Giving Up the Ghost

by Stella Price

He shrugged again and stroked her shoulder. “Maybe. Would that be so bad?”

  It wouldn’t. She wasn’t relishing sleeping alone especially when she knew he was hedging for an invitation. “And what about the party tonight?”

  “Nyx told you?”

  She nodded.

  “Well then I suppose we should go…”

  “We?”

  “Yep, then I have a reason to see you back here.”

  Saffron laughed. “Ya got it all thought out don’t you?”

  “Obviously. So a nice soak to relax and then well make an appearance at the party, then it’s back here for the fulfilling of a fantasy.”

  Saffron frowned. “And that would be?”

  Rhys let her go and started taking his clothes off. His hoodie went first, then shirt, and as he started to unbutton his fly Saffron stopped him.

  “Rhys? Fantasy?” she asked and smirked as she let her fingers trail down his chest and over the tattoo on his pec.

  “Oh, taking you on the balcony.” He said and let his pants fall and stepped out of his sneakers and socks. He stood naked and laughed at her.

  “That face? The look of absolute astonishment?”

  Saffron slapped him and then shook her head. “Never going to happen.”

  Rhys walked forward and gripped the bottom of her shirt and started to lift it. “Yeah exactly what you said in Vegas and you still ended up with me inside you.”

  Saffron feinted outrage as he undressed her. His fingers sliding over her skin was just the foreplay she needed to forget the problems looming just past dawn. No, nothing really mattered right now, only them and the promise of swirling, bubbling hot water, and the man that would share it with her.

  ***

  “I knew he would get you here!” Nyx said as she walked down the front stairs to greet them. She grabbed Saffron and hugged her. “You okay?”

  Saffron hugged her back. “Fine, a little worn out but on the whole…”

  Nyx chuckled. “That’s what happens when you engage in a marathon sex session…”

  “Not really marathon,” Saffron said and shook her head as she pulled away.

  “You couldn’t call that a quickie could you?”

  Rhys came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and nipped her neck. “Talking about me ladies?”

  Nyx rolled her eyes. “Hardly, I was asking about the room she got at the RS. I haven’t ever stayed there.”

  Rhys smirked. “Rooms nice, Jacuzzi is nicer.”

  Nyx shook her head. “Stop. Hold It. That’s enough.”

  Saffron laughed. “He does get pretty graphic.”

  “Exactly. So? You taking her in to meet everyone?”

  Saffron looked up at the looming Victorian that was situated on a corner lot in the Garden District and was in awe. Wrought iron preceded the balcony and front porch, its swirls the perfect decoration for the house beyond. Done in a rich gold with black shutters and nickel accents, the house screamed of wealth and privilege. And she was loathe to believe that Winter grew up here, seeing the complete lunatic he was.

  “This is where Winter grew up?” she asked them both and nodded to Chandler as he came out and lit a cigarette.

  Rhys nodded. “Yes.”

  “And your parents place? Is it as… grand?”

  Rhys and Nyx both laughed. “Hell no we grew up on the poor side of the district. Winter was known to slum when we were younger, which is probably why we have been friends since we were like six or something. He never liked the craziness that came with money. He used to sneak out and end up at my house.”

  Saffron frowned.”So what do his parents do?”

  Nyx leaned back against Chandler and sighed. “Dear old daddy works for the DA’s office. Twyla though… well Twyla paints, horribly I might add. You’ll see, she has them all over the damn place.”

  “And on that note, I’m taking her in.” he winked at Chandler who shook his head and handed Nyx a cigarette.

  “Twyla huh?” Saffron asked as they mounted the stairs to the front door.

  Rhys laughed. “You’ll see.”

  They made it through the door and down the front hallway of the first floor passing three different rooms, Parlors if Saffron wasn’t mistaken, filled with people that Rhys has obviously no interest in talking to.

  They entered a large kitchen toward the back of the house and joined the chaos that was the conversation going on therein.

