Seal All Exits (Tangled Web #3)

by Jade C. Jamison

  Heather felt the humidity before she walked in, but she was pretty sure her jaw dropped. No, it really wasn’t a big deal to have a swimming pool at a house, especially in the neighborhoods where she’d grown up, but to have an Olympic-sized pool in the middle of a house that was disguised as a cabin—well, that was something. And the surprises didn’t let up as Katie led Heather through what was beginning to look like a mansion. There was a music studio—complete with recording equipment; a trophy room, in essence, where many of Johnny’s awards were showcased; a full-blown library that made Heather drool (and was a place she planned to visit at least once more before she left), a mini bowling alley (that Katie said was something Johnny had always said he wanted when he “made it”—because that was a sign of true wealth), complete with a bar and grill that appeared to have never been used. There was even a small room dedicated to some unusual paintings and other artwork and various other rooms that Heather assumed would never or rarely be used by the couple. There were no doors to the outside at the back of the house, so once they wound back around and began making their way to the front, once more past Heather’s bedroom, Katie said she wanted to show Heather a few things outside, and then she had to prepare for the barbecue that afternoon.

  “Anything I can help with?”

  “Actually, yes. I’m nervous as hell and I’m afraid I’m going to forget something.”

  Heather didn’t know why Katie was anxious; she’d been the perfect hostess thus far. Outdoors, Heather was able to see Katie’s plans for the future. On the deck was a grill that would be used that afternoon for hot dogs and hamburgers, but past there were Katie’s flowerbeds and an area where she planned to have a vegetable garden the following year. She’d already begun putting her touch on the outdoor area with wooden benches and birdbaths, lawn sculptures and the like. There was even a fire pit that Heather imagined would be wonderful in early fall but potentially dangerous if rain had been scarce in any given year. Katie pointed up the mountain, telling Heather they owned several acres back, so if she wanted to take a walk in the woods, she was welcome to. Until she came to the barbed wire fence, Katie said, she was on their property.

  Heather loved how her friend and Johnny had fully committed to one another, and she could tell best by Katie’s everyday speech. The fact that her friend talked in terms of we and our told Heather all she needed to know—that Katie and Johnny had, in essence, become one.

  She was relieved that she ultimately thought Johnny was a great guy.

  So she helped Katie prepare for the barbecue. While Katie focused on making a huge batch of potato salad (enough that Heather began to wonder how many people had been invited), Heather prepared lettuce, tomato, and onions for hamburgers (a plate of each) and more chopped onions for hot dogs. There was a lot involved, even though it was all low-key: gathering all the paper and plastic supplies (napkins, paper plates, plastic flatware, and the like), all items that could be thrown away and didn’t have to be returned to the house—or washed, Katie’s main focus; locating condiments; making iced tea and lemonade; things like that that Katie didn’t have to elaborate on. Katie also had a pot of baked beans on the stove that were starting to smell delicious. Johnny popped in once and Katie asked him to get the watermelons out of the garage. Heather’s heart flipped in her chest when she saw that Johnny recruited Kiefer to go with him…and she didn’t miss the look he gave her as they passed through the kitchen.

  As the clock moved closer to one in the afternoon, more and more people showed up. Heather didn’t know any of them, but most of them looked like they were involved in the rock scene one way or another…except the guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt and long shorts. When Katie’s mother arrived, Heather felt bad, because she wouldn’t have recognized the woman if she had seen her out in public—of course, she’d only ever met her once and the picture Katie had hung up when they were roommates was of both her mother and father…taken when Katie was about ten years old. One thing Heather hadn’t forgotten was how sweet and gentle Katie’s mother was. After hugging her daughter and then even hugging Heather, she told Katie to put her to work. All that was left was forming the ground beef into patties, and her mother got right on it. Heather watched her for a few moments. She envied Katie’s family life. Yeah, her father had died some years back, but she had a loving family just the same. Her mother loved her, not some image she thought Katie had to project. Even Heather felt like Katie’s mom cared for her more than her own goddamn father.

