The Beach House

by Vicky Jones

  “Can I help you, sir?” the receptionist asked, noting his smart suit and slicked back hair. Sniffing, she caught a whiff of his cologne and blushed.

  “I have an appointment with Principal Miller,” Kyle replied, placing his palms on the desktop in front of him.

  “One moment please.” The receptionist got up and knocked on Miller’s door, then popped her head inside. Seconds later, she invited Kyle inside.

  “Good afternoon, sir. How can I help you?” Miller looked up at Kyle but remained sitting at her desk.

  “I’d like an update on my son’s progress here,” Kyle replied, sitting down before being invited to.

  “And who is your son?” she replied, her tone clipped.

  “David.” Kyle paused, confusion crossing his face for a second.

  “David what?”

  He laughed. “Well, actually I don’t know what surname his mother is using right now.”

  Miller sat forward in her chair and clasped her hands together on the desk.

  “She left me very suddenly,” Kyle continued, softening his tone. “We had some problems in our relationship and she just left one day, without even telling me she was pregnant. I’ve spent six years trying to find her, then one day she sends her mother a letter with her address and, being the concerned mother she is, she wrote me straight away and, for the interests of the child, said I should go to her daughter and make it all OK again between us. That’s what I’m here to do, ma’am. I just want my family back together.” Kyle fiddled with his cufflink all the way through his rambling speech.

  “I do have a David, of the correct age you speak of. Would that be the one?”

  “Yes. Yes, that’s him. His mother’s name is Chloe.” Kyle leaned back in his chair, shaking his head as if relieved, then out of the corner of his eye watched to see if Miller was buying his act. “She’s probably told you about her sister living with her?”

  Miller’s eyes became keen. “Yes, a woman called Shona.” Again she leaned forward. “Why?”

  Chapter 40

  After sprinting the whole way to Fairview Elementary, Chloe almost collapsed over Polly the assistant’s desk.

  “That’s fine, Mrs. Clark. Principal Miller is expecting you. You can go right in,” Polly cut in just as Chloe tried to breathe out her words to ask.

  Pushing the door open, Chloe saw Miller’s stern face first, then Kyle. “What is going on here?”

  “Sit down Mrs. Clark,” Miller replied, then rose to pull out another chair for her.

  “No, I can’t have him here. He’s dangerous. I don’t want him here. Please.” Chloe, adrenaline rippling through her body, fell forwards, leaning her hands on the back of the chair.

  “Now, Chloe,” Kyle began, turning to face her. “I’m sure we can sort all of this misunderstanding out together. Sit down.”

  Chloe glared at him with renewed anger. “Don’t you ever tell me what to do, Kyle. Not ever.” She turned to Miller. “Ma’am, the reason I left this man is that he…he.” She paused, but she still couldn’t say that word. “He’s been in jail.”

  Miller’s face hardened towards Kyle. “You didn’t mention that before, Mr. Chambers.” Looking back at Chloe, she waved her hand, insisting she sit down. Kyle began fiddling with his cufflink again.

  “He was sent to jail for being involved in fraud, corruption, several assaults and second-degree murder. I have no idea why they’ve let him out or why he’s here now, but he’s dangerous. I don’t want him anywhere near my son.”

  “Our son,” Kyle cut in. “I made him too, didn’t I?”

  “You really wanna go there?” Chloe snapped back.

  “And the reason you left me afterwards is because of Shona, wasn’t it?”

  Miller held her hands up, confused by the rapid-fire arguments. “Hang on a minute, I’m confused here.” She looked at them both. “Mrs. Clark, you and this Shona have the same last name, yes?”

  Chloe nodded, licking her lips.

  “And that’s the same last name you gave David? Clark, right?”

  Kyle smirked. The penny had finally dropped for Miller.

  “Yes.” Chloe fiddled with the strap of her purse on her lap.

  “But you said when you enrolled him that his father, your husband, was dead. So why doesn’t David have his father’s last name? Chambers?”