  As soon as Rhys was seen, the entire room went up in cheers and exclamations.

  “Well, look who is sober!”

  “My god he’s standing up on his own!”

  “Winter you didn’t tell us he was sober!”

  Winter stood by the large butcher block island with a beer in his hand and smirked. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

  The denizens of the kitchen all went to Rhys and embraced him, whispering endearments and such. When the twenty or so people had finished with him, the attention went to Saffron, something she was not comfortable with.

  “So this is the new bodyguard X got you?” a young guy that looked like Rhys asked and took a sip of what looked like a mint julep.

  “Hardly. This is Saffron; she’s our new tour manager, and my girlfriend.”

  This proclamation tore the kitchen in two.

  Winter stood in the center of it all and watched with an evil smirk as those on the right of him smiled and went to talk to her, and those on the left stood there with horror, disbelief and distaste.

  Saffron didn’t have a chance to even think about what she was seeing from the left side as the right descended on her. She was welcomed with hugs and smiles from at least ten people and Rhys stood by and introduced everyone.

  The young guy that asked who she was at first was Rhys’ brother Colin, and at fifteen was a spitting image of his older brother. Then there was Cousin Rafe, his Uncle Denny and his parents, Chloe and Otto.

  His parents were a surprise. Chloe was short, curvy and lush, her curly hair the same dark brown as Rhys, though he eyes were bright hazel. His father, Otto had rather sun baked skin, and his face was rife with laugh lines. He was tall, lean like Rhys, and had watery blue eyes that seemed to twinkle.

  Chloe hugged her the tightest though and then regarded her with a practiced eye. “Welcome Saffron. You must be something special for my boy to say that.”

  “Or she’s just like the rest… a momentary replacement.”

  Saffron turned to the woman that spoke and smiled. The woman walked closer and appraised her with a jaundiced eye. “Rhys love you know I adore you but really? A Replacement for my daughter?”

  So this must be Twyla. She was an earthy looking woman, long brown hair streaked softly with grey. Her face was oddly without so much as a laugh line, and her eyes were the most vivid green Saffron had ever seen. She was beautiful, in an older woman sort of way and if Phaedra looked anything like her mother, then she knew why Rhys was so enamored of her.

  “Mom, seriously now is not the time to pull this shit.” Winter said and shook his head.

  Rhys wrapped his arms around Saffron and frowned at Twyla. “Really Twyla?”

  Twyla sneered at Saffron. “She’s not right for you. Phaedra was the one that loved you, that you loved.”

  Rhys shook his head. “If Phaedra really loved me, she wouldn’t have let me suffer the past 2 years.”

  “Did you ever think she couldn’t? That she just moved on?” Winters Mother said. “You promised you would love her forever Rhys. This seems like you are going back on your promise and for such a plain girl too.”

  Saffron was flabbergasted but before she could say anything to the woman Winter intervened. The woman broke down and started crying and Winter went to her and held her. He looked at Saffron and mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’ and then led the woman out of the kitchen.

  “Shit I didn’t mean to upset anyone.” She muttered and the others that were with Twyla on the left side of the kitchen left through the back door. Rhys�
�� family stayed and gave her a sad smile.

  Chloe shook her head. “That woman needs to get over this. It happened and the living move on.”

  “Don’t worry about her Cher,” Rhys’ father said and wrapped himself around his wife much like Rhys was with her. “You’re a sight, and he’s got that look in his eye again with you so you’re welcome, always.” He kissed his wife on the cheek and then sighed.

  “I think it was stupid to do the party here. Not with that Harpy trying to poison everyone with her despair.”

  Rhys sighed and shook his head as Winter walked back in and went to them.

  “I’m sorry about that, I didn’t think she would say something as stupid, though I didn’t think you were going to fucking announce it to the damn world, man.”

  Saffron detangled herself from Rhys and sighed. “I… I think I need some air.”

  She turned towards the back door and remembered the look of displeasure on the faces of the people that had walked out and instead walked out the way they came in, intent on making it to the front porch.

