SONS of DON

by Brenda L. Harper

  She could save that for later.

  Chapter 3

  Dinner in the Langley house turned out to be quite a complicated affair. Theresa made all the kids participate in the preparation, including mute little Anna who never said a word and never did more than she was told to do. Melanie was quite talkative, but the only person she seemed interested in talking to was Cei. And then there were the twins. They did whatever Richie seemed to think was appropriate. Gwen watched them move around the kitchen, Tommy doing only what Richie instructed him to do, and found herself revising her earlier assertion that she wished she had a sibling.

  They had spaghetti that first night. Gwen was put in charge of making the salad. She worked in a deep corner of the kitchen, observing the others as she worked. Cei seemed so much more mature than the others, the way he seemed to somehow sit above them all. He joined in on the teasing—in fact, he was the one who initiated the attempt to drop a piece of ice down the back of Richie’s shirt—but there was something distant about him that made him feel separate. No one else seemed to notice it. Theresa talked to him just like she did the others. Melanie tripped over herself trying to be close to him, drawing him into conversation about some of her favorite pop stars. But still—

  They were nearly finished with the food prep when the kitchen doors swung inward and a man in a casual suit burst into the room.

  “Tony!” Tommy cried, a new light coming into his eyes.

  “Hey, sport,” the man said, snatching Tommy into his arms and lifting him like he was a toddler in diapers rather than an eleven-year-old kid. “How was the alien fighting today?”

  Tommy blushed, but there was a smile so wide it seemed to threaten to crack his cheeks into two on his cute, little face. “Pretty good,” he said. “I got a new high score.”

  “Awesome.”

  Tony set Tommy down on his feet and shook Richie’s hand, all formal and adult. Richie gave a silent nod, but he had that same blush on his cheeks that Tommy had had. This was clearly a routine that Richie expected and enjoyed.

  “Melanie,” Tony said, moving up behind her to steal a finger-dip of the pudding she was whisking for dessert. “That’s awesome.”

  Melanie glanced at Cei before she said, “Thanks.”

  And then Tony moved up behind Theresa and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Gwen looked away as he began to whisper in her ear. She had never been comfortable with that level of intimacy in the people around her. Maybe it came from not having a stable relationship in her own life.

  Or maybe it was just gross watching adults act like a couple of teenagers.

  Whichever, she wasn’t really paying attention to the people around her as she finished up the salad, using the forks Theresa gave her to mix the cut vegetables up together in the bowl. So she was caught by surprise when Tony laid his hand on her shoulder.

  “You must be Gwenydd.”

  “Gwyneth?” Melanie asked under her breath. “What a name.”

  “Gwen,” she said quickly, picking up a few pieces of lettuce that had fallen out of the bowl when he startled her.

  “Gwen.”

  She could feel his gaze on her, could feel him studying her almost like Cei had done when Gwen first arrived at this house. She turned, really looking at him for the first time. She didn’t often spend much time in the company of the male heads of the houses she lived in. They were often off at work or hiding out in the man cave, or whatever. Therefore, it didn’t matter much to Gwen to get to know them. What was the point? They weren’t interested in her, and that was exactly how she wanted to keep it.

  She’d experienced what happened when those men took a special interest in the girls who lived in their homes. She didn’t want to go down that road again.

  But Tony was hard to ignore.

  He was a small man, maybe a full inch shorter than Gwen. He had dark hair that wanted to curl around his ears and his forehead, and brown eyes that had so many flecks of gold in them that they almost appeared gold in the fading evening light. He was a little on the chubby side, his sharply angled jaw hidden under his generous covering of flesh, but it seemed to suit the jolly color of his cheeks, the sparkle in his eyes.

  He had the kind of face that even the most jaded person instantly liked.

  “It’s lovely to meet you, Miss Gwenydd,” Tony said with an exaggerated bow that made the other kids laugh, even Anna.

  “Thanks,” Gwen mumbled.

  “You’re embarrassing her,” Theresa said, smacking Tony lightly on his shoulder.

  “Sorry.” Tony studied Gwen from his newly straightened position, curiosity settling in his eyes as he focused on her face. “I talked to Dean Michaels this morning. The school is really looking forward to welcoming you to classes next week.”

  Melanie snorted. Cei just kept stirring the tomato sauce for the spaghetti.

  So much for the losers sticking together.

  “It’s a good school,” Gwen said, feeling lame even as the words slipped from her lips.

  “It is,” Tony agreed. “I think you will do quite well there. Especially with those test scores…”

  “Tony,” Theresa said, her tone filled with warning.

  Tony didn’t acknowledge her. He touched Gwen’s shoulder lightly, an act that was probably just supposed to be a gesture of support, but it felt like something different to Gwen. She automatically stepped back, pressing up against the counter until she was pretty sure she would have a permanent impression of it across her lower back. Something like pity, and sorrow, came into Tony’s eyes before he turned away.