  The seconds dragged by as Chloe thought fast. But there was no way out of this one. She took a huge breath and looked intently at Miller.

  “Because I didn’t want people to know his father was a criminal. That’s why I lied. He’s not really my husband. Shona and I both changed our own last names because I wanted a fresh start away from this animal. We’re not really sisters either, we’re…” She paused. “We’re friends. We made a pact to stick together, as one of the things he went to jail for was hurting Shona so badly she was almost killed. So, you can understand why I didn’t want him to find us.” She stood up to leave, but Kyle thrust out his hand and grabbed her wrist.

  “Chloe, please. I just want to see my son. I’ve changed.” He looked at Miller. “I’ve served my time, ma’am. I’m no longer a danger to society. Surely if I was, they wouldn’t have let me out, would they? I just want the opportunity to get to know my boy.”

  Miller lay her palms on the desk. “I’m sure you do, Mr. Chambers. But I need time to think this over. For now, I think it’s best you both organize this between yourselves. Legally, Miss Clark, you and your friend are down on school records as responsible for David and I’m satisfied with that. For now,” she added. “See me next week and I’ll discuss it with you and Mr. Chambers further. My only concern is for the welfare of the child.” All three of them stood up for Miller to show them to the door. After waiting for Kyle to step away along the corridor, Miller leaned in close, locking eyes with Chloe. “Maybe, for David’s sake, Miss Clark, you should think about letting his father back in his life,” she hissed. “No matter what mistakes you’ve made in the past, a boy should have a proper family around him. I don’t want any trouble brought to my door, you hear? You wouldn’t want to have to move David to a school out of town now, would you?”

  Outside, Kyle struggled to keep up with Chloe, who, stunned by Miller’s opinion, was now striding away down the hallway. He stretched out and pulled her arm back.

  “Get your hands off me, Kyle,” Chloe said, flinging his hand away from her.

  “Look, if you don’t want me marching back in there and telling Miller exactly what Shona is to you, then you’d better let me see my son.”

  “Leave us alone, Kyle. Go back to Alabama and leave us alone.” She strode away as confidently as her shaking legs could manage.

  It was three o’clock and Kyle had gone straight from the school to Sunnybrook’s grocery store. He walked up and down the aisles, then found the perfect gift for David, a little brown bear dressed in a grey suit with a red tie, almost exactly the same as the outfit Kyle was wearing. At the register, he smiled at the Edie, but she glared back at him.

  “Something I said?” he joked.

  “I’m friends with Alice from the bakery,” Edie replied, holding out her palm for the money. “She told me what you said about Shona.”

  “Well, maybe she misunderstood my sense of humor.”

  “No, she knew exactly what you were meaning. Shona’s our friend, so you leave her alone or you’ll have us to deal with, OK?” Edie, bolstered by the fact there was a counter between them, hardly flinched when Kyle took a step closer to her, his smile hardening.

  “I was really hoping this could be my local store, so you can tell Shona from me, I ain’t planning on going anywhere. OK?”

  “Get off my property before I call the sheriff. I’m not joking, Kyle.” Chloe stood behind the closed front door, having watched through the kitchen window as he drove up to the house that same afternoon.

  “Look, I just wanna talk, Chloe. I’m not here to cause trouble. If I wanted to do that, I would have gone back in that office and tol
d Miller all about you and this little love charade you got going on here. Open the door. I’m not gonna do anything.”

  Chloe opened the door a crack. “I don’t want you here, Kyle. You don’t scare me anymore,” she said.

  Kyle took a step back down the porch steps and held out the bear. “I just wanted to leave this for the boy. I know he ain’t home from school yet, so surely that shows you that I’m not here to make trouble. I come in peace.”

  Cooper ran in from the garden covered in mud from the hole he’d been digging. Lolloping around the hallway, he distracted her just long enough for Kyle to creep inside the front door as Chloe was bending over to shoo Cooper away. Refusing to leave Chloe alone completely, Cooper sat at the end of the hallway watching Kyle with keen brown eyes.