  It felt wrong to be there, in the house of a woman that obviously despised her and all because Rhys had publically declared he was dating here. She still wasn’t even sure if that was true, but seeing the pain on the woman’s face, and the hatred that knowing her dead daughter’s ex had ‘moved on’ was too much for Saffron to bear.

  She walked through the hallway, her attention going to the pictures on the walls, large canvases of horribly placed color, and violent strokes. The person that made these was clearly in pain. A psychoanalyst would have a field day in Twyla’s brain, seeing as she already knew who painted them.

  The rooms that were filled with people were now empty, evidence of their vacation on the front porch if the din that was coming from that section of the house was any indication. She couldn’t deal with more people that had probably heard about the blow up in the kitchen. No, being whispered about and called jezebel wasn’t what she was after.

  She hung a right into one of the parlors and stopped dead. The room was tastefully decorated, old Victorian furniture in cherry woods and oxblood leather surrounded by dark blue walls and damask window treatments in gold and cranberry. What was daunting was the pictures on the walls, pictures of a blonde beauty, Phaedra everywhere. There were some with a boy, and they were young children, some with her dressed up, some alone, and some with Rhys.

  “My mother’s shrine.” Winter said from the doorway by way of explanation.

  “I didn’t hear you come up.” She said quietly. “I probably shouldn’t be in here.”

  Winter walked forward and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Nonsense. I’m sorry about my mother, she has canonized Phaedra as a saint in her mind, and Rhys moving on was not in the plan for her.”

  Saffron was quiet for a while and then sighed. “She was beautiful. She looked happy.”

  “Yes, well that’s the trick of photography isn’t it?” Winter said and walked forward and touched a picture of him and his sister. They looked about ten, sitting on the front porch of the house. Phaedra had a small smile on Winter, a big one while he was holding a puppy.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well here for instance. It was our birthday, and we each asked for something different. I asked for a dog, I mean what boy doesn’t want a dog right? Phaedra asked for a shopping spree. Well we both got what we wanted, but she was pissed that my mother took the picture of us with the puppy, and she couldn’t hold it, because it was my present. Now don’t get me wrong, had she asked me, I would have let her. But she always wanted what someone else had.”

  Saffron walked up and really looked at the picture. To the normal person, it would seem she was in mid smile as the picture was taken, but as she looked at it, she realized that that smile was forced, strained even. She blinked.

  “Wow. It doesn’t look like it was always like that though.”

  Winter went to different pictures and shrugged. “When it’s all about her, she was happy, when it wasn’t, she tried to make it about her in some way. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister, but when she was alive she was the snottiest, bitchiest most selfish person I had the displeasure of knowing.”

  Saffron frowned. “So why did Rhys date her?”

  Winter leaned against the wall next to a picture of Rhys and Phaedra and shrugged. “Well remember I just said she wanted what someone else had?”

  Saffron nodded.

  “Rhys was always enamored of Phae. Who wouldn’t be, she was beautiful. But Phae in her snobbery never wanted to date Rhys because his family wasn’t as well off as mine.”

  “Hell that shouldn’t matter. They more than make up for anything they could be seen as lacking in the way they treat each other.”

  “Agreed. I spent a lot of time at the Bellamy’s place growing up. This place has always been like a tomb, but I was always welcome at the Bellamy house and it always felt like home. Still does really. Anyway, Rhys had given up on Phae around the beginning of senior year. He started seeing another girl, I think her name was Anna or something, and he was happy. Well Phae found out and decided to come to one of our shows, which was something she never did, and two days later Rhys and Phae were an item.”

  “And what happened to the other girl?” Saffron asked, sure Rhys wouldn’t do that to someone that he liked.

  “Tossed aside. Once he had her attention, Phae was the only thing that mattered to him. Well that and the band. And my sister loved the attention.”

  Saffron shook her head. “I don’t believe he would do that.”

