by Dena Blake
Jillian laughed. “Where’d she get the nickname?”
“Don’t know. She came with it.”
“Bubbles. I would’ve never guessed that.” Jillian smiled and shook her head as she headed back out the doorway. The bell rang, and kids sprang out into the hall from every door.
“You’re starting full-time tomorrow?”
“Uh-huh. I’m meeting with Mrs. Patterson first thing.”
“Don’t rush. She won’t be available until the second bell rings and all the kids are in class.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem. I’ll bring lunch.”
“Oh.” That was unexpected. Boy, he’s a fast mover. “I’m not sure what my day will be like. Maybe we should wait until later in the week.”
“You have to eat, don’t you?”
She nodded.
Stan smiled. “Meet you in your office at eleven thirty.” He tossed her a quick wave and headed into the locker room.
She wandered through the halls, remembering teachers, classes, and friends. She’d left them all behind and never looked back, until now. Had she done the right thing? Should she have come back years ago when she’d found out the truth? That was a question she couldn’t answer. She knew her life would be very different now if she had stayed. Maybe she’d have been working right alongside Amelia and Blake in their quest to save the scores of tortured children around here. Then again, maybe not. Maybe she would’ve ended up all alone with a broken heart.
As she entered the main office, she smiled at Darcy, the young lady who’d shown her to Mrs. Patterson’s office earlier. She looked up from her computer screen for only a moment but managed an effortless smile. Jillian stopped by her office to pick up the file on David Mathews before she headed back out. On the way to the double doors leading to the parking lot, she slowed to look at the school history living behind the glass case in the hallway. Stan Burkess, quarterback and captain of the football team. She knew the name sounded familiar. She’d been trying to place him all morning. Now, as she looked at the aged picture, she knew exactly who he was. She remembered him hanging around a lot before Jamie started going out with Blake. Back then, he had a full head of blond hair and an ego to match. Jillian didn’t want to have any part of that man. She rushed out to her car, rolled down the window, and fired it up. The air was so thick it was suffocating. She baked in the sunlight streaming through the windshield while the hot air blew in her face. Squeezing her eyes shut, she hoped to God the man hadn’t recognized her. No, he couldn’t have. Neither Amelia nor Blake had, and she’d been a lot closer to them than she ever had been with Stan. Her secret was safe for now.
Chapter Six
Blake was painting the stairwell when Jillian came through the front door. She’d gotten the job. Now she needed to see about getting to know Blake.
“How’d it go today?” Blake asked.
“Great.” She blew by him and headed up the steps.
“Did they have any job openings?”
“Yep.”
“Well, did you get one?” He followed her upstairs.
“Yep.”
“Hey, wait…” He dropped a fist against the closed bedroom door. “Don’t use the toilet. I had to change one of the fittings,” Jillian heard him say through the door.
She quickly changed her clothes, wrapped a bandanna around her head to pull her hair off her face, and headed back down the stairs.
“I’m ready,” Jillian said, gliding down the last few steps.
“Ready for what?”
“To paint. You said you needed some help, right?”
“But I thought…”
“You thought what?”
“I thought you were gonna take a nap.”
“You did?”
Blake smiled. “I’m glad to see I was wrong.” He handed her a brush and a small container of paint. “Amelia’s coming over later to help, but we may be able to knock this out ourselves.”
“So what’s with your sister?” She tried to say it casually. “Does she live here?”
“No. She does stay over on occasion, on the pullout in the den, but she has her own place across town.”
“She certainly dresses nicely. What does she do?”
“She’s a family attorney. Handles divorces, custody, and children’s rights.”
“I bet she makes a pretty good living at that.”
“It all balances out. She does quite a bit of pro bono work for kids.” He poured more paint into his container and moved to the molding around the door.
“She works for free?” Jillian couldn’t hide the surprised lilt in her voice.
“Sometimes,” he said, reaching for a high spot about the door.
“I would’ve never gotten that impression.”
“You didn’t get the best first impression. She actually has a really big heart.” They painted in silence for a while before Blake moved across the floor and took the paint container from her hand. “I’ll finish up here. I think Abby’s on the porch. You wanna go see how her first day went?”
She looked out the storm door and saw Abby sitting on the steps. “I wonder why she didn’t come in.”
He pointed to the piece of paper taped haphazardly to the door. “Probably because of the Do Not Open sign.”
She got up and was headed to the door when Blake stopped her and blotted her cheek with a paint rag. “You got a little on your face,” he said with a smile.
“Thanks,” she said and continued out the door. “How was your first day at school?” Jillian asked.
“It was all right.”
“Did you meet any new friends?”
“Not anybody I’d really want to hang out with.”
“Give it a few days. You’ll make some.”
“I don’t want any. I want to go back to New York.”
“We can’t go back there.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have a story to do here.”
Abby dropped her head. “Why did they have to die?”
“I don’t know, honey.” Jillian slipped her arm around Abby’s shoulder and sighed. “I’ve asked myself that a million times.” She squeezed her tight. “Things will get better, I promise.” Abby relaxed into her, and Jillian kissed the top of her head. She could hear her soft, muffled sniffles. Things had to get better. She wouldn’t have Abby living through broken promises the way she had.
