He drew her into his arms, pressing her into his warmth. “Shh,” he whispered into her temple.
“A cat?” she croaked, squishing her face into his chest. “Who would do something so disgusting?”
He kissed the top of her head. “Someone that needs serious help.”
She tipped her face up to his. “Who do you think it was?”
His shoulders jerked. “I don’t know.”
“Sophia!” Her mother waved at them from the pew, motioning for them to hurry up and sit.
Spencer laid a gentle hand on Sophie’s lower back and guided her over. They sat.
Sophie turned to her mother. “What was in the bag?”
Her mother blinked. “What?”
“Was it a cat?”
Her mother’s color drained. “Who … ” Her gaze flickered to where Joe sat in the pew across from theirs, alone, and her eyes narrowed. “That boy’s mother should have him throw away that horrible radio! It’s an invasion of privacy! He has no—”
“Mom! Was it?”
Her mother’s nostrils flared. Her lips pinched thin. She straightened. “Now is not the time to discuss this. We are in church. Some of us,” her gaze shot to Joe again, then back. “Should realize this before opening our mouths.”
Sophie dropped the topic, but only for the time being. From experience she knew if she pushed now, her mother would only go into one of her many Joe-rants, involving Joe and his family. Sophie didn’t want to hear it. What happened with his father was not Joe’s fault. She hated when people blamed him. No one knew how hard he had it at home already without others pointing fingers.
“Do you want to go to Bill’s?” Sophie asked Spencer after the service. “I really don’t want to go home right now.”
Spencer nodded. “Sure.”
“Are we all ready, good boys and girls?” Lauren appeared behind them, Jessie next to her.
Sophie nodded, her gaze sweeping over the crowd. “Where’s Joe?” she asked.
“Had to get home,” Jessie said. “His mother isn’t feeling well.”
Sophie sighed, feeling her heart go out to him.
“He promised to stop by a little later if he can,” Lauren said as they made their way out of the church.
“What’s wrong with his mom?” Spencer asked as they made their way toward Bill’s. Lauren and Jessie were a few paces ahead, chattering on about something that sounded like their trip to the cabin Friday. They almost sounded like they were arguing, but Sophie couldn’t be sure.
“She’s sick,” Sophie murmured.
“Like a cold or something?”
She shook her head. “She’s manic depressive and a few other things. She’s more not there than there, you know? She can’t really do anything for herself. Joe takes care of her.”
Spencer nodded his head slowly. “And his dad? He’s a cop?”
“Was.” She tucked a coil of hair behind her ear. “He died a few years ago.”
“On the job?”
Sophie hesitated. She had never told anyone about Joe’s home life. She wondered if she was breaking some kind of friendship code by telling Spencer this much, not that it was a secret really. Spencer could ask anyone and they would tell him about Joe’s dad. The guy was infamous throughout River Port. Biggest news in years. But they wouldn’t tell him the truth or at least the side they didn’t know about. That was the side Sophie wanted Spencer to hear from her before hearing it from anyone else.
“Kind of,” she murmured. “He kind of lost his temper and his partner shot him.”
Spencer’s eyes widened at this. “What?”
With a deep sigh, Sophie told him the story. “Joe’s dad was an asshole. He was abusive to Joe and his mom and used to beat them something silly. I think I spent more time with Joe in the hospital than anywhere else. He had a mean temper made even meaner with alcohol. One day they got called in because some guy got caught shoplifting. The guy was mouthy I guess and his dad just went insane! He nearly killed the guy. When he got back to the station, the chief asked for his badge and gun, told him he was suspended from duty. His dad went nuts, pulled his gun and shot the chief. The rest is kind of history.”
“Holy shit,” Spencer mumbled.
Sophie nodded. “Yeah, everyone loved the chief so it’s kind of a big deal. Joe’s kind of been taking the heat all these years for something he didn’t do, which is why he comes off as so … ”
“Yeah,” Spencer said, shaking his head. “That really sucks.”