  “Kyle, I didn’t say you could come in,” Chloe gasped as she stood up and came face-to-face with him. He took a step backwards.

  “Look, I just wanted to see if you were OK after what happened at the school.” Kyle paused, his forehead creasing. “And I thought you should know something about Shona.” He knew he’d got her attention judging by the stare she gave him and was savoring every second of it.

  “Know what?”

  “That girl in town. The one in the bakery? Alice, I think her name is.”

  “What about her?” Chloe interjected.

  “Well, actually it’s not just her. That girl in the grocery store too. They all seem to know Shona pretty well.”

  “What are you saying, Kyle?”

  “Do you really know what she gets up to when she’s out at work, while you’re stuck here, day in, day out? Seems to me that she’s got all the freedom, not you.” His voice softened as he took a tiny step closer.

  “I trust her,” Chloe replied, folding her arms.

  “You know, I remember how you used to boss us all around at Ellis and Bruce. God, that was such a turn on. And you coming in every day looking and smelling amazing. All the guys wanted you, but none more so than me, Chloe. I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been. I’ve messed everything up.”

  His face crumbled and, to Chloe’s amazement, tears began to form in his dark black eyes. “I ruined everything that night. We could have been married by now, raising a family together. But I messed it all up because I was so in love with you. But what I did was wrong. Maybe not in the eyes of the law, but wrong all the same.” He wiped his nose on his sleeve and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Kyle, what are you saying?” Chloe whispered.

  “I’m saying I wanna try again with you, Chloe. For the boy’s sake. Seeing the way Shona is flaunting herself and her new confidence around town has really woken me up to the way you’re being treated. It’s not right. I said to myself, ‘why ain’t she being treated better?’ I would do it all so different this time if there was just a chance for us to be a family. I don’t want my boy growing up being illegitimate. I want him to inherit my family’s fortune one day. Surely you’d want that too?” He looked at her, reaching out to graze her face with the back of his fingers.

  Chloe’s head was spinning. After the Lucy business, she and Shona had been getting closer again, but now, with what Kyle had seen in town, it seemed all of that was being raked up once again.

  “Just another chance to make it right is all I’m asking, Chloe.” Kyle backed off again. “But you don’t have to tell me now. Think about it. But please, will you give the boy this?” He held out the bear once again. This time Chloe, in a state of bewilderment, took it. “I’ll leave you alone now. But you really do look beautiful. Motherhood suits you. Maybe marriage will too?”

  At the end of the road, out of sight of the house, Kyle stopped the car and put his hand in his pocket. As Chloe had leaned down to sort out Cooper, Kyle had swiped a pair of her panties off the hamper of dirty laundry she’d left in the hallway while she answered the door.

  “Mmmm, just like I remember,” he purred, pressing them to his nose.

  “Hey Shona, did that guy find you?” Bertie said after wandering over to the garage on her lunch break.

  “What guy?” Shona replied, emerging from underneath the car she was fixing.

  “Tall, black hair, thinks every lesbian in this town is gonna magically convert because of his cologne.”

  Shona grimaced. “No, and I ain’t wanting him to find me either. He’s an asshole.”

  “Yeah, well, Alice told him you worked here. Stupid kid. She let it slip by accident. You in trouble?”

  “Hope not. He’ll go soon when he realizes there’s nothing for him here.”

  “Well, you got your girls over there, primed and ready. And I still owe you one. Just say the word if you need anything, OK?”

  “Thank you, Bertie,” Shona replied.

  “I’m home, honey. Where’s my family at?” Shona bellowed down the hallway as she came through her front door. Something caught her attention. Lifting her nose into the air, the smell was unmistakable. “Chloe?” she called out, more seriously this time.

  “In here,” Chloe called back from the bedroom.

  “Why can I smell Kyle in this house?”

  Chloe turned around and almost took Shona’s breath away. She was wearing a tight-fitting peach blouse and black pencil skirt with a thin black belt around her waist. It was an outfit very similar to one she’d have worn all those years ago at Ellis and Bruce. Normally, Shona would have complimented her on it, but something didn’t feel right.

