“We need to talk.”
Julie swallowed and it tasted bitter like bile. Her insides trembled fearfully, dreading what was about to come next.
“About what?”
He lowered his lashes to conceal his eyes while he watched his fingers drum restlessly on the counter between them. “You know what.”
“No.”
Screw being an adult. She wasn’t ready to face that door.
“Julie, please. We’re going to be here together for a week, don’t you think—”
“I think we should stay completely out of the other’s way,” she decided decisively. “You and your friends can do whatever it was you came here to do and I will watch the kids. And when the week is over, you will go on your way and we will never have to see each other again.”
“That won’t happen.” He spoke so quietly she almost didn’t hear him.
“Why?” She whipped around, anger making her eyes shimmer with tears. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
There was so much anguish in his eyes that she felt it like an open wound. He said nothing for so long that she was almost certain he wouldn’t. But then his mouth opened and words poured out.
“Because I made a promise.”
Julie blinked, disorientated by the unexpected curveball his declaration provoked. She stared at him in numb confusion while her mind spun around what he could possibly mean.
“What are you talking about?” she whispered.
He splayed his hands to her, palms up. “I just really need you to trust me.”
“Trust you?” she repeated slowly, like he had cursed at her. “How can I ever trust you again after you humiliated me in front of the entire school for no reason?”
A muscle bunched in Mason’s jaw and he averted his eyes like the sight of her was worse than a knife in the chest. “I know what I did was unforgivable and that I’m asking a lot—”
Julie backed away from him, not trusting herself not to pitch something at him if she remained too close. “No,” she bit out shakily. “You’re asking for the impossible.”
Without waiting for him to think of anything else to say, Julie hurried from the room with her shoulders squared and her head held high. Her hands trembled at her sides and she fisted them until her nails bit half-moons into the heels. At the top of the stairs, she willed herself to calm down, to suck in as much air as she could possibly squeeze into her lungs to make the ache stop. But all that did was made her want to curl up in a corner and sob. Already unwanted tears were clinging to her lashes and she had to bite a hole into her cheek to keep them from falling.
He had some nerve asking her to trust him. Just how stupid did he think she was? She sniffled angrily and swiped at the single tear that sliced down the apple of her cheek.
No. She had already cried enough tears for Mason Brody. She refused to shed anymore.
With that, she stiffened her spine and went in search of the children. She found Wendy in Rick’s room. The two were arguing about who stole whose towel. Julie intervened quickly before the yelling match turned into a fist fight.
“Are you guys ready?” she asked.
Dressed in green shorts and a pink t-shirt, Wendy gave a little jump, already forgetting about her argument with Rick. “Yes!”
Rick grabbed his Toronto Maple Leafs cap off his bed, stuck it down over his sandy brown hair, and grinned toothily up at her. “Ready!”
Dustin was already waiting for them downstairs in baggy jeans and a t-shirt that announced something about people drinking from the fountain of stupid. He blatantly ignored Julie as she led the group into the kitchen and out the back doors by blaring his iPod as loud as humanly possible without causing his eardrums to explode.
As per his promise, Mason was waiting for them on the patio. He must have changed while Julie had been talking Wendy and Rick out of a brawl, because he now wore sweat shorts in gun metal gray and a black t-shirt. A red baseball cap was pulled down over his face, which still needed a shaving. He grinned broadly at the kids. He even offered her a hint of a smile that struck her as almost apologetic, but she ignored him by ushering the children down the steps.
She took them down a winding trail that ran alongside the lake. Julie had never heard such a tranquil silence. There was nothing but the whisper of summer through the trees and the occasional scuttle of critters. Even Rick and Wendy seemed to be relishing the vast freedom as they scampered on ahead, chasing butterflies and tearing out every colorful weed they came across. The only one not enjoying the walk was Dustin, who was kicking everything in his path and grumbling under his breath. Mason stayed a decent four feet on Julie’s right side, hands lost in the pockets of his shorts. His hulking presence did nothing to calm the turmoil twisting through her with a vengeance that left her unable to concentrate on anything, except how to get away.
She picked up her pace, lengthening her strides, which really made no difference because two of her rushed steps were basically a normal step for him. Plan foiled, she returned to her normal clip. No point pulling something for nothing.
She exhaled loudly, but it was swallowed by a shriek of joy from Wendy as she propelled herself down a steep incline straight towards the lake.
“Wendy!” Julie sprinted after the girl.
But at the last second, Wendy shot left, following the dirt path as it curved, running parallel to the steady flow of water. Trees lined the edge, forming a makeshift barricade, but there was just enough opening for a person to squeeze through, slip on wet mud and go straight into the water.
“They do that all the time,” Mason said quietly from beside her. “It used to scare Auntie M to death until she put all three of them in swimming class. They can probably swim better than I can.”
Julie considered ignoring him. To respond would open a line of communication she didn’t want. But her traitorous tongue spoke, without a shred of consent from her.
“I can’t swim.”
He gave a small chuckle. “So you decided to babysit a pack of kids in a cabin on a lake?”