They reached Bill’s in silence, Sophie lost deep in the recesses of her own thoughts.
“Hey.” Spencer lightly touched her arm, pulling her aside instead of letting her follow her friends inside. “You okay?”
Sophie nodded, but feeling as far from all right as humanly possible. “It just makes me crazy. He didn’t do anything. Joe was just a kid, but he’s the son of a cop killer. He’s basically guilty by association or something.”
The pad of his thumb smoothed over the curve of her cheek. “At least he has you guys.”
Sophie sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to complain. I guess I’m just really tired.”
“We could skip this, go back to my place,” he suggested with a small smile. “I heard your mom ask my mom over for lunch. That could give us about an hour of naptime.”
Temping. So tempting, especially the part about taking a nap together.
“I want to!” She touched his chest. “But I think Lauren wants to grill you and she won’t let us leave.”
Spencer’s eyebrows lifted. “Grill me?”
Embarrassment colored her cheeks, forcing her eyes down. “I may have mentioned you and she’s the kind of person that likes to make sure her friends don’t get hurt. So when I—”
He perked. “You mentioned me?”
The blood boiled beneath her skin, hot and fierce. “Don’t get excited. I didn’t say it was good things I mentioned.”
He gave her a look of feigned innocence. “What else is there?”
She scowled playfully at his teasing, elbowing him lightly in the gut. “Well it certainly isn’t your modesty.”
His arm looped around her middle and she was dragged into him. He rested his forehead against her shoulder and sighed. “I would much rather be in bed with you.”
Sophie closed her eyes, breathing him in. “Me too.”
After a last nuzzle of her neck, he drew back. “Ladies first?” He swung open the door and swept her in with a theatrical wave of his arm.
Sophie giggled, shaking her head. “You are so strange.”
Spencer just grinned, following her inside, missing the angry set of eyes watching them from across the street.
Chapter Sixteen
“What’s your middle name?” Lauren stuffed a greasy fry into her mouth, brown eyes never wavering away from Spencer.
“Mason,” he said in the same amused tone he’d been using to answer all her other questions.
Lauren raised an eyebrow. “Spencer Mason Rowth?”
“Yup.”
“Okay, well, we won’t hold that against you, even if it’s super lame.”
“Lauren!” Sophie cried, horrified.
Lauren blinked. “What?”
Spencer laughed. “No, it’s okay. I would have picked a much cooler name if I’d had any say.”
Lauren gave Sophie a smug smirk. “See? The guy is cool with it! So chill!” She turned back to Spencer. “Criminal history?”
Spencer winced, drumming his fingers on the table. “I stole a chocolate bar when I was five. The shopkeeper called the police to teach me a lesson. They never arrested me, but I was scared enough never to take anything ever again.”
Lauren tapped a finger on the table thoughtfully. “A thief. Point deducted.”
“But he was honest and he never did it again!” Jessie piped in. “That should be a point.”
Lauren rolled her eyes heavenward. “Jessie, you can’t just keep giving him points whenever you feel so
rry for him! It defeats the purpose of the points system.”
Spencer frowned. “What exactly is the point system again?”
Lauren sighed, visibly exasperated by all the interruptions. “You start off with a hundred points. For every point deducted, you drop. The more points you lose, the less we think you’re suitable.”
Spencer winced, rubbing the back of his neck. “No pressure, right?”
“Oh it’s not for real!” Jessie assured him kindly.
“Well of course it is!” Lauren interrupted. “Why else would we do it? You’ve got your sights set on our bestie. That means you get us, which means, you break her heart, we’ll bust your legs—all three of them!”
“Lauren!” Sophie moaned, embarrassed when Spencer actually flinched.
“The dude has got to know these things right from the get go!” Lauren exclaimed, stabbing each word with a finger against the table. “So he can’t turn around later and pretend like he didn’t.”
“Trust me. I won’t forget.” Spencer shifted in his seat.
Lauren smirked. “See? It works!”
Under the table, Sophie took Spencer’s hand and squeezed it apologetically.