  “Was he here?”

  “Who?”

  “You know who,” Shona yelled. “Kyle.”

  “Shona, please don’t raise your voice. David’ll hear.” She turned back to the full-length mirror to continue brushing her hair. “Yes, he was. He brought a bear for David. He’s playing with it in his room now.”

  “Are you serious? How can you let that man anywhere near you after what he did?”

  Chloe spun around to face Shona. “I’m not. But he is David’s father, Shona. David has been asking questions these last few months.”

  “Bullshit. He’s no father. He’s a murdering bastard who killed my best friend and violated you. How could I ever accept him back in our lives?”

  “We’ll be OK, Shona. If he steps out of line, Sheriff Everett will be there to take him in. You said it yourself, the town’ll be safer when he’s back in charge.”

  “But he’ll retire one day. He won’t be around forever. We can’t rely on anyone to protect us—it’s down to us. Please, Chloe, don’t trust him.” Shona was leaning against the bedroom door now, relying on it to take her whole weight.

  “He has rights, Shona, as David’s father. We can’t get around that. If I don’t let him see David, he’ll exercise those rights, no doubt, to the authorities. He’s already threatened to tell old Miller down at the school all about us. Do you want all that to happen again? For David to be taken away from us?”

  Shona groaned. “No, of course I don’t. How could you even ask that? You know I love that kid as much as if I’d given birth to him myself. But that man is evil. He’ll take everything away from us.”

  “He won’t, baby, I swear. I’m stronger now. He can’t scare me anymore. I’ve just gotta play things carefully. Otherwise we could lose everything we’ve fought so hard to have here.”

  “I’m so sorry about the letter.” Shona sobbed. “This is all my fault.”

  “It’s done now.”

  Shona looked at Chloe and then at her clothes. “Why are you wearing those?”

  “I’ve spent so long stuck indoors being a mom. I just wanted to feel strong and look independent again.”

  “You know, you look like you did when you first appeared on that balcony.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I fell for you the second I saw you.”

  Chloe wrapped her arms around Shona’s waist. “Me too, the second I looked down and saw you in that crowd. Nothing will break us, Shona. I swear it.”

  Chapter 41

  Shona was finishing up with a customer
when Kyle swaggered up to her the following morning. He leaned against the garage doors as the old man was handing over payment for the work she’d done.

  “Thank you so much, Shona. You’re the best mechanic this town has ever had,” the old man said. He put his brown leather wallet back in the pocket of his beige slacks and, with a little help from Shona’s outstretched arm, climbed into his Buick.

  As soon as he’d driven away, Kyle approached her slowly clapping his hands. “You’re the best mechanic this town has ever had,” he mimicked. “You really have charmed everyone around here, haven’t you? Men and women.”

  “Fuck off, Kyle,” Shona replied without even looking at him as she turned to go back inside the garage.

  “You know, you shouldn’t keep a good woman like Chloe locked inside the house all day. She gets bored and…” he paused, fishing into his pocket for Chloe’s panties while keeping his stare fixed on Shona, “tempted.”

  Shona turned around ready to fly at him but stopped dead when she saw what he was holding. “Where the hell did you get those?” Her eyes shot bolts of fire at the now-smirking Kyle.

  “Hey Shona, can you take a look at my tailpipe? It’s making a funny noise,” a young cop shouted out from the side of the road about ten feet away from her.

  “Better not make a scene in front of the law now, honey. I don’t think even your magical hands will get you off an assault charge.” Kyle’s face was beaming with triumph.

  Stepping closer to him on her way over to the cop, Shona leaned into Kyle. “It wouldn’t be assault, it’d be murder.” She ripped the panties out of his grasp and thrust them in her pocket. “Now get the fuck off my property, asshole.”

  “Go ask your girlfriend how I got those,” he snarled back.

  “Hi honey, good day at work?” Chloe asked, kissing Shona on the cheek as she walked through the door.