by Nicole Helm
To Shelby, Mr. Steele was their dad, most definitely not her brother. Trevor forced a smile. “Nice to meet you too, Dan. What are you two up to?”
“Physics homework.” Dan’s voice squeaked slightly as he sat back down, staring intently at the open book in front of him.
“I’m baking us some cookies for a snack,” Shelby said, her voice and demeanor back to sing-songy.
Trevor wasn’t sure if he was forgiven or if Shelby was putting on an act for the sake of Dan, but it was kind of nice having her talk to him again. He went over to the counter and leaned against it. “Do I get any cookies or are you going to tell me to get out of the way and go watch some cartoons?”
She smiled a little since it had been exactly what he’d always told her when he’d be doing his homework and she’d been underfoot. “You can have two cookies. Actually, I have something to run by you while Dan is still working on the first problem.”
Poor Dan scrunched down in his chair. “It’s hard,” he muttered.
Shelby’s smile broadened and Trevor got the feeling he should start worrying about Dan even if the teen wasn’t threatening looking. Shelby was eighteen, after all. Now he was responsible for… Trevor grimaced. All that teenage hormonal… He couldn’t think the words when associated with his sister.
“What do you want to run by me?”
Shelby turned her attention to wiping off the counter. “Well, Dan is taking me to prom.”
Trevor looked over his shoulder at the young man’s back. “Oh, he is?” Trevor was glad to see Dan shift in his chair.
“I need to get a prom dress. Mom already gave me the money before, but I need someone to take me dress shopping.”
“Uh.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not you. I was thinking maybe I could ask Em and Callie to go with me.”
“Em and Callie?” Surely he’d heard wrong. Really, really wrong. Or maybe he’d suddenly fallen asleep and this was some sort of crazy dream. Maybe she’d poisoned him and this was a hallucination.
But she just stood there, wiping the counter, waiting for an answer.
“You want… I’m sorry, I don’t understand. You want someone you don’t like and someone you barely know to take you prom dress shopping?”
Shelby scrubbed the immaculate white countertop harder. “I think I’ve been wrong about Callie.”
Trevor was rendered speechless, but he wasn’t fooled. Shelby was up to something. He didn’t have a clue as to what, but all his best undercover training told him to go along with it for the time being and investigate later.
“Okay. I’m glad to hear that.” I don’t believe you for a second, but good try lying. “I’m sure Callie and Em would be glad to help you, but isn’t dress shopping something you’d want to do with your friends?”
Shelby stopped her work on the counter and turned her back to him under the guise of checking on her cookies. “They already have their dresses.”
Out of the corner of Trevor’s eye, he noticed Dan looking over his shoulder at Shelby and frowning almost worriedly at her.
Hmm. “You’re sure you want to ask Em and Callie?”
“Actually, I was hoping maybe you’d ask them for me.” She looked up, smiled hopefully, but she twisted her fingers together, a sure sign there was more to this innocent act.
“I see.”
“I’m free all weekend,” Shelby added.
“Uh huh.”
“And it doesn’t have to take a long time.”
“Right.”
“Trevor.” She worked on her best pathetic pleading look. “Please.”
“Why can’t you ask them?”
“Because, like you said, I barely know Em, and Callie and I aren’t exactly friends.”
“Which is why this makes no sense to me. It’s not that I think it’s a bad idea. I just don’t get it.”
Some irritation crept onto her face and her pleading look turned harder, more frustrated. She definitely had a plan. One she didn’t want him to know about, and she didn’t like him not giving in and playing along without a few questions.
“It’s weird, but I need an opinion besides my own, and my friends are busy.” Trevor could tell she wanted to say something other than busy and began to wonder for the first time if she was having problems at school. She hadn’t talked about her friends much since he’d been back. Maybe there was something to that.
He grimaced at the thought of trying to navigate the twists and turns of the teenage girl psyche. Maybe it’d be best to leave that alone and let Callie and Em deal with it.
