“The difference,” he said carefully as he rose to tower over her, his hands still clamped around the armrests, “is that I have nothing keeping me rooted to where I am.”
Julie couldn’t allow herself to get too excited. “What do you mean?”
He took her hand, drew it up to his mouth, and placed a light kiss to the knuckles. The skim of his lips sent shivers up her arm. It filled her blood with fire and made her insides swoon. Unwavering blue eyes bore into her very soul as he spoke.
“You don’t seem to get it, love,” he murmured against the ridges of her hand. “Everything I’ve built in the last four years was done so with the knowledge that, if this opportunity ever presented itself, I can easily pack up and come home. I have no ties in B.C. My software business goes where I go. My clothes, my furniture ... easily packed into a truck. All I was waiting for was you.”
“You seem so sure I would forgive you.”
Something like sadness flickered over his face. “I wasn’t. I’m still not, but I’m hoping I can convince you.”
“How?” The single word was barely above a whisper.
His lips quirked. “By any means necessary.”
Chapter Nine
They spent the rest of their few shared moments in a calm sort of silence that was made cozy by the coffee. It wasn’t until the first child stumbled his way into the kitchen in search of food that they knew their time had come to a close.
Mason made Julie stay put as he grabbed a spoon and bowl for Rick. The boy was seated at the table and given a box of cereal and a carton of milk.
Mason returned to his place next to her. “What’s going on, squirt?” he asked Rick. “You look like someone who spent the night partying.”
It was true. The boy looked exhausted, barely able to keep his eyes open.
“I kept hearing voices,” he mumbled and yawned. “Someone kept walking past my door talking to themself.”
Julie and Mason exchanged glances.
“Are you sure?” Julie asked.
Rick nodded. “It sounded like Dad when he’s working on a big case.”
Some of the wariness left Julie instantly. “You were probably dreaming, sweetie.”
Rick shrugged. “It sounded real.”
Dustin arrived next, followed by Luis, who looked bedraggled and pale. He got himself a cup of coffee as Dustin helped himself to a bowl of cereal.
“Did anyone in this house sleep last night?” Mason wondered as Luis dropped down on Mason’s other side.
“I didn’t,” he muttered. “Shaun had his TV on all night and the damn thing is up against my wall so it was all I could hear.”
“That’s probably the talking Rick heard,” Julie decided.
Mason sighed. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Talk to who?” The man in question ambled into the room.
“You,” Mason retorted without missing a beat. “Turn your TV off at night.”
Shaun frowned. “What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t have a TV.”
“I heard it all night!” Luis protested. “It was buzzing through the damn walls.”
“Rick heard it, too,” Julie piped in.
Glowering at them, Shaun stomped to the coffee machine and glowered even harder when he found it empty. He slammed the pot back into the machine.
“I don’t have a TV,” he repeated. “If I did, I would stay up there; which would suit me much better than being down here with you asswipes.”
“Can you tone down the language?” Julie snapped. “There are children in the room who I am certain don’t need to hear that garbage.”
Maybe it was the lack of coffee or the fact that he never liked Julie, but he bristled at her comment. He moved up to the counter separating them and leaned in.
“Bite me, bitch!”
“Hey!” Mason jumped to Julie’s defense, probably saving his friend from getting a face full of scalding coffee. “That’s enough.”
Shaun turned the full strength of his gaze on Mason. “You know, I’m getting really sick of you sticking up for this cock-biter. We came up here to chill out, drink some beers, and enjoy the summer and all you’ve done is run around chasing after her skirt. Now you’re taking her side when I’m telling you that I don’t even have a fucking TV in my room?”
“This isn’t about the TV,” Mason argued. “This is about you watching your language around the kids.”
“Oh bite me!” Shaun exploded. “Since when do you care about language? You swear more than I do.”
“Not when the kids are around,” Mason replied. “What the hell’s gotten into you?”
“Maybe I’m just sick and tired of your bullshit.”
Mason narrowed his eyes. “My bullshit?”
Shaun nodded. “Yeah, your bullshit. Fuck the bitch already so you can get it out of your system and we can go back to living this summer like we were supposed to.”
“There is nothing stopping us from living this summer like we were supposed to,” Mason argued. “You and Luis are more than welcome to—”
“What? Tag along as you play house with her?” Shaun bit back.
“They’re my cousins,” Mason retorted.
“Yeah, but they’re not your responsibility, Mas. Let her deal with them.”
Feeling a grinding behind her temples, Julie slid off the stool and got to her feet. She drew in a breath and braced herself to say something she never believed she would.
“He’s right.” That shut everyone up, including Shaun, whose eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You’re here to spend time with your friends,” she told Mason. “And while I appreciate your help, I don’t need it.”
Mason stared at her until she wanted to shift. “Okay,” he said at last and turned to Shaun. “Let’s go do something. What do you want to do?”
Shaun was either too stunned to speak or he really hadn’t thought that far ahead, but he seemed speechless. It was Luis who spoke.
“I want to go camping.”
Everyone seemed as confused as Julie felt by the declaration.
“We are camping, dipshit,” Shaun said.