  “So what’s for dinner?” Tony demanded as he again made the rounds of the people in the room, stealing bites of food here and there.

  Gwen went back to working on her salad, her heart slowing a bit at a time.

  This whole family scene was not something she was ever going to get used to.

  ***

  Gwen lay in the big, soft bed that dominated her room with The Fault in Our Stars open on her chest. She was listening to the sounds of the big house settling in the late dusk. She could hear people moving around on the floor below her, could imagine the twins chasing each other through the long hallways as they avoided getting ready for bed. And the girls, in their own bedroom, ignoring each other as they each went about their own routines. Gwen didn’t need to be down there to know what it was like. She had seen it hundreds of times.

  The silence in her own room was something it would take a while to get used to. There was always at least one roommate who resented her presence, or wanted to go through her stuff and take anything that seemed to have value. She once had a tablet that a generous teacher had given her so that she could read as many books as she liked from the electronic library. It was stolen after only three days. And that, she had to admit, was a long time for the thief to wait. Usually things like that disappeared within hours of coming through the door of a foster home.

  Someday she would have nice stuff. Someday she would have an entire apartment to herself filled with all the books and electronics she could afford to put there. She thought about it sometimes at night. It was the dream that helped her go to sleep.

  This move brought her that much closer to her dream. With a diploma from a school like DuineEirimiuil Academy or—what did Cei call it?—Dewey High, she would have a better chance of getting into the college she wanted. Cornell was just one step away.

  She didn’t need to get to know these people, or even make friends with them, to get there. She just had to survive the next nine months.

  With that thought in mind, Gwen spent the weekend trying to avoid the other members of the household. It wasn’t easy. Tommy or Richie seemed to always be underfoot. And Theresa was constantly coming upstairs to make sure she hadn’t taken a handful of pills or something—at least, that was the way it seemed to Gwen by the cautious look on her face each time she stuck her head around the corner of the door. And then there was Cei…how could she avoid a boy who was constantly coming ou
t of the bathroom without a shirt on at the same moment she decided she needed to use it?

  The only time she was truly undisturbed was on Sunday morning when she slipped out into the backyard and dug into the soil around the late blooming rose bushes, pulling out weeds that threatened to destroy the neat, ordered look of the flower bed. Just touching the soil brought a sense of peace to her soul, made her feel as though nothing bad could possibly happen in a world where nature was this beautiful, this perfect. She worked methodically, tugging at the weeds until none existed within a two foot radius of the plants. And then she went to work trimming the bushes that were flowering so profusely that the old blooms were suffocating the new ones.

  She knew nothing about roses. But instinct told her where to cut with the sharp shears she’d found in a little shed at the very back of the yard. Again her work was methodical. She would stop after every cut to step back and assess the new shape of the bush. When she was done, each bush seemed to stretch up toward the sun, as though thanking her for freeing it from the cumbersome burden of its own prolific production.

  “You’re a natural.”

  Gwen jumped, the shears flying out of her hand and landing less than an inch from her big toe. She snatched them up before she turned, her gaze guarded as it fell on Tony.

  He gestured toward the bushes. “Those roses haven’t looked that happy since we bought this house.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have asked if it was okay to work out here.”

  “Feel free to do anything you like with the landscaping.” He stood back and gave the yard a quick onceover. “I love working in the yard, but I never seem to have the time it requires.”

  “You couldn’t tell by the way it looks.”

  A slow smile slipped over Tony’s full lips. “Thanks.”

  Gwen shrugged and began to turn, intending to take the shears back to the shed.

  “I know you’ve been in the system a long time, you’ve probably seen some pretty terrible things. But we’re all good people here.”

  Gwen paused, a chill running down her spine. She’d heard that before, too.

  “You don’t have to hide out in your bedroom if you’d rather not.”

  “I’m not hiding,” she said. “I just prefer my own company.”

  “I can understand that. I just want you to know you’re welcome in this house. It’s a safe place.”

  But that was the thing, wasn’t it? Nowhere was safe for a kid on her own.

  Chapter 4

  School began at 8:45 sharp.

  Maybe that was why Gwen was in a bit of a snit when she rolled out of bed at 8:15 and discovered that she had set the alarm clock wrong. She had checked it a dozen times, but somehow it was set at pm instead of am.

  She jumped out of bed and grabbed the clothes she had carefully set out the night before, crushing the soft linen of a blouse she splurged to buy on sale at the mall over a month ago and had yet to wear. It was supposed to bring her good luck.

  It wasn’t working.

  “Running late, newbie?”

  Cei was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, a toothbrush in his hand and toothpaste foaming from his mouth like the slobber of a rabid dog. He was wearing a pair of jeans—black jeans that hugged the natural curves of his hip bones just perfectly—and nothing else.

  “Why are you always in the bathroom when I need it?”

  “I normally get in the shower first thing, but I waited today because I assumed you would be up early, primping and doing whatever it is girls do on the first day of school, but…” he gestured at her state of distress. “I clearly misjudged how important it was for you to make a good first impression.”