She shot him a sidelong glower. “I didn’t pick the location. Besides, it’s not that I can’t swim, really. It’s more like...” She paused to think of the correct term. “I can’t swim well.”
“My dad taught me to swim ... the hard way.” He chuckled and slid his glance towards the rippling water running alongside them. “By pitching me straight off that dock.”
“Oh my God!” Julie gasped.
“It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. My uncles were already in the lake and my dad was a champion swimmer in high school and college, so I was more or less safe.”
“But that is still ... it’s a wonder you even go near water after an experience like that. What did your mother say?”
He barked a laugh. “Mom was the one who gave him the idea.”
Julie stared at him, horrified. “I don’t even know which part of that to wrap my head around first.”
“Well, they may have had unorthodox methods, but I learned pretty damn quick how to get my head above water and keep it there.”
“I’m a little scared to ask how they taught you to drive,” she muttered, with a disbelieving shake of her head.
“Would you believe my grandfather taught me?”
Julie exhaled and rolled her eyes heavenward. “Is it wrong that I’m relieved on your behalf?”
Mason grimaced. He chuckled and scratched his brow with his thumbnail. “I got into the car with a helmet and four shots.”
“A helmet? Why...” She trailed off as the second part of his comment hit her. “Four shots?” Her eyes narrowed as she recalled the Jeep Cherokee he and his friends had blazed around town in. “How old were you when you got your license?”
He sucked in a deep breath. “Sixteen.”
“And you were drunk?”
Julie hadn’t exactly grown up with Mason. His aunt, Maureen, lived next door to her parents and she would see him occasionally when he would come by to watch the kids. They
had also gone to the same school for years, but he had always been three whole grades ahead of hers and completely out of her circle. Except when he was babysitting and he would go into Maureen’s bedroom window, which was adjacent to her bedroom window, and wave her over. She would spend most of the night watching movies with him, or playing board games until it was bedtime for the kids ... and her.
It wasn’t until much later that she found out it was because he pitied her. Julie, who had never really had friends, had been devastated, because she had considered him her friend. Plus, by that time, she was already in love with him, only to learn it was all a lie.
“I wasn’t drunk.” He broke into the hot flames of her memories, scattering the ashes and leaving behind a smudge across her aching heart. “But I was buzzed just enough to stomach Grandpa’s driving. The man is insane.”
“And he’s the one your parents thought should be the one to teach you?”
She had met Mr. and Mrs. Brody on the odd occasion when she was babysitting and they would drop by to see Maureen. They had always struck her as fun, kind parents. She couldn’t picture them being so reckless with their only son.
“Grandpa used to drive in the Indy five hundred,” he explained. “He has never in his entire life gotten into an accident, or even gotten a ticket, unlike my mom. He’s the best driver in the family. But he still drives like he’s trying to make that next curve.”
Julie shook her head. “I am having a really hard time understanding your family, truth be told. But you made it to adulthood, so I guess it all worked out.”
“Yeah...” He pulled in air. Exhaled. “They’re unique, but they’re the best.”
Her gaze flicked to him and his wistful tone before she quickly focused on the kids again.
“So where are your friends?” she asked.
“Sleeping.” Mason bent down and scooped a stone off the path. He tossed it a few times into the air and caught it deftly. The strobes of sunlight piercing through the canopy of trees overhead caught the smooth curves and glinted brightly. “They won’t be up until noon.”
“Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“Fourteen years of waking up at six am ... I don’t even know what sleeping in is anymore.”
Julie chuckled. “I’ve always been a morning person, which used to drive my parents nuts, especially when I was a kid and they were forced to get up with me. It was always a problem, because my mom wouldn’t get home until late from some event and my dad is a pilot so he was always fighting jet leg. I think it was a relief for both of them when I was finally old enough not to burn the house down making toast.”
Mason laughed and the sound rang through the trees as sweet and addictive as melted chocolate. His eyes shone when they slid to her. “Do you still live at home?”
Mouth painfully dry, Julie shook her head. “No, I got my own place two years ago when I started university.”
He pitched the rock deep into the bushes. It hit a trunk with a clunk and disappeared from sight in some foliage.
“No roommates?”
Julie shook her head. “I like my privacy.”
He nodded slowly, like it made perfect sense. “I guess it would be hard scheduling when to bring your boyfriend home with a roommate.”
She thought about it.
“Yeah, I guess that would be a problem,” she decided at last. “I also don’t like getting permission to bring people into my home, so that’s another reason.”
He kicked hard at a chunk of stone and sent it rolling down the path.
“So how come your boyfriend didn’t come with you on this trip? I mean, this would be the ideal getaway.”
Julie watched him thoughtfully while she mulled over his question. “Not really. I’m here to watch three crazy kids. When do you think we would have any downtime?”
He shrugged, but the motion was tense. “I don’t know, but I do know that if I were in his place, I wouldn’t want you up here alone.”
Julie snorted at the ridiculousness of his statement. “Because I might get eaten by a bear?”
