by Bowes, K T
“What are you gonna do?” he demanded, lifting it higher, so she bounced against his chest like a moth demanding entry to a lighted room. “You can’t interfere, Soph! You’ve breached his privacy and he won’t listen to you now.”
“Breached whose privacy?” A stern-looking woman stood in the archway between the kitchen and sunroom, her dark hair scraped back into a ponytail. “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing, Mum.” Declan stood and formed a barrier between her and his friends, straightening his shoulders to prepare for battle. “They’re messing around.”
“Didn’t sound like it.” Perceptive eyes fixed on Sophia’s face and the girl cringed and held her breath. Declan’s mother narrowed her eyes. “You live next door?” When Sophia nodded, her eyes softened and the glare relaxed. “I’ve seen you in church, haven’t I?”
Sophia swallowed. “Yes. But not for a while.” Her body stiffened at the reminder and Dane laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, fortifying her from the outside in.
“Where do you go now? You should go somewhere,” Declan’s mother persisted. She shrugged off her jacket and revealed a tidy nurse’s uniform. Sophia felt her pulse rate increase and floundered for a ready excuse. As always, Dane stepped in to form her rear guard.
“We spend Sunday mornings in bed with a joint nowadays.” He fixed a cocky grin on his face and raised a lascivious eyebrow. Shoving the phone into his jeans pocket he glanced backwards out of the window. “I think it’s stopped raining now. Thanks for the shelter, Dec.” He skirted Mrs Harris towing Sophia behind him like a small trailer and she followed, falling over her own feet with embarrassment. Declan’s mother peered through the window in confusion, the dry asphalt winking back at her. Sophia pushed her feet into trainers which felt clunky and uncomfortable, her feet hot and sticky with the spreading flush. Declan followed them to the front door and Dane turned to him with a shrug. “Sorry, bro. Bit rude and all that.” His blue eyes twinkled with mirth, the bad-boy as close to the surface as ever.
To Sophia’s surprise, Declan laughed. “Yeah, I kinda saw it coming, man. Prod the wasp’s nest and get stung. I should’ve warned her not to take you on.”
Dane jerked his head towards the stairs and wrinkled his nose. “You gonna be in the crap now?”
Declan widened his eyes and shoved his feet into flip flops. “Heck no! I’m coming with you.”
Sophia fled down the front steps and hovered in the street, feeling Mrs Harris’s eyes boring into the top of her head from the sunroom window. The males followed, their pace slower and less panicked. “Where we goin’?” Dane asked, slipping his arm around Sophia’s shoulders and sheltering her from the cold glare turning her veins to icy passages and making her blood stutter.
“Calli’s?” Declan replied, checking his watch. “It’s still early.”
“She’ll think I’m a tart now.” Sophia’s lip drooped. “She’ll talk to my dad and I’ll be gone by the end of the week.”
“Calli?” Declan looked confused.
“Your mother.” Sophia sniffed. “I’ll have to go and live with the catfish.”
Dane laughed. “You’re so dramatic, Soph. I can’t remember what I did for entertainment before I met you.”
“Pulled legs off spiders,” Sophia muttered under her breath and Dane bit his lip and hugged her closer.
“I still do that sometimes,” he joked and she looked away, irritated that he’d kept her phone and not sure how to ask for it back. As if reading her mind, he kissed the side of her face. “You’re not having it,” he stated and winked.
The ranch house, once beautiful and master of its own destiny, nestled among carbon copies in a new suburb nestled close to its boundary. Callister Rhodes opened the front door and stared in surprise at the presence of the unexpected raiding party. “Hey.” Her lips parted in a smile meant for Declan. “Did Cruella let you out?”
Declan frowned but Calli remained unrepentant. She stepped back to allow them across the threshold into the folds of the stunning house. Sophia kicked her trainers off by the front door and the boys followed suit, Declan earning himself a kiss from his girlfriend. “Cruella.” Sophia repeated the name, rolling the sound around her tongue and thinking how well it suited Declan’s mother. Calli’s eyes narrowed and they shared the joke between them; the boys moving into the kitchen like automatons.
