up against a big bay window that faced the front yard, a work desk dominated most of the kitchen. Tucker studied it for a second, seeing three-dimensional sketches of curious shapes, embellished by the occasional jewel, twining sinuously into what could easily be a pendant or an earring.
“Pretty,” he said, captured by the lines of the drawings, the glittering display of finished products lining the back wall.
“Yeah, pagan, Viking, Enochian—you name the symbol, I’ve researched it and put a jewel on it.” Rae gave him a grand gesture. “Take a look while I clear the table.”
Tucker moved closer to the desk, and unbidden, his hand raised to about six inches from the pendants suspended from a corkboard on the wall next to the window.
He could feel the energy radiating from them—fertile energy, energy for strength, energy for…. “Oh….”
The pendant was a simple silver pentagram, locked inside a circle, with a blood-red garnet cut for the center.
He held his hand out a little closer, and the pendant gravitated toward him, tugging against the chain until it was about six inches from the wall.
“You can have that one,” Rae said, not sounding put out at all.
Tucker glanced over his shoulder. From where she stood, Rae could see very well that her jewelry was arching off the pegboard toward him. “How much?” he asked, respectful of her livelihood. The thing hummed as it reached for his flesh, and he felt the pull in his chest. Oh… oh, something inside him needed this. Needed it so much.
“Take it,” she ordered.
Tucker jumped, and the pendant did too, right off the corkboard and into his hand… where it burned. Tucker shoved it in his pocket and scowled at the red scorch mark across his palm.
“Took you long enough,” Rae said mildly, putting milk and glasses on the table.
“Thank you?” Tucker offered.
She shrugged. “You don’t work with symbols and not have some odd things happen from time to time. It’s a symbol of protection, and it’s yours, that’s all. Josh, could you have taken any longer with these sandwiches?”
“Well, we went to the hardware store,” Josh replied, having apparently missed out on all the floating jewelry. “Tucker here needed to be introduced to the town.”
“The town is so small, you sneeze and you miss it.” Rae laughed. “You had to take him to Auburn, didn’t you?”
Josh shrugged. “Well, yeah. He’s trying to clean the old place up and restore some of it. He needs more than a couple of screws and a wrench.”
Rae eyed her husband with exasperation. “Well, so do I, but sometimes that’s all a girl gets when she’s gotten rid of her kids for the day.”
Tucker laughed. “I really can go—”
Rae shook her head. “Sit down. We need to eat and digest. My jewelry likes you, and I have to admit, I’m really curious. But since you know what we’re going to do afterward, you know….” She looked at him meaningfully, and Tucker fell a little in love.
“Don’t linger,” he said.
“Don’t linger,” she agreed. “So, are you gay?”
Tucker almost choked on his sandwich. “Bi.” He looked at Josh, with his openly friendly shirt. “Do you know someone who is gay that you’re trying to set up?” he speculated—although he was pretty sure he knew who it was.
“Andy,” Rae confirmed through a mouthful of sandwich. “Our oldest. He keeps thinking he’s going to find someone in this one-horse burgh, and we keep telling him he really needs to go to school in Sac, because it’s just not happening here. But you seem okay with Josh and his shirt of loud politics—”
“I’m being supportive,” Josh said with dignity.
“You’re being an asshole. You hope people will get in your face so you can argue with them,” Rae replied.
Josh shrugged and nodded. “That’s fair. But still—”
“Still, the point is, I was just asking him so we could see if Andy had a chance.”
Tucker had to laugh. “Uhm, no. I’m thirty-four. Twenty-two is officially too young for me.” It wasn’t really, but it made a convenient excuse. The idea of being set up with these nice people’s kid made Tucker feel decidedly odd. And of course, Tucker wasn’t into dating.
“Damn,” Josh muttered. “That kid is going to be a virgin forever.”
“Well, my virginity is going to grow back,” Rae muttered sourly. “Me and my boy can be spinsters together.”
“You guys are, uh, really involved with your children,” Tucker said, not even trying not to laugh.
“We thought I couldn’t have any,” Rae said after a moment. “It took us… three