Skye lightly touched Flick’s shoulder as she hiccupped and tried to brush her hair out of her face and blow her snotty nose before Skye saw what a mess she was. ‘They’re awful!’ she ground out fiercely.
‘Who are?’ asked Skye, already knowing the answer, but Felicity was mid-rant and wasn’t about to stop now the emotional roller coaster she had been on for the last couple of weeks had come to an abrupt halt.
‘They suck you in and bleed the life out of you,’ she sobbed vehemently, seeming not to care now who was looking at her, although most of the parents had grabbed their children and were out of there with a swift, polite smile before you could wave goodbye. ‘They all want me to paint for them, for free, for the ‘publicity’ it will get for my work. I would have to paint non-stop for the next five years if I were to take on all of those commissions, and I wouldn’t earn a penny,’ Felicity gulped in some air and appeared a little steadier once she had calmed her nerves.
Skye sat next to her and was uncharacteristically patting her arm, noticing the contact made Flick flush with pleasure. ‘I have no idea why you deemed me important enough to notice, but I will be eternally grateful that you’ve uncovered my hidden talent,’ blushed Flick. ‘I dreamed of being a proper exhibited artist, with people strolling around admiring my work and then pulling out handfuls of cash for it. I wanted posh assistants scurrying around with glossy brochures, sticking red dots all over the walls to tell other hungry buyers the paintings were already sold and they were too late. Well, that was exactly what happened. The exhibition you arranged for me was amazing,’ Felicity gushed through her tears, ‘but I already have two major commissions from that interview you set up with the local paper. I won’t have time to paint them if I keep doing freebies for my so-called friends.’
‘Tell them no,’ Skye said simply, not understanding the dilemma, as she had never cared much about what others thought of her before she came here. She did wonder what it would feel like if Thea suddenly made demands on her, but although Thea was mightily bossy and had a death stare that could make grown men weep, Skye couldn’t imagine her being selfish or inconsiderate. The thought did make Skye a bit nervous. Would she become needy, like Flick was with the other school mums? The idea of relying on someone horrified her. She was beginning to lean on Thea for emotional support, and enjoyed her company. Skye had even invited her round on a day that wasn’t a club day, and that had never happened before, and had bought a packet of biscuits that Thea might like… Skye’s hands began to tremble in shock, so she steadied herself on Flick’s arm and stamped on her own toe to snap herself out of it. Felicity looked a bit taken aback as Skye’s suddenly jumped up and began hopping from foot to foot – that had not been a good idea. The weather was warming up and she had forgotten she’d finally thrown her boots into the little cupboard under the stairs and was wearing flat sandals. Felicity was looking at her pityingly now, as if suggesting saying no to Belle and her crew made Skye a bit thick.
‘I could break their legs for you?’ said Skye, returning to her usual banter. Flick started sniggering gently, obviously assuming her friend was joking, and quite enjoying the mental picture conjured up of Belle hobbling along, red hair flying in the wind while Skye tried to catch up with her.
‘I’m currently hiding behind the bike sheds so that they don’t break my legs when they find out I’m too busy to do their paintings. Belle wants me to paint her in the nude as a present for a gentleman friend.’ She screwed up her face in disgust, just as Skye did the same thing and made a gagging sound.
‘I think I’ve just been a bit sick in my mouth,’ said Skye as they saw each other’s scrunched-up faces and burst out laughing.
‘I saw you talking to Zack,’ said Felicity casually. ‘Lucky lady,’ she blushed at her own brazen comment.
‘You like him?’ asked Skye in surprise. She had been ignoring men for so long it hadn’t occurred to her that others still saw them as something beautiful. She wondered fleetingly if anyone ever looked at her that way? Although she doubted it, with her grouchy demeanour and distinctive wardrobe of black and more black.
‘Not really,’ admitted Felicity, ‘although he is pretty as a picture,’ she giggled at her own joke, making Skye smile as Felicity’s gentle personality began to shine through. ‘I’ve got my own beau, although I wouldn’t tell anyone here. They would tear him apart for wearing a bowtie and wonky glasses. He’s an art critic I met recently, and he’s gorgeous,’ she exclaimed, blushing again at her own passionate outburst. ‘I would never talk to anyone else like this, but your quiet, no-nonsense manner makes me want to tell you everything. How do you do that?