  But this day wasn’t for bemoaning the state of her family. It was about supporting her friend and even enjoying Katie’s family and friends as though they were her own.

  Katie started laughing and pointed out the windows until her mother and Heather looked. Katie was giggling because somehow Johnny had roped Riley into running the barbecue grill. Just as she’d made that comment, petite Erin wound up coming inside to fetch the hot dogs, cheese, and hamburger patties to take to her boyfriend.

  Stone and his girlfriend also arrived just before one o’clock. Heather asked Katie as her friend turned the burner off under the beans, “Where’d they come from? I thought they were staying here with everyone else.”

  “No. Stone has a house just a mile or so away from here, but the rest of you guys live hundreds—or thousands—of miles away, and no way am I going to make you stay in a hotel when I have a place like this.”

  “You kidding? Your place feels like a hotel.”

  Katie grinned and asked Heather to grab one of the bowls of potato salad to take outside. The buns and everything else were finally out on the deck and it was just about time to start. When they got out there, the sun beaming down and people all over the place, Heather noticed the tall, thin, graying woman standing next to Johnny, and she would have assumed, based on the fact that his arm was draped over her shoulder, that she was his mother, but the resemblance assured her they were definitely mother and son. He had her nose and the same twinkle in his eyes. They were both survivors, and Heather could tell that Johnny loved his mother very much. It wasn’t until Katie said, “Lucille!” and rushed over to embrace the woman herself that Heather realized Katie cared for Johnny’s mom as much as she did her own.

  It might have taken all morning, but as Heather looked around, absorbing the scene, she realized something big was happening…or was going to. She didn’t know what. As she loaded up her plate along with everyone else, her mind began circling. Oh, shit. Maybe Katie was pregnant. Maybe Johnny was getting ready to do something else huge in his career. Or, maybe, Katie was going to announce that she was going to start teaching. She’d talked about wanting to do that when she and Heather had first met at school. Or…

  Whatever it was, it was going to be a happy announcement. She could feel that…but it was big.

  Or maybe Johnny and Katie had wanted to gather all their loved ones together because they’d missed them.

  Still, the meal was light, full of laughter and joking and lots of talk of memories. Johnny took the time to introduce everyone by name, but Heather forgot the names as soon as she sat down and caught Kiefer grinning at her. Throughout the afternoon, though, she was able to figure out who they all were. Three of the guys were from Johnny and Riley’s first band, Spawn. The guy in the Hawaiian shirt was Mike, a guy who left right before they broke big, to attend Yale. He was now an attorney specializing in corporate law and, when Johnny gave him shit about not being a drummer anymore, he told him he was doing something he loved. Riley cracked a lawyer joke and Heather could see that these old friends loved each other dearly. The other two—Trent and Norberg—were also from the original band and now belonged to another band she’d never heard of.

  About the time Heather started wondering again what they were gathered for, Katie and Johnny both stood together at the end of the table and Johnny said, “You’re probably wondering why we invited you all here today. Yeah, we definitely needed a reunion and we miss the hell out of you all, but we did have an ulterior motive. We wanted to tell
you guys first before we told anyone else.” Yep, she’d been right—a big announcement. She could barely contain herself, but she looked around the table and she could tell that no one else had any more of an idea than she did. Katie looked up at Johnny. Heather loved the expression on her friend’s face. She was so in love with her man, and some part of Heather deep down wanted that for herself too but knew it would never happen. She was happy for her friend, though, and dying of curiosity what they were going to tell everyone. “Do you want to tell them?”

  Johnny flashed Katie a devilish grin. “I think I’ll let you do that.”

  She beamed back and then turned to their friends gathered around two picnic tables on the deck that warm afternoon. “Well, here goes nothing. Johnny and I are going to get married.”

  Riley laughed. “Is that all? I thought you guys were already married.”

