“Oh, there’ll be plenty of talking. I know you haven’t told me everything Cal.” He snapped, yanking my own gloves from his pocket and taking off Adam’s. “These Adam’s?”
I nodded as Adam walked towards us to retrieve his gloves. Cameron pulled me into his arms and squeezed tight. My head was squished between his chest and his arms, short girl problems.
“Can’t. Breathe. Cam.” I stammered, slapping him on the back to let him know.
“You should grow some more! Thanks for taking care of her Sarge.” Cameron said as he let go of me and handed Adam his gloves back, looking over the top of my head at him.
“Standing right here Cameron!” I snapped.
“No problem. Listen, go easy on her mate, she’s had a shitty night.” Adam lowered his voice as they turned their backs to discuss me, because apparently neither of them could see me standing right there. I busied myself looking down at my feet like a naughty school girl.
“Morning, Callie?” Greg frowned at my presence as he came in through the door to begin his shift. “Everything alright?”
“Yeah Greg, I’m okay, just had a crazy night. I met your cousin though. He’s pretty cool.” I told him brightly.
“Yeah, he’s one of the good ‘uns.” Greg nodded in agreement; his light brown hair was gelled back and perfectly styled as usual so it didn’t fall into his eyes. I always felt an urge to stick my hand in it and mess it up. “Can’t imagine how you two ended up meeting though.” Typically he was onto the fact something had happened, Greg was no fool.
I shrugged. “I bumped into him while I was looking for you and Dana.” Bumped, ha! I’d practically thrown myself at the man’s feet!
Greg’s frown deepened, “Everything alright cous?” Greg was pulling off his coat and gloves as he called over to where Adam and Cameron were still talking in hushed voices.
“All good.” Adam confirmed as they finished their conversation and joined us.
“What’s going on Cal?” Greg wanted to know, but I had noticed the look of annoyance on my brother’s face when he turned back to us.
“Cam?” I whispered.
“I’m going to kill him.” Cameron announced bitterly. I knew he was talking about Jase, Adam had obviously filled him in. I sighed heavily.
“Who’re we killing buddy?” Greg asked, getting on board with Cameron’s murder plot, like a good friend should.
“Jase fucking Montgomery!” Cam growled angrily.
“Shit!” Greg groaned, turning to me. “What did he do Callie?”
“Amy.” I supplied simply. I didn’t know what to think about Amy’s part in the whole thing. She was supposed to be my friend. What kind of friends went after each other’s boyfriends? I was no idiot, I knew Jase got a lot of female attention; he was a good looking guy. But attention from my friends? That was something I did not want to deal with.
“Seriously?” Greg’s eyes went wide. Then he was by my side wrapping me up in his arms and planting a kiss on my hair.
“Walked right in on them.” My voice was muffled under Greg’s arms, but he didn’t squeeze as tightly as Cam so I could still breathe and he could still hear me.
“Shit Cal, I’m sorry. He’s an idiot!” Greg muttered and I could hear anger in his voice, he rubbed my shoulders gently and then released me. “Didn’t know how good he had it!”
Adam caught my eye, “Okay?” He mouthed silently at me; I nodded and smiled at him then mouthed the same word back before he disappeared into his office.
“I’m going home Cameron.” I told him. I was desperate for a long hot bath, my pyjamas, woolly socks and the tub of rolo ice cream I had stashed at the back of the freezer. I know, ice cream in January, but it was my comfort food no matter what the weather was doing.
“Not on your own you’re not. “ My brother snapped, “Give me an hour and I’ll take you.”
“Cam, I can walk home by myself!” I argued, getting frustrated. This was how it was going to be for a while, I knew. The price I would have to pay for running off like a clueless child into the night without suitable clothing for the second time in a year and not letting him know where I was. My brother was about to go into over protective hyper drive.
“No!” He was adamant. He turned his attention back to the paperwork on his desk.