Skye lent down, grasped Flick’s hands and squeezed them gently, ignoring the question. ‘Hold onto that feeling that you have something of your own, and you will get stronger from it. You don’t need these school mums in your life, now. You’re free to choose your own friends. Why don’t you make new ones that you actually enjoy being around?’ Flick looked stunned, as if she hadn’t thought of that before. Skye gave her a swift hug as she saw Leo walk out of the school building and look around for her. Allie was close at his heels, as usual, and Skye stepped into the sunlight and raised her arm in greeting as she moved towards them.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Walking home, Skye mulled over the idea of adding more children to her new self-defence classes. She really, really wanted to feel good about becoming more open and helping others, but she hated people. She loved being around the kids, but the chit-chat with parents confused the hell out of her and left her cold. She could converse with anyone on practically any subject, and was well versed in politics, but personal small talk had her running for the hills. She hated talking about her real self, as most of her life was made up. She knew that being here meant a lot to Leo, so she had had to curb the expansive lying that was part of her former job. Now that she couldn’t lie so much, she found she actually enjoyed making stuff up. Most people labelled themselves by their status, job or talents. What could she say about herself? Multi-skilled ninja school mum? The thought still gave her a frisson of adrenaline and she pictured their faces if they ever uncovered the truth. It was a sobering thought. Leo would lose all of his friends, except Allie, as her aunt was just as bad!
The other thought was that she liked having other children near her for an hour or two, once or twice a week, but by the end of each session she had just about reached her tolerance level for being around others these days. She was accustomed to hiding away, and had lost the social skills she used to have in abundance. She needed to work on her ‘being nice’ skills. How hard can it be? she thought morosely.
Skye pondered the way Zack had approached her, and admired his courage. Making a move in her direction couldn’t have been easy. She wondered what he wanted to talk to her about? It was actually good timing that he was popping over; because he was her landlord, she would need his permission to use anything from the field behind the cottage. She’d had the idea to expand the space the kids worked in, as the number of children was still creeping up. Where the hell did they all come from? She was sure Thea must be lifting them over the back wall while she was indoors. There were definitely two more children than last week. She had decided it was time to really challenge them and, for that, she would require more space. She knew Thea was organised and would have lists with the kids’ names and addresses and contact numbers hidden somewhere in case of emergencies. She bet Thea had even showed them some DBS checks and explained that, although Skye was too busy to chat, she was perfectly safe to be around their children, which was why more kept arriving each week. Well, they couldn’t be more checked out by the government than Thea and Skye, she giggled to herself. Thea was responsible enough for the both of them anyway.
There was an upside to having the kids in her house. Skye hadn’t had the heart to charge them an entrance fee yet, as it wasn’t an official club and, as far as the parents knew, she wasn’t professionally qualified, unless Thea had blabbed abou
t that too. The children just seemed happier and enjoyed coming to her home to be bossed about and have some exercise. The upside was that the mums had taken to bringing round all kinds of food, which, when you put everything into perspective, was pretty good news. They arrived with anything from dainty iced cakes to full-on chicken casseroles, after one or two had managed to take a quick peek at her empty fridge when grabbing their child a glass of squash. She didn’t know whether to slap Thea for letting on she was a dismal cook, or hug her friend for helping her to receive a ready supply of fresh dinners and desserts at least twice a week.
Leo and Allie certainly didn’t complain about her usual food, and they knew better than to rub in how delicious the new meals were. She wasn’t so stupid or stubborn that she couldn’t recognise a gift when she saw one, and determined quickly that she could now spend even less time in the kitchen and more in the garden with the kids. She realised that she had come to rely on Thea and the madcap group of children more than she could have imagined.
Skye had decided only the previous night that she would approach Zack to ask him to lease out the field behind the cottage. He might be stubborn and not let her build the climbing apparatus she wanted to, but he had a whole tree climbing business, for goodness’ sake, so he couldn’t really complain about a few low climbing walls and an assault course.
