by Kate Harre
‘I’m just not sure it’s me,’ Chelsea shared with a regretful sigh. ‘It’s so pretty and it makes me feel like a lady, but I think I want something a bit more edgy.’
Annie’s next dress was one-shouldered with a sloped waistline that started high at the waist on one side and finished low on the hip at the other side, with a loose skirt. It got two ticks of approval and went into the maybe pile. Several more dresses followed for both girls, none of which quite hit the mark they were looking for.
Chelsea walked out of her cubicle in her final number, nervously smoothing the silk fabric over her hips. Pale lilac, it was a Grecian style gown, the material loosely bunched at one shoulder so that gentle folds of fabric flowed over the bust and swept to one side of her waist, where it was gathered together and then fell loosely to the floor with a high split.
‘Wow!’ Karen murmured appreciatively.
‘You look like a Goddess,’ Annie breathed, impressed to death.
Chelsea grinned impishly. ‘That was the idea!’ Bunching her hair up, she held it on top of her head. ‘If I wear my hair up, I should be able to put some kind of silver circlet on my head or maybe weave pearls through my curls. What do you think?’
‘Absolutely!’ Karen enthused. ‘We should also look for shoes which have straps you can wind around your calves – complete the whole Greek Goddess thing.’
‘Oh yeah, that would be cool.’ Chelsea turned to Annie. ‘Right, let’s see your last one.’
Annie changed and emerged nervously from the change rooms in the dress she’d wanted right from the start. It was exactly what she’d hoped it would be, but she needed Karen and Chelsea to like it too.
Karen’s eyes widened. ‘That’s it. That’s the one.’
‘You look gorgeous!’ Chelsea squealed, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands together.
Deceptively simple, the dress was strapless but its genius was in the fit. The sweetheart neckline sat perfectly over the bust, moulding to her ribcage before cinching in just above the hips, defining Annie’s tiny waist. The chiffon skirt then fell in gentle folds to the floor so when she turned the fabric swirled around her legs. It was a dress made for dancing and it made her feel beautiful.
‘I love it,’ Annie said with a grin, her eyes sparkling.
‘You should. You look absolutely stunning.’ Karen’s eyes were shining with pride. ‘We’ll practice some different looks for your hair this week, so you can decide how you want to wear it.’
Annie hoped that meant she was still going to be in Ridgeville the following weekend. She didn’t want to think how depressing it would be to leave Chelsea behind or how saying goodbye to Alex would leave a great big gaping hole in her chest.
The dresses done, they headed off to the food court for lunch before tackling the shoe shopping. By mid-afternoon, both girls had exactly what they needed and the shopping bags were piled into the trunk of Karen’s car.
Annie, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, twisted around so she could see Chelsea in the back. ‘We have to make a stop on the way home.’
Karen started the car, pulling out of their parking space and nosing towards the main road.
‘Is this about my surprise?’ Chelsea leaned forward eagerly.
Annie nodded solemnly, but couldn’t hide the devilment in her eyes. ‘I’m going to tell you what it is now, so you have a chance to compose yourself before we get there… we’re going to pick up my father.’
There was a moment of silence while Chelsea registered what Annie had said, followed by an ear-piercing screech that made Karen wince. ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…’
‘He’ll be trying to arrive without a whole lot of fanfare, so it would be really great if you could play it cool at the airport.’ She ignored Karen’s derisive snort, all too well aware that Jake thrived on attention, especially of the feminine kind. ‘Do you think you can do that?’
‘Yes,’ Chelsea whispered, her eyes as big as saucers. ‘I can’t believe I’m going to be sitting in the same car as Jake Archer!’
‘He’s really not that impressive in the flesh,’ Karen commented with a wry smile.
Chelsea looked at her like she’d grown a second head.
‘Well, okay, he is pretty good looking,’ Karen felt compelled to concede. ‘But he’s just a normal man who farts and burps like any other guy.’
‘Mum!’
Karen glanced over at her. ‘Am I lying?’
‘No. But that doesn’t mean you need to say those things in front of Chelsea. That’s family stuff.’