“I’ll take her home.” Adam re-appeared in the doorway, having changed into his uniform. I looked at him, really looked at him for the first time. Short at the sides and slightly longer on top, dark brown, messily styled hair stuck up in different directions on his head. A day’s worth of dark stubble graced his chin shrouding his face in darkness. A long straight nose led a path to a full mouth with lips that naturally turned down slightly, making it seem as though he was constantly pissed off. He pulled off the mean and moody look to perfection. And yet, among all the darkness, the brightest, most sparkling sea blue eyes shone out at me. He was tall. That I had already noticed. But then, everyone was tall compared to me. I wasn’t quite the “oompa loompa” Nick and my brother would have me believe I was, but I was shorter than average and Adam was really tall. Even underneath his bulky uniform I could see that Adam’s body was lean and toned, but I didn’t think it came from hours in a gym, it was different than that. He smirked as he caught me blatantly checking him out and I grinned guiltily and looked away.
“You don’t have to do that.” I told him, “You’ve done enough. “
“It’s no problem. I wasn’t planning on hanging around the station for long this morning anyway. I need to get out and show my face around town. We can pick my car up on the way past my place and drive the rest of the way. The snow ploughs have been out so the roads are clear.” He smiled at me.
“Alright.” Cameron agreed, as though I had no part in the conversation. Looking from Adam to me he added, “If that dick shows his face, you don’t let him in. You’re done with him Callie!”
“He won’t. He’ll be in hiding for days. And you don’t need to worry Cam, I have no desire to speak to him.” I leant forward and hugged my brother. He was an over protective pain in the arse, but he was my over protective pain in the arse and I knew I couldn’t do life without him. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll try and get away early tonight so we can talk.” He returned my hug.
“I’ll look forward to it.” I groaned sarcastically as Adam put a hand on the small of my back and steered me out of the station.
“Love you tiny twin.” Cameron called as we left.
“Love you tall twin.” I replied.
We picked up Adam’s new white Jeep outside Greg and Dana’s house and I directed him the rest of the way to my house. Mentally thanking my lucky stars that Jase’s parents had moved from the house next door a few years ago when he and his brother had both left home. The house Cameron and I had grown up in was a white, American styled place, with steps at the front leading up to a wrap-around porch. Our mum, fascinated by all things America had fallen in love with it the second she saw it. And our Dad, being fascinated with all things our Mum, had bought it immediately. It stood out among the old English red brick houses in Frost Ford and she’d taken great delight in the fact that it was different to the rest.
“What?” I asked Adam as he stood in the doorway frowning when he was leaving. We’d sat on the mis-matched wooden stools at the island in the kitchen and shared a cup of coffee. Cup sharing seemed like it was going to be our thing.
“I’m just trying to figure out how many times I can legitimately turn up here to check on you before it becomes stalker like. You know, since you lost your phone in the snow and I can’t just take your number and ring you?” He said thoughtfully, a crooked smile lighting his features.
“Well, I think the man who found a crazy woman on his doorstep and rescued her from her ranting ex boyfriend in the middle of a blizzard has earned himself an open invitation, don’t you?” Although our house did have an open invitation to all our friends, I thought I should make it clear that now included him.
“I’ll take that.” He grinned and I moved forward to hug him.
“Thank you Adam.” I said as he tightened his arms around my waist.
“You’re welcome snow angel.” He smiled down at me, “I’ll see you soon.”
I scanned up and down the street before I closed the door after Adam, that feeling of being watched had begun to sneak up on me again that morning and I couldn’t seem to shake it.
*****
Once again she is surrounded by her friends; they flock to her, desperate to take care of their fragile little bird. I know better. There is nothing fragile about my lady. She beat me at my own game, that does not take fragility, that takes strength and guts, determination. My days will be taken up with teaching for a while and I will not be able to pay as much attention as I would like to my lady. Annoying and yet, the red head bleeds prettily and this pleases me and draws me to her. The fact that she is so wonderfully unpredictable in life means that her absence is likely to go un-noticed longer than average, giving me more time with her. It is my intention to ensure she knows what she did to my lady is unacceptable and that she must learn from this. Pain will be her lesson. She will suffer.
