The Near & Far Series

by Serena Clarke

  “Um…that’s my fault,” said Cady. “It’s Shelby’s Kyle.”

  Bee’s eyebrows flew up. “Oh dear.”

  “He’s not my Kyle any more,” Shelby said emphatically.

  Then the paramedics came over to check Holt, and the police were there wanting to interview them. They stood up, leaving Holt in good hands, and Cady got ready to face the music. Never in her life had she expected to answer police questions about shooting someone.

  “Could you hold the fort here?” she asked Bee. More and more people were arriving, and someone needed to be at the operations tent to reassure them and coordinate everything. Bee said yes of course, so Cady showed her what to do, and then she and Shelby went with the two policemen.

  It was a brief interview. They each told their version of what had happened, and the police officers took their phone numbers.

  “We’ll be in touch,” they promised, as they left for the hospital to question Kyle.

  Cady assumed that when they put this incident together with the flash mob riot, they’d come up with a picture that didn’t look all that great for him. It seemed so wrong—he had every advantage, yet he’d gotten so far off track. Come to think of it, that could have been a description of Holt, years before. But today, Holt had proven there was something decent at his core, whereas Kyle had revealed the dangerously narcissistic streak that ran deep beneath the hipster charm, and how far desperation and addiction would take him.

  When they came back, they found some Flashpointers there too—Gavin and Tino, and Jennifer, but not Alison or Reid. Bee had already made their acquaintance, and now she excused herself, saying she wanted to check on Holt.

  “Oh my God, you guys,” said Jennifer, as Bee hurried away. “How awful! I’m so glad you’re okay. I can’t understand how Kyle could do that.”

  “I know,” Cady said, as they hugged. “It was pretty mental for a minute there.” She didn’t want to say too much, knowing that Shelby had only just started to get back to herself.

  “Didn’t I say he was a real asshole?” Gavin said loudly. “First time we met you, remember?”

  “I remember.” Cady stole a look at Shelby. She’d been so hung up on Kyle, and absolutely gutted after the missing night in San Francisco. So much so, she wouldn’t even talk about whatever had happened. She seemed to be holding steady now, but Cady purposefully changed the subject. “Is Alison not here?”

  “No,” Jennifer said. “And I have to apologize to you both on her behalf. I mean, I have to apologize for what she did, because she’s not going to. She told Earth Stand about your real dad having all these orchards, because she was pissed that Shelby stole her number one spot with Kyle. And when he made that deal with the agricultural chemical company, she knew that would really provoke them into action. She was mad at you and him by then. Oh, and she let go all the balloons at the flash mob. That was just petty. She was so crazy about him, it made her crazy.”

  None of that came as a surprise—Alison had seen them as competition from day one. And Cady remembered seeing the balloons randomly floating away. Well, small things amuse small minds.

  Gavin looked at her now. “You’d better be careful. What will she do to you when she finds out you shot him?” As everyone shook their heads, he said, “What? Too early for jokes?”

  “Come on, bro,” said Tino. “Give it a few more hours at least.” He passed Gavin a shovel from the workstation and took one himself, and one for Jennifer.

  “This is amazing,” she said. “I wish we could’ve done something like this. It’s so cool to really make a difference for the environment. I’m glad you used our accounts to promote it—in a way, Kyle helped you, whether he liked it or not.”

  “I felt kind of cheeky doing it,” Cady replied. “But I’m hoping this planting might start a trend, and maybe get Earth Stand to leave the trees alone here.”

  “It’s all good,” Gavin said. “Maybe you’ll redeem Flashpoint after all.”

  “Thanks.” She hoped so, although without a leader there wasn’t much for Flashpoint to hang its hat on any more. Call it a last hurrah, maybe.

  Then Jennifer added, “I have to apologize too. I wasn’t very nice to you either, at first. I thought Alison was so cool, being from Hidden Hills and all, and so pretty. But you know what? I found out she’s really from Michigan. And I think you’re both lovely.”

