72 St. Margaret’s Way Chapter 5
When James got to the wellness fair, he took a quick second to check his hair in the rearview mirror. He should have stopped for that cut. It was too shaggy, he’d been meaning to cut it for weeks. And he needed better clothes. But it couldn’t be helped right now, so hopefully she’d find him acceptable.
His phone buzzed and he saw Amelia’s name on the text that came through, but he put it in his pocket without reading anything else. He’d talk to her when he got to work, but he had to see Adele right now.
James hurried into the building, which was just starting to fill with people. It was still pretty quiet, but he barely noticed anything around him as he made his way over.
There she was, lining up soaps on the table. Heart pounding, he forced his shaking legs forward. She looked up, smiled, and it was as if James had never been sad in his life.
He’d never been in love before this. Even if he thought he had, there wasn’t a chance of any of it living up to what he was feeling right now. Still shaking, he smiled back as Adele stepped closer and leaned across her booth toward him.
“So, who are you?” Adele asked, her voice like the ocean or the stars, or something more poetic than he was capable of being right now as he stood before her.
“James McManus,” he said.
“James McManus,” she repeated, rolling his name in her mouth like a sweet. “And what are you doing here? I saw you asking questions yesterday.”
“I’m trying to find the cause of some strange behaviors and visions that seem to all lead back to this fair,” James said.
“Oh yeah? And who do you work for?”
“The Foundation for Paranormal Studies. The North Worcester County branch. I’m the captain there.”
“Really.”
It wasn’t a question. She looked thoughtful and maybe a little nervous? What did Adele have to be nervous about? He’d do anything for her, didn’t she know that? If something was bothering her, James would fix it no matter what it took.
“Wait here.”
James stayed perfectly still in front of the table, barely breathing as Adele walked back behind the boxes piled under the small canopy behind her. She disappeared and his heart dropped, but she was back an excruciating few seconds later, holding something in her hand.
“Come here.”
He walked behind the counter and Adele reached up to run a hand through his hair. James’s breath caught as her fingers slid over his scalp and down behind his ear, lingering on the strands there before letting go. Sensation shot down his entire body and James took another shaky breath as she ran her hand down the side of his face, to his chin, her eyes locked on his the entire time.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s too long, I’ll cut it today.”
“No,” Adele said. “Leave it like it is. What have you found so far?”
Her hand left his face. Jerked back to Earth, James shook his head slightly. “Um, not much,” he admitted. “It all seems to come back to the fair, but I don’t know why.”
“It’s not here,” Adele said.
Of course. Of course the problems weren’t coming from the wellness fair. She was right. “Of course,” James said. “I’m sure there’s a solution. Um, can I do anything for you? I’m in love with you.”
She smiled and once again, he almost couldn’t breathe. “Keep your investigation away from the wellness fair,” she said.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said, nodding quickly. “Yeah, I can do that.”
She gestured toward the soaps and lotions on her table. “I’m helping people,” she said.
“Of course you are.”
“Sometimes people need a little extra help,” Adele continued. “With courage, with love?” She smiled again and he felt his face heat up. “Or sometimes revenge. Really anything. My products help people. I’m making the world a better place.”
“You are,” he agreed, unable to take his eyes off her. “You’re incredible.”
Was she blushing now? How was she so cute? “It’s not these,” she said, motioning again toward the soaps stacked in front of her. “These are just regular soaps. But if something were to happen here, then my customers wouldn’t be able to get to me. And then I couldn’t help them. So you have to keep me safe.”
“I will,” James said. “I swear, I will.”
Adele ran a finger down James’s chest and he wondered if it was possible to die right now.
“So you’re in love with me?” she asked, a mischievous look on her beautiful face.
“I am.”
“Good.”
She didn’t say she loved him, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t have to love him, she didn’t have to do anything. If she let him love her, it was a privilege.
“Keep it our secret,” Adele said.
“Of course.”
“Come back later today, but don’t do anything suspicious to get here. No one can know.”