*****
“Incoming!” my friend Olivia announced herself as she barrelled into the room and threw her bag onto the armchair, she was closely followed by Vinnie. Liv was the only person I knew who was almost as short as me. She was your typical nerdy, librarian type. Probably because she was a nerdy librarian. When she was at work she wore short floral dresses, matching cardigans and thick woollen tights. Out of work she wore leggings or jeans and baggy sweatshirts with slogans and hi tops. She was obsessed with Harry Potter and was always pushing her tortoiseshell print framed glasses back up her nose after they had slipped down. Today she was wearing black skinny jeans with a tear in one knee, a red sweatshirt with the Hogwarts logo on it and black calf length boots. Her light brown hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun and she looked adorable.
“Woman, what the hell were you thinking? Going off on an overnight adventure without your coven?” Vinnie said dramatically as he flounced into the room behind Liv. As much as any 6ft4 muscle bound, tattooed demi God could flounce that is. Vinnie was a fine specimen of a man inside and out. My friend was intelligent, funny, caring, affectionate, fantastic body, stunning to look at. He owned a security company and provided the doormen for the bar I worked at in town, so a successful business man and you knew he could handle himself too. Every woman’s dream right? But dream on ladies because there wasn’t a woman in existence that had the right body parts for Vinnie.
“News travels fast.” I mumbled. I’d already fielded phone calls on the landline from my best friend Nick, my boss Mick and Dana who had been devastated she hadn’t known I was upstairs the night before and was berating herself as a terrible friend who wasn’t there for me. I on the other hand was kind of glad she hadn’t been home, I loved Dana but sometimes she could be a bit full on with all the girly bonding. “And I’d hardly call it an adventure.”
“You spent the night alone with the hot new police man! In his home!” Liv said, flopping down on the sofa next to me. “That is an adventure!”
“And he is hot!” Vinnie said, throwing his arms around me and pulling me to him. “I always knew that fuckwit wasn’t good enough for you witch. And as for Amy...”
“I’m guessing you saw Cameron then?” I said, leaning into Vinnie’s embrace. I knew they were deliberately not bringing up the similarities between this and my last “adventure” in the snow and, although I knew it must be on their minds, I was grateful to them for it.
“Yep. And we’re here to get the details and hatch a plan!” Liv said, kicking off her boots and drawing her legs up underneath her.
“Plan?” I frowned, suddenly uneasy. Liv and Vinnie were almost as well known as Nick and me when it came to crazy antics.
“Evil revenge plan. Messy. Horrible. Slow. Torturous death type plan.” She explained, “Involving cricket bats, medieval torture devices, rubber bullets, maybe even a grenade or two.”
“Oh no! I’m just going to forget about all this and move on quietly.” I told them. “No evil death plan needed.”
“Seriously honey, you ok?” Liv asked, turning serious.
“No, but I will be Olive.” I sighed and she narrowed her eyes at the name I used for her, her name was Olivia but I regularly called her Olive to wind her up.
“And we’ll help you get there. Us and vodka!” Vinnie nodded, I grinned at him.
“You both know Jase and I hadn’t been right for a while. We’ve done nothing but argue for ages.” I said, snuggling closer to Vinnie and taking comfort in his big arms.
“Didn’t mean he could go and cheat on you though.” Liv grabbed my hand and pulled it into her lap.
“I know. And it hurts. That part really hurts.” I blinked back the tears that finally threatened to come. “I just wish we could have ended it differently.”
“You don’t have to be brave baby girl. This is us.” Vinnie told me. The tears flowed freely then, drenching Vinnie’s shirt as he held me tight to his chest. Vinnie didn’t mind, he never did.
“I just hope I’m there when Cam runs into him!” Liv giggled, getting up to check the contents of the fridge. “Cheesecake. We need cheesecake. Toffee flavoured cheesecake.”