  Michigan? Cady actually felt bad for Alison now, if the thought of being ordinary was enough to make her so mean.

  “Thank you,” she said, smiling back at Jennifer. “You are too.”

  She allocated them a numbered section of the pegged-out land to work in, and showed them where to collect their plants. There was just one more thing…

  “Um…Reid’s not with you guys?”

  Gavin shook his head. “We thought we’d see him here. He told us we should lie low after the riot, so we didn’t say anything online, but then he asked us to come to this. I don’t know how he got to be the boss of us,” he joked, but Cady could hear the respect in his voice. “Not that we would’ve missed your event,” he added hurriedly.

  “Ah, no, that’s fine, I just wondered…” Everyone looked a bit sorry for her. Damn, was it that obvious? She shooed them off. “Okay, see you soon,” she said. “Work hard! Drink plenty of water!”

  Jennifer set off with the guys, but then dashed back for a moment.

  “I did like Reid too, you know,” she said, making Cady blush. “I mean, what’s not to like, right? And Alison had us all set up in her mind, her and Kyle, me and Reid. But I want you to know that we think you’re really good with him, and good for him. He should open his eyes and see that too.”

  Then she ran after Gavin and Tino, before Cady could reply. She turned to Shelby, who was looking at her sympathetically.

  “What? Don’t look at me like that!”

  “I thought he might be here too,” she said gently. “I know how much you like him.”

  There was no point in denying it to her sister. She knew her too well. “Yeah, well…we probably won’t see him again. And anyway, he’s too hot to handle for me.”

  “What? I don’t think so at all. If anything, you’re out of his league. Why do you think he calls you Lady Cady?”

  Cady smiled at this staunch defense. “I doubt that, but thank you. And he did prove his knight-in-shining-armor chops when he came and got you out of strife.”

  “That’s true. He’s a good one.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what happened. When I realized Kyle was doing drugs like that, I should’ve stepped away, but I wanted him to be my escape, so badly. And, shame on me, I still wanted him. I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it. And when that flash mob went wrong, I was just…everything was doing my head in.” She circled a hand on each side of her head, demonstrating her inner state.

  “You’re only human,” Cady said. Now she understood the wanting herself.

  “I suppose so,” Shelby went on. “But then when we were being held captive, and Kyle was trying to talk me into giving him money, I felt like such a freaking idiot. How could I have got everything so wrong? Those new guys, the bastards—they were dealing, and Kyle was hooked. Apparently he’s up to his eyeballs in debt to them, but without his dad’s money, he’s got nothing to give them.”

  “Well, he just added to his problems today.” She didn’t have much sympathy for him. “But how did Reid get you out?”

  Shelby leaned against the trestle table. “When he came, the head honcho guy wasn’t there, it was just the three of them. He seemed really matey with them, but not like one of them, exactly.”

  “The weasels.” She screwed up her nose.

  Shelby laughed. “Yeah, dirty weasel polecat bastards. I guess he timed it that way.”

  Cady nodded, remembering the phone call at Reid’s cottage.

  “He talked them into letting me go. Said they’d cause an international incident. He put the fear of Interpol and the entire royal family into them, an
d I don’t know, probably Jason Statham and Daniel Craig combined too. I didn’t hear everything, because they had us sitting back to back in the corner like in some clichéd mob movie—but whatever he said, it worked.”

  “Wow. A smooth talker.” So he wasn’t one of them after all…but still a mystery. Who was the real Reid?

  Shelby nodded. “It was epic. He just walked out with me, and left Kyle behind. No wonder he was pissed off. He must have talked them into giving him one more chance to get their money.”

  “And we know how that turned out,” Cady said.

  A late arrival ran up to the tent, and she got him equipped and on his way. Then she turned back to Shelby.

  “What about you now—are you okay?” she asked. “I didn’t think of it then, but maybe you could’ve gone with Kyle in the ambulance.”

  “Are you kidding?” Shelby shook her head. “I wanted to bloody well shoot him myself. But I would’ve aimed higher. Just high enough…if you know what I mean.”