“We’ve got guests, Allen.” A woman rose from an armchair by the large French doors, standing with difficulty using two metal walking sticks. Her head wobbled on her shoulders as disease ravaged her muscles from the inside, yet her smile appeared strong and reassuring. A man hurried across from the kitchen and supported her with a gentle hand against her spine.
“I can make tea, Alison,” he chided. “Or Declan can.” He winked at the tall rugby player and Declan bowed like a stage player.
“At your service,” he said in a mock English accent and Alison smiled.
“Right you are then,” she said and allowed Allen to help her back into the seat. Her eyes seemed to focus one at a time, resting on Sophia with surprising perception. “You used to come to church with Edgar and Sally,” she said, running a shaking hand across her chin. “How are they? Your brother must be all grown by now.”
Sophia nodded but glared at Dane, terrified he’d intervene again on her behalf. Somehow this time would feel more of a disaster. His lips twitched and he kept silent, watching her for signs of distress like a bear ready to attack anyone who trespassed near his prized mate. “My brother went to Europe on a soccer scholarship,” Sophia replied, catching hold of Dane’s large hand and squeezing his fingers for courage. “Mum and Dad broke up and I haven’t felt like going to church since then.” She chewed her lip, looking for credit. “I went back to youth group once.”
To her surprise Alison nodded. “I haven’t felt much like church recently.” She waved a trembling hand down her body and Allen swallowed back emotions Sophia could only guess at. “Bit fed up with God to be quite honest.” Her head nodded as she winked at Sophia. “I don’t think he minds coming to us sometimes though.”
The girl gave a watery smile of agreement, wanting to say something important and earth shattering but coming up empty. “I hope so,” she gushed, her courage failing. Declan pushed a glass of water into her hand and she took it, remembering the other one she’d left at his house. Thirst rose at the sight of the crystal water and she gulped the liquid down like someone caught in a desert. The phone in Dane’s pocket pulled at her consciousness and she ached to yank it free and hide in a dark place, reading Edgar’s obituary to common sense.
“Let’s go on the deck,” Calli suggested, pressing her fingers in Sophia’s back. She obeyed and they moved towards the hallway as a group, passing onto the deck in herd formation. “She tires easily,” Calli explained. “I don’t want her to get sicker.”
Sophia nodded and negotiated the boys as they stood around taking stock of their surroundings. They wandered off talking and the girls found a swing seat with a canopy to shelter them from the evening glare. Sophia sipped the remains of her glass, feeling disappointed as the last drops slid onto her tongue. “What’s wrong with Alison?” she asked. “I remember her from years ago. She sang at the front of church. I loved her voice.” A memory of her parents holding hands in the congregation flashed across her inner vision and the water roiled in her stomach.
“Multiple Sclerosis,” Calli replied. Bitterness infused her voice. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and now I have to lose her.”
“But not real soon, hey?” Sophia looked for a way out of the awful conversation she’d started, finding none.
“She’s hanging on until I’m eighteen and out of the care system for good. Otherwise I can’t stay here alone with Allen; it’s not appropriate.” She said the last word as though it tasted foul. “When I’m eighteen, they can’t stop me.”
Sophia nodded, not understanding but trying. “It must be hard.”
Calli’s ey
es lost their cloudiness. “It sucks but we’re making the best of it.” The adult phrase sounded false on her tongue. She swung the seat a little with her legs and focussed on Sophia. “What made you all walk out here?”
Sophia told her about their spying exercise and the arrival of Declan’s mother and Calli wrinkled her nose. “Man, she’s a piece of work, isn’t she? I think she sat down too hard and her chastity belt went right up her ass.”
Sophia snorted with laughter and the boys looked over before turning back to their conversation. Dane fingered the phone in his pocket as though fearful Sophia might charge him and steal it. “I need to get that phone off him,” she sighed, eying the neat backside nestled in his jeans. “I might just jump him and grab it.”
“Have you?” Calli asked and Sophia’s brow knitted.
“What?”
“Jumped him. You know what I mean.”
Sophia’s cheeks flushed crimson and she felt the sweat bead on her lower back. Embarrassed and wrong-footed she floundered. Calli smiled. “Na, you haven’t,” she said, perception in her adult gaze. She leaned forward. “Don’t.”
