Redemption

by Jessica Ashe

  I waited until we’d finished eating and were waiting for our desserts before breaking the news. “Maisie, I don’t want you to be freaked out, but I have some news for you.”

  “Okay,” she said, stretching out the word in a way that only teenage girls could. “Good news or bad news?”

  “I think it’s good news,” I said.

  “So do I,” Oliver added.

  “You see, Oliver and I have become close over the past few weeks, and well, we’re dating.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Shaun look briefly surprised, but then he smiled at Oliver and went back to drinking his soda. Maisie’s face didn’t give anything away. She let the pause drag on uncomfortably long before finally speaking.

  “Oh my God,” she said loudly. “That is completely new information. I am so surprised.”

  Oliver snickered, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re being sarcastic aren’t you?”

  “Not at all. I had no idea you two had been sneaking around having sex for the past week while Shaun and I played rugby. No idea at all.”

  “Alright, missy, no need to show off.”

  “Congratulations,” she said, being serious this time. “I’m very pleased for both of you.”

  “You don’t find it… weird?” Oliver asked. “We weren’t sure how you’d take the news.”

  “Nah, you’re cool and just what Michelle needed.” Maisie leaned towards Oliver as if she were going to whisper a secret, but she spoke loud enough for us all to hear. “She’s been walking around with a spring in her step for the past week, and she’s much happier now that she’s had a good—”

  “Who ordered the banana split?” our waiter asked, standing by the table with no idea how much I appreciated his timing. He’d be getting a good tip tonight.

  After the meal, the four of us took a walk, with Oliver donning a San Diego Chargers cap to avoid getting recognized. I wouldn’t usually be seen dead with someone in a Chargers cap, but Oliver had never seen a game of football in his life, and likely had no idea who the Chargers were, so I let him off.

  No one recognized Oliver, although it probably helped that we were walking around with two teenagers—hardly the glamorous life you’d expect of the rich and famous.

  “What’s going on over there?” I asked, as we approached a bookstore with a line coming out the front door.

  Maisie usually couldn’t be less interested in the contents of a bookstore, but she squeezed past the crowd and peeked through the window before letting out a loud squeal. She grabbed me by the arm and dragged me back.

  “We have to go in here,” she exclaimed.

  “Why do you want to go into a book store all of a sudden.”

  “There’s a book signing.”

  “We’re not getting in line for an hour so you can get some member of a boy band to sign a book he didn’t even write.”

  “It’s not a member of a boy band,” Maisie said excitedly. “It’s Victoria Marshall.”

  “And she is…?”

  Maisie sighed. “You’re so out of touch. She’s a YouTuber who hosts a cooking show.”

  “When have you ever cooked?” I asked.

  “I can cook,” Maisie protested.

  “No you can’t,” I insisted. “Last time you helped in the kitchen, I asked you to cook half an onion, so you put it in the microwave. And somehow you still managed to burn it.”

  “I watch her channel because she’s funny,” Maisie said. “The cooking thing is just part of the show. Come on, please can we buy a copy and get it signed? When do I ever get the chance to meet celebrities?”

  “Oh, thanks,” Oliver replied.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Sorry Maisie, we’re not lining up for an hour.”

  Maisie put on her sulking face, but then smiled. I didn’t like the look of that smile. “We won’t have to wait in line.” Maisie reached up and yanked the baseball cap off Oliver’s head.

  Oliver tried to snatch the cap back, but Maisie was too quick for him. She grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm, dragging him towards the door and past the line of people, who quickly recognized him.

  “Excuse me,” Maisie yelled as she entered the store. “Famous person coming through.”

  Oliver’s face was bright red by the time Maisie had dragged him all the way to the table where a young woman sat signing books, while her rather attractive manager lingered behind her.

  “I’m so sorry about this,” Oliver muttered, half to the young woman and half to the long line of people we’d just walked past. None of them seemed to mind. The men were taking pictures and the women were gawking at him.

  Victoria’s manager didn’t seem so pleased to see us. “You all need to leave,” he said sternly. People didn’t often speak to Oliver like that. He had some balls, I had to admit. “There’s a line of people waiting patiently and you just walked right past it.” Was that an American accent?

  “Caiden,” Victoria said, “it’s okay.” She pulled him away with a tug on his arm that looked more affectionate than I’d been expecting between author and manager, or bodyguard, whoever he was. Something was definitely going on there. “You’ll have to excuse him,” she said to Oliver. “He’s American. He doesn’t know a thing about rugby and is quick to violence.”

  “I am sorry about this,” Oliver said. “I’m at the mercy of two Americans myself. It’s not easy, is it?”

  “Um, hello, we’re right here,” I pointed out. Maisie would usually have said something, but she wanted her signed book and didn’t much care how she got it.

  Victoria smiled and introduced Oliver to Caiden. She seemed almost as excited to meet him as Maisie was to meet her. Maisie got a signed book and spent the whole trip back to the hotel trying to explain to me what was so cool about this Victoria woman.

  Oliver and I could have spent the night together now that things were out in the open, but we decided it would be best to stay apart and ease Maisie and Shaun into the whole thing.