  “I know.” She laughed, glad to see Shelby feisty again. Her Kyle slump was clearly over. “Sorry my aim was off.”

  “Maybe you need Holt to give you some more lessons.”

  “Lessons in what?” The man himself came up behind them, a big white bandage on his temple.

  “Holt! You should have gone home,” Cady told him.

  “No, I’m all stitched up. You can’t keep a…” he faltered on the last words, perhaps remembering their reaction to Mrs. G’s dramatic appearance at the meeting.

  “Good man down,” she finished for him. “That’s true.” In the face of danger, his instant reaction was to step forward and protect them. No one could argue the goodness of that.

  “Or a good woman.” He smiled at her. “That was some shot.”

  “It was a complete fluke. I had no idea what I was doing.”

  The last people arrived to collect tools and instructions, and Cady thanked them as they set off to do their planting, laughing and chatting. When they were gone, Holt said, “Can we talk?”

  They each found a folding chair, and sat in the shade of the marquee. He rubbed the back of his neck as the girls looked at him, waiting.

  “About Cady Greenwood,” he said. “I was wrong. I freaked out and did something terrible. Then I lied to my parents, because I was weak, and afraid of losing everything. I never thought I wanted what they had for me, until I thought I’d lose it. And once the lie was begun, it had to be carried on. I was never strong enough to speak out, so I let it continue. I was the lucky one—people believed me because they wanted to. I owe Cady Greenwood an apology the size of Texas.”

  When he finished, there was a moment of silence. Then Shelby got up, went over, and gave him a hug. Coming from her—the toughest nut to crack—that one gesture said it all. He passed a hand across his blue eyes, shining with emotion below the bandage.

  “Now that Cady has shot someone, do you think we’ll need that lawyer of yours again?” Shelby asked him. “He was pretty cute.”

  He and Cady laughed, and Shelby shrugged. In all the craziness, something was back to normal. It was a good sign.

  Then Bee came over, and tentatively lay a hand on his shoulder. He reached up and covered it with his own, a wordless gesture that spoke volumes. The girls left them together on duty, and maybe on the mend, and went off together to make a difference.

  Forty-Two

  By the time everyone came back from planting, dinner had arrived. Burgers, tacos and burritos, Thai and Korean, Pacific fusion—Cady had been lucky to find a world’s worth of food trucks willing to make the trip from San Francisco. The dusty, thirsty volunteers thronged to get their food, and then sat at the tables or on picnic blankets enjoying the atmosphere and the music. As Shelby had started to come out of her self-imposed bedroom retreat, she’d taken charge of making a compilation, and now she watched with satisfaction as people chilled out to her selection. As well as lots of Santa Almendra locals, Marian had turned up with her man, relieved to see Shelby safely back. Cady had forgotten to phone and tell her, but she’d seen the Operation Bee Road event updates on the Flashpoint Twitter feed, and figured it out.

  As the sun started to go down, Cady took the microphone.

  “Thank you all so much for being here today. You’ve worked so hard. We promise to take good care of your plants, so that when you come back next time you’ll see a growing, thriving little ecosystem.”

  As applause rang out in the evening air, she felt a sudden sadness. She wouldn’t be the one looking after these plants. She’d be back in grey old London, probably at the bank. Still, it was nice to think that this would be here, a legacy of their visit. And maybe they’d be back one day to visit. They had a way to go, but things were different now, with Holt. They had Kyle to thank for that, at least.

  She’d thought hard about how to end the night in a beautiful but eco-friendly way. After the flash mob riot debacle, she didn’t want there to be a single thing for the online critics to pick on. So they’d set big battery-operated bubble machines in the center of the picnicking volunteers, asking the nearest people to turn them on when they got the word. Then, while everyone was eating and hanging out, she and the other Flashpointers handed out bubble mixture in little recyclable containers. Now, as the expectant crowd waited to see what would happen, she continued.

  “We hope the flight of the bumblebees, and the honeybees, will be made a little easier by what we’ve done today. Every great journey starts with a single step, and we’ve made one here together—thank you for that. Now let’s send up a little magic.”