Luckily, it seemed that he needed her for something, so she hoped she would be able to cajole him with a bit of bartering. She picked up her pace as she noticed the kids had started walking up the pebble-strewn pathway to the cottage while she was daydreaming. She realised that this was the first time she hadn’t been scanning the streets for threats, too. Perhaps they might settle here and she could build on this new life?
Skye thought of Zack’s strong physique and wondered if he would help her set up her new business, for that was what she had just decided it would be. She would need some muscles to help her build it. She would give up the pretence that she was anything else, saying she had decided on a career change and would set up a self-defence business from home and, to be fair, she was actually qualified even though she hadn’t shared that information with anyone but Thea. It had been part of her initial training at LUCAN. There would be no more lying from this day forward, as the new and improved Skye-Safe classes started today. She had a feeling that the children, and maybe even adults at a later date, would love the excitement of challenging themselves on her assault courses.
Maybe she should approach this differently if she wanted to sell the idea to Zack; butter him up a bit and beguile him with her feminine charms? She grew a bit hot at the thought of seducing him, but didn’t back down from a challenge, and thought it was about time she woke up her sleepy libido. If she was going to jump back into the dating game, she may as well aim for the top and enjoy herself.
It wouldn’t cost much to put the course she had planned for the field together, not that she was short of cash, but with her expertise and his bulging biceps, they could come up with something special if she didn’t get too distracted by his snug jeans and firm hands. If she was so out of practice at getting her own way and he said no, she would just have to cut back on the number of kids that arrived each week.
The doorbell rang at six o’clock sharp, but Skye had been so busy trying to get the parents to leave, while shoving their latest offerings into her fridge and oven for dinner, that she had almost forgotten that Zack and Emmie were coming round and hadn’t had time to get changed or, at the very least, brush her hair. Leo excitedly ran to the door to see who it was, then stopped in stunned silence when he saw it was Emmie and her dad. Emmie was looking at her feet and seemed embarrassed at being dragged here, even though she must have been to the cottage loads of times with her dad before Skye and Leo moved in. Skye wondered if Emmie felt annoyed that she’d had to be invited by Leo’s mum to come round, and not Leo, and could have kicked herself for being so tactless once again. She hadn’t considered how Emmie might feel, or Leo, come to that.
Had Emmie heard whispers about a mysterious club that Skye ran, or seen a glimpse of it when she had spied on them over the wall? Skye felt sorry for her as she looked mutinous, as if she was damned if she was going to beg anyone to include her. After her chat with Zack at the school, Skye could imagine that Emmie might have been mortified when her dad had told her they were coming here tonight. Maybe she’d even ranted she didn’t want to come but, for once, he had apparently stood firm and told her she was accompanying him regardless, as here they were on her doorstep. Zack had mentioned to Skye that he was useless at disciplining his daughter, so Skye was impressed they’d made it. Skye could see that Emmie was curious about Leo and his mum, by the way she was peeking under her hair into the house when she thought no one was watching her. Skye winked at Emmie who, she guessed, had finally decided to let her dad have his own way if he was going to be grumpy about it, although she wasn’t about to make it easy for him judging by the scowl she sent him. Skye smiled, glad it wasn’t her problem.
She rushed forward and ushered them inside, giving Leo a breezy smile and a swift push in the back to propel him forward, as he seemed to be rooted to the spot. He was usually quite sociable; with his start in life he’d needed to adapt to so many new places, but he was blushing furiously, so Skye tried to cover his embarrassment by making him move away from the door.
Seeing Zack walking into her home, and filling the space with his masculine energy, wrong-footed Skye and she began to feel her cheeks grow hot as if she was going to start blushing too. She had to stop acting like a pre-pubescent teenager and persuade him to let her use the field at the back of the cottage, without making a complete idiot of herself.
The food was fragrant and bubbling temptingly in the oven as they reached the kitchen, which didn’t take long in such a small house. Skye ignored her grumbling tummy, she had forgotten to eat lunch again, and led them outside to the garden, before stopping short and realising what it must look like. The beautiful kitchen garden that bordered the lawn was still there, but in the centre was a latticework of tree trunks and climbing apparatus which might not look so good to the owner of such a quaint and perfectly-formed cottage.