  “Are you really okay with Oliver and me?” I asked once we were alone in Maisie’s room.

  “Of course,” she replied. “Why do you think I wanted you to come with me?”

  “Because Mom wouldn’t have let you go otherwise?”

  “Yes she would. I could have convinced her. I wanted you to come because that way you would have to meet Oliver. He always asked after you when we spoke online.”

  “I should have spoken to him,” I said. “But when we left him things were… weird.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’ve finally hooked up with him.”

  “I prefer the term dating,” I said.

  “Whatever. There is one thing that worries me a bit though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “What’s my relationship to Shaun now?” she asked nervously.

  “Oliver adopted Shaun, so I guess technically you’re his step-aunt. Is that a thing?”

  “Ugh. I don’t like the sound of that. Shaun says they are more like brothers, so maybe he’s like another step-brother. But then if you marry Oliver, I’ll definitely be his aunty.”

  “I’m a long way from marrying Oliver. Anyway, why all the questions?”

  Maisie took a deep breath and then blurted out “Shaun and I are going on a date.”

  “Aren’t you a bit young to be dating?”

  “Would you rather we ‘hooked up?’”

  “Good point,” I agreed. “Well, I guess that’s fine.”

  “On a completely unrelated note, can you take Oliver out tomorrow night so that we have the place to ourselves?”

  “Hell no,” I replied. “In fact, I think Oliver and I just so happened to have plans to hang around his house tomorrow night as well. We can make it a double date.”

  “That’s not what I had in mind.”

  “I don’t want to know what you had in mind. But you two can still have fun. Okay, I need to get to bed.” I walked towards the door, but then turned and said “thank you.�
� I didn’t know what I was thanking her for, but I felt like saying it anyway.

  The evening had gone about as well as could be expected, although Oliver wouldn’t be too happy about spending tomorrow evening chaperoning Maisie and Shaun. We’d sneak in some fun though. Oliver always found a way.

  Michelle and I spent a few hours cramping Maisie’s style while she was trying to enjoy her date with Shaun, but when they started to watch a movie I insisted we go out for a walk to give them a bit of time alone.

  Shaun found it difficult enough to relax around new people at the best of times, so he wouldn’t enjoy his time with Maisie if Michelle was hanging around as well. Hopefully if the two of them spent some time alone they would become friends.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Michelle asked, as she slipped on a pair of flats. “We’ll be leaving two horny teenagers on their own.”

  “They’ll be fine. Shaun’s a good kid and Maisie isn’t anywhere near as aggressive as she makes out. Besides, we would also get some alone time, and I know I feel a bit like a horny teenager myself right now.”

  Michelle smiled and bit her lip. She looked sweet and innocent, but I knew her well enough to know that was just an act as well. At least around me it was.

  Michelle held my hand as we walked down my drive and then headed to the park nearby. We’d picked a rare night where it was warm enough to walk around without a jacket or jumper even after dark.

  Whenever we walked past another couple or someone overtook us on the path, Michelle would clutch my hand a little tighter and move slightly closer to me. Even after eight years, she was still nervous about people coming out of the dark, and I couldn’t blame her. If only I had been with her that night, holding her hand like I was now, I would have been able to stop the attackers before they threw acid at Maisie and Michelle.

  Michelle’s nervousness wasn’t entirely unwarranted. Not tonight. Tonight we had company. I’d noticed him as soon as we entered the park. He didn’t even try to be subtle these days. Superintendent Winston had been following us through the park for the last ten minutes.

  “Let’s sit down for a bit,” I said, as we finally found an empty bench to sit on. I pulled out my phone and pretended to send a message while using the camera to zoom in and see if Winston was still following. The image quality was pretty bad, but I could make him out a hundred yards back. He’d stopped walking when we sat down and was now just hanging around looking conspicuous. “Shit,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Everything okay?” Michelle asked.

  Right now I wanted nothing more than to hang out with Michelle, but I couldn’t even do that without Winston getting in the way.

  “Winston’s over there,” I said, pointing in his direction. “He’s following us tonight.”

  “Why would he be following us? Have you done something wrong?”

  “No, nothing like that.” At least, not this time. “He’s had it in for me for a while, but he hasn’t followed me for some time. I guess he’s decided to take a more personal interest in me again. Or maybe he just likes staring at that perfect little arse of yours. Can’t say I blame him.”

  “Ew, I really hope not. That guy creeps me out.”

  “So he should. Winston can’t be trusted.”

  “I’m sure he thinks he’s doing the right thing.”

  “No,” I said firmly. “He doesn’t. I can’t prove this, but I’m fairly certain he’s corrupt. Bought and paid for. Listen, if he ever approaches you or Maisie, you must not speak to him. Don’t say a thing.”

  “Oliver, you’re kind of scaring me now. What’s going on? If you’ve done something, you can tell me about it.”

  “It’s not like that. If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell Maisie? I don’t want it getting back to Shaun.”

  “As long as it doesn’t put her in any danger, sure.”

  “I think Superintendent Winston was involved in the death of Shaun’s dad.”