“So, what’d you do today?” Abby sat up and wiped her eyes.
“I got a job, and then I came home and helped paint the stairwell and the molding.”
“Did you get any on the walls?”
“I didn’t say I did it well. I just said I helped.” She scraped a small glob of paint from her shirt and dabbed it on Abby’s nose. She smiled, but Jillian didn’t see the sparkle in her eyes she remembered. Abby was unhappy and she couldn’t do a thing about it.
They heard a loud rumble, and an old red Trans-Am with gray-primer-spotted paint pulled up in front of the house. David was driving, and Jillian could tell by the way he was leaning on the armrest that he was trying to look cool. He rolled the electric window down, only to have it stop halfway. So much for looking cool. Smashing his palm across the top edge, he shoved it the rest of the way down into the door.
“You want to go for a ride?” He raised his brows mischievously, and Jillian knew he wasn’t talking to her.
Abby let out a snort. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Turning quickly, Jillian drew her brows together. “Abby.”
“What?” She raised her hands, palms up. “No self-respecting girl would ever ride in a heap like that.”
David’s grin faded quickly. “It’s better than anything you’ve got.” He threw the car into gear and pulled into the driveway and around the back of the house.
“That wasn’t nice.”
“Uh…did you see the car?” Abby hopped up and gave Jillian a stare. “If I set foot in that beast, my reputation at school would be gone befor
e I even got one.” She picked up her books and headed for the door.
Jillian held her arms tightly across her chest until she heard the screen door slap shut. When she thought Abby was out of earshot, she began to chuckle, and her whole body shook with laughter.
“That wasn’t funny.” Blake’s deep voice resonated behind her. “He has feelings too.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” She covered her mouth to hold back another burst of laughter. “But he’s even got a vanity mirror strapped to the side-view mirror.”
“She’s right about the car, Blake. It is a beast.” Amelia stepped out on the porch. “Why don’t you go make sure his ego hasn’t been bruised too badly?”
“Yeah, sure.” Blake jogged down the steps and around to the garage.
“Where’d you come from?” Jillian twisted around and followed the long, jean-clad legs up past the baseball T-shirt to the thick, dark ponytail before her gaze settled on Amelia’s electric-blue eyes. Wow. The jolt shot through her without warning, and she knew Amelia had seen it.
“Back door,” Amelia said, pulling one side of her mouth into what Jillian could only assume, after being caught looking, was a satisfied grin. “That was Blake’s car when he was a teenager.” She sat on the steps beside her.
“I rem—I mean, I’m sure he did well with the ladies.” She snickered, leaning back on the heels of her palms.
“He did all right. How ’bout you? That little Honda of yours is…interesting.”
“That old car?” She smiled as she fixed her gaze on the Honda. “It’s just a perk.” She’d picked up the ten-year-old Honda at the closest used-car dealership to the airport. The salesman didn’t quite know what to do when she’d written the check without haggling.
“Because men love a good fixer-upper?” Amelia asked.
“Because women love them too.” She saw the expression on Amelia’s face change and her cheeks pink just a touch, which made her so much more attractive. “To be honest with you, I’ve never had much trouble interesting a man…or a woman.” Jillian’s body tingled. She shouldn’t be putting herself out there like this, but she couldn’t resist. After all, this was Amelia, her first love.
“You’re pretty confident.” Amelia raised an eyebrow, and another jolt hit Jillian.
“I try to keep it positive. You’d help poor little old me, wouldn’t you?” she said with her best Oklahoma drawl.
“You would be hard to resist,” Amelia said, her gaze glued to Jillian. “You are a beautiful girl.”
The wind picked up, and Jillian watched the wispy straggles of hair that hadn’t been captured in the ponytail dance around Amelia’s eyes. She cleared her throat, broke the connection, and tried to suppress the prickle of heat rising on her neck.
“It’s fun to have a little harmless banter once in a while, isn’t it?” Jillian smiled, trying to play down the emotional hijacking she was experiencing.
“Is that all it is?” Amelia ran her thumb down Jillian’s arm, and she shuddered.
Jillian’s heart thumped rapidly when Amelia moved closer. Amelia’s gaze fixed on hers again, and Jillian felt weak. She always could get lost in those deep-blue eyes. She let her gaze drift to Amelia’s lips and wondered if they were as soft as she remembered, if her kiss could heat her through and through just as it had when they were young. She wanted—no, she needed to find out. She closed her eyes and leaned forward. She wasn’t disappointed when she felt the warmth of Amelia’s lips brush hers lightly. She let out an involuntary moan and Amelia pulled back, looked into her eyes, and then immediately came back for more.
Jillian didn’t protest. She gave way when Amelia’s tongue pushed through to dance with hers tentatively, slowly, as if one was gauging the other, pacing themselves for an elegant tango certain to happen. Every nerve ending fired, and Jillian thrummed with excitement she hadn’t felt in a very long time. Amelia wasn’t just Jillian’s first love. She was the love of her life, the only love that had been able to penetrate the deep, dark depths of her soul.