“Any deformities in your family? Any inbreeding? Second cousins count!”
“Lauren!”
Lauren threw up her hands. “Sophie, it needs to be said.”
“Uh, not that I am aware of … ” Spencer said slowly, hesitant.
Lauren hissed through her teeth. “I think that’s another point—”
“I don’t see how! He doesn’t know!” Jessie objected.
“Did you do this with all of Sophie’s boyfriends?” Spencer wondered.
Lauren and Jessie stopped bickering. Even Sophie tensed without meaning to.
Lauren was the first to catch herself. “Well, seeing as how you’re her first boyfriend … yes.” She drummed her fingers on the table, an evil glint in her eyes. “So, are you saying you’re her boyfriend then?”
“I think I need the bathroom!” Sophie bolted out of her seat before Spencer could respond. “Lauren, come with me?”
Lauren’s face twisted into disbelief. “Seriously? Since when do we go to the bathroom—?”
“Please?” Sophie pleaded. “Now!”
Lauren, still looking disturbed, rose from her seat. “I swear,” she said to Spencer. “We do not go to the bathroom together! This is a new low. I’m blaming you. Deduction of a point!”
Sophie grabbed Lauren and dragged her away. From behind the steel U counter, Bill eyed them, but said nothing as they disappeared into the women’s washroom in the back.
“What are you doing?” Sophie exclaimed the moment they were alone.
“I am trying to find out if the dude you like is worthy of your awesomeness.”
Sophie loved Lauren. They’d been best friends since they shared an oatmeal cookie during snack time. But Lauren didn’t have that filter most people possessed that trapped the things that should never be said aloud. It had never bothered Sophie until now.
“I told you about his ex and I told you how he felt about relationships.”
“But he’s the one that said it. I was just confirming his statement.”
Sophie stuffed a hand back through her hair. “It was probably a slip of the tongue. He probably didn’t mean it like that, or he was trying to be funny.”
Lauren frowned. “What’s so funny about calling someone your girlfriend if you’re not serious?”
“Lauren, please! Lay off the buzz kill questions, okay?”
Lauren sighed, spearing slender hands on her waist. She shook her head. “Fine, but I’m doing it for your own good.”
Jessie was keeping Spencer entertained when they returned to the table a moment later. Sophie smiled apologetically at him as she took her seat next to him.
“What did we miss?” she asked.
“Jessie was just telling me how you three met,” Spencer said. “Something about a swing … ”
Jessie shook her head, sending pale coils bouncing around her pretty face. “No. That’s how I met Lauren and Sophie. They were on the swings and I was the new kid in town and no one wanted to play with me because I was so shy. But they walked right up to me and we’ve been best friends ever since.”
Lauren munched on a fry and said flatly, “Sophie and I bonded over cookies.”
Sophie laughed. “Lauren saved my cookies. A boy in our class tried to take them from me and she didn’t let him. She’s always been the feisty one.”
“It’s why we love her,” Jessie chimed, looping her arm through Lauren’s and resting her head on the other girl’s shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lauren muttered, rolling her eyes, but looking highly pleased.
“And what about Joe?” Spencer asked.
The three girls exchanged glances, none of them certain they were allowed to share that story without Joe there.
“Joe was in our class,” Sophie began slowly, carefully.
“He was always very quiet, so you never really knew he was there,” Lauren recalled.
Jessie nodded in agreement. “I know I never did until Sophie went up to him that one day. Do you remember, Lauren?”
Lauren nodded. “It was at recess, wasn’t it?”
“Lunch,” Sophie answered quietly, remembering that day all too well.
It had been the hottest day of the summer. They’d been sitting outside, eating their lunch when Sophie noticed the tiny figure hidden beneath the slide.
“Sophie went right up to him, took his hand and dragged him back to our table,” Jessie finished telling Spencer with a bright smile.
Lauren snorted. “Kid was all creepy and lurky. He needed to lighten up. Now, are you going to finish those fries?”