  Johnny smirked and then flipped Riley off. Everyone else laughed. Katie shook her head and said, “You’re a funny guy. We’re going to get married next year. Last weekend in April, here at the cabin, and you are all invited. I know you’re all busy people, constantly travelling due to your jobs, but it would mean the world to us if you could fit us in your busy schedule.”

  Johnny added, “And, like this time, you all have a place to stay while you’re here.”

  “We decided against a big wedding, and we don’t want the press involved, so if you could keep it under wraps, that’d be great.” Katie took a deep breath, as though the wedding day had already arrived. Her mother was standing and kissed Katie on the cheek before she could say another word. Johnny took her in an embrace, and his mother stood right behind his future mother-in-law waiting for a hug herself. Katie continued. “I told Johnny I wanted you to all be part of the wedding and he told me I was out of my mind, that you guys wouldn’t all want to be dressed up in monkey suits.”

  Riley said, “Got that right. But I’d do it for Johnny if he needed me to.”

  “I also don’t want to exclude anyone. I know you all know—or you should—that Heather’s my best friend, and she would have to be my maid of honor. But I’d love you all to be a part of the wedding.”

  “Yeah,” Johnny said, “but then who’d watch?”

  Katie smiled. “And that’s why we decided to keep it small. So…Heather and Riley, if you could be our best man and maid of honor, we would love for you to do that. And the rest of you—”

  “Seriously?” Riley looked shocked.

  “Yeah, man. What’s so surprising about that?”

  No words found their way out of Riley’s mouth at first. “I don’t know. I just—” He shook his head.

  “So will you?”

  Riley gave Johnny the lopsided grin his female fans often screamed for. “Hell, yeah. I’d be honored.”

  “Done.” Johnny took his mother into an embrace.

  “So, guys, you’re our best friends.” Katie looked around the table. “Kory, Erin, I know we don’t know each other totally well yet, but I suspect we’re going to be better and better friends as time goes on, and if I were going to have a large wedding party, I would love to have you both as bridesmaids.”

  Kory grinned, something Heather hadn’t seen the girl do yet, and it emphasized how truly pretty the young woman was. “I’m not complaining. I won’t have to wear a dress if I just watch.”

  Stone shook his head and squeezed his girlfriend’s shoulders. Katie said, “Anyway, guys, you know we’re committed to sobriety, so no champagne to celebrate, but I do have some sparkling cider—pretend bubbly. I’m going to go fetch it while you all pull out your smart phones and save the last Saturday in April for us.”

  Before Katie ran to the kitchen, she kissed her future husband on the lips. Without even thinking, Heather got up so she could help Katie serve fake champagne to her guests, and she forced a smile on her face, even though she felt unbelievably sad without any real reason for those feelings.

  * * *

  Heather felt relieved when she was able to head to her room to decompress. She’d managed to avoid Kiefer’s gaze for the rest of the afternoon. She needed to sort through her feelings. Why the hell was she sad that Katie and Johnny were going to formalize their union?

  Well, it took her some time to sort through the weird emotions rolling around in her chest, but she finally landed on it. She didn’t believe in love, didn’t believe in faithfulness, all because of her stupid parents. She knew logically that Katie and Johnny were not nor would ever be like the assholes who had given Heather her genes, and yet she still couldn’t extricate her feelings about love and relationships and the ever-after from her friends’ good news. She would need to find a way, because she wanted to be the best damn maid of honor any woman could be; she simply had to find a way to leave her childish feelings behind.

  Yes, they were childish, because she’d seen good, healthy relationships. Her mother’s sister, her Aunt Anna, was an amazing woman who’d been married to her husband for over twenty years before he’d died in a car accident two years earlier. They’d been happy and in love for as long as Heather could remember.