  “Holy shit,” Michelle exclaimed, just as an old couple walked past, causing them to glare at us. “That would explain why Shaun told us he was a bad man the other day at the police station. I thought that was weird.”

  “I haven’t told Shaun about Winston, but he might have picked up on some of the details. I’ve been trying to keep it a secret from him, but he’s a bright kid.”

  “So what happened?”

  “Shaun’s dad was involved in something illegal. I won’t say what, but it wasn’t his fault. Anyway, he decided to go to the police. He told his story to Winston and immediately after he died in a car accident.”

  “Oh,” Michelle said, as she looked over towards Winston. “That’s awful, but it could just be a coincidence. If Shaun’s dad had just made a big confession, then it would make sense that he might be a little agitated. That could have caused the accident.”

  I shook my head. “It just doesn’t feel right.” I couldn’t tell her why I was so certain the car ‘accident’ wasn’t an accident. Do you know how easy it is sabotage a car so that it breaks down at high speed? Scary stuff.

  “Just promise me you won’t talk to him. If he follows you or tries to talk to you, go and speak to Chief Superintendent Hodgson immediately. She’ll look after you.”

  Michelle nodded and suggested that maybe it was a good time to go home. I’d probably freaked her out with the talk of Winston, but I had to warn her. Winston disappeared as we walked back towards him the way we had come and I didn’t see him again. He wouldn’t dare come onto my land, but that didn’t entirely calm my nerves.

  Why was he back on my case again now? I could understand it when he was following me before. I was involved in the same gambling ring as Gary had been, so it made sense that he would have picked up my trail back then. But what about now?

  I still thought Winston was involved with Carl. Maybe Carl had paid him to keep the police off his back. Not that it did Carl much good; he was locked up now and would be for some time. The accident that killed Shaun’s dad happened just hours after Gary confessed to Winston. What if Winston had called Carl to tell him what Gary did? I knew I sounded paranoid, but that explanation made as much sense as any other.

  We made a suitable amount of noise as we walked in so as not to sneak up on the young couple. The two of them were sat apart on the couch when we walked in, but they had the guilty look of two young people who had just moved apart because their parents had come home.

  Michelle went and plonked herself straight between the middle of them and asked what they were up to.

  “Just streaming some shows on Netflix,” Maisie replied casually.

  We sat there and watched television with them, but the show was mind numbingly tedious and I soon started yawning. Michelle did little better at hiding her disinterest, so after half an hour she told Maisie it was time to leave and I called my driver.

  I hated this part of the evening. I understood why Michelle didn’t think it appropriate to stay over and leave Maisie alone in a hotel, but it was frustrating as hell. The whole point of telling Maisie and Shaun about our relationship had been to avoid the need to sneak around, but we still had to disappear during the day while Maisie and Shaun were training.

  My house was huge, but I’d never seen the need for more than two bedrooms. As a result, all the rooms had been converted into recreation rooms and places to hang out. Maisie could sleep on the sofa a few nights, but she couldn’t do that all summer. Not when she needed all her energy for rugby training.

  “Isn’t it silly to go back to the hotel?” Maisie asked. “You clearly would rather stay here and I can crash on the couch.”

  “You need a good night’s sleep on a proper bed,” Michelle explained. “Anyway, you shouldn’t be staying over with someone you’re dating at your age.”

  Maisie rolled her eyes. “You were both gone for over an hour. We could have done so much sex in that time.”

  “Come on,” Michelle said. “Let’s get a move on.”

  Shaun an
d Maisie walked to the door, not quite holding hands, but certainly standing closer than they usually did. I tugged Michelle back gently to give the two young lovebirds a chance to say goodbye.

  “Don’t watch them,” I said. “Why don’t you say a proper goodbye to me instead?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want you to feel neglected.” Michelle wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me softly on the lips. I briefly forgot how close we were to the kids when my hand reached down and firmly squeezed her ass. She must have forgotten as well, because she didn’t bat my hand away.

  This couldn’t go on all summer. Hooking up for a few hours of sex each afternoon was nowhere near enough for me. It always felt like we’d barely gotten started when we had to stop again.

  Suddenly Shaun came running past me saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” before flying up the stairs. Michelle frowned and we both looked round the corner to see Maisie standing there in tears, before she fled outside to the waiting car.

  Maisie wouldn’t speak to me in the car on the way back to the hotel. She did her best to stop crying, but the tears were still falling when she got to her room. I’d had my share of nights where I cried myself to sleep over boys, and the temptation was to let Maisie do the same, but she left the door open for me to follow her in.

  “Do you want to tell me what all that was about back there?” I asked.

  All I’d seen was Shaun running up to his bedroom saying he was sorry about something. My first thought was that he’d tried to kiss her and she’d blown him off, but she looked even more upset than he did.

  “Not really,” Maisie responded through tears. I kicked off my shoes and sat up cross-legged on her bad and patted the space next to me so that she would join me.

  “I’ll be honest,” I said softly. “Oliver is a convincing guy, so Shaun is bound to talk to him. Between what he finds out and what I find out, we’ll soon know the whole story anyway, so you might as well tell me.”