She hoped he saw the positives in the situation. She was helping the local community, surely? Thea was Zack’s friend and Thea’s niece was getting free tuition and scrummy food from the other mums and Skye was being kept out of trouble. What more could they ask for? Thea always gave in and helped Skye to drag the trees over the wall and into the garden, then sat sipping tea while Flo gurgled on her playmat and Skye got out her electric saw and began carving the little trees up. Both Thea and Skye were getting fitter and Thea had told her she could actually see her toes again as her tummy was shrinking and her boobs weren’t quite so gargantuan and bursting with milk any more. She thought fleetingly that maybe it wasn’t best to share that last point with Zack, so she straightened her face and turned to him with a brilliant smile. Ushering him towards a chair outside as a distraction technique, she resisted the urge to cup a hand around his impressive derrière. She held herself in check and prayed that Thea had been shopping and stocked her fridge with drinks and, if she was really lucky, a good bottle of wine.
Zack sat down but looked stunned, and as though he was about to ask her what the hell she had done to his lovely garden, so she cut him off. ‘Drink?’
Quickly moving away before Zack had time to respond, Skye grabbed some cans of lemonade and a jug of orange squash, sending a silent thank you to Thea for always bringing sustenance with her and filling the cupboards with tasty food these days. Skye returned and her stomach did a somersault at the sight of Zack, sitting in her garden. She had to find a way to stop him telling her to get rid of the training equipment.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Zack’s mouth hung open in shock. The last time he had been here, he had spent hours digging up the turf and planting stupid flowers to entice a tenant. Now, you could barely see the lawn, or surrounding flowerbeds, as a low-level s
tructure of wooden planks covered the whole lawn! He had heard rumours that she was running a self-defence class here and it hadn’t really bothered him that she hadn’t approached him for permission. Skye was new here and he saw it as an excuse to contact her if he needed to. It had worked like a dream and she had invited him round, but now he was regretting letting his libido control his business and was kicking himself for assuming she was a bit of a flake. From his own experience of setting up CloudClimb, this looked like it had been designed by a professional. Zack hated it on his lawn, but was intrigued at what she had achieved in such a short space of time. Ideas were starting to whizz around his brain at finding out who designed it, and how they could incorporate a similar design into the centre. He had been thinking of trying to find easier climbs for smaller children as, although he didn’t encourage them, they turned up at the centre anyway. He might as well make money out of it and not have them hanging around annoyingly while their older siblings went on tree climbs.
Looking beyond the assault course, Zack could see the end of the garden was untouched, other than two football goals. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the thought of how perfect the garden had looked before, and how many hours he’d spent digging the soil to make it presentable.
‘Leo, why don’t you and Emmie go and explore the garden? You can explain to her what everything is,’ said Skye, looking at Zack for his consent and, after a short nod of his head, the children ran to explore. Emmie had been so wide-eyed with excitement when she had seen the course that Zack didn’t have the heart to say no or embarrass her by wringing Skye’s neck, which was what he felt like doing. He tried to rein in his rising fury and bunched his hands into fists to control himself.
Skye innocently looked up at him as if she had completely forgotten that she had built her training course and basically commandeered the garden without asking permission for the changes she had made. From his professional point of view, it looked like she had begun with a few fallen tree trunks that she had found on a stroll through the woods behind the cottage. He admitted to himself that he had been kind of hoping to bump into Skye; preferably half-naked, in a bikini or the vest top and shorts she always seemed to wear, as the weather was warming up. A few months ago, he would probably have run a mile if he saw her dragging a small tree through the woods. He wondered if she’d called Thea and blackmailed her into helping her steal the tree-trunks, as they looked pretty heavy and those two were inseparable these days. Perhaps her excuse was that it was for the kids, she wasn’t charging them to come to her home, as far as he knew, and the lord of the manor would never find out. He tried to control his temper and remember that he had been so enthusiastic about his new ideas for CloudClimb after years of procrastination and isolation, that maybe Skye hadn’t dreamed that anyone might not love what she’d done here either.
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