  She nodded to the volunteers, who switched on the bubble machines, sending hundreds, and then thousands, of bubbles into the air. At the same time, Shelby threw a switch in the tent, and ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ immediately burst into the evening air, the music casting a dramatic, whimsical spell. Lights set around the edge of the picnic area shone into the sky, flashing multicolored beams that caught and reflected the shining bubbles as they ascended ever higher.

  The crowd got to its feet, unable to resist the racing, soaring music and the temptation to blow—and pop—bubbles. Some little ones were dancing wildly, waving their arms and running like crazy on the spot, keeping up with the frenetic pace of the music. The unbridled enjoyment in their shining faces was infectious, and Cady laughed too, her heart singing with the joy of creating such an uplifting moment. She’d come a long way from watching the world on her laptop in her tiny bedroom. As the bubbles glided heavenwards with the music, shimmering with kaleidoscopic colors into the dusky sky, she thought again of her mum. She would’ve loved this—and hopefully been proud. She opened her bubble mix and blew a string of bubbles into the air, sending up love and thanks along with the little globes of sparkly magic. As they rose, she let herself imagine Anne looking down, approving.

  Amongst it all, she spotted Bee sharing a tender moment with Holt, and felt glad for them. They probably had a way to go, to sort things out, but maybe it was a new start for them too.

  Then she saw someone else, coming toward her through the happy commotion. Reid. He was smiling, and she couldn’t stop the answering smile that completely overtook her face, along with the heart-pumping rush of seeing him again when she’d been convincing herself to give up. In the last few steps he took, their eyes said everything their words never had, and she knew the game had changed.

  As the swirling, intoxicating music came to an end, and the volunteer army cheered and applauded, he gathered her up. She dropped her bubble mix and put her arms around his shoulders as he lifted her off her feet, crushing her close. He was warm and tall and strong and, oh God, he felt better than anything, ever. She pressed into the side of his neck and breathed him in as he squeezed her tight. Then he set her back on the ground and they looked at each other, their faces millimeters apart.

  “You’re okay,” he said.

  “I am now,” she replied.

  And as she knew he would, he kissed her.

 
She flared with pure lust in the kiss, hot and hungry and bad and oh so good. But the feeling between them now was the lust-plus-more she’d yearned for in his car that day. All the teasing, the banter, the wondering, the holding back and the letting go of the last weeks tangled in her mind as his fingers tangled in her hair. She let herself sink into the blurry-hot bliss of lips and tongues, her breasts pressed against his chest, exhilarating in the almost painful drive to thrust her hips up and against his, as close as they could meld in public without getting her arrested again. As she’d done that night on the bus, a hundred years ago, she lay her hand on the curve of his neck, and felt the racing of his heart in the pulse point at his jaw. It matched her own, and this time she knew there would be no pulling away, no I just can’t.

  Then, from somewhere far away, back there in reality, she heard Shelby calling her name. She reluctantly drew back, only letting her lips part slowly from his, leaving him with a last tease of her tongue that drew a small, satisfying groan. Oh, the power. After all this time, it was mind-blowing to realize he was feeling everything she’d been trying to hide.

  Then she turned as Shelby yelled out to her again. “What?” she called back, trying not to break the spell. Seriously, that girl was so self-absorbed sometimes. There were some things you just didn’t interrupt.

  “Come here,” Shelby called, her phone in her hand. “It’s Dad! Come on.”

  “Oh, for…okay.” She looked apologetically at Reid, gratified to see his eyes still hazy with desire too. “Sorry, I’d better do it. I haven’t had a proper talk to him in a while, with everything that’s gone on.”

  He nodded, and she snuck in one more kiss for good measure, pressing her lips to his as though there might not be a chance for another, ever again. Now he was here, she didn’t want to stop. But they went over to the tent, popping bubbles as they went, and she held out her hand for the phone.

  When Shelby didn’t pass it to her, she said, “Hey, I do want to talk to him.”