“They’re older and have done the prom thing. Em’s always nice, and Callie…” Shelby frowned a little. “Like I said, I want to start over there. Maybe she’s not as bad as I thought.”
Trevor watched as Shelby struggled to spit out the words. Shelby was a halfway decent liar, but not good enough to hide the fact she still didn’t like Callie and struggled to lie about it.
“I’ll ask them.” He didn’t think denying her request would help him figure out what she was up to. Better for Shelby to think he was fooled into complacency.
“Maybe you could go call them. Like, right now?”
Trevor frowned, but quickly smoothed it out into a casual smile. “Sure. Just make sure to save me some cookies.” He pushed off the counter and gave Dan the once over while the teen pretended to focus on the physics book in front of him.
Trevor left the kitchen. On the one hand, maybe Shelby was being genuine. Maybe she was that desperate for a female role model or whatever, and if she was having problems with her friends, maybe it was prompting her to look at the way she treated people. It was a plausible enough explanation for a turnaround when it came to Callie.
Trevor didn’t buy it. Shelby had something up her sleeve, something he wouldn’t like. Trevor sank onto his bed. He had some investigating to do, but where to start?
A few minutes later, his thoughts were interrupted by hesitant footsteps and then the squeaky voice of a teenage boy. “Mr.… Tr… Mr. Steele?”
Trevor looked over at the poor kid hovering in the hallway, vibrating with nerves. “Yeah?”
“Um, I told Shelby I had to go to the bathroom so I’m just going to come out and say this. Kiley and Sarah had this big mother-daughter prom extravaganza thing last weekend so, I think Shelby’s feeling a little weird about things, you know? That’s really why she doesn’t want to ask them.”
Trevor looked at his tapping fingers for a moment, that old familiar guilt cropping up. “That explains a lot.” But not everything. Certainly not the one-eighty with Callie.
“And, um, I figure Shelby said I don’t have to, but I wanted to make sure it was okay I take her to prom. I mean, okay with you. I mean, I’m a good kid,” Dan finally managed to squeak out. “And I have to be home by one prom night, so I’ll have her home by twelve thirty, unless you want her home earlier. I mean, you’re her brother, but you’re also her guardian so even though she doesn’t think… I think… “
“Relax, kid,” Trevor muttered. He felt for Dan, but he also didn’t like the idea of being anyone’s guardian. Especially when it came to prom night stuff. Too weird. Too uncomfortable. “Twelve thirty is fine.”
Dan smiled and Trevor thought about his own prom night. He’d finally gotten into Tina Lavina’s pants after the dance, and then they’d gotten really drunk in her parent’s basement. One of his few forays into breaking the rules.
“Thanks, Mr. Steele,” Dan was gushing. “I’ll make sure to show Shelby a good time.”
The thought of good time had Trevor changing his tune a little. Maybe he couldn’t do the emotional, feminine guardian crap, but he could certainly play the role of protective guardian.
Trevor stood from his bed, leisurely made his way over to Dan, but kept his stare fixed on the kid until Dan’s smile began to wilt. “No drinking, no drugs, you lay a hand on my sister and I’ll break it.” Trevor offered a sunny, pleasant smile. “Also, please remember, I own many, many
guns.” Trevor patted Dan on the shoulder. “See ya ’round, Dan.”
The role of guardian was enjoyable for the first time. Now, he had to figure out what Shelby was up to, and maybe he’d start feeling like he was doing the right things.
Chapter Five
Callie tapped her foot on the tile floor. A buzz of activity swirled around her. Women wrangling children, teenagers in giggling packs, old couples walking slowly just to walk.
She hated the mall. Hated the continuous hum of noise and the different places and all the bright lights and colors. It was too stimulating, too overwhelming.
Adding Em’s enthusiastic prom dress talk, Shelby’s creepy alter ego trying her damnedest to be nice, and a trip to the mall was worse than normal. Callie’s foot tapped harder. She wanted to go home, wanted to go to her shop, where she could lose herself in some rock music and the relaxing comfort of banging on metal for a while.