Sophia stared at her trainers, scuffing the toe of the left one with the sole of the right. “Why?”
Calli sat back in the swing and used her legs to push off, gaining height and forcing Sophia to sit back. “It messes everything up.” Her eyes strayed to Declan. “We did it once and it wasn’t good.”
Sophia turned to face her, shock bleeding into the flush. “Was it horrible?”
Calli laughed and her expression turned to wistful. “No. It was amazing.”
“What then?” Confused, Sophia’s hands writhed around the damp glass.
“It broke us.” Calli’s brow knitted against a painful memory. She shook her head. “Declan’s got strong principles about right and wrong and it caused him to have a massive crisis.” She swallowed. “You’re the same as him with the whole God-thing going on. If you want my advice; don’t do it. Wait.” The pretty girl sighed and closed her eyes, raising her hands above her head and swinging her legs as though she didn’t live on a knife edge. Despite the warm evening she wore long sleeves and Sophia saw white scars crisscrossing the creamy olive skin.
“Wait for what?” Sophia whispered, watching her gorgeous boyfriend turn and begin walking back towards her.
Calli opened one eye and looked sideways at her, wisdom in the pretty, teenage face. “For the right time,” she said.
Chapter 9
Trust
Declan stayed with Calli for a while and Dane walked Sophia home, their pace slow and languid to make the time last longer. He rested his arm across her shoulders and they stopped at the kids’ play park to sit on the swings. “Will you give my phone back now?” Sophia asked, the sting gone from her father’s stupidity. She sat on Dane’s knees and felt his warmth through her clothes as the temperature dropped. His fingers caressed her waist with the beat of the swing’s movement.
“When we get back to yours,” he replied. “But only if you promise not to look at the messages.”
Sophia tutted and gave an exaggerated sigh. “I can’t. I need to know what’s going on.”
Dane nodded. “I know, babe. But I’d rather you trusted me to do a bit more poking around before you launch in there like a bull in a china shop.”
“Don’t tell Uncle Bob!” She panicked at the inference in Dane’s words. The phrase poking around epitomised Bob’s style of investigative lawyering and it filled her with horror. “Please, don’t!” Her voice raised at the end and oxygen became locked in her chest, forcing it to hitch. She tried to turn, but he held her in place. “I know that’s what you’re gonna do! It’s too humiliating.” Sophia struggled free and stepped backwards, stumbling as she moved away from Dane. “Don’t do it, please Dane, don’t tell Bob!”
“Hey, stop, Soph. Geez man, don’t you trust me?” Dane stood and sent the swing away with a flick of his wrist on the chain. In a single stride he reached her, scooping her into his arms so her feet were off the floor and holding her tight to his body. “Don’t get upset,” he whispered in her ear, sighing with relief as Sophia’s arms wrapped around his neck. “Trust me, Soph. Just trust me.” He set her on the ground when her body stilled and cradled her head in the soft space between his collarbone and shoulder. Gentle fingers stroked her hair and the embarrassment abated.
“I didn’t want Declan and Calli to know.” Her voice sounded muffled and sulky. Sophia groaned. “Why would Edgar do this to me?”
“It’s okay, babe. We’ll sort it out.” Dane fitted her tight beneath his arm and pulled her left hand around his waist, linking his fingers through hers. “Come on, let’s get you home.”
“What will you do?” Sophia wiped her nose on the back of her wrist and sniffed. “Her name’s fake, the photos are probably nicked off some innocent woman’s profile page and my father’s being sweet-talked by a sweaty old man called Brian.”
Dane threw his head back and laughed. “No disrespect intended to any men called Brian.”
“Please tell me you’ve thought up an amazing plan,” Sophia whined, detesting the pathos in her voice. “I’m not shifting my whole life to Palmerston North. Edgar’s not messing around. He said he’d got himself a job in a garage which means he’ll give a month’s notice at work.”
“It’s at Melody’s garage,” Dane said. “I looked back through the messages. She’s offered him a job working for her.”
Sophia exhaled in a snort of irritation. “So, everything’s wrapped up in someone who isn’t real.” She groaned. “Oh, Edgar! You’re such an idiot!”