Karen rolled her eyes. ‘I’m sure Chelsea’s father burps and farts too. Right?’
‘Yeah. All the time.’ Chelsea glared accusingly at Karen. ‘But did you have to ruin it for me?’
Karen bit her lip and turned into the airport car park. ‘Sorry, Chelsea. I don’t want you to have unreal expectations of what Jake’s like. When you realise he’s only another Dad, you’ll be disappointed.’
Annie grinned. ‘She’s right, Chels. Dad is just as annoying, opinionated and interfering as your Dad. Only worse, because he’s got an ego the size of Africa.’
Chelsea giggled and then looked guilty. ‘It feels wrong to talk about him like this.’
‘Oh don’t worry, we tell him to his face too,’ Karen said.
Jake came through a private doorway in the arrivals lounge, his celebrity status ensuring he got special treatment at the airport. At the sight of her father, the last few emotion-packed days finally got the better of Annie and she raced towards him, throwing herself into his arms, which closed tightly around her. Lifting her off the ground, he whispered in her ear. ‘It’s okay, Pumpkin. I’m here.’
‘I missed you, Dad.’
‘I missed you too, baby,’ he said gruffly and gently lowered her to the ground. Keeping one arm looped around her shoulders, he reached out for Karen, pulling her to his side and dropping a kiss on the top of her head. ‘Hi there, sweetheart.’
Karen rolled her eyes, but hugged him back.
Annie gestured to Chelsea, who’d been hovering in the background, her eyes alive with excitement and nervous anticipation. ‘Dad, this is my friend, Chelsea. She’s a fan, but don’t let it go to your head – we’ve already warned her what you’re really like.’
Chelsea shot Annie an appalled look, but Jake just chuckled. ‘I’ll just bet you both have. So this is the infamous Chelsea.’
‘You already know about me?’ Chelsea asked in awe.
‘Of course.’ Jake released his girls and enclosed Chelsea’s hand in both of his much larger ones. ‘I talk to Annie almost every day and she’s told me all about you. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.’
Chelsea looked like she was about to melt. Karen glanced around and noticed they were starting to attract attention. ‘We’d better go before there’s a stampede,’ she muttered at Jake and started to usher the girls towards the exit. Jake pulled his baseball cap down lower on his forehead and followed in their wake.
By the time they’d dropped Chelsea home, it was dark. Jake strode into the house and gave himself a tour before announcing he liked it. He returned to the kitchen, flinging open the fridge to inspect its contents.
‘No beer?’ he complained.
‘Mum doesn’t drink beer,’ Annie reminded him.
Jake sighed and poured two glasses of white wine, handing one to Karen when she entered the room. He made himself comfortable at the kitchen bench, pilfering cheese and crackers as fast as Annie could make them.
‘Jenny sends her love to you both.’ Jenny was Jake’s housekeeper come personal assistant and was basically the glue that held his life together. Tragically widowed in her early forties, she’d moved into Jake’s Los Angeles mansion after yet another housekeeper had quit, unable to cope with having Jake’s band members semi-permanently camping out and keeping rock star hours. A real marshmallow at heart, Jake was virtually incapable of saying no and had a constant stream of hangers-on flo
wing through his home. Jenny, with her no-nonsense attitude had quickly disposed of the unwelcome guests, restored the house to order and ruled it with an iron fist. Without her, Jake would probably resemble a homeless person, since he’d never been able to grasp even the most basic household tasks. Karen and Annie both adored her.
‘Any requests for dinner?’ Annie asked.
‘A roast?’ Jake responded hopefully.
‘Aw, come on, Dad. Roasts take hours. How about a stir fry?’
‘Why ask if you already know what you’re going to cook?’ Jake grumbled.
‘I was being polite. You should try it sometime.’
Karen giggled and then tried to regain her composure when Jake shot her a filthy look. ‘When did she develop such a smart mouth?’ he muttered.
‘Our little girl grew up.’ Karen shrugged, unconcerned. ‘You should be proud – she’s no pushover!’