  “Why not? He was almost eighteen, from a middleclass family, with just a touch of the strange from being a Bellamy with the talk to ghost’s thing… and the daughter of the DA was finally interested in him. Rhys’ senior year he was a fucking legend, because he bagged Phaedra Tulane.” He shook his head.

  Saffron could see his point. When you’re young you did stupid things. “So he loved her?”

  “Still does, thing is I don’t think she ever loved him. Just his attention.”

  “How can you say that about your sister?”

  Winter pushed off the wall and shook his head. “I have no illusions about the kinda person my sister was, and in death I will not make her out to be a saint. She was a snob, plain and simple.”

  Saffron nodded. “You would know, you were the closest thing to her, sharing a womb and everything.”

  Winter shook his head. “We couldn’t be more different. Gramma Bellamy once told me that each person is born with two animals inside them, the white one and the black one. She told me that with twins, One is one and one is the other, Well Phaedra got the dark half…” he chuckled. “And yet I’m the one that sold my soul. Odd isn’t it?”

  “Oh so now we are going to talk about that?” Saffron said and smirked.

  “Another time, when you don’t have Rhys waiting on you. Look I didn’t tell you this so you would hate my sister, just to show you that Rhys needs someone that’s going to love him, not what he does for them alone. He needs a happy ending.”

  “I understand. I just… I don’t think I can live up to his memory of her. I mean hell, your entire career has bloomed out of the words he’s written and the songs you play that are about her. No woman can compete with that.”

  Winter smiled. “And she’s still controlling him from beyond the grave. Everything is for her, everything before the accident, and everything after, especially after. His heart was broken, he blamed himself, and we all suffered. Hell we still suffer nightly with him… till you showed up.

  “Now, he’s writing again, not wallowing in his misery. Granted the change started while we were in New York and he was with Xxieda for the time, but it didn’t actually take till Vegas. You were the actual catalyst, because he had to work for it, but you changed him. Trust me on this Saff. If he is declaring to the world that you’re his girlfriend, take it for what it is. The only thing you have to decide is if you want to be his girlfriend.”
<
br />   “I can’t compete with a dead girl, Winter.”

  “Soon enough, I don’t think you will have to.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning I think his grieving period is just about over. You know in the time he’s pined for her, she’s never shown herself to him? Oh she knew about his abilities, she always knew. She just hated them. It would be just like her to be still kicking about and refusing to show herself. Letting him live in his misery and all.”

  “Maybe she’s not around?”

  Winter scoffed. “She’s around. Trust me.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I’m her fucking twin. I would know if she was completely gone. No, she’s not tangible, but she’s still here, fucking with the living.”

  ***

  Rhys and his family were still in the kitchen when she walked back in with Winter. He turned, relief on his face when he saw her. Winter winked at his best friend and then turned to Chloe.

  “Mah, we should take this to the homestead then? My Father is upstairs with my mother and she’s begging off the rest of the event with a migraine.”

  “Of course Love,” she said and kissed Winter on the cheek. “I was going to suggest that, though I think some of your family…”

  “My parents’ friends and such can stay here. I don’t know about you guys but I want to enjoy the time I have home.”

  “I’ll go tell Nyx and the guys,” Rhys’ brother said and smiled at Saffron as he walked out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

  Rhys’ cousin Rafe and Uncle said their goodbyes, both having to leave for work and Saffron smiled as they left. They both talked with extremely thick Cajun accents, and where she thought that when Rhys slipped into his it was sexy, having it full on all the time was a bit daunting. It was like talking to her old roommate’s boyfriend who was from Cardiff. They talked so quickly she barely understood them.

  “Winter calls your mom Mah?” she asked Rhys quietly.

  Rhys nodded. “Yep. She’s more like his mom then Twyla is, always has been. You’ll notice he calls his parents Mother and Father, but Mine Mah and Otto… He fits in better with my family anyway; he doesn’t have a poll jacked up his ass like his father does.”