There was a hard intensity in his gaze when they locked with hers. “It’s dangerous. You never know what kind of crazy person is out there in those woods.”
“Well, I can look after myself.” She jerked her face forward. “As I already proved last night.”
He shot her a frown that was a poor mask for the grin he was fighting back.
“You got lucky,” he muttered. “You caught us off guard.” The humor dissolved from his eyes and he forced a hand through his hair. “So what’s his name?”
Julie, caught off guard by the unexpected question, blinked. “Whose name?”
“Your boyfriend.” He didn’t say it so much as spat it like it was a dirty word.
Julie eyed him as though he’d lost his mind. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Mason’s brows winged up and his eyes widened, and if she wasn’t mistaken, there was interest and maybe even glee behind the look he shot her, even if it was mixed with apprehension.
“But you said ... all that talk about roommates...”
“I thought we were being hypothetical,” she replied evenly.
Whatever else he wanted to say was interrupted by Julie’s attention fixing on the children and the steep incline dropping straight onto a large opening next to the lake.
She bolted after them as they started pitching rocks into the water.
“Guys, can you back up a little? The mud there looks slippery.”
“They’re fine.” Mason caught up to her. “I’ve jumped off this point a million times. It’s like three feet deep.”
Hesitant, Julie nibbled her lip and fiddled with the butterfly pendent around her throat. The hoop slid back and forth over the tiny ridges as anxiety knotted up inside her with every step the children took closer to the water.
“Is that the best you guys can do?”
Moving around Julie, Mason swooped down and snatched up a flat, smooth stone. He drew back his arm and, with a flick of his wrist, sent it bouncing smoothly over the glimmering surface of the lake.
“It’s all in the wrist,” he told Rick when the boy flung a chunk of dirt that immediately hit the water with a splash and sunk.
Julie stood back and observed as Mason showed the kids how to skip the perfect stone. Dustin was the only one who seemed immune to the shrieking and fun. He stalked off further down the path and flopped gracelessly down at the foot of a tree. He raised both knees and folded his arms on top.
With a sigh, Julie went to him, ignored the dirty look he cast her, and lowered herself down next to him.
“Hey.”
He didn’t reply.
“Do you know how to skip stones?”
Still nothing.
“Why don’t you give it a shot?” she tried again, and when she got no response again, she sighed. “Look, I know you don’t want to be here—”
“I never said that,” he muttered.
“Then why—?”
“I just don’t want to be here with you.” The sun sparked off the lenses of his glasses when he turned his head sharply in her direction. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Trying not to feel hurt, or take offense, Julie nodded slowly. “I know you used to come here with your parents, but—”
“Stop trying to understand me!” He lunged to his feet. “You don’t know anything.”
Stabbing her with a sneer that struck her like a physical blow, he stomped off.
Julie shot up, prepared to hurry after him. “Dustin, wait—”
“Let him go.” Mason took a step towards her, hands in his pockets. He watched the boy’s retreating back with his mouth forming a thin, white line. “He can’t go anywhere but back to the cabin.”
“But he could get lost, or—”
“Not really.” He shifted his attention to her. “We’ve been here too many times for that. Besides, like I said, the path goes in a circle and leads straight back to the cabin.”
&
nbsp; “Mason! Did you see?” Rick took that moment to grab Mason’s arm and yank him back towards the lake’s edge. “It skipped like ten times!”
“It did not, stupid!” Wendy scolded. “It like got confused and skipped once.”
“My rock did not get confused!” Rick protested.
“That’s awesome!” Mason quickly intervened. “Show me.”
He was nothing if not infinitely patient and indulgent. Even as children, he had always been so kind to everyone and everyone loved him for it. It was never any surprise that every girl in school had fawned over him, but in Julie’s mind, none of them had what she had—her times with him when he was babysitting. She had been so certain he cared about her, too. That he would pick her.
Then he had brought over his first girlfriend, a pretty brunette with too many teeth and perfect skin. Julie had wanted to die. It had been the first time he’d crushed her heart to powder, but not the last.
As they always did, memories of that night picked at the crude stitches over her heart, agitating the never healing wound. The physical pang had her rubbing at the soreness with the heel of one hand while the other toyed with her pendent.
“Julie? What’s wrong?”
Caught in a moment of temporary vulnerability, Julie quickly straightened and checked her watch.
“We should head back for lunch.”
Not waiting to see what Mason was thinking, Julie ushered the kids away from the lake and propelled them back towards the cabin.
Shaun and Luis were both in the kitchen when the group returned. They sat over bowls of soggy cornflakes as something like Machine Wars played on the flat screen in the next room.
In the bright light of the afternoon sun, Shaun looked even worse than he had the night before. The swelling around his nose and eyes was vividly visible where the butt of the bat had struck him square between the eyes. The skin, already dark with stubble, looked agitated, tender, and angry. Julie almost felt horrible.
“We were beginning to wonder where you’d gone off to,” Luis said when they walked in. “We thought maybe she killed you in your sleep and was off burying your body.”
Kissing Trouble Page 5