‘I guess.’ He sighed. ‘Sometimes I wish she was still that sweet little girl who said, “Yes, Daddy; I love you Daddy” to everything.’
‘Come off it. She’s much more interesting now.’
‘You guys do know I’m right here, right?’ Annie interjected acerbically. The doorbell rang and she put down the knife she was chopping carrots with. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get it. You two carry on with your reminiscing.’
She strode down the hall and yanked open the front door, belatedly thinking she probably should have checked who was there first… but she needn’t have worried. It was Alex, his face obscured under his hood. ‘I saw the lights and just wanted to check you were okay.’
Annie rolled her eyes at his over-protectiveness. ‘Do you want to come in?’
He shook his head. ‘No. I’ll leave you to catch up with your Dad. I’ll see you tomorrow after school.’
‘Annie? Who is it?’ Jake’s voice boomed down the hallway and seconds later he was looming over her shoulder. Alex shrank back into the shadows and she knew he’d be regretting the impulse that had brought him to her door. For a second she vacillated about what to do. Her Dad was nosy and pushy, so at some point he was going to force an introduction anyway, whether Alex liked it or not.
Reaching outside, she grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled him through the door. ‘Dad, I’d like you to meet Alex.’
Alex gritted his teeth and thought, to hell with it. Annie was probably going to be gone in a matter of days anyway, so it hardly mattered what her Dad thought of him. He thrust the hood back off his head, surprised at how much easier it was getting to do that. But he still couldn’t bring himself to meet Jake’s eyes.
Annie watched as Jake blanched, physically recoiling from the horror of Alex’s face. She should have warned him, but it hadn’t seemed relevant when he was on the other side of the country. Squaring his shoulders, he gathered himself together and shot a reproachful look in her direction. Sorry, she mouthed.
He cleared his throat. ‘I don’t know what the hell happened to you, kid, and I’m not sure I even want to know,’ Jake said bluntly. ‘But please, come in and have some dinner with us.’
Alex eyes flew up in surprise. ‘Uh… thanks.’
‘So Annie tells me you’ve been teaching her self-defence and whipping her into shape. I never thought I’d see the day my daughter embraced fitness.’
Alex, who was following Jake down the hallway, looked over his shoulder at Annie in bemusement. ‘You told him about me?’
‘Of course. It’s not public knowledge, but Dad’s a real gossip and he can’t bear to be out of the loop. He’s like an old woman.’ Annie closed the front door and followed them into the kitchen.
Karen tried to smother an inelegant snort of laughter and failed miserably.
‘Pumpkin!’ Jake shot her a wounded look.
‘Dad! I thought we’d agreed you wouldn’t call me that in front of people!’
‘You hurt my feelings,’ he justified loftily.
‘I did not! You know it’s the truth!’
‘But there are some things that are only between family, Pumpkin,’ he retorted with a wicked grin.
Two could play at that game. ‘Alex is family, Badge!’
Alex was genuinely shocked and, while Annie and Jake continued to verbally fence, he slumped down at the table beside Karen, his legs suddenly resembling the consistency of jelly. Did she honestly think of him that way? He didn’t know what it was like to be part of a family that truly cared about each other. A distant father didn’t really count. Karen reached over and squeezed his hand. He lifted dazed eyes to hers and was surprised to see moisture in her gentle eyes. She nodded and smiled, confirming that it wasn’t only Annie who felt that way about him. He bit the insides of his cheeks to hold back the tide of emotion struggling to overwhelm him.
‘How about I order in Chinese?’ Jake’s voice was a welcome distraction from everything Alex was feeling.
He cleared his throat. ‘Why do you call your Dad, Badge?’ he asked Annie.
Annie sank into the seat Karen had just vacated when she’d gone over to the corner of the bench to help Jake find a delivery menu for the local Chinese restaurant. Annie glanced guiltily in their direction. ‘He’ll probably kill me for telling you this, but…’
‘You don’t have to tell me,’ Alex interposed quickly, not wanting to jeopardise his welcome into the family.