David’s engine roared in her ears and pulled Jillian back to reality. She broke away and stared into Amelia’s eyes, emotions crashing through her. Oh, my God. It’s not over. She hopped up and whirled around but wasn’t quick enough to get away completely. Amelia grabbed her hand and tugged her back. She tried to resist but couldn’t. What am I doing? Jillian didn’t know, and she could see by Amelia’s stunned expression that she was confused too.
“I…I need to get out of these filthy clothes,” Jillian said, and pulled out of Amelia’s loose grip.
* * *
Amelia didn’t follow. She couldn’t. Her heart was still doing rapid flip-flops from this unexpected turn of events. What the hell was that? She took in a deep breath, trying to douse the heat still flooding her. She’s here because she needs help, and I just kissed her. JJ could sue both Amelia and the department for sexual harassment. In one stupid move, Amelia could’ve put herself, Blake, and the boys out on the street for good. She twisted around and saw JJ looking out the living-room window at her. Amelia tingled all over again. She wanted me to kiss her. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and smiled. If I’d had more time, I would have done it right. She stared out into the street and waited a few minutes to cool down, then shook the thought of JJ Davis from her head and walked around back to the garage. Blake had the inside door panel off the car, and David was jiggling the window control.
“Whatcha doin’?”
“Trying to fix this beast,” David said, disgust ringing clearly in his voice.
“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.” Amelia patted him on the back.
“Abby’s right. No self-respecting girl would be caught dead in this car.” David kicked the door and dropped back against the driver’s seat.
“That’s not going to solve anything.” Blake’s tone was firm. “Maybe if we put our heads together, we can get it fixed up,”
“So, you’ll help me?” David’s voice rose with excitement.
“Sure. I still remember a little about this car.” Blake swiped his hand across the spotted fender panel. “You’re still in shop class at school, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I bet I can scrape together enough money to buy some paint, and we can use the spray booth at school to cherry it out.”
“Cherry it out?” David scrunched up his face.
Amelia chuckled. “That’s old school for make it look brand-new.”
“That would be awesome, but Mr. Wright would never go for it. Unless we’re working on his car, we can’t use that stuff.”
“I’ll give him a call and see what he says.”
“Okay, but how do I get to school in the meantime?”
“It runs. You can still drive it.”
“Not like this, I can’t.”
“Then take the bus like every other kid in town,” Amelia said.
“No way.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to hoof it. Unless…” Blake stopped and gave David a thoughtful look.
“Unless what?”
“Maybe you can ride along with the little prima donna and her aunt.”
“I’d rather walk.” David tossed the screwdriver onto the passenger seat.
Amelia could see that Abby’s comments had stung deep. David wasn’t the coolest kid in town, but he did try.
“Do you have the key to the trunk?” Blake asked.
David got out of the car and pulled the key out of his pocket, slid it into the slot, and the trunk popped open. “What’s in here?”
Blake lifted a few things and pulled out a tattered old repair manual. “This is all we need, right here.”
“You used to work on it?”
“All the time. Amelia and I both did. Right, sis?”
“Yep. As I recall, I put that stereo in.” She took the repair manual from Blake and thumbed through it. “This thing is golden.” She tossed it to David. “You’d better start reading.”
Amelia peeked inside the c
ar to check the condition of the leather and slid into the driver’s seat. She looked over her shoulder into the backseat and remembered some of the wildly inappropriate things she’d done back there. Memories of tangled legs and sweet-hot skin flashed through her head. Where did that come from? She reached back and ran her hand across the smooth leather surface. Not the most comfortable place to get to know someone, but she had gotten to know someone very well there. She shook her head and smiled. She hadn’t thought about that in years. The memory had all but faded from her mind.
Blake slammed the trunk shut, and Amelia was catapulted back to reality. She pushed out of the seat and looked up to see JJ watching them from the back porch, and the flip-flops started all over again.
She turned to Blake and said, “Hey. I forgot I have to be somewhere. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” She didn’t wait for a response as she got in her car and backed out of the driveway. She glanced back at the porch to catch a last look at JJ, and her body betrayed her again. Jesus, Amelia. You need to get a handle on this immediately.
Chapter Seven
The next morning, Amelia stood on the back porch, staring into the yard and listening to the buzz of lawn mowers in the neighborhood, while she waited for her clothes to dry. Her life had changed dramatically over the last ten years. If anyone had ever told her she’d be still be living in this college town working as a nonprofit lawyer, she would’ve bet everything she had against it. She never thought she’d be back in this old house. The memories it contained were bittersweet. She’d loved the family that lived here more than she’d loved her own. The girl whom she’d fallen in love with in this house had left a huge crater in her heart, which she’d spent the last fifteen years trying to fill, and now those memories were vivid, like they’d just happened. Amelia didn’t know if it was the house, the car, or the woman living upstairs. Whatever it was, if she wasn’t careful, that woman could very well destroy the shield she’d carefully constructed over the years. She hadn’t meant to kiss JJ the other day, but the impulse had been so overwhelming she couldn’t stop herself. There was something familiar about her that Amelia couldn’t shake, and she couldn’t stay away.