The Haunted - Jessica Verday [60]
“You smell good. Like cookies. Just… let me…” His tone turned rueful. “Sorry. This is probably weird for you. But it’s like the colors. At certain times it’s like my senses are heightened. And I just… noticed.”
“It’s a perfume I made that reminded me of you,” I said. “I made it accidentally, but it’s a snickerdoodle scent. Like the ones I gave you.”
“I still have those,” he admitted.
I opened my eyes. “You still have them? Didn’t you eat them?”
“No. I mean, I ate the one in front of you, but I saved the rest.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked. “Acted like you ate them?” He ducked his head and looked at the ground. “I didn’t want you to be upset if I refused them. And I was still acting… normal.”
“So you pretended to eat my cookies? What did you do, spit it out later?”
“I didn’t pretend to eat the cookie,” he said. “I really did eat it. But just the one. Eating is uncomfortable for me. Everything tastes like ashes.” Something in the back of my brain snapped to full alert when he said those words, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
“So, you knew it would taste bad… but you ate it anyway?” He nodded.
“And then you kept the rest of them?”
He looked up, straight into my eyes. “It was a gift from you. The first thing you ever gave me. Why wouldn’t I keep it?”
My heart did a little pitter-patter and lurched. I had to bite my lip to keep sudden tears at bay. His gesture was beyond words. “I’m glad you kept them,” I said. “And that you ate one in front of me. That was really sweet.” I could almost feel his exhale of relieved breath, and I glanced at him with curiosity. “Why did you invite me to go out for pizza, then? What were you going to do if I said yes?”
“Convince you to get it to go?” He shrugged. “Then tell you I wasn’t very hungry? I don’t know… I just wanted to do something normal with you.” I understood that feeling. I leaned forward until we were face to face, almost nose to nose.
“Next time we will do something normal. And you won’t have to pretend to eat, okay?”
“Okay. Now, close your eyes again.”
I closed them.
“Hand.”
I held out my hand and was rewarded with something dropped into it. “I hope you don’t mind another one,” Caspian said. “It’s sort of what I do.” I looked down. Another necklace was resting in my palm. I held it up and saw a perfect four-leaf clover pressed between two small squares of glass. The edges were soldered shut with silver metal, and a black ribbon had been attached to a tiny O-ring.
“I know you already have two,” he said in a rush of words, “but I—”
“Caspian,” I said, cutting him off. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.” The clover was amazing, each leaf gently rounded and vibrantly green. “But how did you find a four-leaf clover? And where do you get the supplies for the necklaces from?”
He glanced back at the boxes that held his stuff. “I have my soldering iron and supplies from before, when I helped my dad in his garage. The glass pieces are slides I, uh, borrowed from the school science lab. I found the four-leaf clover in the cemetery. I’m kind of good at finding them.”
After tying the necklace around my neck, I lifted it up and held on to it. “That’s funny. I found a four-leaf clover on Kristen’s stone the last time I was there.”
“I know,” he said. “I put it there. I was kind of watching over her when you were gone and thought she might like it.”
I dropped the necklace and stared at him. “You left that there? Because you were watching over her?”
“Yes,” he said softly.
Everything was making sense now. All the puzzle pieces were fitting together. The reason why he kept making these gorgeous necklaces for me… “Since you can’t touch me, you made something that could, didn’t you?” I said.
“Yes.”
My world slowed and I closed my eyes. “I am going to give you my heart now,” I whispered. “Please don’t break it again.”
The Haunted
Chapter Fourteen
MAKING PROMISES
It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have mentioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, but is unconsciously imbibed by every one who resides there for a time.
—“The Legend of Sleepy