Sophie pushed her basket across the table. Lauren jumped on them like a starved child.
“So tell me what happened at the cabin,” Sophie prompted, needing the topic turned away from Joe. It felt wrong talking about him when he wasn’t there.
Lauren ceased her eating. She picked idly at the basket. It was Jessie who answered.
“Oh we had the best time!” she exclaimed, her blue eyes enormous and shining like twin pools in the summer. “Of course it wasn’t nearly as fun as it would have been if you’d been there,” she added with a sheepish smile.
“I wanted to go,” Sophie admitted, suddenly wishing she hadn’t just given Lauren her fries. Her fingers felt completely useless with nothing to keep them busy. “But Mom was adamant that the garage needed to be cleaned that weekend.”
“Well, at least you got something out of the deal,” Lauren said, with a very un-Lauren smile that seemed strained and forced. “You know, you’re not nearly as much of a jerk as Sophie says you are.”
“Is that a point?” Spencer asked teasingly.
“It would be if you hadn’t been a jerk in the first place.”
Spencer sighed, turning his head towards Sophie. “I swear there’s no winning this game.”
Sophie smothered a laugh behind her hand. Lauren snorted.
The game continued with Spencer losing more points than earning. He didn’t seem to mind, taking each loss good-naturedly. Lauren finished Sophie’s fries, most of Jessie’s and had ordered another basket when Sophie’s war with exhaustion failed.
“I’m tired,” she said, getting to her feet. “I’m going to head home and see if I can’t get a few minutes of sleep.”
Spencer rose beside her.
“You poor thing,” Jessie said, hurrying out of her seat to pull Sophie into a fierce hug. “You’ve had such a hard few days.”
Tell me about it! Sophie wanted to say, but opted on just patting the girl lightly on the back and murmuring, “It’ll be fine.”
Jessie pulled back nodding determinedly. “It will!” She turned those blue eyes on Spencer. “It was so nice to officially meet you.”
Spencer’s smile was devastating, not seductive, but just pure angelic gorgeousness that made Sophie wan
t to jump him. It was sweet and kind and so completely void of the asshat she’d met in the past that she momentarily questioned her sanity. Had she imagined that guy?
“My pleasure,” he said smoothly.
“Oh!” Jessie pressed her giggle behind dainty fingers.
Lauren wiped her greasy fingers on a napkin and eyed Spencer warily. “I know where you live, pretty boy.”
The left corner of Spencer’s mouth twisted upwards. “Gotcha,” he said, giving her a two finger salute.
He eased back Sophie’s chair and helped her around the table. Sophie embraced her friends one last time before following him outside.
“That was interesting,” he said as the cold, damp air swept around them.
Sophie sighed. “Yeah, my friends usually are.”
They started down the street, heads bent against the mist. Neither noticed the figure pushing off the wall of the floral shop next door and stalking purposefully behind them.
At the streetlight, they stopped, waiting for it to turn from green to red. Sophie turned the collar of her jacket up, trying to prevent any more icy droplets from finding home down the column of her spine. She hissed through her teeth when one slipped past her defenses.
“Why must it always rain?” she grumbled, shifting from right foot to left foot. She leaned over and stabbed the little button on the streetlight post. The white handprint flashed, warning her to stay on the curb. Sophie silently cursed at it.
“Because you decided to live in the rainiest place in Canada,” Spencer answered helpfully.
“I didn’t decide anything,” she said. “I was born here, so I had no choice.”
“Would you move if you had the choice?”
The caution hand switched to the little crossing man. The lights changed. Cars stopped. Sophie hopped off the curb and started across with Spencer right beside her.
“No, probably not. All my friends are here and my family. Besides, despite the rain, BC is actually very beautiful in the summer.”
Spencer said nothing until they reached the other side. “I like your friends.”
Sophie smiled. “They’re great, eh? Once Joe comes around, you’ll like him, too. He’s very sweet.”
“He doesn’t like me, eh?”
Games of Fire Page 19