“Which one do you think she’ll pick?” It had been Em’s suggestion to give Shelby some alone time in the store after their hour of shopping with her. All so Shelby could make her own decision without “feeling any pressure” and then meet them in the food court for lunch.
“I could give two shits.”
Em frowned. “Oh, you have to admit it was kind of fun.” Her smile was immediately back in place. “Besides, she was actually considering that bright blue one you picked out. It looked great on her. Who knew you had a knack for this?”
“I don’t.”
“Don’t you think she had fun?”
“I think that kid is up to something.” Callie drummed her fingers on the sticky table in the same cadence of her foot tapping. This whole trip idea had been weird enough, Shelby spending an entire hour and a half being nice to her? That was downright alien invasion material.
“You’re being paranoid.”
“She hates me. She has always hated me, and there is absolutely no reason for her to have stopped hating me unless she is up to something.”
“Maybe she realized—”
“Nope.” Callie refused to believe Shelby had changed overnight, refused to believe there wasn’t still some of that age-old hostility in Shelby’s responses before she ironed them out with niceties. “She didn’t realize jack. She’s up to something, and I’m going to figure out what it is before I end up shackled in a basement somewhere.”
Em shook her head, hair bouncing in time. “You’re being ridiculous.”
Callie didn’t respond, instead watched as Shelby made her way over to them, hanging bag in hand.
“Which one did you pick?” Em wiggled in excitement.
Shelby slid into a seat and didn’t make eye contact with either of them. “The blue one.”
Those were exactly the kinds of reasons Callie couldn’t get over the feeling an ambush was coming. Shelby didn’t actually want their help, and almost seemed regretful and irritated she’d ultimately picked a dress Callie had suggested. Each time Callie tried to bait Shelby into a nasty response, Shelby would almost take it, but then the angry flash would disappear and be replaced by a creepy politeness.
“Wonderful. Let’s buy you some lunch.”
Callie studied Shelby’s face, but Shelby worked up a smile. “Sounds good.”
They went up to the sandwich place and ordered, retreating to the sticky table, food in hand. Though Em managed to keep the conversation flowing all through shopping, as they sat down to eat their food it seemed as if all topics had been exhausted.
“So.” Shelby offered into the awkward lack of conversation. “Sounds like Trevor is really helping you guys out at AIF.” Shelby bit into her sandwich, looked at Em and then Callie, and then quickly back down at her food when she saw Callie staring at her.
“He’s been a lifesaver,” Em agreed. “AIF is a lot of work for three people, especially in the spring and summer. Adding one person, especially a volunteer, has helped us immeasurably.”
Shelby nodded as she chewed and swallowed, but Callie didn’t miss Shelby’s covert attempt to check the time on her cell phone. “I bet you guys wish he could stay and help past September.”
The picture began to come together in Callie’s head. The purpose for this sudden forced niceness. This odd girls’ afternoon.
“We can get by after the fly-in. Besides, we’re hoping Lawson will be home soon. You probably don’t remember Lawson. He’s our cousin. He moved to California, oh gosh, fifteen years ago.”
“But, what if he doesn’t come home?” Shelby asked, effectively cutting Em off from a long, rambling story about Lawson.
“Oh, well.”
“I mean, if he doesn’t come back, or even if he does, wouldn’t you wish Trevor had stayed?”
Callie shook her head. Up until that moment Shelby had done a good job of keeping her cards hidden, but now they were all out on the table. For a moment, Callie almost felt sympathy. When you lost your parents so young, it was hard to lose anyone else. Callie could understand the desperation in Shelby’s question. She could even empathize with it, but that didn’t make what Shelby was attempting to do right.
“This is why you’re being nice.”
Shelby’s eyes shot to Callie, a flash of guilt in her frown before she smoothed it out. “What do you mean?”
Callie waved an impatient arm. “Drop the act. You’re trying to butter us up so we’ll help you convince Trevor to stay.”
The innocent look immediately left and was replaced by a scowl. “So?”