Luis’ cheeks pinkened. “No, I mean with tents and ... things.”
Mason shrugged. “We can do that. Maybe Dust—”
“No kids!” Shaun barked before Mason could finish his sentence. “I want to get piss-faced drunk and I know you won’t if there’s a brat tagging along.”
Mason opened his mouth to argue, but Julie beat him to it.
“It’ll be fine,” she urged. “Maybe we’ll have our own campout in the backyard, if it ever stops raining.”
“Lame,” Dustin muttered from the table.
Julie ignored him. “Go have fun,” she told Mason. “You only have two more days before you have to leave.”
Mason seemed to draw himself up. He pulled in a breath and released it slowly. “Fine,” he muttered at last. “I’ll go pack. I think Dad has his camping stuff down in the cellar.”
With a whoop, Shaun sprinted from the room. Luis followed with a skip to his step. Julie stayed by the counter and continued clashing gazes with Mason.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked her. “I don’t like leaving you alone here.”
Julie snorted. “Of course I’m sure. Besides, like I said, you’re leaving in two days. I’ll be alone here for the next three weeks.”
That seemed to harden his features. His jaw muscles clenched and his lips pinched thin.
“I’ll be fine.” She gave him a gentle nudge in the chest. “Go have fun with your friends.”
With a reluctant nod, he touched her arm once before stepping around her and leaving the kitchen.
No sooner had he left when Wendy entered, looking bleary-eyed and half asleep on her feet. She dumped her tiny frame into a chair and poured her own cereal. Julie left her to it as she walked around the island and began drawing out bowls and cookie sheets.
“Anyone want to help me bake cookies?” she asked.
“I w
ant to go camping,” Rick pouted.
“Me too,” Dustin chimed.
Setting the items on the counter, Julie turned to the fridge. “Well, there’s nothing really stopping us from pitching a tent in the yard. We can—”
“We want to go with Mason,” Rick said.
“You guys aren’t old enough for their kind of camping,” she told them, pulling out eggs and milk. “But we’re going to have loads of fun. I promise.”
“I don’t want to go camping,” Wendy murmured, speaking for the first time. “That man might still be out there.”
“There’s no man out there,” Julie promised. “You were dreaming.”
“But I saw him dragging a body across the ground,” Wendy argued. “He was going to bury it.”
This sparked Dustin and Rick into full alert mode.
“A body?” Rick cried excitedly. “Where?”
“Outside,” Wendy said, relieved that someone finally believed her. “I saw it from my window.”
“You saw shadows, maybe a deer,” Julie stressed. “There was no body.” And please don’t tell your mother there was, she thought silently.
The last thing she needed was Maureen sending a swat team over to investigate.
“I saw him!” Wendy insisted vehemently.
Luis returned then, a duffle bag in hand. He dropped it by the door and walked deeper into the room with a small smile.
“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Julie returned his smile. “You didn’t. Are you all ready?”
Luis shrugged. “I think so. I’ve never been camping so I’m still iffy about what I need to bring along.” He jerked a chin towards the bowl she was breaking eggs into. “What are you making?”
“Cookies,” Julie answered. “But apparently I’m doing it by myself since no one wants to help.”
“I’ll help,” Luis said at once, already rolling up his sleeves.
“Where’re you from, Luis?” Julie asked him a few minutes later as they rolled chunks of brown dough and dropped them onto a greased sheet.
The kids had abandoned them the moment they’d finished breakfast. Wendy was still sulking that Julie didn’t believe her about the body and Rick and Dustin were upset that they weren’t allowed to go camping with the older boys. Julie just let them leave.
Hands covered in chocolate to the wrists, Luis shrugged. “Everywhere,” he mumbled. “My dad was in the military. We moved around a lot.”
“An army brat.” Julie smiled. “You must have seen some amazing places.”
Again, he shrugged, but he didn’t elaborate. “Where are you from?”
“I was born in Ontario.” She took the first sheet and popped it into the preheated oven and set the timer. “But we moved to Alberta when I was five. We’ve been here ever since.”
“Are your parents still here?” he asked.
She nodded as she shoved the pan into the oven. “Yup. They actually live right next to Maureen’s house. That’s how I met Maureen ... and Mason. I’ve been babysitting for the Vance children for a little over...” She did the math quickly in her head. “Four years. Since I was fifteen and Mason went away to school and Maureen needed someone to watch the kids.”
“You know he’s talked about you,” Luis said, head down, watching his own hands ball cookie dough. “I think I knew you even before we met.”
Feeling her cheeks warm, Julie chuckled nervously. “I’m afraid to ask what he said. I wasn’t exactly the pretty girl next door back then.”
Luis shook his head. “No, Mason’s not like that.”
“So, how did you two meet?” she wondered.
“I was looking for a place,” he answered, finally looking up. There was a smile on his face. “I had just moved into the city when I saw their ad for a roommate on a billboard in a coffee shop. I phoned, asked to see the place and I’ve been there ever since. Going on two years now. They’re my best friends.”
Julie smiled. “That’s really nice.”