  “My alarm didn’t go off.”

  “Excuses, excuses.”

  “It’s not an excuse.”

  She pushed past him, only vaguely aware of the smell of his cologne and the touch of his skin on her bare arms. She wanted to shower, but it would take too long. So she tossed her clothes onto the lid of the toilet and set about washing her face in the sink, using her wet fingers to tame the knots in her disheveled hair. As she bent to rinse the soap from her face, Cei bent over her to spit his mouthful of toothpaste into the basin. His aim was good, but the back blow was not that great for Gwen.

  “You got it in my eye, you jerk!”

  “Should have been up earlier.”

  Gwen jumped out of the way just before he spit out the mouthful of water he’d gotten from a water bottle Gwen didn’t even see until that moment. He just missed hitting her, but the force of his stream caused tiny splatters to dot her blouse where it waited on the toilet.

  So much for the lucky blouse.

  “Better get a move on,” Cei said as he tossed his wet towel into the laundry basket and headed out the door. “We leave in five.”

  Gwen cursed under her breath as she brushed her own teeth and ran a quick comb through her hair. Normally quite pleased with her conscious decision not to ruin her skin with the dirt-attracting oils of makeup, she stood back and looked at her face and wished she had a little something to dull down the high color of her cheeks and accent the soft curve of her green eyes. But now wasn’t the time to worry about superficial things.

  “The last step,” she reminded herself as she stripped down to her underwear and ran a warm washrag over her armpits before dressing in her new, but slightly damp, linen blouse.

  Not too bad, she decided with one last glance in the mirror.

  She was still twisting her hair into a quick braid—better to hide the greasy evidence of a lack of washing—as she rushed down the stairs. Theresa, Cei, and Melanie were waiting—impatiently in Melanie’s case—for her. She didn’t say a word as she moved past them out the door.

  Melanie drove, which was an ingenious way of keeping Gwen’s thoughts off the fact that she was about to take her first classes at the school she had worked five years to get into.

  “She’s just gotten her learner’s permit. I’m sure you understand,” Theresa said in way of explanation.

  Gwen nodded. But, in truth, she didn’t really understand. She didn’t have her license. No one had bothered to teach her how to drive or to enroll her in a driver’s ed course. Not that it was really something she cared about, though it would be nice to be able to drive when she was finally out on her own. But, like so many other things, that was something she could work on when this school year ended.

  Gwen was sitting directly behind Theresa in the minivan, her hands clutching at the back of Theresa’s seat in an effort to keep from being shoved by gravity and momentum into Cei’s lap, when the school came into view. Even though she had been here many times before—on testing day and during each of her interviews—Gwen was still awed by the sight. Tucked away in a small, suburban neighborhood behind Texas Tech, the school was impressive. Made of stone, it stood four stories tall and looked like the kind of structure that might have existed in medieval England. Every time she came here, Gwen almost expected a drawbridge to be lowered as they exited the street and drove onto the campus.

  “Pretty cool,” Theresa said. “It never fails to impress no matter how many times we come here.”

  “It’s just a school,” Melanie said as she drove the minivan over a curb in her attempt to get them close to the front doors.

  “A school that has had graduates go on to Harvard and Princeton,” Gwen said.

  “Yeah, and students have ten times the homework that we have at the public school.” Melanie shook her head. “I could go here, but then I wouldn’t have time for dance and cheerleading.”

  “And everyone knows how important those skills will be in the future,” Gwen muttered under her breath as she climbed out.

  The moment she stepped on the concrete sidewalk, Gwen almost expected one of the many teens loitering around the front of the building to tell her she didn’t belong there, that she should get back in the car and leave. But no one seemed to notice her.

  “You want me to stick around?
” Cei asked.

  Gwen had almost forgotten he was there.

  “No, I’m good.”

  He nodded and moved around her, calling out to a group of boys tossing around a small ball. They immediately opened their small circle and welcomed Cei in, laughing as they continued their game without missing a single toss or catch. Cei looked more like a teenager here, among his peers. A little more relaxed.

  Gwen couldn’t help but wish it was that easy for her to fit in with kids her own age. She’d had a friend once. Becky. A girl she went to kindergarten and first grade with. They were ‘thick as thieves’, as her social worker called it. But Gwen had to leave that school when she was moved to a foster home on the other side of the city. They tried to keep in touch, but for a couple of eight-year-old kids, that wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. There were a few other friends after that, but Gwen learned her lesson and never really let anyone that close again.

  High school had been—isolating.

  Gwen walked to the front of the building and settled on a low, stone bench. She slipped a book out of the new backpack Theresa had insisted she have. It was Here Be Dragons, the first book in a trilogy about Welsh princes Gwen had found on the bookshelves in her room. It was interesting, a fictional story so packed with true historic events. She was already two hundred pages in, although she had only started it the night before.