The team would get suspicious if he was down here without comms during work. But he could slip out at lunch. It was an agonizing amount of time to be away, but he’d do it for her. “I will,” he promised.
“Good,” Adele said, nodding solemnly. “Now go.”
James barely remembered walking back out to his car, but a few minutes later, he was behind the wheel. He had work in half an hour and when he looked at his phone, he saw two missed calls from Amelia.
He called her back. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Hi,” Amelia said. “Sorry, I know you mentioned you were coming in early today. I just wanted to check in.”
Shit, he had said that, hadn’t he? “Sorry,” James said. “I’ve been busy. I had some errands to run.”
Someday he could tell her the good news. But for now, Adele’s order not to tell had locked something in his brain. Even if he wanted to tell her, he wasn’t sure he actually could. That was fine, though. That was good, because if he slipped up and told them…
Maybe they just wouldn’t understand? But James was pretty sure his team would be happy for him. Didn’t they always push him to date more? Amelia literally had yesterday.
But it didn’t matter why. He wouldn’t say anything because Adele didn’t want him to.
“I’ll be there in about twenty minutes,” he said, shivering as he remembered the feel of Adele’s fingers in his hair. “I have to stop at home first.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Amelia said. “I’ll get Mama’s Market set up? I think Gabriella and Graham should take that one.”
“Great, thanks.”
He hung up, then pulled out of the parking lot, resisting the urge to look back at the Orson Center. James didn’t know how he was going to get through the work day when all he wanted to do was come back and be with Adele.
When he got to work, Amelia was in the living room with Gabriella and Graham. “Great, hey,” Amelia said as James walked up the stairs. “We don’t have a meeting on the schedule, so we figured we’d get started with this.”
“Yeah,” James said, blinking and trying to focus on what he was doing instead of where he’d rather be. “Great. Let’s do that. What’s the case?”
“Haunting in a restaurant over in Westminster,” Amelia said. “Is there anything else on the schedule today?”
“Probably, but I’ll check,” James said. “I’ll be in my office for a few minutes.”
He walked past them before anyone could say anything, nearly tripping over Fang as she ran by, then went to his office and closed the door. It was dim in here and for once no one was asleep on his couch. James sat down with suddenly shaking legs.
He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be at the Orson Center, close to Adele. It didn’t matter what he was doing, just that he was close to her.
But if she didn’t want him there, then he had to respect that and leave her alone. What if she decided he couldn’t be around her because he was too annoying? The idea made him suddenly, unexpectedly heartbroken, like it had actually happened.
But it hadn’t. So he needed to focus on his job and get through the morning. He’d see her soon.
James opened his email, the list of names in his inbox swimming slightly in front of him. There was one from Sharon Delgado, the terrifying and terrifyingly efficient Coos County captain. James had once thought he had a crush on her, but it was nothing compared to the passion he felt now.
Same with that reluctant affection he’d felt for Zach Delinsky. God, what had he been thinking? That was only slightly more appropriate than Meredith. Who wasn’t even worth thinking about. She was nothing compared to Adele.
As soon as he could take his lunch break, James was back at the wellness fair. Adele was working at her stand and, heart pounding, he made his way over.
“You’re the captain of the North Worcester Foundation team?” she asked. “My uncle told me about you guys.”
“I am,” he said.
“Are you located in Leominster?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s the address?”
“Seventy-Two St. Margaret’s Way.”
“And your team thinks that I might be hurting people?”
“No!” James said immediately, desperately. “No, nobody thinks that. They just thought maybe it was someone at the fair. Not you, I promise.”
“Still,” Adele said with a quick glance back, where he realized the man from yesterday – who must be her uncle – was watching them silently. “If they thought something was happening here, I’d have to close down, even if they caught someone else. And I’m doing this to help people. You believe me, right James?”
Of course she was helping people. Adele would never hurt anyone. And if he let the Foundation do anything to harm this fair, she might not be able to help them anymore. Or worse, what if they accused her of hurting someone?
“Make sure that they don’t come here,” Adele said. “There’s nothing here for them, right?”