  Her parents, on the other hand, had always been dysfunctional. Heather could barely even remember their marriage, because they’d separated before she’d even begun attending school. If it hadn’t been for her earliest nanny, a lovely soul named Sandy, she doubted school would have ever been a priority. Sandy had been a big part of her life until Heather was seven, and she’d had a huge influence on Heather. Hell, she was probably the only reason why Heather wasn’t so fucked up she’d need to be committed.

  Some days, she was close, but most times she managed to maintain.

  She had to find a way out of this pit. There were two ways she could usually manage. Three, actually, but her therapist was on vacation in the Australian outback and had asked Heather if she’d be okay for a couple of weeks without him. Heather had assured him that she’d be fine, and she’d also taken his colleague’s phone number in case of emergency.

  There were two ways—aside from therapy—that she could deal with her mental state, and one was out of the question. She’d just pulled herself out from that pit of despair and self-loathing and she couldn’t go there again.

  Kiefer…he was another way, and—thanks to their arrangement—their activities might be a way she could cope with the feelings without giving in to a second, and almost as deadly, emotional abyss.

  First, she’d have to get control of her emotions, so she sat on the floor of her room, sitting with her legs crossed, and closed her eyes, trying to tap into her strength, what she knew was the best thing about herself.

  Chapter Eight

  KIEFER HAD BEEN feeling fine for the past several hours. Ever since Heather had made her offer, he hadn’t been able to think of much else. Yeah, Katie and Johnny’s announcement had been awesome, and he’d given them his sincere congratulations, but he hadn’t been able to fully wrap his mind around the implications. Would that mean less time that Johnny would spend with the band? Was that maybe why he was going to let Kiefer start penning some lyrics?

  Oh, yeah, and that…Kiefer almost pissed himself when Johnny had given him the go ahead. No way was he going to tell his boss that he’d already been writing poems and half lyrics since joining the band, hoping someday Johnny would say yes.

  The barbecue was over and he hadn’t seen Heather for quite a while. There were still lots of people around, and Kiefer had no idea if some of these newer folks were going to be spending the night at the cabin now too. It wasn’t that he wanted to be antisocial, but he wanted to spend some alone time with Heather. It had been all he could think about since she’d whispered those words on the deck, and he wanted to take her up on her offer.

  He stood in front of her door for several seconds. He’d just done the same thing the night before, staring at the wooden barrier between him and her, trying to talk himself into knocking. Tonight, though, he really didn’t have anything to worry about. He was being a chickenshit now. She’
d already given him the green light. Yeah, she’d told him things would go back to normal after this week, but he had time…time to convince her that maybe they should try something permanent. Sure, he knew that maybe spending lots of time together might help them to both see that they weren’t compatible and didn’t belong together, but he knew her heart. He knew they did owe it to themselves to at least try.

  He simply had to convince her as well.

  One more deep breath and then he rapped on the door. He could feel his heartbeat in his eardrums and wondered why the hell he was so nervous about this. He and Heather had already broken the ice.

  He knew why, though. His heart was invested in this woman and he could sense that she wasn’t going to want anything other than what he was going to give her in these few days. Then, they’d go back to their sterile cyberspace friendship, but he didn’t think he could tolerate settling back into a just-friends relationship after bonding with her on another level. What was saddest was he was already there, feeling way more than he should.

  Pussy. He could hear Mickey and Sage taunting him in his head. He knew when they called him that it was mostly in jest, that if he told them in earnest that he was fucked up inside, they’d take him out for a beer and get him laid. Those guys were, in all essence, his best friends, for better or worse.

  It was taking her forever to answer his knock. He considered leaving…like the pussy he was, wondering if she was even behind the door or if she’d maybe changed her mind. But before he turned, he thought he saw a shadow move under the door. Sure enough, Heather opened the door right after, and he couldn’t help the lopsided grin that he felt form on his face. He was getting ready to say something simply to relieve the tension, something about wondering if she’d even been there, when she wrapped a fist around the neck of his t-shirt to drag him inside.

  Aggressive. He thought he could get used to it.

  He thought he could enjoy it without even having to learn how.