My mind wandered as my friends fussed around me, gathering junk food and debating the benefits of the wrack as a method of torture. I really needed to make sure Cam and I talked before he saw Jase. He might be a liar and a cheat, but Jase was clever and I knew if Cam even laid a finger on him Jase would have him on an assault charge before he could blink, putting Cam’s career on the line. I like to think my brother was more sensible than that, but when it came to me he had been known to be a bit unpredictable in the past. He and Jase had come close to blows several times over the years when he thought Jase wasn’t treating me properly. Thankfully, the fact that they had been friends for so long had always seemed to stop them from taking it too far.
And that was another thing; all our friends would now feel as though they had to pick sides. There were eleven of us that had more or less grown up together and we’d mostly been friends since primary school. Cameron, Nick, Jase and I since pre-school. We met Greg, Dana, Liv and Vinnie at primary school and then Nate, Luke and Amy at secondary school. And now, because of Jase and me that was all going to change.
*****
“I talked to Mick, you’ve got next week off and he’ll be over to see you tomorrow night after closing. I want you to take a couple of days off college too. I’ll keep Jase away from you, don’t worry about that...” Cameron began talking at me as soon as he came through the door after work. No hello, how are you? Forget hyper drive, he had skipped every stage along the way and forged, full steam ahead, into situation critical. Melt down imminent. Fanbloodytastic!
“Cam, I’m fine. I’m not going to fall apart over this. I’m perfectly capable of going to work and college.” I told him, “And you are going to stay the hell away from Jase!”
Ignoring my Jase warning he put something in the fridge in the kitchen and then came and sat down next to me and pulled me to him, draping his arm around my shoulders. “When you walked in to the station this morning I knew instantly something had happened to you. All kinds of shit ran through my mind sis, especially after last year. What if Adam hadn’t been there? What then? You had no phone, were you just going to keep running blind? How long before you ended up in the woods to avoid Jase? And you know what kind of fucked up shit that put in my head. You scared the crap out of me Cal. So you’re just going to have to let me do the big brother thing for a while alright?”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and nodded, letting him get it all off his chest. I knew that although he sounded over dramatic, all kinds of alternative scenarios had worked their way into his head over the course of the day. Cam knew as well as I did that the people you loved could be taken away from you
in an instant and it affected him greatly.
“It’s not even the break up you know? I know you can handle that, it won’t be easy but it’s been a long time coming. Everything came back to me today, every single second of the time you were missing. Shit Callie, if Adam hadn’t been there last night I wouldn’t have known where you were come this morning. I thought you were with Jase and everything was fine. You could have died out there in weather like that twin and I wouldn’t have had a clue where to start looking. And what do I do then? What the hell do I do without you? You’re all I’ve got left Callie and we both know you’re the strong one here. I can’t do this life thing without you. I don’t want to!” He finally stopped for breath after doing a little rambling of his own.
“I’m sorry Cam. I wasn’t thinking. I was just so angry. I just wanted to get far away as fast as possible.” I leaned my head on his shoulder and poked a finger into his side, “And hey, you’re strong too. We get each other through this life thing, just like we always have.”
Cam and I had always been close. I don’t know if it was a twin thing or just a case of siblings who actually liked each other. The deaths of our parents in a car accident had bound us even tighter. At eighteen years of age Cam and I had been left with nothing but each other to rely on. We had no surviving Grandparents or long lost Aunts and Uncles- my Mum having been an only child and Dad’s only sister had died a few years before our parents. So, with little other choice, slowly but surely we had picked up the pieces and built a life without the people who had brought us into this world.
Cam had gone through his training for the police force, following in our Dad’s footsteps as he had always planned. Although I had always wanted to travel and go abroad to study, the mere thought of not being near my brother had my heart in shreds and my stomach in knots, so instead I found a job in the local pub and eventually went to college nearby.
After working at the pub for a couple of years Mick had convinced me to reduce my work hours and go to college part time, to take courses related to the hospitality industry. The mortgage had been paid on our parent’s house years ago, so between us Cam and I managed to cover the bills and stay in the house after they were gone. Neither of us would have wanted to give it up. They had also left us an inheritance in savings accounts that we’d barely touched, not feeling the need to do anything with the money.
Educating Callie Page 5