“So?” Callie shook her head. She’d been this self-absorbed once, and she wished it could make her more sympathetic, but what Shelby needed was a cold dose of reality. “That’s a shitty thing to do. Even for you.”
“Don’t you want him to stay?” Shelby demanded, slumping in her chair and crossing her arms across her chest, the perfect picture of teenage sullenness.
“I want him to be happy.” Callie hoped her voice sounded calm rather than snippy. “If you cared about him like you should, you’d want that too.”
“Why can’t he be happy here?” It was nearly a whine.
“Because he can’t. He won’t be.”
“Who cares?” Shelby spat. “I deserve to have someone at home. I deserve to have him stay. Haven’t I been through enough already? Why does my life have to change? Why does his life get to come before mine? I don’t want to go to Seattle on breaks from school. I want to come home.”
Sympathy petered out, because while Callie could sympathize with Shelby’s loss, Callie had gone through worse. “You don’t own the market on loss,” Callie said through gritted teeth. “Or on getting the short end of the stick.”
“Oh, and you do?” Shelby countered. She leaned toward Callie. “Your mom died when you were a baby. You never had one to miss. You probably don’t remember your dad either. You have no idea what it’s like to lose your parents when you know exactly what it means and exactly what little is left.”
There were tears in Shelby’s eyes now, and Callie had to fight the sting of her own. “You’re a selfish brat if you think making Trevor miserable will weaken the pain of losing your parents.”
“Guys, maybe we should—” But Em’s quiet protests were lost as Callie stared long and hard at Shelby until the sullen teen looked up.
“I lost a lot of people at a very young age, so don’t kid yourself into thinking you know better than me just because you think you’re smarter or superior. Losing means learning, and you need to learn that making other people unhappy won’t make you feel any better.” God, it had taken Callie a long time to learn that lesson. Even now, there were some days it was hard to remember.
Maybe she was taking the harsh road, but if she could impart any of what she’d learned on Shelby it would be well worth it. “I won’t let you sabotage Trevor’s life because you can’t see past your own hurt.”
Shelby sank deeper into her chair and sneered through the tears in her eyes. “You think you know him so well because you love him or something?”
I
rritation and anger clawed through. What the hell was with everyone accusing her of being in love with Trevor? “I’m a little tired of getting that particular accusation. I can care about your brother without being in love with him. It’s called friendship.”
“It sounds pathetic,” Shelby shot back.
“You know what? I’m done. I’ll wait in the car.” Ignoring her half-eaten sandwich, Callie pushed out of the chair. Em didn’t try to stop her. She was still too busy gaping at the exchange she’d just witnessed.
The anger increased with each step away. Callie couldn’t place the source of it, but it bubbled hot and heavy in her chest.
She could blame it on being used, but she’d known all along Shelby was using her. She could blame it on everyone thinking she was in love with Trevor. Couldn’t two members of the opposite sex just be friends? Couldn’t two members of the opposite sex who had a kind of weird attraction to each other still be friends without everyone accusing the woman in the duo of being some kind of lovesick, pathetic moron?
Callie wrenched the car door open and slid inside. It was such a double standard. She bet no one ever accused Trevor of being in love with her. Not that he would have any reason to be. What exactly did she have to offer? A bad attitude, a snarky mouth, and a crappy way with people.
Callie groaned and rapped her head against the steering wheel. She was losing her mind, and she wanted to blame it on everyone else. On Em for being perfect, on Shelby for being such a bitch, on Trevor for being Trevor, but the bottom line was all of her weird feelings and conflicting emotions were her own damn fault.
Because no matter how disgusted she was with herself over it, there was a part of her, a very large part, that liked the idea of convincing Trevor to stay. A part of her that might have gone along with the plan if Shelby hadn’t been so sneaky about it.
Which made Callie a total moron. About as much as sitting here sulking in her car did.
She wasn’t in love with Trevor, no matter what Em or Shelby or anyone might think, but if she was being honest she knew there was a danger with him. If things had been a little different, if she were a little different, or if he were, there was potential for something.