Dane lifted his index finger and stroked her nose, slowing his pace to a stroll. “I don’t think your theory about her being a him is realistic.”
“What? Why?” Sophia stopped and stared at Dane, suspicion in her eyes. “You’re not telling me everything. Give me that phone.”
“No.” Dane shook his head and batted her hands away as she tried to push her fingertips into his jeans pocket. “I know what you’re gonna do, Soph. I know you. You can’t chat to her like you’re Edgar; it won’t work. She’ll know, tell him a load of crap and dump him and he’ll blame you.”
“She’s not real!” Sophia stamped her foot. “Who cares?”
“You will.” Dane’s tone grew serious. “This woman has somehow hooked your father into a relationship and made him believe everything she’s told him. Either she’s telling the truth, or she’s superb at conning vulnerable, lonely men. It wouldn’t take much effort if she feels threatened to say you chased her off. Job done. The catfish extricates herself from a botched attempt to con Edgar, but he’ll think you ruined it for him. You need hard evidence, Soph, and you won’t get it by pretending to be him online and trapping her into confessing.”
“What then?” Sophia’s shoulders slumped and she continued walking, dodging ruts in the pavement as though they possessed the power to suck her down. Dane reached for her hand and linked their fingers.
“The reason I don’t think it’s a guy faking a woman’s identity is because she sometimes puts in these blurry photos while they’re chatting. She’s blonde like the woman in the photo but you can’t see much of her face. The body shape’s a woman for sure because she’s got breasts.” Sophia halted with a gasp and he yanked on her hand. “Stop freaking out at everything, woman! We need to be smart about this. Edgar’s really sucked in.”
“It could still be a man with moobs though?” Sophia asked and Dane shook his head.
“Man-boobs don’t need a bra and she shows heaps of cleavage and just misses out her face. Edgar seems to like it.” He winced. “Old people are so disgusting, aren’t they?”
“But he hasn’t seen her for real.” Sophia stamped her foot. “Doesn’t he realise how suspicious that is?” she demanded. “Why do I feel like the parent?”
“He’s naive and lonely,” Dane replied and Sophia nodded, forced to acknowledge the truth. “Desperation makes people do dumb things. We’ll
sort it out.”
“You keep saying that.” They stopped at the end of Achilles Rise and Sophia glanced up the hill towards her house. The windows looked dark and the rooms unlit; she figured Edgar would still be sitting in his bedroom talking to his catfish. “How can we sort it out?”
“Let me keep your phone,” Dane said, pushing his fingers into the thick brown curls at the nape of Sophia’s neck. She shuddered with the warmth of his hand and the sparks of pleasure it sent down her spine. “I’ll look at what they talked about tonight and go right back through the conversation to the start. I’ll grab every tiny detail which might indicate who and where she is. Then we’ll put a stop to it.”
Sophia gave a slow nod. “Okay,” she agreed. “But I need to know everything you find out.”
Dane leaned forward and his lips sought hers. Heat poured off the pavement and road as the evening died and Sophia felt grafted onto him as she met his kisses with hunger. She opened her mouth wider, wanting more of him and their teeth banged together. Dane laughed but fear budded in her soul. “If you cheat on me, dump me or die,” she threatened. “I’ll really hurt you.”
Dane snorted. “I know, Soph. Believe me, I know.” He ran his finger down her cheek, sending tantalising electric pulses to her brain. “I’ve no intention of doing any of those things.” Patting the phone in his pocket he winked at her. “Thank you.”
“What for?” Sophia’s dark brows knitted.
Dane cocked his head and planted his final kiss on her lips. “For trusting me with your phone.” He pressed her face into his chest and sighed into her hair. “And your life, Soph. I promise not to damage either.” He left her at the end of the street, his white tee shirt highlighted by the brightening street lamps as he strolled away. Looking back once he waved a finger towards the house but still Sophia stalled. She admired the powerful physique and neat backside moulded into his jeans, her mind trespassing into adult mental pictures which forced a flush into her cheeks. Callister’s warning came back to bite her and took the fun out of her imaginings.