‘It’s okay. It’s good to ruffle his feathers every now and then,’ she said with a grin. ‘A few years back, Dad decided it would be cool to put some blonde highlights in his hair. I think he looked at Joel Madden and thought he needed to do something extra to stay “relevant” or something like that.’
Alex looked over at Jake, who was talking on the phone while idly playing with a strand of Karen’s vibrant hair. His own hair was dark brown, similar in colour to Annie’s. She’d got her colouring from her father, he noticed for the first time. But her delicate bone structure was all Karen.
Annie followed the direction of his gaze. ‘I know, right. He’d look ridiculous blonde and I told him so. But he insisted. A sensible man would have gone with some subtle highlights, but not Dad. Thinking he’d look rock star cool, he decided to go for two blonde stripes from his forehead to the nape of his neck. He looked like a badger and I’ve called him Badge ever since.’
Alex chuckled. ‘I don’t remember seeing him with blonde stripes.’
‘The public never got to see it – fortunately. Mum and I took one look and couldn’t stop laughing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dad so upset. He had the hairdresser back within the hour and dyed his hair back to normal. He doesn’t experiment with colour any more.’
From behind her, Jake groaned. ‘I can’t believe you told Alex that story. Is nothing sacred?’
‘You called me Pumpkin in front of him,’ Annie pointed out unrepentantly.
‘It just rolls off the tongue, baby. I can’t help it!’ He tried to look sorry and failed miserably. Annie, who could never stay mad at him, sighed and got up to retrieve the plate of cheese and crackers she’d been putting together earlier.
Jake shot a look in Alex’s direction. ‘Uh… is Alex up with the play on the whole, uh… dream thing?’ he tried to say carefully.
Annie nodded. ‘He knows everything. He was with me the other night when it happened again.’
Jake’s gaze snapped straight to Karen with a reproving glower. Before Karen could dig herself a hole, Annie jumped in to defend her.
‘Alex was in his bedroom; I was in another room down the hall. He heard me scream and came running,’ she explained matter-of-factly. She didn’t feel the need to add that he’d stayed with her for the rest of the night. Despite his own chequered past, Jake was fiercely protective of her.
He relaxed slightly. ‘Right. Well, we need to discuss our next steps. Personally, I’m in favour of…’
‘I know what you’re in favour of,’ Annie interrupted acerbically. ‘And it’s not going to happen. I have no desire to live in isolation, even if it is the Mediterranean.’
‘Alaska?’ he proffered hopefully.
‘I want to stay here, Dad,’ she said quietly. She outlined the points she’d made to Alex the previous day. ‘I’ll be careful. But I really don’t think I’m at any great risk.’
Jake and Karen exchanged a look. It was weird to see them like this, so serious. Usually she was the responsible one and they simply floated willy-nilly through life. But now they were stepping up, in unity about keeping her safe.
‘One part of me agrees with her, but the other part of me just wants to wrap her up and spirit her away from here,’ Karen admitted to Jake, her confusion obvious. He nodded in understanding and studied his hands for a while.
Looking up, he gazed steadily at Annie. ‘If you stay here, I stay here.’
Annie nodded in quick affirmation, wondering how that was going to work. Was he planning on staying in their house? It had been years since Karen and Jake had inhabited the same place for more than a few days and she wasn’t entirely sure it was a good idea for them to be in such close proximity for any length of time. Karen threw a startled look in Jake’s direction and Annie knew she was wondering the same thing. But she pressed her lips together, too eager to stay in Ridgeville to argue the point.
‘I will drive you to and from school and anywhere else you need to go. That’s non-negotiable,’ he emphasised when she frowned. ‘You won’t let yourself be one-on-one with any boys, until the killer is found.’
‘But –‘
Jake held up his hand to stop her protest. ‘Except Alex, who I think we can trust to keep you safe.’ His eyes bored into Alex’s until Alex nodded his acceptance of the responsibility.
Annie relaxed slightly. ‘What about Prom?’
‘You’re going with the boy you work on the school paper with, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘That should be okay,’ Jake conceded. ‘But I’ll want to meet him first. And if at any time I feel your safety is in jeopardy, you’ll jump on a plane without argument. Agreed?’