Luis nodded. “Shaun’s a little much sometimes, but I’ve seen the good in him when he thinks no one’s looking. I think he had a rough childhood or something. But Mason has always been good to me. He has a good heart, always thinking of others. I don’t know a lot of guys like that, certainly none that can put up with Shaun.”
“Me neither,” Julie muttered.
Luis laughed. “Yeah, I wasn’t his biggest fan at first either.” His face sobered. “I’m sorry about the things he said to you. I think he’s a little jealous that Mason is spending so much time with you. Like I said, Mason has talked about you a lot in the past. I don’t think Shaun took Mason’s feelings for you seriously until we arrived here and he realized there was a chance he could lose his best friend.”
Julie stared at him for a long moment.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. That was just really insightful.”
Luis blushed and dropped his gaze. “I ... I took psychology for a semester.”
“Mason said you were very smart.”
The stain on his cheeks darkened. “I don’t know about smart...”
“Your parents must be really proud.”
The oven timer took that moment to ding and he turned away to get the cookies out. Julie snatched up the second tray and waited for him to pull back before sliding it onto the rack.
“Maybe we can pack some of these up for you to take with you,” she decided as she helped Luis scoop hot cookies onto a cooling rack. “I certainly made enough.”
Luis opened his mouth when Mason walked into the room, sniffing the air. “I smell chocolate!”
He stalked over and snatched a cookie straight off the sheet. He hissed and cursed and tossed the steaming cookie from hand to hand.
“Hey!” Luis protested. “We spent half the morning making those.”
Mason popped it into his mouth, chewed quickly, and grinned around the mush. “And my stomach thanks you.”
Julie laughed even as Luis continued scowling at Mason. From the next room, laughter rose that sounded suspiciously too happy for a group of children cooped up inside.
“How are the children?” she asked.
Mason sauntered around to stand on the opposite end of the counter, closer to the tray Luis was keeping out of reach. “As lovely and charming as ever. Dustin is challenging Rick to a spitting contest as we speak.”
Groaning, Julie moved to the fridge. “Call them here, please?” She yanked open the door and pulled out the milk carton. “The last thing I need is to be cleaning up spittle off the walls.”
“True that,” Mason replied, already moving to do what she asked. “Dustin’s like a camel.”
Luis went to grab mugs as Julie set out preparing lunch.
“Are we eating the cookies now?” Wendy came barreling into the room, followed by Mason, Dustin, and then Rick.
“No, we’re saving those for later,” Julie said. “We’re going to have lunch.”
Grumbling, the three children settled around the table, waiting as Julie put hotdogs and fries onto plates. The only sound came from Wendy as she scurried off her chair and hurried to the sliding doors to peer out at the gloomy yard. She pressed small hands to the glass and mashed her nose in after it.
“It’s never going to stop raining,” she whined. “We’re going to be stuck inside forever.”
Luis took the plates from Julie and set them on the table. “Realistically, that’s not possible,” he said. “It will stop raining eventually, or else the whole world would flood.”
“And we’d die!” Rick chimed in enthusiastically.
Wendy pulled away from the window, her eyes round. “Are we going to die?”
“No!” Julie said at once. “Of course not. It will stop raining ... eventually.”
“I hear this weekend will be beautiful,” Mason added, making himself at home in one of the chairs.
Wendy sighed heavily and turned back to the window. “This weekend is fore
ver away.”
Leaving the girl to sulk, Julie helped Luis set the table for lunch.
“Julie?”
It was the pitiful squeak that caught Julie’s attention. The girl had scrambled away from the window, her face deathly pale, and she was staring at the glass like it had grown jagged fangs.
Wiping her hands on a dishrag, Julie hurried to where the girl stood. Mason followed.
“What’s that?”
Julie put a hand on the girl’s shoulder and pulled her back. Her gaze scanned the soggy yard, the gray heavens and the steady drizzle washing over everything.
“What?”
“There.” Wendy pointed at the white, steel handle that pulled the two sheets of solid glass apart.
Julie could see nothing for several seconds. But when she finally did, it was all she could see.
Mason cursed behind her, grabbed Wendy and pushed her towards the table where Dustin and Rick had scrambled out of their chairs, but were being restrained by Luis.
“Get the kids out of here!” Mason snapped as he wrenched open the doors and bolted out into the rain.
Chapter Ten
Coming out of her daze, Julie ripped her eyes away from the stain on the glass and focused on Luis.
“Take them into the living room,” she ordered.
Luis nodded and herded three protesting children out the door. With him gone, Julie pivoted around to stare at the ghastly stain marring the handle.
On the other side, Mason met her gaze. The rain was soaking through his t-shirt, plastering it to his torso like a second skin. His hair hung damp around his set features. While she couldn’t think past the horror and fear, his expression was rigid and furious.
He ducked back into the room and slammed the rolling door shut behind him. “Was that always there?”
Trembling, Julie could only open and shut her mouth in response. She managed a shake of her head, more indecisive than anything else.
He studied the clear handprint wrapped perfectly around the white bar. Some of it had been nearly washed away by the rain, but there was still enough of it left behind to leave no doubt to what it was.
“I don’t understand what this means,” Julie said at last, finding her voice. “What ... what is it?”
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