Hell Transporter (Between) by Cyndi Tefft

instinctively reached out and caught it in his free hand.
    “Don’t forget your toothbrush, son.”
    Aiden’s gaze dropped to the white and blue stick in his hand with a look of confusion, but his face fell a moment later as understanding set in. Heat raced up my cheeks and I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I could die right then. Dad’s pointed gaze was hot on my face and I opened my eyes to see him staring directly at me.
    “I told you I was no fool, young lady.” He turned then to Aiden, who stood in the doorway like a stone statue, his face tinged green. “I’ll see you tomorrow at six a.m. Don’t be late.” With that, he strode back into the living room and settled himself into his favorite chair. He snapped open a newspaper, the conversation over. Aiden met my eyes for a moment, but then he, too, walked away without a word, leaving me all alone in the kitchen.

     
    Chapter 7
     
    The next morning, Aiden arrived on time as instructed. My dad received him stiffly at the door while I looked on from the kitchen. Aiden was dressed in the full Scottish regalia that he’d come forward with: kilt, sporran, dirk, stockings, sgian dubh , black shoes, and the beige linen shirt he called a sark. His tartan plaid was slung over his shoulder and pinned with a gold brooch. He bowed to my dad in greeting, then straightened up, looking every inch the wild Scotsman.
    “This is the Highland dress of my people. I’d like for ye to see my true self.”
    Dad’s gaze swept over him from his boots to his bright blue eyes. “All right, then. Fair enough.” He thrust a cooler into Aiden’s arms and I winced, afraid that Dad’s discovery from last night had caused an irreparable rift in their fledgling relationship. Grabbing the fishing poles and his tackle box, he turned to Aiden with a twitch of amusement at the corner of his mouth. “Well, if you’re a true Scotsman, the seat of the boat’s going to be really cold on your bare ass.” When Aiden grinned, Dad finally cracked a smile and shook his head. “Come along then, son. Let’s go catch some fish.”
    Even though it was early in the morning, I was far too worked up to go back to sleep. I made myself breakfast and immediately felt like throwing it up. How on earth was I going to get through the day? Aiden had said everything would be fine, but anxiety twisted my insides into knots.
    I turned on some loud music to distract myself and proceeded to clean the bathroom from top to bottom, ridding it of the stench of the previous night’s debacle. The smell clung to the shower tiles and as I scrubbed them, I thought back to the horrible taste of the skunk’s spray in my mouth. I knew I’d tasted it, even though I was nowhere close to the skunk, just like I’d felt the effects of the whisky even though I hadn’t been the one drinking. Aiden and I hadn’t had this kind of connection before and he didn’t seem to be aware of it, so I wondered if it was just me.
    I thought at first that our connection allowed me to feel his pain since I’d felt the pinprick when he’d poked his finger on the rose bush. But when he did it the second time, I didn’t feel it at all. And I had no explanation for the rush of excitement that had coursed through me when he’d been drinking the night before.
    I blew a stray curl off my forehead and turned my attention to the shower curtain, spraying it down with bleach. It wasn’t that I could read his mind, since there had been a number of times I’d wondered what he was thinking. No, it was like I could feel what he was feeling, but only sometimes, and I didn’t understand why or how. Frustrated, I threw the scrub brush in the bucket and turned on the shower to rinse the suds down the drain.
    What are they talking about? I desperately wanted to know what was happening out on the lake, to get some reassurance that everything was going well, but I didn’t dare call to Aiden in my mind. I felt that to do so would be an intrusion, so I kept