“There’s nothing…”
Adele turned to her uncle again, then back to James. “Here for them,” she confirmed. “Tell me that.”
“There’s nothing here for them,” James repeated.
“And you have a team?”
“Yeah, they’re great.”
“They cannot come down here. What will you do to stop them from coming here?”
“Anything you want me to,” James said, knowing it was the truth as soon as he said the words.
She smiled at him and he knew he’d said what she wanted. Good, that was all he wanted to do.
She looked back at her uncle once more, but James barely noticed. All he wanted to do was look at her. She turned back and smiled again.
“Alright,” Adele said. “Here’s what I want you to do. But you can’t remember after, okay? Like, you know what to do. But you don’t have to remember it.”
Right, that was fine.
***
“-three options.”
James blinked. He was in his office, with his email opened in front of him. And Amelia was in the doorway saying something. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten here. The last thing he remembered was being at the fair, lucky enough to be in front of Adele.
“What?”
“I said they gave us three options.”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever you want to do.”
“James?”
Adele’s smile when he told her he’d do anything she needed him to do. He would. He’d kill for her without second-guessing. “Yeah?”
“You alright?”
“Of course,” James said. “Just, how about you pick it out and let me know?”
“Okay.”
She looked unsettled, but that was alright. She was good at this stuff, she was his second-in-command for a reason. She’d figure it out. “You okay?” Amelia asked again.
“Me? Yeah, totally fine.”
“You sure? You looked kind of sick and pissed off a little while ago after lunch.”
Had he? He needed to keep the team off of Adele’s scent. She was innocent, but that didn’t always matter. And he’d do what he had to to protect her, even kill them if necessary. But the thought of doing that sent an almost unexpected pang through him. He loved his team, he didn’t want to do anything to hurt them.
But there was nothing there for them to worry about, so it was fine.
He looked over and saw a couple of knives from the weapons closet sitting on the floor under his desk, tucked nearly out of sight. Had he put them there? James dropped a sweatshirt over them to cover them completely, then turned back to Amelia.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
***
James forced himself through the rest of his shift. It was a simple day if he ignored the fair, where there was nothing to worry about. After getting the team established with their afternoon tasks, he set aside the paperwork he couldn’t focus on so he could sit at his desk and consider the shape of Adele’s face. Did she know how beautiful she was?
Finally the day ended and James went home, planning to go straight into his room when he got there. He couldn’t go to the wellness fair now, she’d told him not to. And he wasn’t going to refuse anything Adele ordered him to do. She could tell him to kill himself and he’d do it with a smile. God, so this was what love felt like. He’d never felt this before with anyone and now he couldn’t imagine not having this feeling in his life.
Had James really spent a decade flippantly telling people he was married to his work? Was he that pathetic? Fuck his job. Fuck his team. Fuck everything that wasn’t Adele and worshipping the ground she walked on.
As he walked into his apartment, he heard Graham and Madelyn in the kitchen. “Hey!” Graham called out.
“Hey,” James said, reluctantly stopping in the doorway.
They were sitting at the table with some pasta and salad, along with one of Graham’s never-ending supply of sourdough bread. “How was the rest of the day?” Graham asked.
James shrugged. “No big deal.”
“You want some pasta?” Madelyn asked. “We’re both on the overnight, so we’re just hanging out until then.”
“Nah,” James said. As good as it smelled – and he was hungry – he really needed to just go lay on his bed and think about Adele. “Thanks though.”
“Yeah, of course,” Graham said. “Oh, hey, I’m going to pay rent in a couple days. Just get me the money whenever.”
“Yeah, sure.” James said. “I’m just gonna go…”
He waved vaguely as he went into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. The door creaked open behind him and he closed it again, locking it. Finally alone, he fell onto his bed, staring up at the chipped paint on the ceiling. He almost thought he saw her in the room beside him, with that smile and those sparkling eyes.
James pulled out his phone and transferred Graham the full amount of rent so he wouldn’t have to think about it again tonight. Then he went back to dreaming about Adele’s eyes.
When he closed his own eyes, he could see them still.
