitely use a new friend at the moment."

Nate studied the lock plate to make sure he'd installed it correctly. "Not really a new friend, though—you know Aphra."

"Huh?! I don't remember that name. Oh God." She sighed. "On top of everything else, I'm forgetting people now?"

"Well, you know her and you don't, I guess. I'll let her explain it to you." Nate stood. "Okay, you try the new key—see how I did."

He'd done it perfectly, of course. Scarlett locked the door, then unlocked it and held it open. They stood side by side before the portal—all the trouble of Oak Haven behind them and a gleaming sunset ahead.

"It would be so easy to just step right through," she said longingly. "Evening at the beach. What do you say?"

He lifted an eyebrow. "A little skinny-dipping?"

"Nate!" She laughed girlishly. "Oh my God."

"Just kidding." He sighed. "I think I better get back to work."

"Yeah . . ." Scarlett closed the door and locked it. "Some other time."

"You want to come along to the store?" he asked. "I'll make coffee."

At that moment, nothing on Earth sounded more appealing than coffee with Nate . . . except for the bit where Scarlett would have to face everyone in town who'd been alarmed, damaged, or messed with by magic today. "I think I better stay here and help Mama," she said.

"Sure." He nodded. "I'll see you at the thing later. Everybody's gonna be there."

"The thing? What thing is happening tonight that I'm—oh! Oh, no. No, no, no, Nate, tell me they're not doing that ."

"It's a town crisis," he said with a wink. "Of course, they're doing that."